I understand the romanticism of coins and the nostalgia of coin collectors, but the experience of actually using them is just so much worse than bills. When I go to Canada I immediately relinquish my loonies and toonies to my Canadian friends because they're such a pain to deal with.
A well-designed set of coins is nice to use, but this is unfortunately rare.
Canada and the USA certainly don't have it. The Euro doesn't, which is odd as the currency is so new -- why are the 10, 20 and 50 cent coins so similar?
The Pound Sterling is generally well-designed, with sets of coins in copper-silver-gold materials, and easily distinguishable sequences of shapes and different sizes. The Danish and Swedish coins also work, in the Danish case with a hole to distinguish some denominations.
I found Danish and Swedish coins to be just as annoying as American coins. They are difficult to tell apart immediately. The Pound and its denominations, I agree, are the best I've encountered so far in real world use.
I wish America would get off its butt about getting rid of the penny. It's such a waste of resources. We don't need it. In fact, Ecuador uses USD as well and they, a country with much lower GDP and prices, don't use our penny. They round up.
Only a certain subset of people would think that universally, a coin that looks bigger would be half the value of the smaller one.
In Argentina back when coins were worth anything, from 1c to 50c they would grow in size, also would have the value in big clear numbers, and varying colors. The 1 peso coin would be a big smaller in diameter but substantially heavier and different with two colors.
Coins in the US from this “obviously the smallest one is the least valuable” mindset didn’t make sense. Also seems like no one cares about any coin but the quarter for anything other than trading them. Any coin operated machine I’ve seen takes 25c
I'm British and I fully agree that Euro coins are too similar. It always irritates me when I'm travelling in the Eurozone. The coins are different sizes but they're not different enough and it always takes me a moment to confirm which coin is which. A short moment, but a moment nonetheless.
British coins aren't like this. They're all extremely distinct, with big differences in size, colour, weight, and even shape (the 50p and 20p coins aren't circular). It's completely impossible to mistake one coin for another, even at a glance. Maybe I'm biased but I think they're exceptionally well designed. Rule Britannia!
The 50c isn't double the size of the 10c, it's 18% wider. It has the same edge texture as the 10c coin. It's 1mm larger than the €1 coin, and 1.5mm smaller than the €2 coin.
The 20c coin has 7 subtle indents, and is only 1mm larger than the 5c coin. Can you tell the difference when your hands are cold, or if you're wearing gloves? (I understand people lose their sense of touch in old age.)
Meanwhile the 20p and 50p are heptagonal, with a similar 20% size increase.
The 5p and 10p have a 26% size increase. They have milled edges, unlike the 1p and 2p.
What are you talking about? The Euro coins were designed for and with the blind community.
I can grab any coin blindly and know exactly which one it is?
Same with the bills and their relative sizes. I still think the EU messed up the bills; they’re super ugly and feel plastic, but for the blind the Euro is insanely well designed.
The heptagonal shape of the 20p and 50p make them much easier to distinguish from other coins by both sight and touch. I can see the different coins in a heap, and I feel the difference even through gloves.
The copper and gold-coloured Euro coins all look very similar.
I think it might be easier for the blind to differentiate them than people with normal vision tbh. The designs on the face are all quite similar, but the designs on the edges are all unique.
