Received in change

[<k>]

I received this type of quarter in my change today at my local South London cafe. I thought it was a ten pence coin, but only realised what it was when I got home.

[Prosit]

I think it is one of the better designed State Quarters.  Many are not so good looking.
I wouldn't have expected to see it in change in London.
Dale

I received this type of quarter in my change today at my local South London cafe. I thought it was a ten pence coin, but only realised what it was when I got home.

[<k>]

First time I had a US coin in change here. The design is OK, but I still think coins in contra-alignment look primitive - like the French and Latin countries used to use - some still do.

[andyg]

Many years ago an angry woman came into the shop where I used to work, complaining that her son had been given in change an American 1999 Delaware quarter (when they were new).  I still have it

I've never seen another US coin in change.

[FosseWay]

I have received a quarter in change for 5p (this was before 1990) but it was an unexceptional example of a date I already had. 

The weirdest coin I've received in change masquerading as current UK money must be the 1927 Palestine 1 mil I had instead of a penny, from the village shop in Brimscombe, Gloucestershire (i.e. the back of beyond). Granted, the two coins are the same size, shape, colour and weight (to judge by looking at them side by side, at any rate), but it does strike me as strange that a coin so distant in space and time from the UK in the 21st century should have found its way into circulation here.

[Enlil]

I have half the collection and all because of change, they are the same size as the 10 cents Australian, and many people come and go from the U.S.A.

[Prosit]

Interesting that some people get mad if they get a foreign coin in change.  I am pretty happy when that happens to me

Dale

[FosseWay]

Interesting that some people get mad if they get a foreign coin in change.  I am pretty happy when that happens to me

Yes, me too. Especially since the most frequent foreign coins you get in the UK are £p coins from overseas territories, or old pre-euro Irish coppers, all of which are readily re-spendable if you don't want to keep them.

[Ukrainii Pyat]

The other day I got a South Africa cent from 1989 in change.  I thought it was cool because I had no idea that SA was still minting and circulating cent coins that late in the game, and still in bronze no less.  I thought inflation had rendered them obsolete, but since then it probably has.  When in the USA, I commonly get Canadian coins in change, but also Bahamas, Caymans, Bermuda, Panama.  Lately I have been picking up Caymans 25c coins at my bank on a regular basis - rejects from their coin deposit machines.

[FosseWay]

I have South African 1c and 2c coins up to 2001, so they were current at least until then. However, during the 1990s they were reduced in size, so are no longer confusible with US cents.

[chrisild]

Interesting that some people get mad if they get a foreign coin in change.  I am pretty happy when that happens to me

Now we may all be biased when it comes to getting the "wrong" coins in change. But imagine somebody who does not collect coins, has a very tight budget, and gets a 10 baht piece instead of a €2 coin for example ...

Christian

[FosseWay]

Now we may all be biased when it comes to getting the "wrong" coins in change. But imagine somebody who does not collect coins, has a very tight budget, and gets a 10 baht piece instead of a €2 coin for example ...

In that case, they should pay more attention to their change and challenge the shopkeeper etc. that gives it to them. At least it's crystal clear that the coin is wrong, unlike with many of the higher quality forged £1s in circulation here. I've never challenged a £1 I've received in change, as I'm far from sure I'd be able to convince the merchant that it is indeed fake, leading to an embarrassing wrangle at the till. (I probably would with the skanky lead ones you used to see, but these don't surface very often these days. And with the good ones, if they're good enough for me not to risk raising it with the person giving to me, they're good enough to pass on. Heck, some of them even work in parking meters.)

[Ukrainii Pyat]

One of my banks branches takes in a lot of loose change from commercial depositors, ie stores etc.  I get the remains gratis because I have made friends in important places in that branch.  As a result I get a lot of quarter sized coins, ie Indian rupee, Venezuela 1 bolivar, Cayman Island 25cents, but one of the oddest finds a few months ago was a 1935 German 5pfg coin.  My best find so far from their rejects is a 1936 Canada 25c coin, a .800 fine silver coin.  But the bulk of the coins being found are coming in from Kuwait, Afghanistan and Euro denominated coins - ie these must be coming back with servicemen and being spent.

[Figleaf]

In that case, they should pay more attention to their change and challenge the shopkeeper etc. that gives it to them.

This is the point where our commemoratives come into the picture. It has become impossible for non-collectors to know all the types officially in circulation. Many people have just given up on knowing. Pound and 2 euro pieces are in danger of becoming dysfunctional. All it takes is some railroad or bus transport bozo deciding that they won't accept these coins any more at ticket windows because it takes too much time to identify them. Large shop chains will happily follow, which will give the green light to small shopkeepers. It can happen tomorrow...

Peter

[FosseWay]

I can kind of see what you're saying with reference to UK coinage, as the presence of the Queen's head does not mean the coin is British -- it may be Australian, Canadian etc. But the euro has the huge advantage of having a common side that's the same regardless of the issuing country or whether the piece is a commemorative. Those not interested in the coins can safely ignore the country-specific side, so there can be as many permutations as you like.

But even in the British case, the only coins that can reasonably be confused with standard legal tender are those of precisely the same specifications and face value issued by the £-using Crown dependencies. My way round that would be to make them legal tender in the UK, just as UK coins are legal tender in the dependencies (or at least they are in the Channel Islands; I presume the same applies in the IOM, Gibraltar, Falklands and St Helena). And ultimately, because the coins are substantially identical, they can be used fairly easily here.

I would argue that it's perfectly possible for someone of average intelligence but no numismatic knowledge or interest to differentiate between UK coinage and foreign impostors. The combination of familiar size, shape and colour, denomination in £p, and the presence of the Queen's head really does narrow it down pretty easily to UK and dependency coinage, regardless of the reverse commemorative design, and excludes Canadian etc. pieces. If such people choose not to pay attention at the point they're given a coin, that's their problem!

Apropos of receiving weird stuff in change -- When I was in (West) Germany in 1989 just after the fall of the Wall, I received in change a 5-mark coin from the 1930s with Hindenburg on one side and a swastika on the other. I can only presume that visitors from the DDR had dug up whatever currency they felt they could pass on their no doubt very expensive first trip to the west, thus allowing all manner of oddities to enter circulation. Of course, I was in the money, as the silver value alone was more than 5DM, and the coin was in EF.