Of Moolah

What I admire about British money is its use of color. For us boring Americans, our money comes in that boring shade of green. While for Brits (and from what I remember, Canadians as well) their pound "notes" come in delightful shades of pastels, such as pink and blue (on the same note).

See how pretty they are?

What I have not yet gotten used to here is payment by coins, especially in America, paying in coins carry a connotation of poverty (not to mention it makes for a very clunky wallet). But here, there seems to be more coins in circulation than notes (I have not seen a one or two pound note yet - I still feel compelled to call them dollar bills), which made the first couple of days fun (for me, not for the cashier or the people behind me) trying to figure out which coins were which. More often than not, I had to squint my eyes at the back of the coin to find the amount. I now finally understand why British ladies in Charles Dicken's novels always carried around coin purses; they needed a separate pouch for their loose change since people here like coins a lot more than bills ("notes"). The British denomination is broken down as followed:

pence = cents
notes = dollars

1 pence
2 pence
5 pence
10 pence
20 pence
50 pence
1 pound
2 pound

100 pences = 1 pound

See the disparity between size and value?

The penny is not the most useless coin. Instead, the 2 pence trumps it in uselessness. It's huge and yet, it's worth practically nothing!

I miss nice, skinny, monochromatic, uncomplicated American dollar bills that fits nice and snug in your wallet.

Britishisms:

• Another name for the pound: "quid"
• Price of a pint of beer: "two and a half quids"