4 ms·

To be fair I have no idea how large an American penny is - it's not a very precise indication of size for anyone who's not American.

by zik 3y ago

JadeNB 3y ago
> To be fair I have no idea how large an American penny is - it's not a very precise indication of size for anyone who's not American. It is reasonably precise, at least "good enough for government work"—the size is federally specified https://www.usmint.gov/learn/coin-and-medal-programs/coin-specifications https://www.usmint.gov/learn/coin-and-medal-programs/coin-sp... —just not familiar.
- gerdesj 3y ago
  Provided your audience realizes that a US "penny" is a thing. I live in a land that actually has a unit of currency called a penny, the US does not. W Germany used to have a pfennig and I can't remember what 100th of a Dutch gilder was called Thankfully we have tamed our penny somewhat, from the wild beast it used to be. It used to be abbreviated to "d" and there were 12 of them to the shilling (s) and 20 shillings to the pound (l ie: £, which is what happens when you get the ink pen out). In 1971 we decided to stop taking the piss and fall in line with the rest of the civilized world and decimalise: One squid = 100 pennies! So the US call their cents "pennies". How cute 8) Those odd abbreviations I mentioned earlier - LSD for pounds/shillings and pence. They are sort of derived from libra/sestertii/denarius ie Roman currency units. I've glossed over florins, sovereigns, groats and all the other weird and wonderful coinage of the realm. We were not alone, most countries have some pretty odd past coinage and currency ... or didn't bother and stuck with barter for simplicity.
  - tree_enjoyer 3y ago
    The parent comment you are replying to is making a statement about precision vs other metrics such as user familiarity, accuracy, etc. The size of an American Penny and a 9v battery are both very precise, the former even more so. The lack of universitality is a different argument, the tangent your comment discusses. "Precise" has a precise meaning, and it was a pedantic (though in a way I appreciate) comment on that. Your lack of familiarity with "American" pennies does not change that they are a very well defined size. This often comes up in science discussions because to many lay people "Precise", "Accurate" and other terms are used interchangeably, when they have distinct meanings
  - saghm 3y ago
    > Provided your audience realizes that a US "penny" is a thing. I live in a land that actually has a unit of currency called a penny, the US does not. W Germany used to have a pfennig and I can't remember what 100th of a Dutch gilder was called If it's being used for scale in an image, why does it matter if they know the name of it rather than knowing how big it is? Do people need to know who the bearded man is on the front of it as well?
    - ben_w 3y ago
      > Do people need to know who the bearded man is on the front of it as well? Robert V. Barron, right? ;P
  - euroderf 3y ago
    > I've glossed over florins, sovereigns, groats and all the other weird and wonderful coinage of the realm. You omit the guinea. I read once that high-end auctions are conducted in guineas so that bidders from all currency areas are equally handicapped.
    - gerdesj 3y ago
      Not sure about auction payments. A guinea is a pound and a shilling - a sort of fat or posh pound I suppose. Horse race prizes here are still priced in guineas eg here's a random link, noting guineas: https://www.racingpost.com/news/festivals/guineas-festival/confirmed-runners-and-riders-for-the-1000-guineas-at-newmarket-plus-an-early-tip-aZBEY9H4TCPa/ https://www.racingpost.com/news/festivals/guineas-festival/c... I can imagine that in the past, a popinjay or boastfool (made that one up) caused the guinea to be created because they wanted to outflance someone else. I don't think £1 1s is a useful lump of money, ever. I think it is simply there for bragging rights and further nonsense. There is also the sovereign - "sov" - also a nickname for a pound but it isn't one. Gold sovs are worth a shit load these days. I also missed out tanners and a lot more 8)
JKCalhoun 3y ago
I always remember that a U.S. nickel (5 cents) weighs 5 grams. That's cool.
- jamesfinlayson 3y ago
  British cartwheel pennies weighed exactly one ounce and British bronze halfpennies were an inch across - made sense for these things to be useful 100+ years ago.
  - ben_w 3y ago
    A while ago I noticed that the full name of the UK currency was "pound sterling" and that "sterling silver" describes relatively high-purity silver. Because of this, I wondered if the coin was supposed to be of equal value to 1 lb of silver, and it turns out, yes: https://web.archive.org/web/20131203201915/http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/473092/pound-sterling https://web.archive.org/web/20131203201915/http://www.britan...
- saalweachter 3y ago
  The weights of the dime, quarter and half-dollar are in a 10:25:50 ratio, and weigh 0.8 oz/dollar. A roll of quarters, $10, weighs a half pound.
  - pests 3y ago
    So we can weigh mixtures of those coins and get an exact value out the other side? Neat.

