Would you like fries with that order, sir?

[Tannin]

These days here in Oz we have:

Coins:
5c
10c
20c
50c
$1
$2

Notes
$5
$10
$20
$50
$100

That's it. Remember that our $100 is worth about US$50. Nobody misses the old 1c and 2c coins, and everybody likes the $1 and $2 coins. Brilliant little things: you chuck some loose change in a jar every now and then, and one day to go to look how much there is and it's lots. Enough to pay your monthly credit card bill, buy a new hard drive, whatever you want.

$5 notes are getting to be a pain. 50c coins are great heavy things and people tend not to like them. The old 50c coin was a real silver coin - made with actual silver. After a while, the price of precious metals shot up and they had to replace it with the many-sided current thing in nickel-somethingorother, because there was a dollar's worth of silver in the 50c coin. It's not legal to melt the coin of the realm down to extract the metal from it, of course, but you can see their point.

For some reason, there are never enough $100 notes. I'm forever having people hand me a great wad of $50 notes for a $2400 system. But the bit that bugs me is that there isn't a more useful size of note than the $100. A $1000 or at least a $500 is way past due.

What denominations do other countries have in common use?

 

[Tannin]

For some reason, unfamiliarity no doubt, people get a bit funny about handling largish amounts of cash - anything over $1000 or so. I don't mean the security side of it, they get embarrased about it, it's like they are buying naughty pictures or something. If you just sit there, count it, and put it away, they go all squirmy on you. They never say anything, but you could almost see it with your eyes shut: they don't start feeling comfortable again until you have finished and put it away and enough other events have taken place for the bad feeling they have to be washed away in other thoughts. And with those stupid damn $50 notes, it takes a while.

So I often say something to head that feeling off at the pass. For example (borrowing a little of Tea's idiocy) if it's, say, $1680 and they hand me $1650 in fifties plus two twenties, I'll say "Hmmmm... 32 yellow ones and two orange ones. What if I give you a blue one and we call it square?" That always works. Plus you get to see the little wheels working in their head while they try to work out how much 32 yellow ones is. :wink:

 

[i]

Thanks for posting the Australian denominations. No 1 cent coin (a great idea) and only 20 cent coins (as opposed to 25 cent) was a surprise.

I was living in Canada at the time the $2 coin took over from the paper bill. One thing I noticed was that the number of losers on the street asking for (and occasionally demanding) spare change increased a year or so after the transition.

At the same time, I noticed that it was as if having been converted to "just" a coin, somehow it was easier for people to just casually give up $2 as spare change (which I guess it was).

Now that I've been back here in the US for a few years, if I stop to ask myself what I would do if some street-person asked for spare change, I think I'd be a lot less likely to give them a paper bill - even if it was "only" a dollar - than if I happened to have a lot of one dollar coins with me. Interesting.

 

[Mercutio]

If you buy stamps from the vending machines in our postal offices, you'll get dollar coins - either Susan B. Anthony or the new one, but dollar coins nonetheless. I just found that out.

Also, I've been told that in addition to the supply of $2 bills delivered to the federal reserve (for distribution to banks), the other primary means to distribute them is as change for purchases at Thomas Jefferson's estates in Virginia (a national park).

 

[Tannin]

We use to have 1c and 2c coins. But they were utterly useless before too long, and I don't think anybody misses them. Just add up as normal and round up or down to the closest 5c. Only if you pay by cheque or plastic does the odd cent count.

Maybe Coles miss them. (Coles = huge supermarket chain.) It is the law here that if you, as a retailer, use the word "special" it must actually be a genuine, honest reduction from the normal price. Advertising your normal price as a "special" is a good way to get in a lot of trouble - and rightly so. Well, Coles put out one of their monthly flyers, the crap they put in your letter box, and screamed in the headline "SPECIAL: chickens, $5.98" Then it came out that the regular price was $5.99. Either way, you hand over a ten and you get $4 change.

They were prosecuted, and got off on the technicality, but it took them a long, long time to live down the bad PR. Talkback radio stations were full of it for weeks.

