I wouldn’t believe it, but it was true. I was standing in front of a trash can at the airport with one handful of pennies, ready and willing to just throw them away. In the nick of time I realized what I was about to do and that this at least didn’t suit my serious education. I have always learned that you can’t just carelessly throw away things other people might desperately need. So you can’t throw away money, the exchange value for almost everything people need in this world.
Why was I about to do that? Every time I open my purse to pay in a coffee shop or a store I have to grapple with all the small change. At first glimpse I see the colour of copper all over my purse. In this moment the first awkward feeling arises. I want to get rid of that change making my purse feel like a brick stone in my bag. Hence I try to pay the accurate amount on the check to at least dispose of some of the coins. That takes time, grabbing the pennies, counting them, meanwhile trying to hold together all my other stuff. After some trials the line behind me starts to rebel against me. They want to move on. In most of the cases that is the moment when I start to get hectic and abandon my plans. In the end there are not less but even more pennies in my purse.
Frankly speaking: this small money bothers me. And the more: It is almost worthless. What can you buy for a penny? No wonder that in almost every store and coffee shop you will find a cup or a basket the customers immediately throw their pennies in. This small money has no compassion for me as a customer. It just takes too much time and effort to pay with pennies today. So why should I feel compassion for these coins and not just toss them into the trash can? Possibly because we should have pity on the penny that was outrun by growth and inflation over the years. In a globalized economy running on big scale the penny is just too small to make a difference. But with the smaller ones we should always be compassionate.
You should better think of keeping them and go for business. That makes a difference! ;-)
http://www.goldworld.com/articles/penny-copper-value/1
Wow, what does you make so nervous?
Sounds like you are displeased about other things.
If you want to get rid off the coins in your pocket, just put them into a box.
Hey, have fun and keep cool! ;-)
Leider kann ich ein Bild aus dem letzten Urlaub nicht hochladen:
Vor der Kasse stand eine Din A5-große Box, völlig überfüllt mit Pennies.
Der Text an der Papp-Box:
“Peoples Box: If you have a Penny, give one. If you need one, take one”…
I always put my small money in an empty bottle.
It’s sometimes very funny and also astonishing to see how many coins you can collect in one year.
When the bottel is full I change it in bigger money or just bring it to the animal home in our village. They are happy about every donation.
I know exactly how you feel. I’ve learned to appreciate the boxes at the airports where you can leave your coins which are then (hopefully) collected and given to social projects.
Money makes the world go around – even if its only coins ;-)……..
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rkRIbUT6u7Q
After a german proverb: ‘Who does not honour the Penny, is not worth the Dollar.’
If we throw them away, we will no more have any ‘Glückspfennig’ for our unpredictable fortune.
It is against logic and yet hopeful. We can call this respect.
Walter, off the top of my head, I think in American English I’ve heard “Find a penny, pick it up, and all day long you’ll have good luck” and “A penny saved is a penny earned.” The former more in tune with what you hint at. The latter turn of phrase sounds rather puritanic to me.
Yes, them pennies, they can turn purses and pockets into red light districts.
The change-jars in coffee shops (as different from the tip jars) are a pretty interesting institution, where one can leave coins and take coins for the odd change beyond the full dollar amount.
In big cities there are often spare-changers, i.e. panhandlers, holding the doors open to stores. One gets used to dumping pretty regularly a fistful of coins from one’s pocket into their cups that they hold out (if one isn’t so well organized and has a bottle to collect them at home). Traveling back to Europe then one has to retrain oneself not to just hand out one’s coins without looking, since with two-euro pieces among the change that can turn into a kind of pricey habit.
Let’s disagree with Thomas Fuller (‘A light purse makes a heavy heart’) or John Ray (‘A heavy purse makes a light heart’) and just say ‘A light purse makes a light heart’…
Just flip a coin!
http://www.random.org/coins/
You can choose the currency and coin.
Intresting: “American Voting Coin 2004″
Dear respected MM, why haven’t you planned to give the money to somebody in need of it, or simply put it somewhere else where anybody can take it? The trash can in my opinion is the worst solution. But I have to admit…its simply the fastest too ;-)
Does anybody know this: You go on the footpath and see a coin. Then you hesitate, whether to pick it up or not. When I was a child, I bent down, I was interested. Today I seldom bend down and look at a dirty coin… Pity!
