We should better introduce $50, $100, $500, $1000 and $5000 coins. I'd love my entire salary to come in coins and to be able to pay for any purchase in coins conveniently.
Canada and the USA certainly don't have it. The Euro doesn't, which is odd as the currency is so new -- why are the 10, 20 and 50 cent coins so similar?
The Pound Sterling is generally well-designed, with sets of coins in copper-silver-gold materials, and easily distinguishable sequences of shapes and different sizes. The Danish and Swedish coins also work, in the Danish case with a hole to distinguish some denominations.
I wish America would get off its butt about getting rid of the penny. It's such a waste of resources. We don't need it. In fact, Ecuador uses USD as well and they, a country with much lower GDP and prices, don't use our penny. They round up.
> just as annoying as American coins. They are difficult to tell apart immediately.
Penny (1c) is a different color (copper).
Nickel (5c) is fat.
Dime (10c) is small.
Quarter (25c) is large.
Are dollar coins (Susan B. Anthonys) used heavily now?
I agree about the penny. I am pretty sure that Australia no longer has a penny, and rounds up everything to the nearest 5c. (Can any Aussies confirm?)
In Argentina back when coins were worth anything, from 1c to 50c they would grow in size, also would have the value in big clear numbers, and varying colors. The 1 peso coin would be a big smaller in diameter but substantially heavier and different with two colors.
Coins in the US from this “obviously the smallest one is the least valuable” mindset didn’t make sense. Also seems like no one cares about any coin but the quarter for anything other than trading them. Any coin operated machine I’ve seen takes 25c
...have you ever used the coins?
All different sizes and the border of 10 and 50 are similar but the 50 is x2 the size and the 20 is totally different
I don't think anyone would say they are similar
British coins aren't like this. They're all extremely distinct, with big differences in size, colour, weight, and even shape (the 50p and 20p coins aren't circular). It's completely impossible to mistake one coin for another, even at a glance. Maybe I'm biased but I think they're exceptionally well designed. Rule Britannia!
The 20c coin has 7 subtle indents, and is only 1mm larger than the 5c coin. Can you tell the difference when your hands are cold, or if you're wearing gloves? (I understand people lose their sense of touch in old age.)
Meanwhile the 20p and 50p are heptagonal, with a similar 20% size increase.
The 5p and 10p have a 26% size increase. They have milled edges, unlike the 1p and 2p.
I can grab any coin blindly and know exactly which one it is?
Same with the bills and their relative sizes. I still think the EU messed up the bills; they’re super ugly and feel plastic, but for the blind the Euro is insanely well designed.
The copper and gold-coloured Euro coins all look very similar.
They cited that coins are in compatible with nearly all wallets, being weighed down, and somehow never actually having exact change.
I love the dollar bill. I'd really love to have a £1 and/or £2 note in the UK. The moment you need any reasonable number of coins to buy anything they become unwieldy in your pocket and you can carry enough dollar bills to be useful without there being a chunk of metal digging into your leg.
I've hears arguments against relating to durability but those are all predate the new plastic notes we have.
For some reason I get a load of pushback when suggesting that a £1 or £2 note would be nice to have.
Probably the most actionable use I have for coins in todays era is having a quarter for the deposits for the carts at the Aldi lot.
America has always tried to avoid calling back old notes, likely to avoid creating an upset in places where they're a store of value overseas. This means the old ones can circulate basically forever. I can recall my brother getting a $10 note of the 1934 type in a normal transaction in about 2015, and 1977-series $100s seemed strangely common into the 1990s and 2000s. So the survival rates at 10 and 20 years are relevant for American paper in a way that maybe don't apply in the UK.
In countries that do introduce newer standards, you can still take old bills to the central bank and convert them.
I don’t buy that argument. It doesn’t make sense, especially compared to the immense damage of fraud.
Perhaps you can help popularise them, so they make even more!
Besides, metals like lithium corrode too easily, and other rare metals like zirconium/niobium/tantalum/REEs are intrinsically scarce so minting coins from them would be wasteful. Arguably using zinc, nickel, and copper for coins is wasteful, and all coins should be some sort of stainless steel or aluminum. (Like the aluminum Japan 1 yen piece.)
Sounds terrible to me, coins are so much harder to keep track of!
Every citizen was required to stand in line for KYC checks before making any purchase, no matter how trivial. The most mundane items, like a pack of gum, had become luxuries that demanded hours of waiting. The lines snaked around the block, a serpentine mass of weary faces, each person clutching their identification cards, biometric scans, and digital wallets.
Maya stood in line, her stomach grumbling as she watched the clock tick away. She had been waiting for nearly two hours, the fluorescent lights above flickering intermittently, casting a sickly glow on the faces around her. The air was thick with impatience and the faint scent of despair. She glanced at the digital screen mounted on the wall, which displayed the current wait time: 45 minutes remaining.
“Next!” barked a voice from the front, and the line shuffled forward. Maya’s heart raced. She had only come to buy a pack of gum, a small indulgence to brighten her day. But the KYC checks had turned this simple act into a test of endurance.
As she inched closer to the front, she overheard snippets of conversations. A man lamented about the time he lost waiting to buy a loaf of bread, while a woman recounted her experience of being denied a purchase because her biometric data had been flagged as “inconclusive.” The stories were all too familiar, a shared trauma that bound them together in this dystopian reality.
Finally, it was Maya’s turn. She stepped up to the kiosk, a cold, metallic structure that loomed over her like a sentinel. A screen flickered to life, displaying a series of prompts. She placed her hand on the scanner, feeling the chill of the glass against her skin. The machine whirred and beeped, analyzing her fingerprints, her palm veins, and her heartbeat.
“Verification in progress,” the screen announced, the words flashing ominously. Maya held her breath, the seconds stretching into an eternity. She could feel the eyes of the people behind her, their impatience palpable.
“Error,” the machine suddenly blared, and Maya’s heart sank. “Biometric data does not match records. Please step aside for further verification.”
Panic surged through her as she was ushered to a separate area, a sterile room filled with flickering screens and stern-faced officials. The line she had waited in for so long now felt like a cruel joke. She glanced back at the kiosk, where the next person was already being processed, oblivious to her plight.
Hours passed as she sat in the cold room, her mind racing with thoughts of what could happen next. Would she be denied the gum forever? Would she be flagged as a potential threat? The KYC Protocol had become a tool of oppression, a way to control the masses under the guise of safety.
Finally, a woman in a crisp uniform approached her, a tablet in hand. “We need to conduct a manual review of your data,” she said, her voice devoid of empathy. “Please provide your identification and answer a series of questions.”
Maya nodded, her heart heavy. She had come for a simple pleasure, but now she was trapped in a web of bureaucracy. As she answered the questions, she realized that the world had become a place where even the smallest joys were overshadowed by the weight of surveillance and control.
After what felt like an eternity, she was finally cleared. The official handed her a slip of paper, a token of her victory. “You may now proceed to purchase your item,” she said, her tone flat.
Maya stepped back into the bustling world outside, the slip clutched tightly in her hand. She made her way to the nearest store, where the shelves were stocked with brightly colored packages of gum. As she reached for a pack, she couldn’t shake the feeling of unease that lingered in her chest.
In a world where freedom had been traded for security, the simple act of buying gum had become a reminder of the chains that bound them all. And as she walked out of the store, the taste of mint and sugar on her tongue, she vowed to remember the struggle it took to reclaim that small piece of joy in a world gone mad.
It likes to talk about Maya's various organs. Alot!
Depending on the job sector, this could be the 1970s or 1980s in Britain, for example.