I think the 25c coin is a bit of an American oddity, i. I bet Canada has one, but most places go 5, 10, 20. Or possibly our 20c is the odd one and I've just mindlessly assumed that the whole world is like us all my life!

 

[Tannin]

Names for coins:

Old money:
0.25d farthing (dropped before I was born, I think)
0.5d: ha'penny, halfpenny
1d: penny
3d: thrippence (I used to get that much for my weekly pocket money!)
6d: sixpence, a deaner
12d, 1s: shilling
2s: florin
10s: ten-shilling (note)
20s, 1l: pound (note)
21s: guinea (long obsolete as coinage - they were pure gold - but the unit was still used for rather posh transactions, such as buying art or a luxury car, or anything to do with real estate, right up until decimal currency came in in 1966. Naturally, one did not actually pay for these things using long out-of-circulation gold coins with Queen Victoria's head on them, one wrote a cheque, but the price was quoted in guineas.)

new money
1c: one cent
2c: two cents
5c: five cents
10c: ten cents
20c: twenty cents
50c: fifty cents

Pretty boring, huh?

US currency =?

5c: nickel?
10c: dime?
25c: quarter

Any others?

 

[Bartender]

In some circles 50 cents is referred to as half-dollar. We'll even refer to the coin by a description such as a Kennedy Half dollar (JFK portrait); or if I mention a Eisenhower, some will know that it's a dollar. But that is not the norm.

 

[Tannin]

My great uncle Roland (my father's uncle) used to sign the banknotes for a while, when he was something-or-other at the Reserve Bank. He died when I was about 12.

Funny that, why ain't I rich?

 

[Buck]

My great uncle Roland (my father's uncle) used to sign the banknotes for a while, when he was something-or-other at the Reserve Bank. He died when I was about 12.

Funny that, why ain't I rich?

Do you at least have one of the notes that he signed?

 

[Tannin]

Nope. They are readily available at dealers though. Let's see if I can steal a little bandwidth ...

 

[Buck]

That is a beautiful note.

 

[Tea]

I like the green ones better.

 

[Buck]

Let's abuse more bandwidth and show more notes.

 

[flagreen]

Yikes are those Christian crosses? Who is the Gentleman pictured?

 

[James]

The reason (which COMPLETELY escaped an entire Slashdot discussion a while ago)

Go figure. A Slashdot discussion missing the point!

 

[GIANT]

A weird story, Mercutio. Ahh, are two dollar bills rare or something?

No, they're not all that rare -- just uncommon. I see or receive them about once a year or so. They are definitely around, along with another somewhat-uncommon USA currency the $1 coin called the Susan B. Anthony dollar coin. They can be pretty common when you get around public transportation.

You know, I think that if I lived in the States, I'd have huge trouble getting used to the money. I mean, who ever heard of having the $1 and the $100 the same colour?

Well, guess what, Tea. The USA will finally have money in different hues besides green -- as per denomination. This will happen in about 8 ~ 10 years or so, I believe, along with an embedded wire as well on the larger denominations.

 

[Pradeep]

I thought some US bills already had the wire? Aus notes are all plastic with see thru windows now, a real bugger to churn out with a laser printer apparently

Merc, how much did Taco Bell pay you for the domain?

 

[GIANT]

"CHIP CHIP CHIP CHIP", we yelled, "CHIP CHIP CHIP CHIP!"...

Believe it or not -- as I was told once sometime back -- that if you were to go back in time roughly about 60 years in the USA, what is currently called "french fries" were called "chips." However, McDonalds and other fast food places of the early 1950s came up with the completely loony name "french fried potatoes" (the French never ever created "french fries"), which was almost immediately abbreviated to "french fries." The shape of the fried potato was also long -- almost like shoestring potatoes -- instead of the usual rounded shape. About that same time, Frito-Lays came up with ultra-thin fried potato "chips" that were crisp. So, nowadays, potato "chips" are thin crisp fried potatoes and "french fries" are long stringy fried potatoes.

