Money

We hosted a family of Norwegian friends for the past few weeks and it’s always interesting for me to hear what Norwegian’s take on America is, since I’m forever looking at the differences I see between our two countries.  This was their first time in the U.S. and right off the bat, my friend Tina, told me she thinks it’s “stupid” that all the paper money in America is green.  I’ve heard that one before and I must admit, I agree. 

All the countries we’ve visited, including Norway, have different sizes and colors of money for quickly identifying which bill is which.  Some countries even have braille bumps for the blind to be able to transact business.  America is often thought of as a leader in many arenas in life, but I think we are very far behind on this one. 

It also has never made sense to me that our government continues to “improve” our paper money, but they never make the old money obsolete.  If someone wants to counterfeit a dollar, I’m sure they could just copy the old stuff.  

Somebody told me recently that the new American money being printed with the foil strip down the side isn’t just to be flashy.  If enough of those bills are stacked together, it’s supposed to give off a signal that can be detected with some fancy new scanner.  Whether that’s true or not, I don’t know, but it wouldn’t surprise me if it were.  Stashes of cash usually indicate illegal activity.  Our government doesn’t take too kindly to that type of business so it would make sense they developed a way to curtail it.   If it is true, though, there might be some surprised old Norwegian guys I know getting their houses raided because they trust their mattresses more than the banks. 

My friend, Tina, also thought it was stupid that Americans use so many different types of coins.  Norway has just gotten rid of the smallest coins worth less than a kroner, currently valued at about 17 cents.  Again, I had to agree with her.  It especially doesn’t make sense that we still use the penny, since it now costs the government more than a penny to produce it.  Norwegians would be just too practical for that nonsense.  I’m sure somewhere in America though, there’s a copper producing executive that’s treating some government official very well, so they just keep making those pennies. 

I’ve noticed that things in America don’t have to make sense, as long as someone is making a profit - legally, of course.