Part the third—Money

[cosmolinguist]

Yesterday when we were talking about things we wanted to buy, I asked Andrew if we had any money left. He patted one of his pockets, and it jingled; that was sufficient answer. 'I think there's about a tenner left,' he elaborated. That made me smile, both because that's comparative wealth for us and because I'm still not quite used to (and thus amused by) the idea that money in coins can be anyhing but a trivial amount.

Coins are ubiquitous here. The smallest notes are £5. There are £2 coins but the £1 ones are more common. I like those because they're yellowish and twice as thick as the others, so easily identifiable as well as being quite useful. The 50p coins are big and not quite round; they have straight sides, and I've been told there are seven of them, though I never counted myself. The 5p coins look a lot like dimes (and, at the current exchange rate, are worth about that much!). There are other coins too but I don't have anything to say about those.

At first I'd often avoid the floundering around with strange money if we wanted to pay for something in a fairly expedient manner and hand my wallet to Andrew, who can dig through the change and give the person behind the counter what they want as if he actually knows what he's doing, as if this makes sense to him. Though I am getting better at doing this myself. I'm also very good at handing someone a note and waiting for them to make change.

The notes are different colors and sizes (in what could be an illustration of their relative value, the bigger ones are in fact bigger) and have bits that are shiny and holographic and have watermarks and all kinds of nifty things. Andrew thus found the twenties I had on me when I got here to be Monopoly money he could fake with a green ballpoint pen. His derision extended to telling his brother and sister-in-law that in fact all Americans are in fact probably counterfeiting money all the time (which all three of them seem to believe). It would be useless to try to tell him otherwise.

But I do think the money here is cooler-looking...though that might just be because when I look at it I'm really seeing movies and ice cream and Cokes...

Comments

[stealthmunchkin.livejournal.com]

My brother and his girlfriend are not three people... and anyway those two would believe literally anything...

And I'd seen 'Merkin money before you came over, you know. I was derisive of it then too.

And unless you posted this while I was out, the music wasn't California Girls, because I've not played that in about 2 days...

[cosmolinguist]

Yeah but you are a person too.

Yes, I know you had. but you mentioned it to me, much and often, when you saw mine.

I posted this while you were upstairs, trying to get sympathy for being sick. :-)

[toastedtuna.livejournal.com]

Very cool! So, that's why Canada has funny looking money----because England does, too! LOL

[cosmolinguist]

Good theory, that. :-)

[dawgdays.livejournal.com]

Not only does the 50p coin have sides, but it also has a constant diameter. I believe the same goes for the 20p coin.

I hated the £1 coin, thick, heavy. Don't know about the £2 coin, as it didn't exist when I was last in the UK.

I'm glad that I didn't encounter shillings and pence (d). I think my brain would have jammed.

[gentleman-lech.livejournal.com]

Money's money. (At least in countries that use Arabic numerals on everything.) The prices are listed in the same amounts the money comes in, so if you can do math you can buy stuff.

Interesting side note about denominations. In Germany when I was there, 5 DM coins were far more common than bills. The smallest bill usually seen was a 10. It's funny, the 5's were only dispensed from the American servicemembers' banks. German merchants were always amused to see them. They'd giggle at us silly Americans and our 5 DM bills. :)

[angel-thane.livejournal.com]

Assuming you mean Babylonian numerals?

And its also quite nice that the 10p coin looks like a quarter and is worth about that much too.

Shame that the 2p coins look (vaguely) like looneys though.

[gentleman-lech.livejournal.com]

It could be very bad to confuse those two...

[tenbaset.livejournal.com]

You don't know how difficult US notes are for people that are used to other currencies to deal with! I'm sure I messed up a $100 USD note with a $1 once when I was in the states..

(US is the only currency I'm aware of - and certainly, the only one I've ever delt with - that has all the notes the same colour and size - baring the new $20 USD notes which I haven't seen.)

[cosmolinguist]

The 20s I had were, oddly, of the old variety (I say 'odd' because I got them from my bank; you'd think they'd have the new ones...or maybe I'm strange for thinking that), so I couldn't show Andrew that things have recently gotten better in this colour/shiny bits department. I'm sure he still would've found them woefully inadequate, but at least an attempt is being made. :-)

[angel-thane.livejournal.com]

I was playing around with a US counterfeit pen (they write yellow on US money, and black on forgeries).

Frighteningly enough, I found that they also wrote yellow on human flesh...

not that I'm suggesting that that means anything... well nothing more than the clear implication that US currency is made with human flesh!

[gaiagurl.livejournal.com]

for us, we just look at the numbers in the corners and the presidential faces in the centers. pretty easy.

i can see where you'd get comfortable with colors, though, and not think about other differences. we were doing that with quarters and with susan b. anthony dollar coins, oddly--we got too comfortable with the size differences in coins and forgot to check the profiles.

[tenbaset.livejournal.com]

Yeah - once you're used to colours and sizes, you just glance at the notes.

As for coins, from memory, I thought the Susan B. Anthony coins were heavier and thicker than plain quarters?

[gaiagurl.livejournal.com]

heavier, thicker, and slightly larger in diameter.

[dracole.livejournal.com]

I'm still not quite used to (and thus amused by) the idea that money in coins can be anyhing but a trivial amount.
Hmmm, yeah, I guess that would be an odd thing to get use to.

However, it all sounds very cool.

[comradexavier.livejournal.com]

...I'm still not quite used to (and thus amused by) the idea that money in coins can be anything but a trivial amount.

The physical nature of currency really has nothing to do with the value. Money is just a voluntary mass delusion, anyway...

[parakleta.livejournal.com]

It sounds like UK money is much the same as Australian money then, which I suppose all in all isn't terribly surprising. I always felt it was strange that the US had such simple and uninteresting money compared to other countries, particularly much smaller ones (by population) like Australia.

[evil-grapefruit.livejournal.com]

If you get really poor I can send you my 10p!

Loves,

Jenn!