h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I was reading an article written by a blind guy, about identifying the banknotes and coins in his wallet. You can get various devices and gauges to ID notes by their size, but with coins, the obvious way is just to feel their shape and size.

The point he made was that a £1 sterling coin and a two-pence piece are virtually indistinguishable by feel. This surprised me, as I thought the £1 is smaller, thicker and chunkier than most other sterling coins.

Can you identify them by touch? Let's do an experiment. Dig around in your purse or your pocket, and see how successful you are.

Ok, here's my attempt. I'll do five coins.

1. Small, light. It's either a penny or a 5p. No ridges round the edge (unless they've worn smooth) so I'll say penny. Correct!

2. Ah, easy. Small and angular - 20p. Correct.

3. *big* and angular - so it's 50p.

(I'm hoping I have a pound and a tuppeny bit in my pocket or this experiment won't go anywhere fast..,)

4. Ridges on the side, biggish...10p? Yep.

5. Another 10p

6. A third 10 pence. No! I was wrong - that's a tuppenny bit!

7. Ah, that one is thick and chunky, it must be teh pound. Correct!

So, one wrong - and the 2p was indeed the confusing one.

One thing I did notice is that it's MUCH harder if you have more than one coin in your hand at once - which you normally would, if you're paying for something at a till.

I'm about 99% accurate... only time I make mistakes is when in a rush, at a till, and confusing say a penny with a twenty especially if I've got cold hands... I am cheating though, as I've been telling them aparts, by touch for err, about twenty years or so

Can you identify coins by touch?

Yes. Our coins are different from yours.
Pennies are small, smooth edges.
Dimes are small, ridges edges
Nickels are large, smooth edges,
Quarters are large, ridged edges.

Our pennies our basically the same as yours. Our 5p coins are like dimes. Dimes, and five-pence pieces, are a very annoying size of coin. Too fidgety. As far as US coinage goes, if I had any confusion it would probably be between nickels and quarters.

Our Euro coins are all very easy to identify by touch - they were designed that way.

I find them quite hard, but I think that's just a question of not using them so much as I use the sterling coins.

"As far as US coinage goes, if I had any confusion it would probably be between nickels and quarters."

The item with ridges has more value
5 cents = nickel < quarter = 25 cents
1 cent = penny < dime = 10 cents

I didn't come across many nickels. Not as many as I did of all the other coins, anyway.

Feel free to try the experiment, too, by the way - whatever your currency is - because that's what I was hoping we could try here.

Coins are obviously designed so that you can feel the difference between them, but have you ever tried it with coins that have been well-used?

ok so I'm done here so < unsub >

Canada has abandoned the penny.
They were costing about two cents each to manufacture.
So now everything is rounded up or down to the nearest 5 cents.

~jwf~

PS:
We have $1 and $2 coins, the smallest bill is $5 and all our bills
are now plastic, thinner than paper and they all stick together.

Its bad enough with paper notes, sticking togehter, when they're new, and, say just out of a cash machine

Can anyone else, asides me, tell the coin value, when hearing it drop to the floor? I can't get it every time, but I think I get it right more often than by chance alone UK paper notes were being talked about to change to plastic too, I seem to recall...

Thanks for telling me about coins Happy Nerd.

I was interested in the views of our blind researchers, and also in the views of sighted coin users like I, who had not actually thought about it.

The one coin I do often 'double t take', on, is the £2 coin... I think probably because its one of the newer coins, and there often haven't been many about, and passing through my wallet... and sometimes I'll feel it, and have to actually 'feel' it more purposefully to ensure it is what I think it is Most of the others I just know soon as my finger grabs them, as it were

I did want people to actually do the experiment rather than tell me that coins are designed to be usable. It is an experiment which works with international coinage. Euro, dollar, yen - whatever.

I blush to admit that I can mistake a nickel for a quarter even when I can see it. I need all the help I can get, frankly.

We get a few British tenpence coins circulating as quarters here.

~jwf~

I still haven't got used to the new Euro coins. I often give up in despair and leave it to the cashier to check I've counted right. I am always confusing the smaller ones - and I can see the numbers on them. The bigger ones certainly are distinguishable sizes, though.

I tipped my purse out, no looking and managed to correctly identify my coins, a ring and a hairgrip. A bit later though I am going to go through a pile of coins and see if I can get the exact total right.

How do people deal with notes? I'm sure I wouldn't cope unless I had the benefit of comparsion

Notes are tricky to tell apart, just by size (UK notes)... easy though if one has two, at the same time, and can spot the differnce in size between them... I just tend to keep my wallet organised, so I know what I@m taking out (back note compartment contains £20 notes, front note compartment contains £10 (towards the back of it), and £5 notes, towards the front... Haven't seen a £50 note in decades, and I'd not ever get a £50 out of the bank, as soem shops are resistant to taking them if I recall correctly).

I do know of people who tell the notes by the size (height rather than length), by placing the note between two of their fingers; and knowing which note comes to where, for their given finger length etc... but... that just always seemed far too much hastle and slow, so keeping them organised, and in the right order/place in the wallet works best....

Is it the American notes, which are all the same size, irrelivent of demonination or did I remember that wong

I just took the test, and identified all the British coins, but it does take a few seconds each, and a fair amount of concentration.

One thing I noticed is that copper coins smell much stronger than silver.