On Fri, 28 Jun 2019 at 18:57, Fred Cisin via cctalk <cctalk@classiccmp.org> wrote: > > Oh, FAR FAR FAR less than 5%.
*Chuckle* > 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) Oh! Well, I thought I'd never seen one in my 3 visits to the USA. > 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. Oh heavens no. Coinage almost never makes that kind of sense. Nor banknotes. When I was a child I was shown an old British £5 note. As in, from my parents' childhood. Not kept as a souvenir but lost somewhere as it was a very significant amount of money. It was _vast_ to my child's eyes. It looked approximately the size of a pillowcase or something. It looked like linen, not money. More like a joke teatowel printed with a spare, fancy currency-like design I'd never seen. It was scored with deep lines as you had to fold them into eighths or something to put them into your wallet. Even as a kid this briefly excited me with the notion that pre-WW2 banknotes scaled for area by value, and I had visions of buying furniture or something with £20 notes the size of bedsheets, or £50 notes that needed to be unrolled outdoors like a carpet for inspection... Of course it wasn't *really...* Sadly... > "50 pence coin" would be CLOSE ENOUGH. Aha! > 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. :-D > "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". This I had never heard of. Thanks. > 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. Czech coinage does something unique in my experience. The _small_ denominations are silver. The larger ones are copper/brass/whatever. This is the reverse of I think every other country I've ever visited. > 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. It's the biggest I've seen, which is in part why a half-dollar threw me. -- Liam Proven - Profile: https://about.me/liamproven Email: lpro...@cix.co.uk - Google Mail/Hangouts/Plus: lpro...@gmail.com Twitter/Facebook/Flickr: lproven - Skype/LinkedIn: liamproven UK: +44 7939-087884 - ČR (+ WhatsApp/Telegram/Signal): +420 702 829 053