McDonalds? I believe the last time I was ever in a McDonalds was sometime in the late 1970s, though I keep thinking I may have went into one in somewhere in Utah the mid-80s to piss.

 

[GIANT]

I thought some US bills already had the wire?...

I don't believe there are any yet ($100 bills ???). The places that actually manufacture USA monetary instruments (er... money) also print a lot of different world currencies. These printing plants are owned by the US Government and have incredible security. The money printing plants in the USA, Europe, and presumably Japan get contracts with many smaller countries to print their paper money and mint their metallic coins. The USA plants have had the capability to print coloured money for some time, as they have been doing so for other countries, but the US Treasury Service has been hesitant to break the more-than-one-hundred-year-old design tradition ("the greenback") -- until recently. Counterfeiting of USA money worldwide in the 1990s had reached proportions that the US Treasury Service simply could not ignore.

The first to get a makeover was the US$100 bill, which was about 6 years ago. Since then, all but the ubiquitous US$1 bill have received a makeover.

The USA $1 lives on for now, but it *will* go away at some point in the next 20 years because it costs too much to maintain $1 bills. That's why the $2 bill was forced back on the USA populace in the 1990s -- after about a 30 year absence -- along with the Susan B. Anthony $1 coin. There should be a next-generation USA $1 bill that actually has a *xerographically* produced back side (!) and a standard printed front side. This will reduce production costs. The US$2 bill is disliked by many American retailers because it can be somewhat easily confused with a $20 bill. How'bout a $3 bill?

 

[timwhit]

There already is a 3 dollar bill.

 

[Tannin]

Tea seems to be making a numerical, as opposed to an aesthetic judgement, I think.

 

[Buck]

Another beautiful note.

 

[SteveC]

I thought some US bills already had the wire?...

I don't believe there are any yet ($100 bills ???).

All of the redesigned bills have the wire in them. It's in a different spot for each denomination. For example, hold up a twenty to the light, with the front facing you. You'll see the wire going down the left side in between the 2 and the 0 of the bill.

Steve

 

[bahngeist]

I think the 25c coin is a bit of an American oddity, i. I bet Canada has one, but most places go 5, 10, 20. Or possibly our 20c is the odd one and I've just mindlessly assumed that the whole world is like us all my life!

Canada also has a 25c piece--it has a picture of a cariboo on the face.

Loved your story, reminds me somewhat of my first visit down to the States and asking for fish and chips in a restaurant. What I got was fish and potato chips--whereas what I wanted was 'fries'. I got what I wanted fairly quickly, but the looks I got were interesting.

On the same note you should try poutine sometime (a quebecois dish): it is loads of gravy and cheddar cheese curds on fries -- something to clog your arteries with.

The only way that the US gov't will ever get the American people to accept a dollar coin is if they do what Canada did: stop producing the dollar bill, and have the banks return the circulating bills to the Dept. of Treasury to subsequently be taken out of circulation. Most Canadians didn't like this tactic, but we did get used to the Loonies ($1 coin) fairly quickly. However, I don't see this going over as easily in the States.

 

[GIANT]

These printing plants are owned by the US Government and have incredible security...

And here I go quoting myself...! Anyway, just to complete the sentence above that I seemingly didn't complete and a sentence that I also forgot: These printing plants are owned by the US Government and have incredible security and accountability, so other (small) countries feel secure in using the USA mints to produce their paper currency. The Netherlands is another large contractor of printing currency and minting coinage for small nations.

In my opinion, The Netherlands produces the finest looking currency in the world (art-wise). They have also pretty much been the cutting edge on anti-counterfeiting technology front.

...All of the redesigned bills have the wire in them. It's in a different spot for each denomination. For example, hold up a twenty to the light, with the front facing you. You'll see the wire going down the left side in between the 2 and the 0 of the bill.

Danke! I just checked out a fiver, and sure as can be I saw the wire on the left. Also, at some point later, allegedly all US currency will also get a little hologram.

