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I am going on a semester abroad in the following year. And I remembered I had some coinage lying around from last trip. So my question is this to the Euro people, WTF is up with the 1 and 2 euro coin, why isn't this thing a paper bill? Same thing with the 1 Pound coin? How do you deal with a pocket full of change? To both I ask, what's with the weird breakdown of coins? You guys have the 50, 20, 10, 5, 2, and 1 cent or pence coin, why? All we have is the 25, 10, 5, 1 and 50 but they are rare in daily circulation.

How odd. An American who doesn't understand the need for subtlety at times.

It's a legitimate question and deserves a proper answer.

Britain and western Europe are expensive countries. A £1 or €2 is not worth a lot and you will spend them quickly. For example, a coffee at Starbucks will cost about £3. Also, the population is much larger than the USA, so there needs to be a lot of money in circulation.

Coins last much better than notes. You will find the £5 notes you get in Britain are all very worn and ragged. The cost of providing currency means that small value pieces are best made in metal.

If you ever go to Japan you will find the smallest note is 1,000 Yen which is about equivalent to £5 or $10.

Actually we do have dollar coins here in america. We have 2 types. The Susan B anthony, which is sized almost exactly the same and gets confused alot for the quarter, and the gold dollar coins. The golds come in a couple of types. One has the presidents on them, and the other has Sacagawea. People just dojnt use alot of the coin dollars though. The same can be said for the 50 cent piece and the 2 dollar bill.

I personally think we chould switch over to coins for the dollar. It really only makes sense from an economic stand point since coins last longer, but there are sentimental people uot there that think their freedom is being infringed upon if the paper dollar is removed.

On a side not... how had is it to go cashless in England/ europe. Here in the states, I rarely carry more than $10 and that is pretty much in a just in case type of thing. I operate almost entirely off of my debit card. Does that work over there?

The UK is very cashless as long as you have a Maestro type debit card with a chip and PIN number.

All but the smallest shops and cafes have a terminal where you put in your card and key in the PIN to pay for stuff. It's the same system as ATM machines.

Credit cards also work in the same terminals.

Some places restrict the use of credit cards paying for small bills because the fee to the retailer is too large. Something like a £10 limit is typical.

http://www.maestrocard.com/

France has had the chip and PIN system for decades. I don't know about the rest of Europe.

wtf? Who wants to have to get thier wallet out and fath around with notes everytime you want to spend a few quid? Much easy to reach in your back pocket and get a few coins out. For example they have 1 quid notes in scotland and no one I know of (live near the border often work there) likes them/uses em.

Oh and most places are 5 pound limit for credit and debit where I live. If any at all.

Kilkrazy wrote:Britain and western Europe are expensive countries. A £1 or €2 is not worth a lot and you will spend them quickly. For example, a coffee at Starbucks will cost about £3.

But erm, the dollar is wrth less than both the pound and the euro?

We used to have £1 notes here, I remember getting them as a kid. The Bank of England Series D one pound note was discontinued in 1984, having been replaced by a pound coin the year before, and was officially withdrawn from circulation in 1988. (Thanks wiki)

We had 10 shilling notes when I was a lad.

And half-crowns.

Did you offer one of those to a young lad on Christmas day, Ebenezer?

Child of the 60s, Kilkrazy?

Yep.

Grew up with pounds, shillings and pence.

$1 notes are easier to stuff into a stripper's thong.

Coins, not so much.

Last time I was in the UK, the pound coin had just come out (that year) and had been given the nick of "the maggie" (Thatcher was PM) because it too was 'small, brassy and thought itself a sovereign.'

There is something reassuringly nice about a pocket full of change, Also, if you have change in your pockets you are going to notice if you are pickpocketed yet if you have a wallet full of notes in your back pocket, yoink, gone...

The OC-D

I am pro-coin for £1/£2 as it allows me to make small purchases by just dipping into my pocket and getting coins by touch alone instead of having to pull out a wad of bills and find the correct ones as with US$. Using drinks machines, ticket machines, etc is a lot simpler with coins as you dont have to mess around with tatty bills or worry about them not being accepted. I'm also more likely to use all my loose change instead of taking the lazy option and breaking a bill which means I get rid of the smaller denomination coins quickly and stop myself being weighed down with little coins. Whenever I'm in the US I seem to end up with enough dimes, nickels and pennies to pull my jeans down by weight alone. I'll grant that you cant give coins to strippers without causing them a lot of physical pain and discomfort, but if you are splashing out $5 bills instead then you'll probably get a better show.

Every evening I just put most of my shrapnel in a piggy bank, then every few weeks I take it to the local HSBC which has a coin depositing machine.

Paper money is much easier to accidentally throw in the bin with your snotrags.

Australia still has $1 and $2 coins. Strangely, the former is bigger.

And coins are way cooler than notes. It feels cool to have pockets full of shiny silver coins and irritates people walking down the street. I once paid for a box of Orks in 10 cent coins (350 of them!). I carried them in a small sack with a $ sign on it, just to piss off the FLGS staff.

At one stage we had an (almost) logical progression with our coins.

1c was a small bronze coin, then they made the 2c larger (double the face value=bigger) then they fethed that up with the 5c (smaller than the 2c but larger than the 1c).

They fixed that by making the 10c larger than the 2c, the 20c larger again, and the 50c larger still, and eventually making it into a dodecagon (because the original 50c was round like the 20c and tended to confuse people.

When they went to coins for the $1, they made it smaller than the 50c (and even the 20c), but a smidge larger than the 10c. It's a bit thicker than the 50c, though, and has an interrupted milled edge.

Then they scrapped the $2 note, and went to a coin for it, and again, made it smaller than the $1 coin, but the same thickness as the $1.

Be glad they don't have a $10 coin. You'd lose it under your fingernail.

We do have a $200 coin, though. It's primarily collected by numismatists, and is occasionally worth more than its face value. It's also a gold coin. They aren't legal tender for buying stuff with, but are worth their face value in a banking institution for change (I.E. You have one, but would rather have $200 folding stuff than a deadweight.)

Coins last a LOT longer than notes, and is therefore cheaper in the Long Run.

Also, the Pound Coin is the Best coin ever made, EVER. Fact.

Funny, you lot didn't think that when it was introduced. Mind you, that could've just been generalised hate towards Maggie T.

Coins do last longer, I'll give you that.

I've got a couple of maggies in the coin jar. Alongside some kroner and (pre-unification) pfennigs.

chromedog wrote:Funny, you lot didn't think that when it was introduced. Mind you, that could've just been generalised hate towards Maggie T.

From what I hear from the old ones (I was like 2 at the time of maggie) that pretty much was it. I remember when they intoduced the 2 Pound Coin though, I remember people crying about it's split design. Now noone cares.

I can see the idea of them being longer lasting. I guess I gotta just try to remember to take out the coinage for small purchases rather than breaking a bill.

Interesting factoid, the Queen never carries money. If she ever wants to give some money for something she has to borrow it from one of her equerries.

Kilkrazy wrote:Interesting factoid, the Queen never carries money. If she ever wants to give some money for something she has to borrow it from one of her equerries.

Yeah, like the girl at Marks and Spenser is gonna tell the Queen to sod off and get money for her Earl Grey and Rich Tea.

Protip: She wont