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Tuesday, July 15. 2008
Chinese 1 Jiao Coin
While ordering a burrito at one of my favorite Harrisburg eating establishments, Neato Burrito, I handed some change to the cashier in exchange for the rolled meal. The sharp-eyed cashier noticed one of the coins I handed him wasn't what I thought it was.
Having never seen such a coin before I paid in more appropriate currency and went to a table, glad this entertaining item came up as a side activity to occupy myself with during lunch. While enjoying my burrito I used one of my ever present internet connected gadgets to look up what this coin was; a 1 Jiao Chinese coin, which is one-tenth of a Chinese Yuan. At current exchange rates it would be worth about one and a half cents.
Having never seen such a coin before I paid in more appropriate currency and went to a table, glad this entertaining item came up as a side activity to occupy myself with during lunch. While enjoying my burrito I used one of my ever present internet connected gadgets to look up what this coin was; a 1 Jiao Chinese coin, which is one-tenth of a Chinese Yuan. At current exchange rates it would be worth about one and a half cents.
According to research via ever-reliable online anecdotes, these seem to have similar uses to the penny in China. There is a smaller unit called the Fen (one tenth of a Jiao), but it seems Fen are worth so little that they have fallen out of use (at least in areas there where people blog in English). All Chinese monetary units are available in both paper and coin forms, unlike in the US where anything under a dollar is coin-only, with preferences between coin and paper tending to be regional in nature.
It has a lighter feel to it than the US nickel it is similar in size to (but smaller than), likely because it is made out of aluminum. Apparently it was confused for such by whatever party gave it to me as change.
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