Change

The other day I spotted a coin on the floor and victoriously went to pick it up as finding coins on the floor is my only source of income. I turned it over in my hand and found it be American dime. So I had made a pointless 7.5 pence. But really, how weird.
Change here is an important part of the culture, I think. Mostly because there is so much of it. In the US $1 coins do exist, but are barely legal tender. When you use them, people look at them as strangely as if you'd handed them Monopoly money. After careful scrutiny, they relinquish and take it, still skeptical and wondering who Sacajawea is.
Here, on the other hand, they got rid of the pound note about 20 years ago and never looked back. Now, and probably then too, there are commonly used two pound, one pound, 50p, 20p, 10p, 5p, 2p, and 1p coins. That’s a lot of change! (I miss the quarter myself.) There is always a healthy amount of change jingling annoyingly in my pocket.

Over the last week, unbeknownst to me, I received a pound coin from the Isle of Man. I went to spend it today and they wouldn’t take it! It was like trying to spend Canadian money in America, only those are actually two separate countries. These coins look the same, are technically from the same country, have the same queen on them, but somehow are different. I guess it's a good excuse to visit the Isle of Man, so I can spend my 1 pound there.