I was down at a bbq not too long ago, and somehow the conversation turned to American money. (I think it may have been in reference to
ybunny's inability to remember what 5¢ and 10¢ pieces are called. FYI:
nickel and
dime.)
I was asked how the blind determine what denomination of US paper money they have, if all the bills are the same. British money is differentiated by sizes.
This is a question that I was interested in looking into, because frankly, I miss the US paper money. I find the lack of £1 notes irritating, not the least because I end up with 5lbs of change in my pockets at times, but also because I'm just used to it. I inevitably mix up the £5 notes with my receipts, because in my mind, they are too small to be cash. I confuse the £10 and £20 notes on a regular basis, mainly because there seems to be about 5 different colors of £10 notes here...and more importantly, none of the colors are total colors in any case (i.e. the 'blue' notes also have brown and black and tan coloring on them).
All US paper currency used to be off white and money green. That was it. I believe that they instituted a few color items (serial numbers? anyone else remember the ones that only had a bit of red on the field?), but for the most part it was green. They were a simple design and since all of them were set up the same way, to determine the denomination, you could ignore everything else as your eye wasn't drawn to it, look at the corner, and voila! a 1/5/10/20/50/100 dollar bill.
More recently, the Mint has changed the 100, then 50, then 20, then 10, and now the 5 (
yes, it's happened already? Nevermind, it's meant to be 2008) include colors in addition to the money green.
This, and the high contrast numbers on the backs are meant to aid the vision impaired. However, there still isn't a way to tell the bills apart for the blind.
Maybe they've already thought of this, but why not vary the counterfeiting strips? I know that the $20s at least have a strip running from top to bottom sandwiched into the paper-cloth amalgamation. Why not make the strips dashed for the $10s, double for the $50s, treble for the $100s and missing on the $5 (which don't have them now in anycase)? I'd be willing to give in and back a $1 coin if we could get the rest of this sorted.
I really don't like the idea of differently sized notes. Besides, the logistics of changing the things needed to have anything bigger or significantly smaller would be daunting.
On a completely separate note, I used to think that there was a lot more denominations of both coin and paper money in the UK compared to the US.
On a
regular everyman basis (can I make that any clearer? I'm not talking about the exceptions to this...) you see
(in the US)
pennies
nickels
dimes
quarters
$1
$5
$10
$20
$50 (somewhat less)
$100
total: 10 denominations
(in the UK)
1p
2p
5p
10p
20p
50p
£1 (coin)
£2 (coin)
Thanks,
jaq£5
£10
£20
total:
10 11 denominations
Exactly Almost the same. The only explanation I have is that every day expenses are less numerically (though not in intrinsic worth) and so the bigger bills aren't used as often.
I could be wrong. There could be a change fetish that no one's clued me in on.
Question for
UK residents: how often do you see the English £50, the Scottish £50 or 100 (any bank)?
IME pretty much never; certainly not in regular use.
Not sure about the "interlocking triangles" you mentioned on the masonic building - I don't see anything familiar. There is a masonic group calle Tall Cedars of Lebanon in the USA which has an emblem ov three connected pyramids, but I don't think they exist over there.
Thanks anyway, though.
I have had a £50 note on perhaps two or three occasions. Not something we see very often. But I don't think I've seen any $100 bills either. I rarely have more than about £40 in cash since I don't feel safe with it.
By the way, the new ones...what does the Brendel or whatever it says mean?
In just the brief time I spent in Scotland a couple years ago I noticed that I accumilated a great bit of change in my pockets. I can see where it would be difficult to adjust for a US-born person to have all that change all the time.
Are debit cards as prevelant there? I know since I first acquired my debit card I have used a lot less cash period.
I read a bit about the money folding on the interwebs, I could see that it would work. However, I think it would be nice for them to immediately tell. Then again, I'd like a pony too and that's not happened yet. :)
I've not had trouble getting the Scottish notes taken in England, but Tom's said that it used to be quite difficult.
I saw a NI bill for the first time last week. Always something new around here. :)
I don't like the different sized notes either. I like how you can stack up your notes and fold them nicely in the States when they're all one size but it doesn't work quite as nice here. And, when I reach in my pocket to feel for a note, I can't tell if I have a note or a piece of paper in my hand. I know what a bill feels like in the States. It's funny though, my husband things that our bills in the US feel like regular paper.
This all sounded really bitchy. I didn't really mean for it to. lol
But the notes are pretty annoying for my husband cause they don't fit nice & neat in his wallet like the US money does. I just end up stuffing the notes in my wallet cause I hate having people stare at me at the counter impatiently waiting for me to hurry up and put my wallet away so they can buy their stuff & be on their way...maybe I just have a complex about it?
We all have a complex. It's not just you. :)
The Euro system pissed me off - I used to spend my 1 and 2 euros really fast - they're coins, so they're not worth as much. Right.
Maybe that's what's really getting to you.
I have however had both £50 and £100 pounds notes, however the £100 pound notes was when i was taking cash from one bank to open an account somewhere else so asked for it in as large notes as they had so it wasn't obvious i was carrying lots of cash.