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April 2, 2008 6:55 AM Subscribe

The Royal Mint revealed their newly designed currency today. Looks pretty sharp.

There is a nice gallery of the new coins at the Telegraph and

posted by zeoslap (95 comments total) 20 users marked this as a favorite

Ooh! So design-y!
posted by Pecinpah at 6:59 AM on April 2, 2008

2007 Coin of the Year awards - some beauties. Éljen!
posted by Wolfdog at 7:00 AM on April 2, 2008 [1 favorite]

These are completely cool. I was talking to a friend about these coins and we were agreeing that it was going to be a pub sport to assemble them into the shield - then it turns out that the designer had already thought of that: "I found the idea that members of the public could interact with the coins the most exciting aspect of this concept. It's easy to imagine the coins pushed around a school classroom table or fumbled around with on a bar - being pieced together as a jigsaw and just having fun with them.". That man's clearly on the right wavelength.
posted by patricio at 7:08 AM on April 2, 2008

This is a fantastic idea. Also can you imagine putting it in your graphic design portfolio? Previous works: Designed currency for the United Kingdom.
posted by shakespeherian at 7:10 AM on April 2, 2008 [5 favorites]

Why didn't Adams ever mention that Arthur has a brother?
posted by b1tr0t at 7:16 AM on April 2, 2008

patricio said: "These are completely cool. I was talking to a friend about these coins and we were agreeing that it was going to be a pub sport to assemble them into the shield - then it turns out that the designer had already thought of that: "I found the idea that members of the public could interact with the coins the most exciting aspect of this concept. It's easy to imagine the coins pushed around a school classroom table or fumbled around with on a bar - being pieced together as a jigsaw and just having fun with them.". That man's clearly on the right wavelength."

Seriously. Talk about a knack for user experience.

Cool link, thanks!
posted by pineapple at 7:17 AM on April 2, 2008

Two pence and one penny. W. T. F. ? They look beautiful, but why copper coins? Does that mean it will be another 20 years before they go?
posted by GeckoDundee at 7:19 AM on April 2, 2008

A broken shield? What a terrible omen...
posted by Phanx at 7:23 AM on April 2, 2008 [2 favorites]

Two pence and one penny. W. T. F. ? They look beautiful, but why copper coins?

Actually, they're copper-plated steel. Copper prices are high so it's probably not a good idea to make low-value coins out of them.

Side note: About three months ago, I got stuck on a train on the way to work because somebody overnight had stolen the copper wiring from one of the points.
posted by randomination at 7:30 AM on April 2, 2008

sociofilter - all those different coloured coins coming together to from the National symbol.

Magicfilter - All over the over your conutry, people will be physically invoking the National symbol.

Who, knows, with all this manna flowing, you might prevent the Children of Men/Doomsday futureUK...
posted by djrock3k at 7:33 AM on April 2, 2008 [1 favorite]

Not so much a broken shield rather many unique elements coming together to create something bigger and brighter than the sum of it's parts.
posted by zeoslap at 7:34 AM on April 2, 2008

That Latvian "tail" is a beauty!
posted by JBennett at 7:35 AM on April 2, 2008

Will they update the profile of Elizabeth Regina to make her still jowlier?
posted by Mayor Curley at 7:40 AM on April 2, 2008 [4 favorites]

It's not new, but I love that British coinage uses curves of constant width.

If you roll such a shape between two flat surfaces, they will glide smoothly and stay the same distance apart, even though it's not round. Mindbending.
posted by CaseyB at 7:42 AM on April 2, 2008 [4 favorites]

Looks pretty sharp.

I agree!
posted by Dave Faris at 7:42 AM on April 2, 2008

Meanwhile, the latest batch of Presidential $1 coins features some of the ugliest portraits of these guys ever made.

Plus, who knew Larry from the Three Stooges was actually Martin Van Buren!
posted by briank at 7:52 AM on April 2, 2008

Wait, they're still making the $1 president coins? Are they trying to make some sort of history by making this the world's least successful rollout of a major coin? At least the Sacajaweas made it to Wal-Mart from time to time.
posted by DoctorFedora at 7:56 AM on April 2, 2008

Those $1 coins are awesome in their ugliness. Who did Andrew Jackson offend to end up looking like this? It seems someone has stolen his teeth.
posted by patricio at 8:01 AM on April 2, 2008

