There Are No Coppers in Australia
Yes, it’s true. I had already lived here for some time before I noticed, but when I did realise I just couldn’t stop grinning.
Well, for while anyway.
If you pay cash for an item that costs, say, $3.37 (I was buying two litres of milk), you will only pay $3.35. If you pay cash for an item that cost $3.38 then you will pay $3.40. If you pay with an electronic card of some kind, you will pay the exact amount, say $3.37 or $3.38.
They call it rounding. Long live rounding.
In order, left to right, we have a five cents coin, then ten, twenty, fifty, one dollar then two dollars. No more ones and twos. Just close your eyes and think about that for a moment. Are you grinning too?
Allow me to explain the reality of that. There are times when you realise you are walking with a bit of a limp, and you discover it’s all down to the sheer volume of coinage in your right pocket or your handbag.
So you decide the next time you buy something in a shop, you’ll pull out all this cash to pay for it. About 10 minutes later, after both you and the shopkeeper have diligently counted and double counted your little haul, you find you had enough to pay for the newspaper. You leave the shop about half a kilo lighter.
When that happens here and you need to lighten your load, the counting is quicker, the total is bigger and you’ve just bought the latest Harry Potter book with your spare change. Lovely!
And this little beauty……..
….is a fifty dollar note. Can you see what is different about it? Probably not, so allow me to tell you. It’s waterproof! Very handy when you live in a place in the middle of a great big wrap around beach.
The five, ten, twenty and one hundred dollar notes are all also waterproof. So Australians can surf and swim and still stash their cash.
Money. Wonderful isn’t it?
Water proof money?! Now that is great! Why haven’t we thought of that up in the rainy north? Not to mention the sheer amount of money that has been destroyed because someone forgot to empty their pockets before laundry day.
Seriously. Water proof money.
Yes, seriously, waterproof money. Great, isn’t it?
It’s beyond great! It’s amazing!
Maybe it’s about time I came up with “interesting fact about Australia number 5” then, I’d completely forgotten that I’d started this series 🙂
1 and a half years later and you still haven’t posted the 5th instalment! C’mon Bob!
I hadn’t forgotten, honest. These things take time you know, I can’t just rush in with any old interesting fact 🙂
Ah, the moment has come…
Interesting Fact About Australia #5: World’s Biggest Losers