4 ms·
I like the idea of a ternary currency: redefine the dollar¹ to be worth 81 pennies², and then issue 1p, 3p, 9p, and 27p coins. (cf. http://en.wikipedia.org/wik
by sethg 16y ago
I like the idea of a ternary currency: redefine the dollar¹ to be worth 81 pennies², and then issue 1p, 3p, 9p, and 27p coins. (cf. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Balanced_ternary http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Balanced_ternary)
Of course no country other than Geekistan would actually do this, so I would settle for a 1/3/10/30 system.
¹Or pound or euro, of course.
²We couldn’t call them “cents” any more, could we?
- pmjordan 16y agoOf course no country other than Geekistan would actually do this You do know about pre-decimal Pound Sterling, right? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pound_sterling#Pre-decimal http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pound_sterling#Pre-decimal I particularly like the insanity of the Guinea denomination (1 Pound + 1 Shilling = 21 Shillings). My girlfriend's mother apparently was still nominally paid in Guineas as a legal secretary in the early 70s. Reminds me of volume controls that go to 11.
- sethg 16y agoIf I were a British subject I would totally get behind a campaign to un-decimalise the currency.
- pmjordan 16y agoI wonder if anyone would notice - in the UK everyone but kids and old people seems to use credit cards these days. And old people frequently still use the pre-decimal terminology anyway. Part of the reason for the widespread use of cashless payment might be that for larger amounts cash is totally impractical; the largest de facto denomination is £20, the £50 note gets you nowhere. That said, I do really like the current design of the coins. But weird currency experiments would be cool.
- arethuza 16y agoI rarely use cash these days - maybe once a month or so. Edit: I'm in the UK - I use a chip-n-pin debit card for most things.
- pmjordan 16y agoI don't know where you're from, but I can only compare to various other parts of Europe as well as South Africa. The UK is definitely the most card-happy of that lot.
- elai 16y agoWhy wouldn't somebody receiving payment for a 100 pound transaction not take two 50s?
- notahacker 16y agoOfficially it's a "banking note" and retailers are within their rights to refuse them (which they're more likely to do because lack of familiarity means staff are less likely to be convinced of the note's authenticity and it also requires giving more change)
- fhars 16y agoOf course it was necessary for the Guinea to be worth more than the pound, since it was made of gold, not of silver. There is a method in the insanity.
- pigbucket 16y agoA neat example from Joyce (early in Ulysses) of how to calculate the milk bill when a shilling is 12 pence (in case it's unclear, the bill is two shillings and two pence; the boys end up paying a florin (24 pence) and owing 2 pence): -- Have you your bill? We had better pay her, Mulligan, hadn't we? Stephen filled the three cups. -- Bill, sir? she said, halting. Well, it's seven mornings a pint at twopence is seven twos is a shilling and twopence over and these three mornings a quart at fourpence is three quarts is a shilling and one and two is two and two, sir.
- protomyth 16y agoIf you were going to do the dollar redefine, why not have 1 dollar = 12 "coins". Only mint one coin and 12 has a lot of nice divisors. It would also have the advantage of no minted coin really being practically worthless.