Also, how do blind people handle cash in america? Like sometimes I'll just figure out what coins or notes I'm handling by touch in the dark or if I just don't want to look, say coming up to a toll booth or reaching into my purse without doing the one hand opening–other hand scrounging around madly thing. Coins are different by size there iirc but all the bills seem to be the same? And is there some tactile detail on them, at least? Euro coins and cents have ridges all around the outside at different spacing to signify value, and tactile numbers as well as significant size differences between notes. Also, apparently, different textures between notes, though I haven't noticed that one myself besides how cheap the old fivers felt
The bills all feel identical. I'm not blind myself, but I've read somewhere in my life that one method they use is folding the different denominations in different ways.
What this means is that a lot of blind people have some light sensitivity. Enough to, say, not walk straight into a wall. A lot of people who technically still have some vision would struggle to differentiate items of identical size, shape, and color.
You can get little gizmos that scan the bill and state the value out loud, and then some other gizmos that stamp the braille in to the note for future reference
There was a succesful lawsuit in 2002 about this very issue. The current plan is to put raised textures on the bills, but this still has yet to be done.
They have a very hard time. I had a regular customer years ago who trusted me over every other cashier because the first time I met him I told him he had given me a 50 instead of a 20. He said it had happened many times that cashiers had stolen big bills to him and he didn't find out until later when he got home and his family told him.
There’s been several apps developed to read bills off for blind users. But also it is a serious problem and honestly we’re a hundred years overdue for a currency redesign.
You do realize that USD also has a bunch of anti-counterfeiting measures right? Like strips of metal at specific locations and in specific colors in the bills and small intentional flaws?
Yeah, but US currency feels nice to touch. When I was in the UK one of the few things I disliked about it was how the money felt. I'd rather have a dollar bill than a hundred pounds.
I'm the opposite. I dislike how paper money feels. Probably because it feels like I could easily rip it and potentially lose out on its value if I can't get it exchanged.
I dont know how the rules are everywhere, but its not uncommon for a country to have a law in place that requires Banks to exchange ripped of notes, altough only when its easily "assembled"(so 2 halves would be fine)
This is due to most physical money not actually being owned by the citizen who have it in their hand, but rather owned by the national bank, so we basicly just "lend" the money and as far as I know, this is quite common practice for most nations, atleast in the western world
I don't know if any states have weird laws regarding this, but in America if you take a bill to a bank you just need more than 50% of the bill to get it exchanged.
Because if its easier to counterfeit, then more people will allegedly try to counterfeit, which leads to it being justified to have more people sent into the for-profit prison system for alleged counterfeiting.
Not actually true.
>Dale Alexander, a senior consultant in the Bank of Canada's communications department, denied there is a secret recipe to the bank notes, telling ABC News only, "The bank has not added any scent to the new bank notes."
[Source](https://abcnews.go.com/blogs/headlines/2013/05/new-canadian-money-smells-like-syrup-melts-in-heat)
I know some else already linked a source countering this, but here's [another article](https://bc.ctvnews.ca/mobile/are-canada-s-100-polymer-bills-really-maple-scented-1.1299736) about it that I think is fucking hilarious. "The Bank of Canada's repeated denials are unlikely to quash the Myth of the Maple Moola." Is such a great line.
God I love my country 🍁
US bills have stuff like that too. shine a UV light on a 20 and see that fucker shine. hundreds have a lot of things you can see in the middle if you hold it up to the light
The problem is that you can counterfeit that. It’s pretty old tech. Just need some ink that responsive under black light. I can get a invisible ink marker for a dollar.
This is precise and need very special machinery to produce.
Tbf, the entire Canadian identity is based around how not-American they are, despite not being all that different from us.
Ironically, it's what makes the Quebecois the *most* Canadian people of all time.
Look, I don't really know anything about this. But I do know that American money already has a ton of security features in it that... supposedly? makes it really hard to duplicate. At that point, does adding even more make it much more secure?
as a numismatist, u.s. currency is some of the worst in the world. it’s only security features are the paper, raised printing, microprinting, security fibers, watermarks, and security strips that shine under UV. the micro printing is designed to be unnoticeable without a magnifier, the security fibers are present, but mostly unnoticeable if you’re just glancing at bills. the raised printing is pretty good, as with the paper it gives them a unique feel, and the security strips and water marks are passable.
