One of my best friends from my year abroad in London has been spending the last week with me here in the Bay Area. While we have come to a mutual understanding about the differences between our foods, spelling, and even our vastly different pronunciations of words (b-A-sil vs BAH-zil, Huh-erb vs ER-b), her trip to America has proven to be more difficult with all the cultural barriers.
Earlier this afternoon while I was at work Kayleigh (said English friend) texted me something that I found very unusual:
How much is a dime worth?
As I sat there in my cubical thinking why ten cents of course!, I realized that the United States of America has the most selfish money in the world. Why would Kayleigh need to ask me how much a dime was? It's because there are NO numbers on the coins--front or back.
Here are a 10p coin and a dime next to each other to compare. What does this say about our cultures? Are Americans more obsessed with being an exclusive society with our coins and money? Do we gain anything from leaving off the number?
All I know is that I really appreciated the numbers on the British and European coins when I was travelling so I didn't look like an idiot at a store. That's my two cents (sorry) on the matter.