 

[Buck]

Here is a bust for some of the new Euro coins: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/2251152.stm

 

[Sol]

I somtimes miss the old one and two cent coins... When disgruntled customers heckel me about getting charged $20.05 for thier $20.03 of petrol... It's not that I care about the two cents of course but I tend to have a bad habit of getting a bit unco-operative after people start calling me a scum-bag...

 

[Pradeep]

Sol, sounds like you need a can of cheap deodorant, and a lighter. The possibility of being turned into a burning pyre often makes people remember their manners.

 

[i]

I thought some US bills already had the wire?...

I don't believe there are any yet ($100 bills ???).

All of the redesigned bills have the wire in them.

The redesigned US bills weren't the first to have the embedded strip embedded. They've been around for years - even in the "old" bills!

I've got an "old" style $5 bill right here (printed in 1995) that includes an embedded strip.

Anyone know when they were first introduced? I'm tempted to say 1989 for some reason, but I can't remember for sure.

 

[Handruin]

I remember them fro long ago. I used to make a habit of pulling the strip out of the $5, and $20 dollar bills. I don't know if you've ever tried, but you can pull that strip out if you are careful. :wink:

 

[i]

I was a year off.

Those embedded strips have been in US paper currency ($2 bills and up) since 1990.

From http://www.bep.treas.gov/section.cfm/7/35 :

"A security thread is a thin thread or ribbon running through a bank note substrate. All 1990 series and later notes, except the $1, include this feature. The note’s denomination is printed on the thread. In addition, the threads of the new $5, $10, $20 and $50 notes have graphics in addition to the printed denomination. The denomination number appears in the star field of the flag printed on the thread. The thread in the new notes glows when held under a long-wave ultraviolet light. In the new $5 it glows blue, in the new $10 it glows orange, in the new $20 note it glows green, in the new $50 note it glows yellow, and in the new $100 note it glows red. Since it is visible in transmitted light, but not in reflected light, the thread is difficult to copy with a color copier which uses reflected light to generate an image. Using a unique thread position for each denomination guards against certain counterfeit techniques, such as bleaching ink off a lower denomination and using the paper to "reprint" the bill as a higher value note."

 

[i]

I remember them fro long ago. I used to make a habit of pulling the strip out of the $5, and $20 dollar bills. I don't know if you've ever tried, but you can pull that strip out if you are careful. :wink:

Heehee! You realize that's probably an actual federal offense. :roll:

I do know that some people used to (still do?) believe that the "security threads" were part of a government conspiracy to keep track of how much cash people had on their person anytime they went through a metal detector (airports, courthouses, etc.).

(This is why I only carry one dollar bills. :wink: )

 

[Platform]

There already is a 3 dollar bill....

Ha ha ha! The joke's on you now. THERE REALLY WAS A $3 BILL ONCE (really!)...

• 
  Three Dollar Notes
  
  The Bureau of Engraving and Printing has never been authorized to print a $3 note. However, during the early 1800's, banks operating under Federal or State charters issued notes of that denomination. These notes were printed by private contractors and were not obligations of the federal government. There is a permanent exhibit about the $3 bill on display in Philadelphia's Independence Hall.

http://www.moneyfactory.com/document.cfm/5/44/126/128

 

[Onomatopoeic]

 

[Tea]

That, I take it, is New Zealand money.

 

[Platform]

 

[flagreen]

:lol:

 

[slo crostic]

For some reason, there are never enough $100 notes. I'm forever having people hand me a great wad of $50 notes for a $2400 system. But the bit that bugs me is that there isn't a more useful size of note than the $100. A $1000 or at least a $500 is way past due.

Didn't they try a $200 coin back in the late 80's? I remember hearing about it but I never saw one.

 

[i]

Tannin, I meant to ask you this when you first posted your story - can you post a copy of it to your webpage somewhere? I know some people who would find it a great read, but would find its location here confusing.

 

[Tea]

Hmmmm .. it's supposed to be a commercial website - i.e., to generate business for Red Hill. But what the hell? Why not?