In message , at 23:31:43 on Tue, 27
Dec 2011, " remarked:
I saw somebody on the Midland Metro try to pay their fare with a
unimetallic two-pound coin. I offered to take it off her hands for the
equivalent face value when the conductor wouldn't take it. I also ont
one in change at Wimbledon station once.

It's quite unusual to get a £2 coin in manual change, but London
Underground ticket machines churn them out.
--
Roland Perry

In article ,
(Denis McMahon) wrote:

When we went decimal in the early 1970s (February 1972 if my memory
serves me correctly), the pound stayed the pound, but the smaller
denominations were changed such that there were 5 new pence to 12d or
an old shilling. The smallest decimal coin was 1/2 a new pence, worth
roughly 1.2 old pence or just under 5 old farthings, although I can't
remember if we were still using farthings then (we were certainly
using ha'penny's shortly before decimalization, I remember spending
them in the sweet shop on the way to school in the early 1970s).

Decimalisation started on D-Day, 15th February 1971. You can't have spent
old halfpennies in the 1970s. They ceased to be legal tender before D-Day,
1969 IIRC. Farthings ceased to be legal tender in the late 1950s, 1957 IIRC.

--
Colin Rosenstiel

In message , at 04:13:42
on Wed, 28 Dec 2011, remarked:

Farthings ceased to be legal tender in the late 1950s, 1957 IIRC.

Wonkypedia says 31 Dec 1960. I remember getting farthings in change, as
a child. Apparently the farthing was worth the equivalent of 2p in 1960,
so it's high time we withdrew the 1p.
--
Roland Perry

On Wed, 28 Dec 2011 10:30:07 +0000, Roland Perry
wrote:
so it's high time we withdrew the 1p.

And 2p, IMO.

Neil

--
Neil Williams, Milton Keynes, UK

On 28/12/2011 02:39, danny burstein wrote:
writes:

pennies?

No, but I know that the vending machines at US post offices do take them.

Except that.. just about all US Post Offices have eliminated the
coin and bill vending machines in favor of the credit/debit card
only.. Automated Postal Machines. (I think that's their name; might
be misremembering).



Even in offices where there are postal employees? Ones that accept only
cards here are in the unmanned offices, whereas the ones that accept
currency are in the larger offices.

On 28/12/2011 05:39, Peter T. Daniels wrote:
On Dec 27, 7:57 pm,
wrote:
On 27/12/2011 23:40, John Levine wrote:

Paper notes are still far more convenient to carry than coins and the US has far
more vending machines and cash register drawers than most other countries. While
many will accept dollar coins, the ones that do tend to be government owned (ie
Post Office) or located in casinos. The far more ubiqutous soda and candy
vending machines tend to take nickels, dime and quarters, and if you are really
lucky, the have a working receiver for $1 bills.

I think if you tried it, you'd find that most vending machines also
take dollar coins. At the time the government issued the SBA dollars,
the size was chosen in cooperation with the vending industry to make
modifications to machines easy. Then they found that the coins were
hard to tell from quarters, so now they're a different color and have
a smooth edge, but people still don't like them.

I always thought that the SBA might have survived if they made sides out

The Small Business Administration? Oh, you mean the Susie B.

The _faces_ do have sides, though the edges are circular. Maybe
vending machines wouldn't accept an 18- or 20-sided coin. The Sackies
are round but goldish-colored and smooth-edged like a nickel rather
than milled.

of the coin, rather than make it round, similar to what they have done
in other nations. It would have helped the visually impaired and it
would have made it obvious to the casual observer what it was. I wonder
why they never did that.

Everyone in the US seems to think it would be awful if we didn't have
dollar bills, but everywhere else they've switched similar value notes
to coins, it hasn't been a big deal.

Psychological factors play a role, me thinks.

What they really need to do at
the same time is get rid of pennies and round cash prices to 5c, both
to make room in cash drawers for the dollars, and because pennies are
worthless. We made do with pennies in 1947, and the value of a penny
then is about a dime now.

I don't think that will happen in the United States, unfortunately.
Finland got rid of its one-cent coins, however.

ObTransit: what coins do Metrocard machines take? They must take
dollar coins, since they return them as change.

I believe that they take everything from 5 cents upward to dollar coins.

Do they take
pennies?

No, but I know that the vending machines at US post offices do take them.

NJT buses take cents. (I don't say "pennies" because we're talking to
persons of the British persuasion, and British pence were humungous --
are they still?)

Nice one.

The British penny is about the size of a 1-cent coin in the United States.

They haven't used pre-decimal coins here since the early '70s.

On 28/12/2011 02:29, Bruce wrote:
" wrote:
On 28/12/2011 01:20, Miles Bader wrote:
I don't know the somewhat softer metal would have any significant
effect on durability in normal use, but I haven't noticed any
obvious
difference from other Japanese coins in terms of wear or average
age.

[I like these small aluminum coins because they're very easy on
the
pockets and very easy to identify by touch.]


They also had them in Italy and East Germany, when they
respectively had
the lira and mark. I think that I even have a 50-pfennig and 1-mark
piece somewhere.


Apparently several Euro zone countries - including Germany - have now
completed the printing of sufficient banknotes in their own currencies
to be able to cope when/if the Euro fails.

I just heard that yesterday.

I wonder if they have also minted coins?

No idea.

On 28/12/2011 05:42, Peter T. Daniels wrote:
On Dec 27, 8:26 pm,
wrote:
On 28/12/2011 01:20, Miles Bader wrote:

John writes:
the value of a penny then is about a dime now.

Is the value in the material or the labor/etc for making them?

I think that it is indeed the labour.

Neither. He's talking about inflation. A 10c candy bar is now a $1
candy bar.

If the former, and they don't want to get rid of pennies, maybe they
could make a new money using cheaper material.

Would require an act of congress, most likely.

There's very little, if any, copper in a cent any more.


Not since 1982, I think. Though there are plenty of people who hoard
those coins.

On 28/12/2011 02:51, wrote:
On Dec 27, 5:20 pm, Jarle H wrote:

I'm amazed you still use one dollar bills. Why haven't they been phased
out?

Because people really like them and don't want to get rid of them.

The govt has been making dollar coins for you in hopes that they'll
replace the dollar bill, but few want them.

Why doesn't the Federal Reserve just start taking in dollar bills and
not reissue them as is done in other countries?

On 28/12/2011 03:42, John Levine wrote:
You answered your own post. Dollar coins are not easy to find.
Further, many independent merchants dislike them because they're too
easily confused with quarters. Chain store clerks gotta take them,
but sometimes they think you gave them a quarter.

I realize that chain store clerks are often not too bright, but they
must be totally brain-dead if they can't tell a yellow smooth-edged
dollar from a white notch-edged quarter.

R's,
John
Some of the older dollar coins are extremely similar to 25-cent coins,
however.