Your Money is Prettier Than Mine

These are bills of Singapore currency. Pictured are the most commonly used bills. There's the 10, 5 and 2. For the coins from top to bottom we have the one dollar coin, the 50 cent, 20 cent, 10 cent and 5 cent. Not pictured: the 50 dollar bill. Sorry, I was broke today.

I wanted to show you this to prove just how much it looks like Monopoly money. In fact, even after living here for over a year, I still spend this as if it is Monopoly money because it still doesn't feel like real money to me. You want 10 Sing dollars for one Coke? Sure, here ya go! A 50 Sing dollar cab ride? Why not?! However, give me a US $20 and I'll put the death grip on it and not spend a dime. I'm just ridiculous like that.

One of the Singaporeans at work is going to the States soon for a visit. Yesterday, she expressed to me her concern over the difficulty in telling American money apart.

Singaporean: "It all look the same lah! How can tell it apart?"

Me: "Uh, you just read it, silly."

Singaporean: "I know lah, but Singapore money so easy. All bills are different size and color. And your coins are very confusing. Like your 10 cents smaller than the five cents."

Me: "Ha ha. I have no idea why that is. You got me there."

I then went on to explain to her that it's even confusing for Americans at first. We are taught how to recognize our coins in school. I still remember my coin flash cards from the first or second grade. Even then I wondered why the heck the dime was smaller than the nickel.

So now I really wanna know: Why the heck is our money all the same color? It does make it really easy to confuse the different bills (in comparison to my Singapore Monopoly money anyway.) Here, I can take one look at my wallet and without taking the bills out, I know exactly what I have just by looking at the color and size of the bills. It's so convenient.

And why the heck is the dime smaller than the nickel?

Tsk tsk US Mint. Singapore is one-upping us in our money design situation.