That 50 pence coin, with the corner of the coin mirroring the point of the shield, is especially snazzy.
posted by nebulawindphone at 8:14 AM on April 2, 2008

briank: Ack! And I thought ol' Ben looked grumpy on his coin. In that lineup the zombie John Quincy Adams seems to have addled Andy Jackson.
posted by 1f2frfbf at 8:27 AM on April 2, 2008

Those British coins are damn slick, but I now can't stop chortling at the Andrew Jackson US coin. I guess someone in the US Treasury decided to bring wider national exposure to Outsider Art.
posted by Greg Nog at 8:29 AM on April 2, 2008 [4 favorites]

Gorgeous. I'm leaving the UK soon, so I guess I'll have to order a commemorative set.
posted by m0nm0n at 8:46 AM on April 2, 2008

These look very cool. I always have mixed feelings about beautiful currency since parting with it becomes even more traumatic for my Scottish heart.

Fans of British coinage may be interested in reading about the two month long Trial of the Pyx which all UK coinage must undergo before issue.
posted by rongorongo at 8:47 AM on April 2, 2008 [1 favorite]

Those dollar coins look like Founding Fathers' First Lemons.
posted by BeerFilter at 8:55 AM on April 2, 2008

One thing I really miss about London is being able to pay for things with coinage. Bills are inherently frumpy and seem so ... dirty.

Coins can be so beautiful (despite the debacle that made the U.S. State Quarters). I like the Latvian "Tail", previously mentioned, as well as this Finnish Demilitarization coin.
posted by jabberjaw at 9:06 AM on April 2, 2008

rongorongo said: "the two month long Trial of the Pyx which all UK coinage must undergo before issue"

Thanks x 2! That just made a cool FPP even cooler.
posted by pineapple at 9:07 AM on April 2, 2008

Is there a link to the flip side of the Brit coins? Funny how they don't feature that on their site; I wonder why? I imagine it'll be more Elizabeth profiles.
posted by jabberjaw at 9:10 AM on April 2, 2008

From the Telegraph link:

The shield shows the Royal emblems of different parts of the United Kingdom: the three lions of England in the first and fourth quarters, the lion of Scotland in the second and the harp of Ireland in the third.

Wales got shafted...

But these coins are really nice regardless - I look forward to using them.
posted by djgh at 9:20 AM on April 2, 2008

Wikipedia suggests that the obverse will continue to feature the same portrait of Queen Lizzie.
posted by attaboy at 9:24 AM on April 2, 2008

Wow.... going back to the UK to new money is going to be weird.

My foolproof method for detecting US $1 coins:

1) Take bus
2) Place coin in payment slot expecting it to be a quarter
3) Overpay for bus.
4) DOLLAR DETECTED!

Why can't they make it chunky, like a pound or a Euro? Still, they've just cottoned on to teh concept of using colours other than green for their notes.
posted by Artw at 9:25 AM on April 2, 2008

Wow, those are gorgeous. Like Artw, I also wish that the US dollar coins were chunkier and easier to differentiate.
posted by mogget at 9:33 AM on April 2, 2008

Those are great. Man, our money is so ugly.
posted by zzazazz at 9:43 AM on April 2, 2008

I suspect the design of US $1 is a deliberate attempt to make them shit, and retain popular support the foldy bills.
posted by Artw at 9:52 AM on April 2, 2008

Wales got shafted...

They're maintaining tradition.
posted by vbfg at 9:52 AM on April 2, 2008

They could re-use this portrait. (yes, that's a real coin)
posted by East Manitoba Regional Junior Kabaddi Champion '94 at 10:10 AM on April 2, 2008

The coins are very cool, but I just can't get past all the royalist bullshit. The Royal Arms is a "powerful symbol of royal authority". Blech.

The only thing worse than celebrating unelected monarchs on coins is celebrating another countries unelected monarchs on your coins. I'm looking at you Canada and Australia!
posted by space2k at 10:12 AM on April 2, 2008 [2 favorites]

25 years of quid coins... dear god, I can remember buying my first pint with a one pound note (with Isaac Newton on the back), and when all of this was just fields.

going back to the UK to new money is going to be weird.

Will the current exchange rate actually let you have money... I though it was like two penny chews and a bit of fluff to the dollar now?
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 10:14 AM on April 2, 2008

Ah, but what do you replace the royalist bullshit with? Carefully generic architecture? Tony Blair?
posted by Artw at 10:14 AM on April 2, 2008 [1 favorite]

Will the current exchange rate actually let you have money?

Well, that is a fair point.

