Measurements

[Amy Z]

Catherine wrote:
> 
> "BTW: someone was moaning about English money and how difficult it 
> was to get used to, and asked if any Brits on the list had a 
> corresponding problem with American money.  The answer is a 
> resounding Yes!  The main problem, besides getting used to the coins 
> and remembering how much a dime is worth etc, is the fact that all 
> the notes look practically the same.  There has been more than one 
> occassion when I have handed out a $10 note instead of $1, and even 
> once, a $100 instead of a $10 - I didn't realise, until several 
hours 
> later when I found myself short, that I had made a cabdriver very 
> happy..."

Whoa!  I have never done that in my life (at least, I've never 
discovered that I have...).  It just goes to show that you can see 
subtle differences at a glance if only you're used to them.  I can 
tell a $1 from a $5 from a $10 from a $20 without registering the 
numbers in the corners or the man in the middle--they each have a 
slightly different format and "feel."

Scott wrote:

> --Well I've never heard the complaint that all our money is green. I 
> have heard Americans complain because foreign money isn't green, but 
> never the other way around.

I've heard Canadians complain about this.  I think as long as we were 
reprinting all the bills these past several years, we should've added 
other colors--maybe just an added stripe around the border so as not 
to throw the culture into chaos by changing our "green," "lettuce," 
etc. to another color.

> 
> My biggest problem with British money, and other foreign currencies 
> for that matter is that their coins come in larger values (like one 
> and two pound coins as opposed to a one or two pound note).

It's probably only a matter of time before we ditch the dollar bill 
and start actually circulating dollar coins instead of their being 
collector's items.  This gets brought up as a possibility every so 
often but Congress hasn't taken the plunge.  I like having both a 
bill and a coin, but it's hard to spend a dollar coin without getting 
a comment.  The same is true of $2 bills, which are incredibly useful 
but mostly sit at the bottom of people's jewelry boxes.

Scott, I've been thinking you were British.  How come you have a .uk 
domain?

Amy Z