function and artistic expression

[cellio]

I don't really think of myself as a Phillistine (culturally speaking), but I think my views on art and function are more conservative than those of some of the people around me.

When they redesigned US paper money a few years back, a lot of people thought the results were much prettier than before. But usability for me went way down, because I found the font they used for the numbers on the front to be illegible, and I could no longer tell whether I was holding a 10 or a 20 without looking at the back. This is a nuisance when digging through a wallet. And I can't believe that it wasn't at least a little harder even for people with good vision. So to me the new peach 20s are a major improvement, at least for now. We'll see what happens when they do the 10s.

I've heard some people critique the new peach bills in various ways, liking the treatment of the background or disliking some aspect of the portrait or the like. And I'm sure the government spent an amount several times my annual income on the artistic aspects of the bill (as opposed to the anti-counterfeiting aspects). But c'mon, it's just money! I'd rather have pretty money than ugly money all other things being equal, but I really don't care. Its job is to live in my wallet until I want to exchange it for goods or services. And as soon as the art gets in the way of that function, I get annoyed.

Take, for example, the new quarters. There are now 51 different versions of the quarter. If I pull a quarter out of my pocket and I'm looking at the back, I can't tell what coin I'm holding. It's probably a US quarter, but for all I know it's an SBA or a Canadian coin or something else wonky that showed up in the change from the store. I have to flip it over and look at the front to know -- all in the name of art, because having one design instead of 51 was boring or something. I want the old quarters back because the new ones introduced a bug without a corresponding feature. Some think the new art is a feature, of course, but my vision isn't good enough to appreciate that -- and even if it were, it still interferes with function.

So now they're redesinging the nickel. Fortunately there will only be two or three versions in circulation, rather than 51, but I still have to ask why. Was the old one broken? I haven't heard anyone make that argument. The old one wasn't even ugly! (At least the nickel starts out less ambiguous than the quarter does.)

Lots of software chooses art over usability, whether it's graphics, fonts, weird command sequences, inconsistent behavior, or the like. (You also see this in a lot of web sites, of course.) I've pretty much given up there; the software world seems to prefer the notion that art is allowed to prevent function. But I'm frustrated when I see that approach migrate into my world at large.

Again, I'm all for art -- in appropriate venues. But basic functionality has to come first. If I'm standing at the parking meter and can't tell effortlessly what coin I'm holding, I don't give a damn if it's pretty.

Comments

[arib.livejournal.com]

redesigning the nickel? how?

[geekosaur]

Changing the back from Monticello to commemorate the Louisiana Purchase, and then again 2 years from now to commemorate the Lewis and Clark expedition.

[estherchaya.livejournal.com]

both designs are in 2004. The Louisiana purchase coin is for Spring 2004, and the Louis and Clark coin is Fall 2004.

See www.usmint.gov for pictures.

[vonstrassburg.livejournal.com]

I have to say that USA currency is the least useful in the world.

Nowhere on your quarters does it contain the words "25 cents". Nowhere on your dimes does it contain the words "10 cents" or even the number 10 at all. You'd have to be born there or reasonably familiar with your money in the first place to figure out what those coins are for.

Added to that, all of your money is the same colour. It's not very useful at all, especially that wallets there can get very crowded with $1 notes fairly quickly.

[cellio]

Yes, our coin labelling is pretty pathetic. For comparison, I glanced through my small pile of miscellaneous foreign coins, and all of the following were clearly marked with numerals (not just words): 1 franc, 200 lire, $2 Canadian, 5 agurot, 1 shekel (NIS), and I think there were one or two more. (My only foreign bill at the moment is a 10-dinar note from Saddam's regime. It's clearly labelled too.) Even if I don't know how much an agurah is worth compared to a shekel, I can at least compare numbers for like units (e.g. 100 vs 200 lire, 5 vs 10 agurot, etc) and be far ahead compared to a visitor to the US trying to figure out our money.

If they're going to redesign our currency anyway, they should at least do some usability analysis.

