I want what you're hiding, hiding out of frame

[sovay]

Today's moment of public service: explaining American dollar coins to a pair of confused young Canadians in Davis Station. Their fare vending machine had cashed out their change in a mix of Susan B. Anthonys and Sacagaweas. I was able to reassure them that the coins were real legal tender, after which they were fascinated. "You have dollar coins?" I felt useful.

I love the closing image of this interview of Jan Morris whistling "Oh, How I Hate to Get Up in the Morning." I learned that song from my grandparents. I never heard a recorded version until 2005.

Co-signed by Autolycus and Hestia: "Black cat bring good luck."

Comments

[sovay]

We have $1 and $2 coins here in Australia, too...

I didn't know that! The U.S. has never had a two-dollar coin, although we have two-dollar bills (legal tender, although often treated as quirks or talismans) and we had a three-dollar coin for a while in the middle of the nineteenth century.

[lilysea]

We used to have $1 and $2 bills, but with inflation and

vending machines
train ticket machines
parking machines

coins were deemed more practical...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Australian_two-dollar_note

[tree_and_leaf]

Yup. Same in the UK. (For some reason £1 notes hung on longer in Scotland, so you got to periodically have the "yes, that is legal tender" conversation in reverse, but they've gone now).

[sovay]

(For some reason £1 notes hung on longer in Scotland, so you got to periodically have the "yes, that is legal tender" conversation in reverse, but they've gone now).

The fact that the U.S. has dollar coins but has never phased out dollar bills feels somehow characteristic to me, but also comparatively weird. It probably goes with the perpetual debate over the obsolescence of the penny.