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

I think you can pay electronically, but the consequences could be disastrous.
"Two hundred and thirty vodkas and cokes? That's £138 please"
"Jusht put in on the Shwitsh..."
It would be pretty cool though, although possibly slower (you'd have to wait for the bloke at the bar to come back and get you to sign the Switch receipt), which is a major factor in a lot of circumstances.

Yeah, the smallest coin in Sweden is a half-krona (or 50 öre) and the ridiculous prices (my local shop sells practically everything for 9.98SKr, they don't believe in x.99-prices) are rounded to the nearest one. 1.24 rounds down, 1.25 up.

In Finland the smallest coin is worth 10 pennies and it's prohibited to advertise anything that has to be rounded up or down. So, instead of 9.99FIM, the price is 9.90FIM...

In both countries, many shopkeepers write their ads in a way, that krona/mark-part is written in BIG numbers, and the öre/penny-part in very small, roundish numbers, thus making a 9.9x-price looking like 9 instead of the 10 it actually is.

I've just been reading through. This is a very interesting conversation.

As for nicknames for coins - When the Canadian $2. coin design was announced ( polar bears on the tails side) the dollar was worth about $0.60 American and the pundits were calling it "bearly a buck".

I agree that the change can be annoying, but it adds up quickly. If you throw all your pocket change in a bucket at the end of the day, by the end of one month you can have up to $75.00 to play with.

The problem with small change is that very few actually use them. I remember reading somewhere that in Finland, there are millions (in FIM) since people don't use their small change.

And then, of course, there ARE people, who collect all their change in some pot and one day walk to the store and insist on paying with them. Preferably during the rush-hours. Trust me, I've been working as a cashier the last 10 years...

In Britain, shop-keepers can refuse to accept the payment if it is more than 25p and all in coppers, or more than £5 (I think) and all in silver. £1 coins do not count as 'silver' for these purposes. (Somebody please correct me if the silver amount is wrong!) Mind you, there's not much you can buy for 25p these days.

Cashiers here can refuse the payment if it is over a certain amount in coin as well if it isn't rolled. I can't remember how much it is.

I was reading a story in a magazine about a NASCAR driver who had recieved a fine by the officials for something or other. He didn't feel the fine (in the thousands of dollars) was warranted so he arranged to pay it in coins. An armored car brought the payment to the head of Winston Cup officials, Bill France. Bill thought it was rather amusing while the reporters were there, but as soon as they left he told said driver to write a cheque or he would double the fine.

This is what happens, when you try writing in the middle of the night... I meant to say that in Finland millions (in FIM) are missing... oh, well, on with the show.

We don't have any certain amount that we can refuse. If there are 50 people waiting in line, we can ask whether the customer has "something bigger" (notes or credit card) and if not, we have this counter-machine (it prints out a receipt) in the back office in where we have to run as fast as possible so we don't have to listen to the rest of the customers nagging. Luckily, very few people insist on paying that way.

Well I have hardly heard anything about U.S. shops in here so I thought I would say something. In the U.S. we do have a lot of prices ending in 99. Like buy this for 1.99
However fast food places, that can afford to lower prices are sometimes at things like 1.35

It gets more complicated though, because of different sales tax in different tax. In Maine, there is no sales tax, which can affect the way things are priced. I liked what someone said earlier about making it harder to figure out how much you are spending. That sounds like the sorta odd strategies you might hear about.
For instance, supposedly las vegas casino's pump in oxygen into the casino so that the people inside can stay awake for longer.