When I was still in Chennai last month, I used to lament no end at the seemingly worthlessness of the 25paise and 50paise coins. In fact, there was once a time when I even argued that we ban the entire paise episode and started dealing in whole rupees instead. And with good reason too; I mean after all, apart from bus tickets and the occasional kick-knack at your roadside store, there really is nothing you can do with coins less than 1 rupee; even beggars scoff at you for tossing them something so pitiful!
Now some 3 weeks later, here in Germany, things are no better; only this time, it’s in cents. I don’t know if it’s just me but almost everything I seem to buy has an annoying 2 or 3 cents attached to it. A stupid bar of soap would cost me 98cents. So I give the guy a 1 Euro coin for which he politely and dutifully returns me two 1cent coins.
Now the question is, what do I do with this anyway? My wallet is full of at least a dozen such 1, 2 and 5 cent coins and I have to admit, it does look like of ridiculous fumbling for 98cents at the cash counter.
And I for the life of it seriously can’t understand why they price everything with a 69 cents or 36 cents attached to it. I mean does it really take the fun out of selling if those guys stuck to round numbers, say 70 cents, instead?
Call it culture shock, adaptation or whatever, but the way things are, guess I would be walking around with a pocket full of change for quite a long time..
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2 comments:
Man ! Stop lamenting on every little thing.
Your problem is that you are not used to such small monetary units yet ! Even I had at one time $68 in pennies !
To use them pennies up here's what you do. When you are preparing to leave for the day, Count exactly how many coins you have in your pocket.
Usually what I do is take 5 pennies, 4 nickles and 5 dimes and leave the rest at home. There is no limit on how many quarters I carry. So when I get to the counter, I know exactly what combination to give.
It's going to take some patience but it'll eventually get rid of those pennies !
Oh by the way, don't worry if you take too much time at the counter you have every right to choosing how you pay even if the queue behind you is getting restless !
And for the person behind the counter, don't worry about her time either. She's eventually getting paid !
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