Moments of Permanence - Aussie Aussie Aussie

From: elspethdixon Date: September 30th, 2009 08:55 pm (UTC) (Link)

you can't glance at a stack of notes and tell what denomination they are

But it's so much prettier than anyone else's paper or plastic currency! All the bills/notes have a unified appearance, and back in the good old days, they were all the same green money color, too (and there are large numbers printed on the corners, so it's really not confusing at all once you've had some time to get used to relying on the picture/text on the note instead of the color). What many people see as a bug, I actually see as a feature - the multi-colored Monopoly money that is the euro bothers me with its eye-hurty array of bright colors.

American money does have one thing up on the euro in terms of quality, though, even if you prefer multi-colored notes -- it's made of rag paper instead of wood-pulp paper. A euro will disintegrate in the pocket of your jeans if it gets run through the washing machine, but a dollar bill will still be intact and usable (if a little wrinkly and worn-looking) when you pull the pants out of the dryer and realize "Oh damn, I left a $5 bill in my pocket." It can get wet, but water doesn't damage it as badly as it does other paper money.

It's all really been downhill since we got rid of gold and silver dollars (and eagles, and double eagles, and all the other $1, $5, and $10 coins we used to have) in favor of greenbacks, though. Hard currency's basically indestructable *and* pretty. It's unfortunate that it also weighs a ton and really doesn't work as well in a modern, non gold or silver standard economy.*

*my fiancee actually wears a 1941 walking liberty silver dollar as a piece of jewelry because it's so pretty.

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From: sami Date: October 1st, 2009 01:12 am (UTC) (Link)

See, it doesn't help to have it be easy to tell the notes apart by looking at the picture/text - that still means you have to spread the notes out enough to see the faces. Australian money, I can tell looking at the edges, I don't have to take it out of my wallet or fiddle with it at all. And the colours on ours are fairly muted.

Also, seriously, it's practically indestructible.

Norwegian coinage is fairly pretty, according to the pictures on the internet. I don't have any of their money yet, though, as the currency exchange I went to didn't stock NOK and it's not likely to be very common in Perth, I think. (But we're rock solid for south-east Asian currencies, which is why it was trivial for me to get ringgit, which was nice.)

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From: delfinnium Date: September 30th, 2009 11:53 pm (UTC) (Link)

Take a look at Singaporean money. :P

Each note is not only plastic, they have different colours, the sizes are slightly different -but not hugely so, so you don't have the trouble of trying to fit them into your wallet, but each corner has a pattern of raised bumps so the blind can tell the denomination apart.

NZ money was rather nice, but not quite as nice as Singapore's, and the US money drives me out of my MIND. all the notes are the SAME. They look HORRIBLE and has a sort of papery feel that I'm no longer used to.

gah.

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From: sami Date: October 1st, 2009 01:14 am (UTC) (Link)

I know, right!

But yay Singapore!

Alas I am not at this time going there. :( Fairly unsurprising that I have a layover in Malaysia given I'm going by Malaysian Airlines, really...

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From: delfinnium Date: October 1st, 2009 06:45 am (UTC) (Link)

Ah - though I don't think you'd be spending much time in Malaysia to warrant expenditure of ringgit. Though, RM is nice and cheap, and stuff is cheap, so you owuldn't be too upset on spending it.

Rag money, or paper money, they still drive me INSANE because they are ugly, and I have to drag ALL my notes out to check the numbers.

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From: willow Date: October 1st, 2009 03:27 am (UTC) (Link)

Caribbean money will always seem the best to me. I loved that between the countries I lived in the colour of the denomiations was usually the same.

American money has sucked so hard for being all the same colour. And now these days they've finally added a touch of colour because it's taken them THIS FRIGGING LONG TO REALIZE IT IS HARDER TO COUNTERFEIT BILLS WITH MULTIPLE COLOURED INKS.

But the worse is that the touch of colour is so frigging subtle, everyone I see with the newer bills does a double-take because it's easier to believe you imagined that purple, or weird splash of dark orange.

Plastic money sounds seriously schway though and so damn sensible. It must take ages longer before it needs replacing and counterfeit is immediately more difficult as well.

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From: sami Date: October 1st, 2009 03:40 am (UTC) (Link)

It's great. And yeah, anti-counterfeiting measures are easy - our money has little holograms and clear windows and crazy stuff.

It's definitely longer-lasting, too. The paper money I've got here is in shocking condition - it looks all old and battered and ragged, and that just doesn't happen with Australian money.

Caribbean money gets points for having denomination colour consistency - that's really quite brilliant. Europe might have been in less dire need of the Euro if they'd thought of that.

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From: fred_mouse Date: October 1st, 2009 01:29 pm (UTC) (Link)

I don't remember exactly when the transition was made (I have one of the original $10 notes, which I got in high school), but I was working bars when it was all relatively new, and was still a hot topic of conversation. Were I ever asked my opinion, I would point out that if they spilt their beer, they would still have useable money to buy a new one (I was working the type of pubs where people would just leave their money next to their glass, ready to buy the next one).

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From: trouble Date: October 1st, 2009 03:15 pm (UTC) (Link)

I miss Australian money. It took me months once I got back to get used to Canadian again, because you have the same colours we do, but on different denominations.

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