On the plus side the pittance i get from UK writing gigs actually translates into real money here, so ups and downs.
posted by Artw at 10:17 AM on April 2, 2008

The inverse edge of the 20p is a very nice touch, too.
posted by progosk at 10:24 AM on April 2, 2008

Wow - I'm in the UK but had absolutely no idea the designs were going to change. I had to read it on this US-based blog to find out!
posted by idiomatika at 10:29 AM on April 2, 2008

Coins can be so beautiful (despite the debacle that made the U.S. State Quarters).

Oh please.

Vermont?
Mississippi?
Iowa?
California?
West Virginia?
Nevada?
Colorado?
Montana?
Washington
Arizona?
Alaska?
posted by dw at 10:33 AM on April 2, 2008

Carefully generic architecture?

Fake bridges!
posted by smackfu at 10:34 AM on April 2, 2008 [1 favorite]

Why can't they make it chunky, like a pound or a Euro?

Vending machines. If they're thicker than a quarter, they won't fit in the slot. In fact, most vending machines in this country will still accept old Eisenhower dollars, which are wider than quarters but about as thick.

I'd like to see a dollar with the heft of the pound or Euro in this country. When I had pound coins in my pocket, it felt like I HAD MONEY.
posted by dw at 10:43 AM on April 2, 2008

Your vending machines are made of fail.

On the plus side, I'm guessing pretty much all innovations in vending machines that can take notes* come from the US these days.

* And spit them out again immediately, for the most part.
posted by Artw at 10:46 AM on April 2, 2008

Ah, but what do you replace the royalist bullshit with?
Loons?
posted by space2k at 10:55 AM on April 2, 2008

I think they're horrible pseudo-trendy crap.

Ooh, let's be daring and edgy and crop the lions feet off. That will look really cool for six months, and then we have nineteen and a half years of people saying "English people are so dumb they can't even put the right size lion on their coins".

I reckon it's a plot to soften us up for the Euro.
posted by TheophileEscargot at 11:02 AM on April 2, 2008 [2 favorites]

Coins can be so beautiful (despite the debacle that made the U.S. State Quarters).

I too was hoping for 50 beautiful designs, but Sturgeon's law still applies. We're lucky to have 10 or so nice ones - and they really are nice. Well, the California one is marginal.
posted by yath at 11:08 AM on April 2, 2008

Also, as this chap just pointed out, there are no digits on the coins. (Unless they're ditching the Queen on the other side).

Good luck non-English speakers.
posted by TheophileEscargot at 11:31 AM on April 2, 2008

I too was hoping for 50 beautiful designs, but Sturgeon's law still applies. We're lucky to have 10 or so nice ones - and they really are nice. Well, the California one is marginal.

The problem was having committees and politicos driven by popular opinion polls being the one handling the designs. The later quarters are far better than the early ones because the US Mint finally said, "Just send us ideas and we'll design them; stop telling us how to do the design." Pissed off a lot of people (see the Missouri argument over whether the Gateway Arch -- built in the 1960s -- should be behind Lewis and Clark Expedition moving upriver in a keelboat in 1804), but in the end it allowed the designers to design.

It at least ameliorated the "bunch of symbols" problem -- states send up a proposal that's a random catalog of state symbols to be put on one quarter. Here's the final quarter like that, Oklahoma's. Compare it with Florida's back in 2004. See how much better the execution of Oklahoma's quarter is?

All things considered we got 10-12 good to great designs out of this series, along with 10-12 absolutely terrible ones. I was expecting far worse.
posted by dw at 11:37 AM on April 2, 2008

Heh. This what I'm getting on half the US Mint pages at the moment:

Could not connect to JRun Server.
posted by smackfu at 11:39 AM on April 2, 2008

They should have got these folks to design the 2012 logo.

I really like them. Good effort.
posted by Happy Dave at 11:43 AM on April 2, 2008

The only thing worse than celebrating unelected monarchs on coins is celebrating another countries unelected monarchs on your coins. I'm looking at you Canada and Australia!

As opposed to elected monarchs? Also, the Queen is the monarch of Canada as well, should she be kicked out of the UK we'd be happy for her to live here.
posted by blue_beetle at 12:25 PM on April 2, 2008

These coins look like they'd be really super-easy to counterfeit with their lack of fine detail and everything.