[goljerp]

My feelings about the paper money: if they were going to redesign it, they should've at least made it not look horribly ugly. The new 20s are only slightly less horrible than the old ones, IMHO.

Quarters: I suspect that the real reason for all the backs is to spur coin collecting. There isn't as big an incentive to get people to collect coins as there is to get people to collect stamps (you get people to pay for a service but never actually have to deliver it), but there are some of the same factors at play. I also dislike the 50-state designs. Just a minor nipick, though: it's not 51 quarters, it's 52 - there are still some 1976 quarters around.

Nickel redesign: I'll have to see what it's like.

American coinage is pretty screwy

Value:
penny < nickel < dime < quarter < sac $ = SBA $

size:
sac $ = SBA $ =? quarter > nickel > penny > dime

color:
SBA $ = quarter = nickel = dime != penny =? sac $

And then there's the actual markings on the coinage.

penny says "ONE CENT" on it
nickel says "FIVE CENTS" on it in fairly small lettering
so someone who isn't familiar with our coinage might have some difficulty realizing a penny is "ONE CENT" and a nickel is "FIVE CENTS", and a cent is 1/100th of a dollar, but at least things are farily logical so far.
dime says "ONE DIME". Terrific. What is that in relationship to a "CENT"? A dollar? At least its common name is on it.
quarter says "QUARTER DOLLAR". What is that in CENTs? DIMEs?

None of these coins have numerals indicating their value. The terminology is not uniform, and the sizes are wacky.

Goljerp's solution:
1. get rid of the penny. They're worth nothing anyhow.
2. get rid of the dollar bill - switch entirely to dollar coins
3. radical redesign of coinage: make the size of the coin reflect the value. Since none of our coins are pure silver/nickel/copper/etc. anymore anyhow, let's make the sizes reasonable
4. numerals are friendly. Put 'em on the coins.
5. while we're redesigning the sizes of the coins, make a dollar coin which is not almost the same size as a quarter. The Sacagawea coin at least is a different color than a quarter, but that's not enough. (Actually, I just looked at the US Mint web site - they didn't have that much choice as to the size.

Yes, the vending machine companies will have to redo everything. They'll deal, just like they've dealt with the new bills.

Ugh. I've rambled enough. Now I must sleep.

[estherchaya.livejournal.com]

2. get rid of the dollar bill - switch entirely to dollar coins

The government hesitates to do that in part because it will devalue the dollar. That is, people perceive coins to be of insignificant value, and bills of somewhat more significant value. Therefore, people's perceived value of the dollar will decrease.

[goljerp]

people's perceived value of the dollar will decrease.

Interesting. I hadn't thought about that.

But, the thing is, the actual value of the dollar has decreased over time - inflation and all that. The thought is that it'll increase inflation?

From one point of view, coins are more economical than bills. The "golden dollar" coin cost 10.03 cents to make in 2000, and coins last about 30 years in circulation. (To compare, $1 bills cost 4.2 cents per note to make in 1999, but last only 1.8 years.)

I thought it was amusing ...

[dagonell.livejournal.com]

When Canada switched to $1 & $2 coins, they got huge protests from strippers! Now the smallest bill that can be stuffed in a garter is a $5 and most guys won't tip a five as often as they'd tip five ones.

Re: I thought it was amusing ...

[goljerp]

most guys won't tip a five as often as they'd tip five ones.

This is something I didn't think about at all. I guess tipping five ones gives more opportunity for, er, proximity. I don't have a solution to this one. (Except, hmm... maybe strip clubs could print their own one-dollar thingies, which they'd sell to patrons... dunno about the legality/practicality of it, although video game tokens are OK...)

Re: I thought it was amusing ...

[cellio]

:-) I never would have anticipated that, but you're right: that would make a real difference!

[dvarin.livejournal.com]

I discovered my coins-are-worthless training when I was in Japan--I'd just throw the coins I got as change into my pocket and never think about them again. But, since the smallest Japanese paper note is approximately $9 and the largest coin approximately $4.50, I'd be frequently wondering how I had run out of money so quickly (because my wallet was empty) when I still had $25 worth of coins in my pocket. :)

[goljerp]

I discovered my coins-are-worthless training when I was in Japan

Yeah, I have the same feeling... but that's because in the US, coins generally are worthless.

