OT: "half-dollar"/"50 cent piece" Was: Recovering the ROM of an IBM 5100 using OCR

[Liam Proven]

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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