Short of Money
A plaintive appeal for the provision of more shillings this week received the predictable brush- off from the Treasury. I often wonder why we are so long-suffering—or pig-headed---about our money. Some denomination or other seems always to have gone into hiding. And why do we make the coins so awkward to carry about and handle? With the exception of the sixpence and possibly the threepenny piece, all our coins are absurdly large or heavy. The penny is a sort of monetary dinosaur, miraculously preserved in be- ing if not in purchasing power. Returning to this country from abroad, the clumsy bulk of British money is dismaying after, say, the neat American coinage. Yet still we labour on with clanking and bulging pockets. If we are irrevocably committed to these overweight metal discs, at least we might have plenty of the right kind in circulation. There is no frustration quite like that of a man who has at last found a place to park his car, and who then discovers he is short of the coin for the meter.
Previous page