(To talk about the inflation would not be exhilarant. So I stop…)
Ich habe gerade sehr gelacht. Da ja meine Katze Penny heißt, könnte ich mich über jeden Satz wegschmeißen. Am besten gefällt mir: “In a globalized economy running on big scale the penny is just too small to make a difference.” *gröhl* “I’m too small to make a difference…” ;o))
gorgeous picture ;)
The penny-problem seems to be widespread. Once, I made a peculiar observation: in front of Cologne Cathedral, a beggar woman emptied her bowl – and all the small money went down the gully. – Sort of weird, isn’t it?
The best solution would be to get rid of the small coins altogether – like Finland did when they got the Euro: they just didn’t mint any 1- and 2-cent coins because they never had 1- and 2-penni coins before the Euro.
Funnily the prices still can be “14,43″ or “2,16″ – they are just rounded up or down at the cash register.
When I see money on the street, I pick it up (if its not covered in something disgusting). Somehow I think it should not be lying there. And I don’t know how it is with you guys – but since the Euro I normally have much less small cange in my wallet. Not in the beginning when I couldn’t distinguish the coins fast enough on the cash register – makes me nervous, too, when people have to wait because of me – but after getting used to them, they somehow didn’t accumulate in my wallet as much as did the Pfennige before.
When you look at the posting-photo in close-up, it reveals that Abraham Lincoln, one of the founding fathers of present day United States, is portrayed on the coins.
Historically this has been done for thousands of years. You conquer a peace of land and you create infrastructure. One of the things you need is your own currency. It settles you as a nation, and it gives you the opportunity to trade goods and to transfer valuables.
In a drawer in my kitchen I keep all kinds of odd knick-knacks. Tape, pieces of paper, spare glasses, a broken watch, flashlights, a variety of electrical items, plugs, fuses – things like that.
It is also where I keep coins leftover from travelling. A quick mini-survey disclosed seven different nationalities.
In this small “drawer-micro-cosmosâ€? were images of Queen Elizabeth II, (representing two countries), Queen Margrethe II , King Carl Gustaf XVII, King Harald V, Atatürk, and Abraham Lincolm (again). On the historic side were the Brandenburger Tor, but also more soft values were represented, like the Swedish writer Selma Lagerlöf and Leonardo da Vinci’s Vitruvian Man.
In a way you can define nations by the images on their curancy. On the back of an american dollarbill are printed “In God We trust�, on the back of the 20 euro bill is a map of europe, on the back of swedish 20 kr. bill is boy flying on a goose.
Coins and bank notes are little pieces of national sovereignty. Historically there have been fought many battles to defend or to take away this sovereignty from others.
Luckily, in my drawer everything is very peaceful and everybody live happily together :-))
Also, ich bin auch im Besitze solcher
“Micro-Kosmen”, u.a. eben auch ein Glas mit diversen Münzen und bunten Banknoten aus unterschiedlichen Ländern.
Natürlich könnte ich diese auch irgend einem wohltätigen Zweck zufügen, aber wie schon erwähnt wurde, sind sie auch irgendwie Zeitdokumente, die die Kultur des jeweiligen Landes, in irgendeiner Form wiederspiegeln.
Außer dem finde ich dieses “Gläser-Sammelsurium” diverser Souvenirs auch dekorativ.
Was das einheimische Kleingeld betrifft, versuche ich dieses immer schnell wieder loszuwerden, da ich zu DM-Zeiten schon so ein Gefäß hatte, in das diese Kleinst-Münzen gewandert sind. Nur leider ist dieses Gefäß dann in Vergessenheit geraten und beim Umzug vor einiger Zeit wieder aufgetaucht-”Schlafmünzen” eben.
Irgenwann mache ich mich mal zur nächsten LZB auf, um sie doch noch umzutauschen…
‘They want to move on. In most of the cases that is the moment when I start to get hectic and abandon my plans. In the end there are not less but even more pennies in my purse.’
Going to a bakery or a newsstand I count a sum, for example 1 EURO in coins and put them apart. So I can pay with small change without slowing down other hurried people (in search of big money?)
The salesperson agrees in most cases, thankful of receiving those little coins.
In a music book we found 50 german marks yesterday (from music lessons?), two banknotes of 20 and one of 10 marks.
Do you remember Annette von Droste- Huelshoff and Carl Friedrich Gauss? Would you throw them away?
Handelt es sich bei der oben abgebildeten Hand um die Innenseite Ihrer linken Hand, Frau Prof. Meckel ?