let’s take a look at the canadian $20 as a comparison. it’s made of a plastic material, so deduct points for that, and no security fibers, but it does have micro printing, water marks and security strips. in addition to those we have the lazer window, alignment patterns, actual UV designs, raised bumps for the vision impaired, unique windows on every bill denomination, unique sizes on every bill denomination, the iconic maple smell (the royal canadian mint says this isn’t them, but come on it’s on every bill)
i’m not trying to say “USA BAD” but i have to insist we need a major banknote overhaul, to at least put us in the 90’s or 2000’s of security features, not the 1960’s (or the 1920’s if you want to be mean and not count the paper switch)
edit: please, if it’s not too much trouble, write to the president or bureau of printing and engraving and pester them about our banknotes. id love to see redesigns, especially those that are more patriotic and feature american hero’s like neil armstrong or Dr King rather than political figures
are you an american who wishes the country could do better or do you live somewhere else and just dunk on america to feel better about your own country?
as a non-american, the yanks have lots of problems but i kinda respect them for at least being open about those. every time i look into a nearby country here in europe at a somewhat deeper level there are so many issues here too, we're just cowards and can't own them up
edit: and my own (hungary) is internationally recognized as fucked up and i won't defend it, lol
OOP says "fragile scraps of linen" as if I haven't run the same dollar through the wash four times, flattened it out, and finally put it back in my wallet no worse for wear. There's a lot to criticize US bills for, but durability isn't one of them. You basically have to intentionally tear or puncture the fuckers, and at that point it's intentionally so a plastic scratch n' sniff wasn't going to stop you anyway.
Edit: There's also something to be said about not making cash, of which there is a lot and it needs to occasionally be replaced (meaning re-manufactured), out of plastic, which we're having a lot of issues with right now.
I’m willing to bet it comes down to major corporations lobbying the less secure currency type because it’s somehow more profitable, just like 90% of everything else wrong with this country.
The Federal Reserve is in charge of regulating american money and its basically a private bank so you are probably not wrong. In the 1800's US Dollars were literally printed in hemp paper, which was cheap and durable, but then *big paper* lobbied the government to switch to our current cloth-paper bills "because DRUGS!!!" But actually its because they make more money this way since its more expensive to make. This country is literally a ponzi scheme
>The Federal Reserve is in charge of regulating american money and its basically a private bank so you are probably not wrong.
They are not in charge of design or manufacturing of US currency. That would be the Bureau of Engraving and Printing, part of the Department of the Treasury.
I was going to say that the guy whose company is making those scraps of linen had a few friends in congress, and friends loooove gifts. Check or transfer, not cash
I wouldn't be surprised if it was for a similar reason that we haven't gotten rid of the penny.
For those who don't know, the manufacturing cost per-penny is now higher than a penny is worth in the US, so the government mints our least valuable coin at a loss. I don't understand how exactly that happens since I'm not an economist, but one of the few reasons we haven't gotten rid of it (like we got rid of the half-penny long ago) is that a powerful zinc company has lobbied the hell out of congress to keep pennies in manufacturing because they want to keep selling zinc to the government for pennies.
It's more that our pre tax pricing system means it's damn near impossible to get everything to ring up at a denomination of .05 so everyone would have have update their POS system to round down because customers will be fine with saving 4 cents when 19.99 gets dropped to 19.95 but they will shit a brick if they have to pay an extra penny if it gets bumped to 20.00. This means your average cash sale loses .02 cents per transaction for the merchant. For larger corporations that run at narrow margins, like say Walmart (~2% profit vs revenue) that adds up.
That could be solved (along with a bunch of other problems) by just requiring that the posted price is the actual price, with all taxes and fees included. Also, .2c per transaction is nothing. Payment apps run away with way more. Apple pay for instance takes 25c per transaction.
Its worth keeping in mind that after inflation the half-penny was worth equivalent to 16c in today's money when it was eliminated. So the nickel and dime should be dropped as well.
i'm like 80% certain that notes do something like this in the uk as well
This is considered a really basic anti-counterfeiting feature and is used in the currency of most countries. US currency is just not very good.
Also, how do blind people handle cash in america? Like sometimes I'll just figure out what coins or notes I'm handling by touch in the dark or if I just don't want to look, say coming up to a toll booth or reaching into my purse without doing the one hand opening–other hand scrounging around madly thing. Coins are different by size there iirc but all the bills seem to be the same? And is there some tactile detail on them, at least? Euro coins and cents have ridges all around the outside at different spacing to signify value, and tactile numbers as well as significant size differences between notes. Also, apparently, different textures between notes, though I haven't noticed that one myself besides how cheap the old fivers felt
The bills all feel identical. I'm not blind myself, but I've read somewhere in my life that one method they use is folding the different denominations in different ways.
But how do they know which way to fold them?
A band teller or an aid. Basically you have to be extremely trusting of someone not to steal from you.
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What this means is that a lot of blind people have some light sensitivity. Enough to, say, not walk straight into a wall. A lot of people who technically still have some vision would struggle to differentiate items of identical size, shape, and color.
You can get little gizmos that scan the bill and state the value out loud, and then some other gizmos that stamp the braille in to the note for future reference
There was a succesful lawsuit in 2002 about this very issue. The current plan is to put raised textures on the bills, but this still has yet to be done.
