From: John Cowan (cowan@mercury.ccil.org)
Date: Fri Aug 15 2003 - 22:24:19 EDT
Jill.Ramonsky@Aculab.com scripsit:
> What's more, in the Isle of Man (which is situated between Britain and
> Ireland) they accept pretty much any currency under the sun. You can pay for
> things in a mixture of pounds sterling, euro, US dollars, whatever. They
> don't care. Shops will just take anything, and if necessary make up an
> exchange rate on the spot. The reason they don't care is because they can
> actually spend this mix anywhere _else_ on the Isle of Man.
Similar things used to happen in Luxembourg, I believe.
> A very enlightened attitude, I find.
In 19th century California, it was common for things to cost 12.5
cents, although the U.S. has never made coins for this amount, nor for
0.5 cents either. To solve this problem, people used the following
arrangement: you could buy one such item with a quarter (25 cent coin)
and get a dime (10 cent coin) in change, or you could buy the item with
dime and get no change. Mark Twain, unsurprisingly, found a way to
beat the system: go to the Post Office and buy a 5-cent stamp, then
use the two dimes to buy two items.
-- "Kill Gorg)Bûn! Kill orc-folk! John Cowan No other words please Wild Men. jcowan@reutershealth.com Drive away bad air and darkness http://www.reutershealth.com with bright iron!" --Gh)Bân-buri-Ghân http://www.ccil.org/~cowan
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