Dear Mike,
I was one of the 'confused' when I first saw a dime in the USA. I
found it highly confusing that the coin was minted without a numeral
to indicate its vale. At that time I was unaware that the dime had
been named after the book title, Disme: The Art of Tenths, Or Decimall
Arithmetike by Simon Stevin (1585) as translated into English by
Robert Norton in 1608.
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]
or to get the free 'Metrication matters' newsletter go to: http://www.metricationmatters.com/newsletter
to subscribe.
On 2010/04/17, at 10:20 , Michael Payne wrote:
I remember many years ago a foreign friend of mine newly arrived in
the US asked what a dime was worth when buying a snack and trying to
find the correct change. The person he was paying asked "where you
from boy" as he was amazed that someone did not know.
It certainly must confuse every tourist in the US until they find out.
Mike Payne
----- Original Message -----
From: Andrew Winn
To: U.S. Metric Association
Cc: U.S. Metric Association
Sent: Thursday, 15 April 2010 20:30
Subject: [USMA:47137] RE: Decimal currency & Metrication
I have to agree about the $1 bill. But of course this isn't the only
problem with the US dollar. Our coins are illogical. The coins say
things like "one penny", "one dime", and "quarter dollar" instead of
their actual value of 1¢, 5¢, 10¢, and 25¢. The sizes of the coins
also don't increase with value. The 10¢ coin is the smallest and
the $1 coin is smaller than the 50¢ coin. If you didn't grow up
with this currency it would be very difficult to understand.
Also some of the coins and bills that are supposed to be in general
circulation are not. For example, $2 bills are so rare that some
people do not even know they exist. Many ATMs only give out $20
bills so it is rare to see a $50 bill or a $100 bill. And I've
never seen the 50¢ coin and the $1 coin given as change.
Furthermore, why has it taken so long for them to redesign the
bills? They started the current design with the release of the new
$20 bill in 2003 and they won't release the new $100 bill until next
week, seven years later. But, they won't redesign the $1 or $2
bills. This just makes no sense to me. Unless they're going to
remove the $1 bill and $2 bill from circulation, why wouldn't they
redesign these bills?
- Andrew Winn
On Thu, Apr 15, 2010 at 12:07 PM, <[email protected]> wrote:
The US coins and the corresponding Canadian coins (through the
loonie) are pretty much the same size. The US has no equivalent to
the Canadian $2 coin (the 'toonie').
It is an incredible and unfortunate waste that the unnecessary $1
bill is still in production, but the same mentality that hinders
metrication also keeps that bill in production.
Carleton
----- Original Message -----
From: "John M. Steele" <[email protected]>
To: "U.S. Metric Association" <[email protected]>
Sent: Thursday, April 15, 2010 6:32:05 AM GMT -05:00 US/Canada Eastern
Subject: [USMA:47129] RE: Decimal currency & Metrication
The dime (10¢ piece) is the smallest US coin. Back when we used
real silver, it was the smallest silver coin, the quarter, half
dollar, and dollar coins being larger (presumably in proportion to
weight?). The penny and nickel (5¢) were always base metals. Now,
they all are. The modern dollar coin is considerably smaller than
than the silver dollar was, about the size of a quarter, but
distinctive color and edging.
The link gives info on US coin dimensions and weights. Note the
utility of the penny and nickel as cheap small balance weights.
http://www.usmint.gov/about_the_mint/?flash=yes&action=coin_specifications
Fivel nickels and a penny roughly approximate what can be mailed at
the 1 oz rate, but won't buy a stamp (44¢).
. . . .
On 2010/04/15, at 02:30 , Tom Wade wrote:
Incidentally, which is bigger: the American 5c or 10c :-; ?
Tom Wade
