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

[David C. Jenner]

Washington State Ferries still use 50 cent pieces and 2 dollar bills a lot.

After years of receiving them as change, I finally asked why?  The 
reason is they reduce the number of hand movements by one half.  If 
you're sitting in a kiosk all day dolling out change, it can reduce 
repetitive wrist/elbow ailments.

On 6/28/19 9:57 AM, Fred Cisin via cctalk wrote:
>>> I saw this half-dollar sized plastic fob on the desk and asked what 
>>> it was for.
> 
> On Fri, 28 Jun 2019, Liam Proven via cctalk wrote:
>> If I may just say -- only about 5% of humanity know how big that is. I
>> don't. I don't even know if a half a dollar is a note or a coin, and
>> that's without getting extra-pedantic and pointing out that about a
>> dozen countries call their currencies the "dollar".
>> :-(
> 
> Oh, FAR FAR FAR less than 5%.
> 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)
> 
> 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.
> 
> "50 pence coin" would be CLOSE ENOUGH.
> 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.
> 
> 
> "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".
> 
> 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.
> 
> 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.
> 
> -- 
> Grumpy Ol' Fred             cisin at xenosoft.com
>