29 Jun
2019
29 Jun
'19
3:52 a.m.
On Fri, 28 Jun 2019 at 18:57, Fred Cisin via cctalk
<cctalk at classiccmp.org> wrote:
Oh, FAR FAR FAR less than 5%.
*Chuckle*
Most residents of USA haven't seen a half dollar
or "50 cent piece" in
decades. They are as much of an oddity as the $2 bill. They are
nominally still in circulation, most recent being JFK, but I think that
they stopped making them in 2002, and there are federal vaults full of
uncirculated pre-2002 coins. Most recent has a portrait of Kennedy.
They are 30.61mm diameter, which is the largest relatively recent
USA coin (not counting the long discontinued 38.1mm SILVER DOLLAR)
Oh!
Well, I thought I'd never seen one in my 3 visits to the USA.
You could have just ASSUMED THAT IT WOULD BE
logarithmically between a
quarter[dollar] (24.26mm) and a dollar coin (26.5mm). That would be
completely WRONG, unless you use the 38.1mm ancient "silver dollar", but
hardly a problem.
Oh heavens no. Coinage almost never makes that kind of sense. Nor banknotes.
When I was a child I was shown an old British ?5 note. As in, from my
parents' childhood. Not kept as a souvenir but lost somewhere as it
was a very significant amount of money.
It was _vast_ to my child's eyes. It looked approximately the size of
a pillowcase or something. It looked like linen, not money. More like
a joke teatowel printed with a spare, fancy currency-like design I'd
never seen.
It was scored with deep lines as you had to fold them into eighths or
something to put them into your wallet.
Even as a kid this briefly excited me with the notion that pre-WW2
banknotes scaled for area by value, and I had visions of buying
furniture or something with ?20 notes the size of bedsheets, or ?50
notes that needed to be unrolled outdoors like a carpet for
inspection...
Of course it wasn't *really...* Sadly...
"50 pence coin" would be CLOSE ENOUGH.
Aha!
Actually, for THIS purpose, "large coin" is
as accurate as you need.
Just as I am not at all familiar with British currency, that hasn't
dampened my appreciation of British TV, such as Doctor Who and a variety
of Brit-coms.
:-D
"Silver dollar" used to be a large coin.
(38.1mm) It was the standard for
casinos. When it was discontinued (1935), the casinos started to mint
their own chips/tokens as a replacement. There was a brief attempt to
revive the silver dollar in 1971 with the "Eisenhower Dollar".
It is quite rare that you will encounter one of the "large dollars".
This I had never heard of. Thanks.
The Susan B Anthony dollar (1979-1981)
http://www.smalldollars.com/
was never widely accepted, mostly because it was MUCH MUCH too close to a
quarter in size. (26.5mm V 24.26mm) Different edge milling is NOT
ENOUGH. It COULD have been widely accepted, if the gubmint were to have
given a tax incentive to have video games that took a quarter to provide
five games for a "Carter Quarter"; and the "quantity sale" would
have
been so profitable that the tax incentive would only have to have been
short term.
It is quite rare that you will encounter one.
It was later replaced with the Sacajewa dollar. Same problem.
It is quite rare that you will encounter one.
Then there was a commemorative series (gold colored) of presidents of USA.
Change of COLOR is NOT ENOUGH.
It is quite rare that you will encounter one.
Czech coinage does something unique in my experience.
The _small_ denominations are silver. The larger ones are copper/brass/whatever.
This is the reverse of I think every other country I've ever visited.
And, I understand that the gubmint is planning an
"American innovation"
commemorative series. We are far too arrogant to learn from our mistakes.
It will be quite rare that you will encounter one.
:-(
But, the states of USA commemorative quarters were so
popular that they
followed that with national parks commemorative quarters.
The quarter is the largest USA coin that you are likely to encounter
in circulation.
It's the biggest I've seen, which is in part why a half-dollar threw me.
--
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