(They're still better than the coinage here in Canada, though: Ask me to tell any quarter-sized metal disc from the fifty billion unique "special edition" legit quarters the Mint puts out every week, and I'd be at a loss. I can't remember the last time I had a caribou in my change.)
posted by Sys Rq at 12:45 PM on April 2, 2008

To be frank, I find the coins rather ugly. You're combining incomplete images inside a circle, which is one of the most complete, encompassing forms known to man. Its jarring and ugly. While its cool they come together to form a shield, the 99.99% of the time the coins will be in use will leave them in their incomplete form. This result looks like the work of some university student's graphic design or art project. Perhaps the poster above who suggested it was an effort to soften everyone up for the Euro is right on the money. Are we sure this isn't a latent April Fool's Day stunt?
posted by Atreides at 1:08 PM on April 2, 2008

I don't like them. Not at all. Does this mean I'm getting old?
posted by triv at 1:24 PM on April 2, 2008

triv - do you find decimalisation "confusing"?
posted by Artw at 1:26 PM on April 2, 2008

These coins look like they'd be really super-easy to counterfeit with their lack of fine detail and everything.

I actually wonder if there are many counterfeiters who do coins. I mean, it's got to be a lot of work for very little actual value. And for me, one of the easiest ways of detecting if I have foreign currency is just to not that it doesn't sound right when my coins jingle. I would think that detecting a fake coin would be just as easy (unless part of the effort to make the fake was to have it sound right, but again, that's a lot of work for little payout.)
posted by quin at 1:27 PM on April 2, 2008

Quin - You need to do a lot of them.
posted by Artw at 1:30 PM on April 2, 2008

Does this mean I'm getting old?

Only if you find them all 'fiddly'
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 2:59 PM on April 2, 2008

The UK coins are creative and attractive, but I can't help but pine preemptively for the current one-pound coins--so delightfully, satisfyingly hefty, like honest-to-goodness real treasure (you'll never forget you've got three pounds in pocket money)!

When we spent two years in the UK earlier this decade, I was continually marvelling at having something like dubloons (sp?) to pay for everything. It was cool. And unlike here in Australia, the sizes made sense - in Australia the $2 coin is SMALLER than the $1 coin. What type of logic is that?

I really like the look of the new UK coins, but it will be interesting to see if they have the same heft.
posted by Megami at 3:21 PM on April 2, 2008

I actually wonder if there are many counterfeiters who do coins.

quin I believe that since banknotes have so many security devices built in (Euro, Aussie Dollar, and new US notes as examples) counterfeiters have taken to coinage- coins are now higher denomination as well.
posted by mattoxic at 3:25 PM on April 2, 2008

They look like there should be chocolate inside.
posted by IndigoJones at 3:45 PM on April 2, 2008 [1 favorite]

The smaller ones look like misstrikes.
posted by IndigoJones at 3:49 PM on April 2, 2008 [1 favorite]

I hadn't really thought about the higher denominations thing, but that makes sense. It seems silly that someone would spend time making the equivalent of a dollar, but as Artw's link points out, people do it.

If I had that kind of talent, I think I'd go for casino chips. Seems like you could get much higher value for less work.
posted by quin at 3:52 PM on April 2, 2008

Ugh. Those Canadian $50 coins in the 2007 award-winners link are so damn gimmicky with the rotated constellation.

But those U.K. coins, wow.
posted by Durn Bronzefist at 4:02 PM on April 2, 2008

A Royal Mint survey in 2006 revealed 1.7% of £1 coins in circulation are counterfeit
posted by Artw at 4:03 PM on April 2, 2008

The hidden beauty of the low-value 2p coin is that it functions as an effective slug in Canadian one dollar vending machines, such as traditional mechanical parking meters which do not test for weight or electromagnetic signature.
posted by Tube at 4:08 PM on April 2, 2008

I hadn't heard about the $1 president coins...
Good god, those are hideous/hilarious!
posted by dan g. at 4:10 PM on April 2, 2008

I agree with what he said. The new currency is balls. It's like the lens blur effect in Photoshop: cool until you realize how stupid it is. The only reason people think this design is cool is because they're used to "normal" coins.

Don't get me wrong... U.S. currency is worse than crap (except the state quarters program, which I'm actually rather fond of). This is what our coins should look like. A singular, simple concept, unmuddled with crap like "state insect" and "state brass instrument."

And the American presidents series of dollar coins are astonishingly atrocious.
posted by Civil_Disobedient at 4:27 PM on April 2, 2008

If I had that kind of talent, I think I'd go for casino chips. Seems like you could get much higher value for less work.