Eine Handlinienzeichnung, die ich nicht erwartet hätte.
2 %
Stimmt, dieses Chaos hätte ich niemals erwartet ;-D
2 %?
The lines of the hand – under the coins.
Someone special, MM. We do not only know this since today…
(Kann ich nicht erkennen. Aber ich denke, dass vielleicht sonstige Interpretationen etwas zu weit gehen.)
Ich hol´gleich die Glaskugel ´raus…
I’m always one of these persons in the line behind you, who start to rebel after a short time. My “favorite” group in front of me has the age between 60 and 80, and moves in slow motion. The climay is achieved, when they start paying 1.87€ with copper-coins. After 5 minutes grabbing, the shopping has two versions to end: the first is, that he/she remarks that 5 pence are missing, so it will be payed with a 2€ coin- now it takes further 2 minutes to put the copper coins back to the purse.
Second version, he/she gives the purse to the cashier (machen Sie das mal, junge Frau- ich sehe ja auch nicht mehr so gut…), so the cashier has to rummag in a foreign purse between shopping lists and passport photo’s from 1953.
Anyway which version, often it take’s ages to get out of the shop- but it won’t go faster, when they would pay by credit card
Naja, ok, warum nicht, oder?
Ich habe (leider) auch schon mal mit “Wahrsagerinnen” zu tun. Kann ich nicht empfehlen. Ich fühle mich immer ganz unwohl in den Besprechungen – wie durchleuchtet.
… von daher besser nicht die Glaskugel holen, @H.
> At first glimpse I see the colour of copper all over my purse. In this moment the first awkward feeling arises.
*g*
und dann ist der nickel, obwohl nur die hälfte wert, auch noch größer und schwerer als der dime. und wenn man sich im supermarkt mal die mühe macht, alle preise schon vorher zu addieren und das kleingeld exakt abzuzählen, dann ist am ende auch alles für die katz, weil in den meisten supermärkten die steuer erst an der kasse draufgeschlagen wird und damit ein ganz anderer betrag rauskommt. furchtbar! ;-)
trotzdem, übung macht den meister. oder man hält gleich eine handvoll kleingeld hin, und der kassierer sucht sich die münzen dann selbst raus. außerdem halte ich die amerikaner für geduldiger als die deutschen, die werden schon nicht gleich unruhig, nur weil man etwas mühe hat, ein paar passende münzen zu finden. :-)
wie sieht das wohl Herr Zumwinkel
;~Æ’
Peanuts (@Jojo)
Your story reminds me of a ritual from my childhood.
Every evening, when my father came home from work, he gave me all the small coins from his trousers pocket.
Very clever I think today, and perhaps that´s the reason why I still have two brothers and two sisters;-)
As soon as the bottle, that I collected the coins in, was filled, I went with kilograms of money to the bank to change it into notes.
If I think about it now, the bank clerks must have hated me;-)
several years ago my parents gave me a very nice and also very expensive leather purse for christmas. and since then i kept all the coins in a big box on my desk to avoid to damage the beautiful purse. until i found out that my bank doesnt want those coins from me. and so i am still trying to spend them… and people hate it to wait while i am searching my purse everytime i pay something….
@Jette, ja, aber kann das ja vorher grob kalkulieren, wieviel es kosten wird. Viele Leute scheinen vom bezahlen nur regelrecht überrascht zu werden. Und time is money…
“Little sheep give wool too.”
dieses Problem
und
das Geld von Rockefeller….
;~ â—‹
I think it’s no matter of little needless coins. The question is: Why you can’t take your time of only three or five seconds more to search for the right change? Why the guys behind you starting to gripe just because of a moment? No, no, no I don’t want to get in hectic just because of some little coins and some impatient people.
It’s the same thing like the annoying pushing drivers at the street. Every time such an importunate speed merchant appears in my mirror, “suddenlyâ€? my car drives more and more slowly. When the driver behind me remembers the right distance, I can have take-off again.
And: even a little coin is money!
In this spirit: take your time, and this time is your money!
+ piep +
Kurze (nicht themenrelevante) Frage, Frau Meckel besuchen Sie auch Washington? Mich würde ein Erfahrungsbericht über das neu eröffnete Newsmuseum interessieren :-)
http://www.newseum.org/
+ zwischenpiep Ende +
And the baptist church?
Once again an article from the new yorker. It appeared a few weeks ago when MM started her trip through the US.