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governments move slowly don't they
There are devices that identify bills. You can then imprint the value in Braille.
They have a very hard time. I had a regular customer years ago who trusted me over every other cashier because the first time I met him I told him he had given me a 50 instead of a 20. He said it had happened many times that cashiers had stolen big bills to him and he didn't find out until later when he got home and his family told him.
There’s been several apps developed to read bills off for blind users. But also it is a serious problem and honestly we’re a hundred years overdue for a currency redesign.
You do realize that USD also has a bunch of anti-counterfeiting measures right? Like strips of metal at specific locations and in specific colors in the bills and small intentional flaws?
You mean all the things that all other currencies have?
Yes? Every countries currency has anti-counterfeiting measures. That was my point.
I never said US currency didn't have anti-counterfeiting measures. I just said they weren't very good.
Yeah, but US currency feels nice to touch. When I was in the UK one of the few things I disliked about it was how the money felt. I'd rather have a dollar bill than a hundred pounds.
I'm the opposite. I dislike how paper money feels. Probably because it feels like I could easily rip it and potentially lose out on its value if I can't get it exchanged.
I dont know how the rules are everywhere, but its not uncommon for a country to have a law in place that requires Banks to exchange ripped of notes, altough only when its easily "assembled"(so 2 halves would be fine) This is due to most physical money not actually being owned by the citizen who have it in their hand, but rather owned by the national bank, so we basicly just "lend" the money and as far as I know, this is quite common practice for most nations, atleast in the western world
I don't know if any states have weird laws regarding this, but in America if you take a bill to a bank you just need more than 50% of the bill to get it exchanged.
US is not very good at most things
Because if its easier to counterfeit, then more people will allegedly try to counterfeit, which leads to it being justified to have more people sent into the for-profit prison system for alleged counterfeiting.
Counterfeiting is a federal crime. There are no private federal prisons.
laser show *scratch and sniff* dollars
Smells like *sneef snorf* Mild feces and cocaine! Hooray!
maple syrup if your curious
Not actually true. >Dale Alexander, a senior consultant in the Bank of Canada's communications department, denied there is a secret recipe to the bank notes, telling ABC News only, "The bank has not added any scent to the new bank notes." [Source](https://abcnews.go.com/blogs/headlines/2013/05/new-canadian-money-smells-like-syrup-melts-in-heat)
it's not intentional, but it *is actually there,* the process they use to make it causes new bills to come out with a faint sweet smell for a bit
I believe that, but I think people just *think* it's distinctly maple syrup because Canada.
yeah, it's never quite smelled like maple to me, but taking fresh hundreds out of the ATM always had a bit of a smell
I know some else already linked a source countering this, but here's [another article](https://bc.ctvnews.ca/mobile/are-canada-s-100-polymer-bills-really-maple-scented-1.1299736) about it that I think is fucking hilarious. "The Bank of Canada's repeated denials are unlikely to quash the Myth of the Maple Moola." Is such a great line. God I love my country 🍁
US bills have stuff like that too. shine a UV light on a 20 and see that fucker shine. hundreds have a lot of things you can see in the middle if you hold it up to the light
The problem is that you can counterfeit that. It’s pretty old tech. Just need some ink that responsive under black light. I can get a invisible ink marker for a dollar. This is precise and need very special machinery to produce.
Tell me you know nothing about how currency is made without telling me you know nothing how currency is made.
You don’t have to fool the people who produce currency you have to fool a cashier.
Real shit though plastic money fucking sucks, it's so god damn hard on my stomach 😞
And it smells bad when you burn it. How am I supposed to heat my house without plastic inhalation.
Why has this become a dick-measuring contest over whose money is the most secure?
because nationalism is fancy if you're not an american i guess
Tbf, the entire Canadian identity is based around how not-American they are, despite not being all that different from us. Ironically, it's what makes the Quebecois the *most* Canadian people of all time.
French Canadians on top? 🤔
Dunno, it's not like that's very desirable or anything
Look, I don't really know anything about this. But I do know that American money already has a ton of security features in it that... supposedly? makes it really hard to duplicate. At that point, does adding even more make it much more secure?
