Absolutely, but then, the thread itself is a bit pointless, and pedantry is a pastime on HN :) I agree, in practical terms you're counting two things - pennies

Absolutely, but then, the thread itself is a bit pointless, and pedantry is a pastime on HN :) I agree, in practical terms you're counting two things - pennies and pounds. You need a zero for the pennies counter before you need a two for the pounds counter for sure. But you don't count 'I have one hundredth of a pound, I have one fiftieth of a pound, I have three hundredths of a pound, I have a twenty-fifth of a pound' and so on.