11/28: New Euro money
 

http://cellar.org/pictures/europaper.jpg

The rest of the world makes better money than the US. This is the new Euro currency, and once again it's colorful and bright and not at all like the boring-looking greenback.

http://cellar.org/pictures/eurocoins.jpg

But there's a problem with the coinage. A study found that two of the coins above have too much nickel in them. So much that five minutes of contact with these coins could produce "hand eczema", producing inflammation and itching, for those people allergic to the metal.

Even the US "nickel" coin isn't prone to cause such things.

The new money comes out in January.

fun moola
 

I had hoped that when they changed the US currency they would adopt different colors for the different denominations.

It would make a lot of sense in that you wouldn't have to read the number on the bill anymore, you'd soon know that a "green" was a five, a "blue" was a ten etc. Fumbling through your wallet would be faster, mistakes would be fewer.

I think the reason they stuck with all denominations being green was to keep the sense of stability associated with US currency, that people would get frightened if the money changed color. This I think was primarily to soothe old people, the young generation would quickly adapt.

Fourteen pence = 1 shilling
20 shillings = 1 pound
21 shillings = 1 guinea

I really will miss the silly, giddy mix of currencies. Certainly there is a point to rationalizing European currency, but it is another death of character. The Dutch currency is incomparably beautiful. The French, well, there is humor in that - like the AdeStE python that swallowed the elephant. The Spanish, ugly and flimsy.

The Euro notes are practically an invitation for committee-think.

how about our lame new ten dollar bill

http://www.canoe.ca/Feb5/billbig.jpg

its like a cheap knock off of european money

i liked the old ones better

2 questions
 

1: What is a euro "cent" called? (e0.01)

2: Why is there a coin worth two of them (e0.02)? It seems that when you made a new monetary system, you'd take to opportunity to shed archaic denominations. Is there a good reason anyone knows why the e0.01 and e0.05 couldn't suffice?

I dunno. But in Canada, they've got "Twonies" (as opposed to "loonies", which are worth $1 CAD) that are worth $2 CAD and they're pretty handy.

I recall being in Canada right when they came out, and I also recall trying to punch out the little gold-ish piece in the middle, to no avail.

Re: 11/28: New Euro money
 

Something like 13 robberies of the new currency have already been reported. The BBC listed it by countries which I currently don't have. However, it is estimated that 10% of the stolen cash is already in circulation.

The idea was to only show the money in low resolution pictures such as TV. However counterfeiters are believed to already have created phoney bills - before the people can even tell what is and is not real money.

yah, the lowest denomination of bill we have is a fiver.

toonies, heh... yes many people tried all kinds of things such as putting them in the freezer and smacking them with a hammer just to get them to break so they could have a refund... i knew a guy that spend a couple hundred and bought them up because he heard there was going to be a 'recall' due to this very fact...

Nice looking, true. Is it still worthless?

~Mike

Re: 11/28: New Euro money
 

I think the US nickel has zero nickel nowadays. The Canadian nickel has more.

I like US money. It looks like, well, money. European money looks like monopoly money. Australian money (with the plastic bits) is just weird.

And I like the $1 bill too. I hate carrying coins. It's not like they're worth intrinsicly more, and they're heavier. Since the Sacajawea dollar doesn't seem to be catching on, it seems likely we'll be keeping the $1 for a while, too.

Is the US 2$ bill still being circulated? I havent seen one in a while. I used to live near a cafe that regularly pumped these out into the community as change. It made me smile- like getting an amusing fortune cookie fortune.

sacks-a-coins
 

That Sacajawea thing was kind of weird.

They spent literally years coming up with just the right alloy, shape, design etc. for this new coin. It was even gold colored, the *coolest* color for a coin, IMO, even if it doesn't actually contain any gold.

The coins are finished, and then what?

Did they ever come out? I think I saw one of them in the wild, ever.

I haven't seen a circulating Sacawagea in quite a while. One showed up just as I was finishing the facing on my fireplace though so I stuck her in the mortar up in the corner. Hopefully, my girls will be sparked by her strength...

The last series date I saw on one was 1995, but I believe they're still circulated. IIRC (from working at a bank until 2 years ago), a bank can order them from their Federal Reserve branch.