Change is bad

No, I'm not talking about the moving-to-another-country type of change, or the night-games-at-Michigan-Stadium (I wish!) type of change.

I'm talking about the literal cold, hard, cash.

Whoever thought up the physical monetary system of the euro is nuts. Personally, I hate change jangling around in my pockets. I hate taking the time at the till to count out the exact change out of a handful of coins. And its bad enough when you're only sorting among a small variety of different values, but when you have an entire handful and nearly all of them are different? Fughedabowdit!

In the US, we effectively have four coins: penny, nickle, dime and quarter. The eagles that adorn fifty-cent pieces are somewhere south of the California Condor on the rare bird list and I'll be shocked if any dollar coin program will ever gain popular acceptance in my lifetime. Even the penny has been rumored to be phased out at some point and is often useful for nothing more than filling up jars to be saved for some far-distant-future vacation.

The euro dollar system has EIGHT DIFFERENT COINS! There's a 1c coin that's absolutely minuscule. Seriously, its about the size of the head of a thumbtack. Then, my most-pointlessly-favorite, the 2c coin. I kid you not. From there, they move up to your standard nickle and dime equivalents, and to a 20c coin that has a strangely floral edging. With 8 coins, you'd think they'd find room for something useful like a quarter, but no, they skip from the 20c coin to the 50c. Why have four coins to a dollar when you can have five? Then there's the 1 euro coin, and finally, the real pocket killer of them all, the whopping 2 euro coin.

To make matters worse, there's no substantial color differentiation among the sub-dollar coins. They're all some form of yellowish/brownish metal. The 1 and 2 euro coins are two-tone, with the same yellowish color interior, surrounded by a ring of--gasp--silver/nickle-ish metal. They essentially are identical, save for the 2 euro being a bit bigger. Also, don't think that you can count on easily distinguishing them based on the designs on the face of the coin. While the 'tails' side of the coins are all standard within a given denomination, the 'heads' sides changes based on the country where it originated.

In Ireland, all the coins have feature the same design with a harp surrounded by stars. Most of the coins in circulation in a given spot are likely to be domestic, but there is a lot of cross-pollination, particularly in areas frequented by tourists. Taking a quick look at the coins I have in my possession at the moment, about 2/3rds of them are Irish, but the other third each have a different design, regardless of whether they're from the same or different country, or are the same or different denomination.

Oh, but the edges of each denomination are unique! That really helps! Not!

I'm used to chucking my change into a can or a drawer and saving it all up for some later purpose or cashing it all in at one time, while keeping my pockets clear and quiet. But when roughly 5-10% of the currency in your possession at any point in time is in coins, that's not really so practical.

On the other hand, though, I guess I'm getting used to it in a way, as I will admit that psychologically, anyways, there is something to be said for a small pocket full of change being good for a whole night of drinks at the pub.