I was at Interesting 2008 earlier this year where we had a sneaky look at the redesigned coins, presented by their designer, along with the story of how they came to be. As the name of the event suggests, it was really interesting!
What I didn’t notice at the time, is a design flaw that I’m amazed was allowed to happen.
Take a look at the coins, do you see it?
Read about the new coins at the Royal Mint
There are no numbers. Meaning that if you can’t read, or just can’t read English, you’re at an immediate disadvantage.
This is such an obvious omission! How did this happen! Are they assuming that people will know what the coins are based on the previous coins? It might be the first time some people see our currency, they will be clueless.
Now maybe the transition will help, for a while there will be both the old and the new coins in circulation. This will probably solve the problem through comparison and thus familiarity. But how long are these coins going to be around, and how long until the old one disappear? I assume that banks will be collecting the old ones for several years to come, but one day the new ones will be the only ones. People think very short term don’t they.
Also…. coins? really? We don’t need them anymore. This is 2008 after-all, it’s the future! How much is this costing? I’m willing to bet that the cost is somewhere close to what the cost of transitioning away from coins to a newer technology would be..
Comment by Justin
November 26, 2008 @ 1:29 pm
Aren’t the numbers on the reverse side?
Comment by Joshua Russell
November 27, 2008 @ 6:15 pm
nope. you’d think that would make sense..
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December 2, 2008 @ 3:13 am
[...] was until Josh Russell pointed out an obvious flaw to me over coffee (and he’s thoughtfully pointed it out to everyone on his blog, phew): the tail sides have no numerals, just words. How are people who don’t read english, [...]
Comment by Robert Day
December 13, 2008 @ 8:50 pm
That’s pretty crazy to think that no one has noticed! Maybe it was a design choice, however, if it was, you would think that it would be obvious that not everyone can read English.
Comment by Amir
December 20, 2008 @ 12:17 pm
Fair point but roman numerals(1,2,3, etc.) will only work if people understand those already. In the Middle and Far East they use a different numering system. Although this issue did not seem to be relevant in the past.
Still, I think someone at the Royal Mint has made a design compromise as the new notes still have numbers. Also where would use put the numbers?
Comment by Adam
December 23, 2008 @ 9:55 pm
Saw my first one of these coins the other day and was pretty surprised to see that you were right dude. A tiny bit of pocket change research tells me that this isn’t the first time it’s happened but you are right, it’s dumb!
Comment by Steve
January 31, 2009 @ 1:45 pm
I have an April 2008 issue 20p coin that appears to be COPPER! It is slightly larger than a 1p coin and is round rather than seven-sided, otherwise it is identical to the cuporonickel version. Is this a mistake, a forgery or what? I would appreciate any answers.