Might be a bit harder to spend, what with the cameras and the security... and I think casino chips have extra security features like black-light writing on them and rfid, certainly more than coins.

I remember when pound coins first came out kids sticking two old 5p together and spraying them gold...
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 4:27 PM on April 2, 2008

Egads! just when you thought American coinage couldn't be any uglier or stupider.
posted by Civil_Disobedient at 4:29 PM on April 2, 2008

American coinage couldn't be any uglier or stupider.

Well, I don’t think it’s an official effort but the 9/11 commemorative coin with pop up twin towers made from genuine WTC gold that I that was advertised on late night TV a while back probably should have the record for ugliest and stupidest US coin.

I wish I could find an image of this thing in it’s full stupiditude…

(The same people are probably sat on a mound of Ron Paul dollars wondering what to do with them now)
posted by Artw at 4:48 PM on April 2, 2008

If I had that kind of talent, I think I'd go for casino chips. Seems like you could get much higher value for less work.

Might be a bit harder to spend, what with the cameras and the security...

Also the threat of knee-capping...
posted by Artw at 4:49 PM on April 2, 2008

Well, I don’t think it’s an official effort but the 9/11 commemorative coin with pop up twin towers made from genuine WTC gold that I that was advertised on late night TV a while back probably should have the record for ugliest and stupidest US coin.

I wish I could find an image of this thing in it’s full stupiditude…

Here you go.
posted by IndigoJones at 5:07 PM on April 2, 2008

Meh. I mean, they're conceptually interesting, but apart from the "user experience" of playing with them to make the whole shield (sort of), they may well fail the "user experience" of instantaneously recognizing a coin. Yes, all the designs are different, technically, but I don't think they're different enough.

As for the US state quarters, some of those are passable. A number of the states chose "offend no one" mish-mash designs of two or three elements, like license plates (e.g. Ohio). With a few exceptions, the designs have the smell of committee involvement. The only one of the 50 that I can really love, that really rose to the challenge of being coin as art, is Connecticut's (it's even better in real life, where you can see the relief).

But yes, even the better US coins adhere to some pretty strict regimentary rules about basic design elements. The new UK coins clearly want to break all those rules, and while they succeed in a narrow artistic sense, I do think they violate too much of the functionality of coins.
posted by dhartung at 5:52 PM on April 2, 2008

From Artw's link: I love that the UK has an organization called the "Serious Organised Crime Agency." Don't joke about the SOCA - they take organized crime seriously.
posted by Dr. Send at 5:54 PM on April 2, 2008

Those of you that think the designs aren't different enough, or that they're breaking some "rules" about coinage, I think you're overestimating the value of pictures on coins. Size, shape and colour are what you notice when you're fumbling for coins, and British coins are already very well designed by that measure. Only the 10p and 2p coins are similar in shape and size, and the colour difference between them is obvious.

The new designs maintain the existing sizes, shapes and colours. And personally I think the way the edge of the shield falls differently on each coin means the illustration provides enough clues as well. I certainly don't look at my pound coin and think "ah yes, the one with the thistle on it". In these days of Special Limited Collector Yearly Theme Editions, the average coin spender can't possibly identify a particular coin with a particular drawing.
posted by attaboy at 6:38 PM on April 2, 2008 [1 favorite]

Those "pictures" have got to be great texture cues as well.
posted by Artw at 7:04 PM on April 2, 2008

I really like them.

That said, I've been living in the US for the past three months and, as much as I like it here, your currency design is shit. No offense intended... :-)

For those of you who don't know, UK coins have a very simple progression:
"copper" small (1p)
"copper" large (2p)
silver small (5p)
silver large (10p)
funny-shape small (20p)
funny-shape large (50p)
heavyweight gold (£1)
heavyweight bimetallic (£2)

You don't tend to look at the figures once you're used to them, you can literally identify them by touch.
posted by Nice Guy Mike at 7:19 PM on April 2, 2008 [2 favorites]

From the page http://www.numismaster.com/ta/numis/Article.jsp?ad=article&ArticleId=3432, when did Japan get a 1000 yen coin? Or is just a special commemorative one?
posted by awfurby at 11:41 PM on April 2, 2008

An annoying habit I've had since childhood is to arrange the coins in my pocket into size (value) order whilst they're in my pocket. They're that distinctive.

