Last spring when I was in the UK and Ireland I got slightly annoyed by the 2 cent (Euro) and the 2 pence coin. I wasn’t quite sure why they were needed, they made one too many to sort out. 1, 5, 10, 20 pence/cent, and 1 and 2 pound/euro, would have been fine for the coins.
They may produce more types of coin, but using coins that approximate to doubling each value gives an overall less number of coins (on average) to produce any quantity between 1 & 100.
As an exercise, list out all the quantities between 1 & 99 and compute how many American and European coins are needed for each quantity.
Some European countries (e.g. Finland) don't use 1 & 2c coins, but I think this is an awful idea, as now everything has to be rounded up or down when getting change.
Also, the size increase wasn’t linear.
Can't speak for the British ones (although they have to be better than the pre-decimal ones which came in varied odd sizes - all very big), but the euro ones are quite logical in size. *Within each metal type* the value of the coin increases with size. The overall sizes were certainly smaller than what we used to have (less strain on the pocket) too.
Incidentally, which is bigger: the American 5c or 10c :-; ? Tom Wade