To be fair I have no idea how large an American penny is - it's not a very precise indication of size for anyone who's not American.

by zik 3y ago

To be fair I have no idea how large an American penny is - it's not a very precise indication of size for anyone who's not American.

JadeNB 3y ago

> To be fair I have no idea how large an American penny is - it's not a very precise indication of size for anyone who's not American. It is reasonably precise, at least "good enough for government work"—the size is federally specified https://www.usmint.gov/learn/coin-and-medal-programs/coin-specifications https://www.usmint.gov/learn/coin-and-medal-programs/coin-sp... —just not familiar.

gerdesj 3y ago
Provided your audience realizes that a US "penny" is a thing. I live in a land that actually has a unit of currency called a penny, the US does not. W Germany used to have a pfennig and I can't remember what 100th of a Dutch gilder was called Thankfully we have tamed our penny somewhat, from the wild beast it used to be. It used to be abbreviated to "d" and there were 12 of them to the shilling (s) and 20 shillings to the pound (l ie: £, which is what happens when you get the ink pen out). In 1971 we decided to stop taking the piss and fall in line with the rest of the civilized world and decimalise: One squid = 100 pennies! So the US call their cents "pennies". How cute 8) Those odd abbreviations I mentioned earlier - LSD for pounds/shillings and pence. They are sort of derived from libra/sestertii/denarius ie Roman currency units. I've glossed over florins, sovereigns, groats and all the other weird and wonderful coinage of the realm. We were not alone, most countries have some pretty odd past coinage and currency ... or didn't bother and stuck with barter for simplicity.
- tree_enjoyer 3y ago
  The parent comment you are replying to is making a statement about precision vs other metrics such as user familiarity, accuracy, etc. The size of an American Penny and a 9v battery are both very precise, the former even more so. The lack of universitality is a different argument, the tangent your comment discusses. "Precise" has a precise meaning, and it was a pedantic (though in a way I appreciate) comment on that. Your lack of familiarity with "American" pennies does not change that they are a very well defined size. This often comes up in science discussions because to many lay people "Precise", "Accurate" and other terms are used interchangeably, when they have distinct meanings
- saghm 3y ago
  > Provided your audience realizes that a US "penny" is a thing. I live in a land that actually has a unit of currency called a penny, the US does not. W Germany used to have a pfennig and I can't remember what 100th of a Dutch gilder was called If it's being used for scale in an image, why does it matter if they know the name of it rather than knowing how big it is? Do people need to know who the bearded man is on the front of it as well?
  - ben_w 3y ago
    > Do people need to know who the bearded man is on the front of it as well? Robert V. Barron, right? ;P
- euroderf 3y ago
  > I've glossed over florins, sovereigns, groats and all the other weird and wonderful coinage of the realm. You omit the guinea. I read once that high-end auctions are conducted in guineas so that bidders from all currency areas are equally handicapped.
  - gerdesj 3y ago
    Not sure about auction payments. A guinea is a pound and a shilling - a sort of fat or posh pound I suppose. Horse race prizes here are still priced in guineas eg here's a random link, noting guineas: https://www.racingpost.com/news/festivals/guineas-festival/confirmed-runners-and-riders-for-the-1000-guineas-at-newmarket-plus-an-early-tip-aZBEY9H4TCPa/ https://www.racingpost.com/news/festivals/guineas-festival/c... I can imagine that in the past, a popinjay or boastfool (made that one up) caused the guinea to be created because they wanted to outflance someone else. I don't think £1 1s is a useful lump of money, ever. I think it is simply there for bragging rights and further nonsense. There is also the sovereign - "sov" - also a nickname for a pound but it isn't one. Gold sovs are worth a shit load these days. I also missed out tanners and a lot more 8)

JKCalhoun 3y ago

I always remember that a U.S. nickel (5 cents) weighs 5 grams. That's cool.

jamesfinlayson 3y ago
British cartwheel pennies weighed exactly one ounce and British bronze halfpennies were an inch across - made sense for these things to be useful 100+ years ago.
- ben_w 3y ago
  A while ago I noticed that the full name of the UK currency was "pound sterling" and that "sterling silver" describes relatively high-purity silver. Because of this, I wondered if the coin was supposed to be of equal value to 1 lb of silver, and it turns out, yes: https://web.archive.org/web/20131203201915/http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/473092/pound-sterling https://web.archive.org/web/20131203201915/http://www.britan...
saalweachter 3y ago
The weights of the dime, quarter and half-dollar are in a 10:25:50 ratio, and weigh 0.8 oz/dollar. A roll of quarters, $10, weighs a half pound.
- pests 3y ago
  So we can weigh mixtures of those coins and get an exact value out the other side? Neat.