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June 23, 2003

Principia Numismatica

One of the things I can't get used to here in the United States is their money. Sure, it's one of the most powerful currencies in the world, universally recognized and, uh, green, but there are things about that annoy me. All too often I've glanced into my wallet, seen a wad of bills, thought to myself Well, I certainly have enough cash to pay for dinner, then realized I had 9 ones and had to wash dishes to pay off the rest of the bill.

(That's a lie, I haven't ever had to do that. Plus American's don't call it "The Bill", but inexplicably prefer to call it "The Check", complete with a hand gesture of writing a giant check mark onto one's palm. Do you think anyone here would find it funny to pay the check by cheque? But I digress...)

But there is hope. The US Mint recently announced that they will be colourising their bills, starting with the twenty. Although the new design won't make the bills as easily identifiable as Canada's "Monopoly Money", the mint hopes it will curb counterfeiting.

In 2000 the US Mint started issuing Sacagawea, or Golden Dollars, which are the same size and colour as Canada's Loonie. Being a big fan of the Loonie, I thought this was great, except that after living here for 6 months, I have only seen one such coin. I guess Americans are too attached to the Greenback, or maybe prefer lighter pockets.

I want to go to a bank, get about a hundred of these coins and try using them everywhere. I wonder how many places will refuse to take them. I guess if I really wanted to freak people out, I could use the even rarer American two dollar bill (accepted in almost as many places as the 200 dollar George W. Bush bill).

00:00 | Stuff

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