May, 15, 2003 archives
that will be 18 cents, please
a mathematician did a little scribbling, and says we should ditch the dime for less change, replacing it with an 18¢ piece. that would be truly odd. imagine the innumerate trying to give change with that. using a different algorithm for giving change, the single addition that would be most effective is either a 2¢ or 3¢ coin. i got tripped up by the two pence coin while passing through heathrow. it is one of the largest coins, despite the small value. it seemed pretty pointless to me.
one aspect of his calculations that seems like it should have been easy to fix is assuming that any amount of change from 1¢ to 99¢ is equally likely. there must be any number of companies (wal-mart, burger king, etc) that would be able to provide a breakdown that would provide some clue of how valid this is. i wonder if any of them have done any analysis on how their own prices impact the amount of change they have to deal with.