![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
I spent most of yesterday playing tour guide in DC. My brother and his wife brought her sister, who is visiting from China, down from their home outside Baltimore to show her some of the sights in our nation's capital city. I enjoy showing people around the area, in part because I like this city and its history, but also because I find it interesting to watch other people react to things that I've come to take for granted. Visitors bring fresh perspectives, especially when they come from other countries and cultures that can challenge my beliefs and force me to reconsider what I think about places, people and events.
Yesterday's "ah-hah" moment came in a gift shop. My sister-in-law and her sister (both from China) were trying to purchase some postcards, and were struggling to count out the proper change. After leaving the store, they complained about the design of the U.S. coins, which makes it hard for those not familiar with them to tell their value. The sizes don't help, since the dime (10 cents) is smaller than the nickel (5 cents), and *none* of the coins includes a prominent number showing its value.
As we talked about it, I realized that in my various international travels, I don't recall encountering non-U.S. coins that *don't* have a large, prominent number on at least one side, showing the value. When I examine the U.S. coins I have in my possession, none of them have *any* number showing the value. Instead, they use text ("ONE CENT", "FIVE CENTS", "ONE DIME", "QUARTER DOLLAR") rather than numbers to denote the value. The text on the nickel is very small, and the "ONE DIME" doesn't clearly define the value if you don't know what a dime is supposed to be. You need to be able to read at least a little bit of English for this text to convey *any* meaning at all.
I've heard similar complaints about our paper currency as well, because all our paper currency is the same size and substantially the same color, so that visitors who are used to using size and/or color as clues to discriminate the value of their currency find U.S. paper currency difficult to use. The most recent designs of many of these bills has significantly increased the size of the number on most denominations, but I can't help wonder how much this helps.
Having visited a number of other countries and used the local currency there, I must say that I don't recall having any issues discriminating the relative values of their coins or paper currency. To the best of my recall, the coins were all clearly marked with numbers showing their value, so there was never a problem of looking at a handful of change, trying to figure out what the value was. Even the Canadian coins, which are very similar to the U.S. Coins in size and color, have numeric value markings.
It's interesting that I never noticed this difference before now. I learned the values of the U.S. coins as a child and I'm so used to them that I clearly just took them for granted. It was quite eye-opening to find out how difficult they can be for a visitor to use. I'll try to keep that in mind the next time I see a tourist struggling to count change...
Yesterday's "ah-hah" moment came in a gift shop. My sister-in-law and her sister (both from China) were trying to purchase some postcards, and were struggling to count out the proper change. After leaving the store, they complained about the design of the U.S. coins, which makes it hard for those not familiar with them to tell their value. The sizes don't help, since the dime (10 cents) is smaller than the nickel (5 cents), and *none* of the coins includes a prominent number showing its value.
As we talked about it, I realized that in my various international travels, I don't recall encountering non-U.S. coins that *don't* have a large, prominent number on at least one side, showing the value. When I examine the U.S. coins I have in my possession, none of them have *any* number showing the value. Instead, they use text ("ONE CENT", "FIVE CENTS", "ONE DIME", "QUARTER DOLLAR") rather than numbers to denote the value. The text on the nickel is very small, and the "ONE DIME" doesn't clearly define the value if you don't know what a dime is supposed to be. You need to be able to read at least a little bit of English for this text to convey *any* meaning at all.
I've heard similar complaints about our paper currency as well, because all our paper currency is the same size and substantially the same color, so that visitors who are used to using size and/or color as clues to discriminate the value of their currency find U.S. paper currency difficult to use. The most recent designs of many of these bills has significantly increased the size of the number on most denominations, but I can't help wonder how much this helps.
Having visited a number of other countries and used the local currency there, I must say that I don't recall having any issues discriminating the relative values of their coins or paper currency. To the best of my recall, the coins were all clearly marked with numbers showing their value, so there was never a problem of looking at a handful of change, trying to figure out what the value was. Even the Canadian coins, which are very similar to the U.S. Coins in size and color, have numeric value markings.
It's interesting that I never noticed this difference before now. I learned the values of the U.S. coins as a child and I'm so used to them that I clearly just took them for granted. It was quite eye-opening to find out how difficult they can be for a visitor to use. I'll try to keep that in mind the next time I see a tourist struggling to count change...