When I was in Israel in '97-98 I had a similar experience at first - the 10 NIS (New Israeli Shekel) coins were worth about $3.30, so it was easy to get a lot of money in coins. After a little while, I changed my habits, so I didn't collect huge piles of coins.

The smallest coin in circulation at the time was 5 agorot (5/100ths of a shekel). There were a few 1 agora coins around, but nobody bothered with them - most prices were rounded to the nearest 5 agorot. In fact, most prices were even numbers of shekels, so I didn't end up with tons of worthless change the way I do here.

Actually there are some nice photos of the coins -- note the use of color (copper colored coins are worth less than 1 shekel; silver colored coins are worth more) and size/shape (although the 10 NIS coin isn't too much larger than the 5 NIS, the feel is quite different and I never had any problem finding 'em in my pocket. Also the 'silver' coins were thicker than the 'copper' ones.)

[cellio]

Thanks for the link!

I have in front of me a 5 agurot, a 10 agurot, and a 1 shekel. (Sorry, no one's ever given me multi-shekel coins; that would start to get real.) They match the pictures at that site, of course. The shekel is considerably thicker than the 5 agurot, so that and color serve to easily distinguish them despite their comparable diameter, even before you consider the great big "5". I have no problem telling these coins apart.

The 10-shekel coin violates the "silver for shekels" rule you gave, but it looks like it's one of those two-metal coins (like the $2 Canadian coin), so it's pretty different from everything else anyway.

[goljerp]

The 10-shekel coin violates the "silver for shekels" rule you gave

Yeah, it isn't the same color as the 1 and 5 shekel coins. I remember the outer ring being more silver-y than it looks in the photo, but that could be just my mind making the facts fit with my theory. It's sort of a dull silver color... OK, according to the Bank of Israel, the outer ring is "nickel bonded steel".

it looks like it's one of those two-metal coins (like the $2 Canadian coin), so it's pretty different from everything else anyway.

Indeed it is. Also, there are real grooves on the front and back of the coin (you can see them on the left side, in the pictures), which gave the coins a very distinctive feel. They were fairly new when I was there (according to the Bank of Israel, they were first minted in '95), so I don't know how the grooves will hold up over an extended period of time.

[browngirl.livejournal.com]

There is an art to being gracefully functional, or, in other words,I agree with you!

[mabfan.livejournal.com]

There are actually 52 quarter designs that will be in circulation by the time the state quarters are all minted. I still get the ocassional 1976 "bicentennial" quarter with the drummer on the back instead of the eagle.

[cellio]

You're right; I completely forgot about the bicentennial quarters. It's been years since I've seen one.

[filkerdave.livejournal.com]

I got several just the other day. Unless coins wear out, there's no reason to take them out of circulation.

OTOH, I tell US coins by feel, rather than by sight, so it's not a problem for me.

[estherchaya.livejournal.com]

I could no longer tell whether I was holding a 10 or a 20 without looking at the back. This is a nuisance when digging through a wallet. And I can't believe that it wasn't at least a little harder even for people with good vision.

I don't have good vision, and I can say in all honesty that I had no problem telling the difference between 10s and 20s when the new bills came out. That said, I understand why you had the difficulty, but I have no difficulty believing that others did not have this issue.

If I pull a quarter out of my pocket and I'm looking at the back, I can't tell what coin I'm holding. It's probably a US quarter, but for all I know it's an SBA or a Canadian coin or something else wonky that showed up in the change from the store.

I can tell the difference by feel and weight 99% of the time. I don't know that I even look at coins unless I'm interested in what's on them.

All that said, you know that I'm not a big fan of the changes to the money, though I understand the reasons it has to happen. But I guess the longer I've debated the issue (in my own journal and elsewhere), the more I've found peace with the changes.