“PENNY DREADFUL”
They’re horrid and useless. Why do pennies persist?
by David Owen
Uselessness and absurdity are in general the two main qualities of human existence, aren’t they? There is no logical justifcation of our species that refers to an outside world, whatever that may be. So why not question everything, not just pennies? Of course, it’s no use to claim one’s own meaningless as if there was any alternative to just living that human life at all. Well, an option was to die, but what option is that… ;o) Instead, I wonder why people comment on things they find strange an absurd in our world as if there was any serious counterpart.
‘Uselessness and absurdity’- our human existence was before us, so we cannot doubt on it. It is our task to give a meaning to our existence. We need no ‘logical justifcation’ because we are as we are. It would be time for spring and sunshine in order to have cheerful thoughts. :-)
How are Chico and Penny? (looks pretty)- Not to forget Bull and Dozer of course.
I hope there is more sunshine and warmth in the US.
(-: hm,hm:-)
diese Hand voll Münzen erinnern mich an den Grossen Film – Klassiker (1954) “Three Coins In The Fountain”
den Trevi Brunnen in Rom, wenn diese Batzen in diesem Brunnen versenkt werden ist mein Mitleid erloschen.
@Walter:
Chino and Penny are sleeping in the sun, that floods our attic flat… :o)
You are right, we don’t need no justification, because there is no alternative. But when we question things, that belong to the world we live in, we also have to deal with the fact, that there would be no justification to find if we needed to find one. That’s what I meant… It’s a theoretical consideration, but it is a consideration. And who knows, if it will always be that theoretical until the end of our existence. I think science comes pretty close to this state by practical questions. If you take the elemental physics i.g. you’ll find phenomena, which are logical by formulas, but absolutely out of human imagination, even if they are the basis of our existence. Don’t you think, too, that this a strange fact? Why aren’t we able to understand our own existence? As you said, it was “before us”. We should, as a “product”, dispose of abilities to do that, don’t we? I believe that we cannot, because we are not the ones to know. And on top of this: there is no one to know. What’s rubbing our meaningless more than this?
Your words remind me of Einsteins cat :-)
(phil.yanov.com/2005/08/there-is-no-cat-einsteins-radio.htm), see also
(scienceagogo.com/news/19980907140525data_trunc_sys.shtml)
The Trevi fountain- with the right hand over the left shoulder?- A big wet trash can..
Not to confound with Schroedingers cat. (@Cate)
(de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schr%C3%B6dingers_Katze)
At reading the text I think about at two things especially and I annoy me again a little bit at the humankind.
The first thing is: To estimate the value of the small things, to underestimate the effect of many small things.
I have a very well-to-do friend who pick up every penny from the street. She is not a penny-pincher, she honours the small things. Many Pennies also bring a dollar – and would leave we a dollar on the street? Probably some would also leave a dollar or 10 dollars.
The difference is a difference of the (personal) value system.
The second thing is: Do the people really have so little time for waiting in a shop? Is the “time� the reason that they have forgotten what good manners are?
Smaller monetary pieces serve the payments just like bank notes. In some shopes there are already specially cash desk for cashless payment. Maybe this is a good alternative for persons without a lots of pennies and without time to remember good manners.
The difference is a difference of the ( personal) value system.
“But with the smaller ones we should always be compassionate.�
The last week I have read an article about Muhammad Yunus, the founder of the Grameen bank. For the customers of this bank is every penny very important.
You’re right, Alexandra – and sometimes you even get punished for being in too much of a hurry.
Then the police sends you a nice little picture showing you on the driver’s seat going too fast because of said hurry… happened to me a couple of weeks ago – I was late for an appointment, tried to catch up by speeding as much as I could – and FLASH!
When I thought about it later on I realized that by driving faster than I should have I saved approximately two minutes… ridiculous!
Not to mention the fee I had tp pay… served me right.
Just now it occurred to me what a wonderful thing music is – if you play a piece, you have to take your time, and if you practise, you have to go even slower. Getting impatient doesn’t speed progress up one bit.
Rather like in “Momo” – by going slower you make faster progress (which is what I keep preaching my students… guess they are sick of it by now… ;-).
What makes a difference: A dollar is more than the sum of its parts…
In “big business” one cent can make a difference, the difference wether a product is bought or not… depending on the amount of pieces… In life, the amount of cents can make a difference, too: to live or to survive… (IKEA says hello ;-) )