On 2010/04/15, at 02:30 , Tom Wade wrote:
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.
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
Dear Tom and All,
The first decimal currency for the USA was developed and promoted by
Thomas Jefferson who then had to gain the support of George Washington
to get it through the Congress. The decimal idea was familiar to both
Jefferson and Washington as they were both surveyors in their early
lives so they knew the ease of calculations when they used Gunter's
chain – with 100 links per chain length – for land measurement. Later,
they were practically supported by Benjamin Franklin who designed,
engraved, and made the first coins on behalf of the government. See http://metricationmatters.com/docs/USAMetricSystemHistory.pdf
for a few details of this history.
It is an interesting thought that to get the radical new decimal
currency idea through the congress a compromise had to be made to
supporters of the halves, quarters, eighths, and sixteenths money
divisions. The net result is that the USA still has a dollar that is
not only decimally divided but also divided by half-dollars and
quarter-dollars. I have no evidence for this – it is only my conjecture.
I am reasonably sure that Thomas Jefferson developed his initial ideas
for a decimal currency based on Simon Stevin's 1585 book with the
title (translated into the English of 1608) of 'Disme: The Art of
Tenths, or Decimall Arithmetike'. My suspicion is that the name of the
ten cent coin in the USA, dime, is derived from the title of Simon
Stevin's book. I have investigated details of Thomas Jefferson's
library at his home, Monticello, and in the Library of Congress and I
know that he owned a copy of Stevins' book.
Following the success of the decimal currency in the USA almost all
other nations have now followed their example.
Cheers,
Pat Naughtin
Author of the ebook, Metrication Leaders Guide, that you can obtain
from http://metricationmatters.com/MetricationLeadersGuideInfo.html
PO Box 305 Belmont 3216,
Geelong, Australia
Phone: 61 3 5241 2008
Metric system consultant, writer, and speaker, Pat Naughtin, has
helped thousands of people and hundreds of companies upgrade to the
modern metric system smoothly, quickly, and so economically that they
now save thousands each year when buying, processing, or selling for
their businesses. Pat provides services and resources for many
different trades, crafts, and professions for commercial, industrial
and government metrication leaders in Asia, Europe, and in the USA.
Pat's clients include the Australian Government, Google, NASA, NIST,
and the metric associations of Canada, the UK, and the USA. See http://www.metricationmatters.com
for more metrication information, contact Pat at [email protected]
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