The Only Thing Constant is Change

When the pastry costs 1€ 80 centimes, I often give 2€ and 5 centimes in order to get a quarter back. They look at me funny, of course, and turn around and hand me back the 5 centimes, along with the 20 centimes they would have given me in the first place.

There are 1, 2, 5, 10, 20, and 50 centimes, along with 1€ and 2€, coins, but I frequently still find myself thinking in terms of 1, 5, 10, 25, and trying to give them coins so that I can get the least possible amount of change, accordingly. My thought process works something like this: "This costs 11,43€ (we would write 11.43€). So if I give him 12€ I get back 62 centimes. But if I can give him 3 centimes, I would get back 65 centimes." 62 centimes is actually only three coins -- 50, 10, and 2 -- as is 65 centimes, so it does me no good. But I try anyway. If this reminds you of my time-telling issues (which are now worse, because my rental phone failed to fall back at the time change in October, so all of my previous calculations have to be re-jiggered), just be glad you're not the person behind me in line. Adding to that poor person's exasperation is the fact that I am still sloooooooow when it's time to recognize my coins. I stop to examine each one carefully, looking for the denomination.

Anthony, who is far more mathematically-minded than I am, has his own money problems, since the girls have started playing with our foreign-coin collection and mixing them in with the regular change jar. At first, it is unclear to Anthony why the shopkeeper won't accept his 2€ coin, until he realizes it is, in fact, a Thai coin -- just the right size, with the silver ring around a copper-colored center. [Look above in the photo: I lined up all denominations of coins at the top, from left to right: 2€, 1€, then 50, 20, 10, 5, 2, 1 centimes. And if you look just below the 2 centimes piece, you will see what looks like a 2€ coin but is, in fact, the Thai coin, sandwiched between the 2 centimes piece and a real 2€ coin.]

I've been trying to spend down the change jar lately. When you have coins up to 2€, and the smallest paper bill is 5€ (about $7), you end up with a lot in the change jar. At almost any moment, I could come up with $50 worth of coins. Just the handful above, for example, is over 20€, or nearly $30. Several times, when I've realized I didn't have cash in my pocket nor time to stop at the ATM, I've just grabbed a big handful of coins and made it through my day without problems. Other than the woman behind me in line glaring at me impatiently. And the fact that I don't know the time. And the sagging pockets, that is.