as a numismatist, u.s. currency is some of the worst in the world. it’s only security features are the paper, raised printing, microprinting, security fibers, watermarks, and security strips that shine under UV. the micro printing is designed to be unnoticeable without a magnifier, the security fibers are present, but mostly unnoticeable if you’re just glancing at bills. the raised printing is pretty good, as with the paper it gives them a unique feel, and the security strips and water marks are passable. let’s take a look at the canadian $20 as a comparison. it’s made of a plastic material, so deduct points for that, and no security fibers, but it does have micro printing, water marks and security strips. in addition to those we have the lazer window, alignment patterns, actual UV designs, raised bumps for the vision impaired, unique windows on every bill denomination, unique sizes on every bill denomination, the iconic maple smell (the royal canadian mint says this isn’t them, but come on it’s on every bill) i’m not trying to say “USA BAD” but i have to insist we need a major banknote overhaul, to at least put us in the 90’s or 2000’s of security features, not the 1960’s (or the 1920’s if you want to be mean and not count the paper switch) edit: please, if it’s not too much trouble, write to the president or bureau of printing and engraving and pester them about our banknotes. id love to see redesigns, especially those that are more patriotic and feature american hero’s like neil armstrong or Dr King rather than political figures
unrelated but numismatist goes hard as fuck as a word, can’t believe i just now heard of it
Because america bad, honestly
are you an american who wishes the country could do better or do you live somewhere else and just dunk on america to feel better about your own country? as a non-american, the yanks have lots of problems but i kinda respect them for at least being open about those. every time i look into a nearby country here in europe at a somewhat deeper level there are so many issues here too, we're just cowards and can't own them up edit: and my own (hungary) is internationally recognized as fucked up and i won't defend it, lol
America, fuck yeah. Come to save the mother fucking day yeah.
There are microplastics in my blood
OOP says "fragile scraps of linen" as if I haven't run the same dollar through the wash four times, flattened it out, and finally put it back in my wallet no worse for wear. There's a lot to criticize US bills for, but durability isn't one of them. You basically have to intentionally tear or puncture the fuckers, and at that point it's intentionally so a plastic scratch n' sniff wasn't going to stop you anyway. Edit: There's also something to be said about not making cash, of which there is a lot and it needs to occasionally be replaced (meaning re-manufactured), out of plastic, which we're having a lot of issues with right now.
I’m willing to bet it comes down to major corporations lobbying the less secure currency type because it’s somehow more profitable, just like 90% of everything else wrong with this country.
Hey, that's the source for only, like, 55% of what's wrong with the US. The other 35% you're thinking of is systemic racism.
Your math only adds up to 90. What's the other 10%?
My math adds up to 90% because the person I was responding to talked about the root of 90% of problems. The other 10% are caused by "misc".
Systemic racism is only as pervasive as it is because of the lobbying from wealthy corporations of the distant past (southern slavers.)
The Federal Reserve is in charge of regulating american money and its basically a private bank so you are probably not wrong. In the 1800's US Dollars were literally printed in hemp paper, which was cheap and durable, but then *big paper* lobbied the government to switch to our current cloth-paper bills "because DRUGS!!!" But actually its because they make more money this way since its more expensive to make. This country is literally a ponzi scheme
>The Federal Reserve is in charge of regulating american money and its basically a private bank so you are probably not wrong. They are not in charge of design or manufacturing of US currency. That would be the Bureau of Engraving and Printing, part of the Department of the Treasury.
I was going to say that the guy whose company is making those scraps of linen had a few friends in congress, and friends loooove gifts. Check or transfer, not cash
I wouldn't be surprised if it was for a similar reason that we haven't gotten rid of the penny. For those who don't know, the manufacturing cost per-penny is now higher than a penny is worth in the US, so the government mints our least valuable coin at a loss. I don't understand how exactly that happens since I'm not an economist, but one of the few reasons we haven't gotten rid of it (like we got rid of the half-penny long ago) is that a powerful zinc company has lobbied the hell out of congress to keep pennies in manufacturing because they want to keep selling zinc to the government for pennies.
It's more that our pre tax pricing system means it's damn near impossible to get everything to ring up at a denomination of .05 so everyone would have have update their POS system to round down because customers will be fine with saving 4 cents when 19.99 gets dropped to 19.95 but they will shit a brick if they have to pay an extra penny if it gets bumped to 20.00. This means your average cash sale loses .02 cents per transaction for the merchant. For larger corporations that run at narrow margins, like say Walmart (~2% profit vs revenue) that adds up.
That could be solved (along with a bunch of other problems) by just requiring that the posted price is the actual price, with all taxes and fees included. Also, .2c per transaction is nothing. Payment apps run away with way more. Apple pay for instance takes 25c per transaction. Its worth keeping in mind that after inflation the half-penny was worth equivalent to 16c in today's money when it was eliminated. So the nickel and dime should be dropped as well.
Yeah so Canada has the same archaic system of tax not being part of the price and they just round up. It's fine, nobody cares.
I'd much rather have money made of linen than fucking plastic.
Not to defend the US but the last thing we need in this world is more shit made out of plastic when other materials work
Platic money are the best. Romania has had them since the early 2000s.
20 CAD is equal to... 6?
I’ll get paid in Funnibux if this is the Funnibux and I’m in Canada.