"Complete the sequence: 5,1,20,100,10,2...." is a great way to flumux your mathematically inclined friends also.
posted by rongorongo at 1:44 AM on April 3, 2008 [1 favorite]

We now have no coin featuring the figure of Britannia, for the first time in centuries.
posted by No Mutant Enemy at 5:06 AM on April 3, 2008

The British notes are different sizes and colours too... so it's real easy to yell them apart at a glance. Not my experience with dollars. No wonder Ray Charles used to insist on being paid in ones...
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 5:38 AM on April 3, 2008

Guide to identifying British coins:

1: Is it thick? (y/n) If yes, go to 2. If no go to 3.
2: Is it large and bimetallic? If yes, £2. If no, £1 (brassy).
3: Is it heptagonal or circular? If heptagonal go to 4. If circular go to 5.
4: Is it big? If yes, 50p. If no, 20p. (both silvery)
5: Is it big? If yes, go to 6, if no go to 7.
6: Is it silvery with a milled and rounded edge or coppery with a solid edge? If silvery, 10p, if coppery 2p.
6: Is it silvery with a milled and rounded edge or coppery with a solid edge? If silvery, 5p, if coppery 1p.

Just about any British coin is identifiable in a split second either at a glance or by touch. Who cares about the design for identifying it? As others have also pointed out, the base design of the coin does that for us, so we don't need many rules about what can go on the face for identification.

The only thing that looking at the design checks is that one of the odd pieces of foreign change that is about the right size/weight isn't being used. (And even then it's normally been confused for a 5p).
posted by Francis at 5:55 AM on April 3, 2008

1: Is it thick? (y/n) If yes, go to 2. If no go to 3.
2: Is it large and bimetallic? If yes, £2. If no, £1 (brassy).
3: Is it heptagonal or circular? If heptagonal go to 4. If circular go to 5.
4: Is it big? If yes, 50p. If no, 20p. (both silvery)
5: Is it big? If yes, go to 6, if no go to 7.
6: Is it silvery with a milled and rounded edge or coppery with a solid edge? If silvery, 10p, if coppery 2p.
6: Is it silvery with a milled and rounded edge or coppery with a solid edge? If silvery, 5p, if coppery 1p.

I have a sudden urge to write a program in BASIC.
posted by garius at 6:53 AM on April 3, 2008

Ooh! So design-y!

And how. Which is why they'll look dated in three years and cringe-worthy in five.

Sometime after that we should be in the Euro and we won't have to worry about having a bunch of Germans or their heraldry on our currency. And about time too.
posted by dmt at 7:34 AM on April 3, 2008 [1 favorite]

UK coins have a very simple progression [...] You don't tend to look at the figures once you're used to them, you can literally identify them by touch.

North American coins don't much of a logical progression, but they can still be easily identified by touch "once you're used to them." Riddle me this, though: Without numerals as a guide, how does someone who can't read the English language get "used to" these British coins?
posted by Sys Rq at 1:06 PM on April 3, 2008

Um, unless I'm mistaken american coins all say weird things like "One dime" on them? Not a numeral in sight.
posted by Artw at 1:48 PM on April 3, 2008

Hey, you're right! In that case, ~~North American~~ Canadian.
posted by Sys Rq at 2:11 PM on April 3, 2008

U.S. coins have a sensible progression:

Coins with ridges are worth more than coins without.
Larger coins are more valuable than smaller coins.

Coins with ridges on the edge were historically made of silver. That's why dimes are more valuable than nickels.

0. Sort by gender. [post office only]
posted by ryanrs at 5:00 PM on April 3, 2008

At the risk of falling under "internets = japan rules lol", I would like to point out that at least the Japanese 50, 100, and 500 yen coins are pretty nice for the fact that the number is the primary design element. It's also nice having them readily identifiable by touch from types of metal (¥1 = aluminum, ¥5 is copper, ¥10-100 are silver, and ¥500 is gold) and presence of a hole (¥5 and ¥50 have a hole; ¥500 doesn't but it's the biggest by far anyway).

Apparently the reason for the ¥500 coin redesign a few years back was, in fact, counterfeiting, as it's the world's highest-value common-circulation coin. I'd never seen anti-counterfeiting measures on coinage before.

Also, it's worth noting that one curious side effect of growing up with American money is that ~~everyone else's seems awesome by comparison~~ there's this unflappable notion in the back of everyone's head that coins have inherently no value, and that the only purpose they serve is to keep a two-dollar purchase from being a three-dollar purchase.
posted by DoctorFedora at 3:30 PM on April 9, 2008

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