Recently I read through a few of my old scrap books and found a couple of interesting articles from around the time that the $2 coin was released.
QuoteThe Treasurer Mr Keating said the size of the $2 coin was chosen to put some "rhyme and reason" back into the coinage. "This is a coin which will be used a lot and rather than carrying around great weight and quantity in the pocket or purse we went for the smaller coin, and we'll try and grade that into the denominations of the currency over time"
So it would seem that the size of the $2 coin was intended as the forerunner of smaller coins which never eventuated.
Soon after its release there was this article
QuoteShopkeepers, Old people, the blind and consumers complain that it is too small, and too much like a five cent coin, a two cent coin or a $1 coin. Shopkeepers say that it is so hard to distinguish from others that they are worried about short changing customers, and themselves. Consumers want to keep their $2 notes, but many shops are running low because banks are no longer handing them out.
I guess we've got used to them now
Quote from: 'MobOfRoos' pid='33671' dateline='1383878249'Soon after its release there was this article
QuoteShopkeepers, Old people, the blind and consumers complain that it is too small, and too much like a five cent coin, a two cent coin or a $1 coin. Shopkeepers say that it is so hard to distinguish from others that they are worried about short changing customers, and themselves. Consumers want to keep their $2 notes, but many shops are running low because banks are no longer handing them out.
I guess we've got used to them now
The majority of people hate anything new before release/implementation and immediately afterwards. 5 years later no-one can remember what the fuss was about.
Quote from: 'markn' pid='33672' dateline='1383878368'Quote from: 'MobOfRoos' pid='33671' dateline='1383878249'Soon after its release there was this article
QuoteShopkeepers, Old people, the blind and consumers complain that it is too small, and too much like a five cent coin, a two cent coin or a $1 coin. Shopkeepers say that it is so hard to distinguish from others that they are worried about short changing customers, and themselves. Consumers want to keep their $2 notes, but many shops are running low because banks are no longer handing them out.
I guess we've got used to them now
The majority of people hate anything new before release/implementation and immediately afterwards. 5 years later no-one can remember what the fuss was about.
I wouldn't say a majority, they just so happen to be the loudest.
Quote from: 'markn' pid='33672' dateline='1383878368'The majority of people hate anything new before release/implementation and immediately afterwards.
This is not always true. The $1 coin was pretty much universally welcomed back when it was introduced in 1984. I don't recall seeing any bad press about them at all.
The $2 coin was different. Too small, too thick, too easily lost for such a large face value, poor design; the complaints were legion. Whenever complaints arise, some people find things to nitpick; soon, people were pointing out that the "HH" designer's initials in the elder's armpit made it look like he'd been branded. Then come the conspiracy theories, with accusations of subliminal racism: the grasstree's colloquial nickname in some parts of the country is "black boy".
The HH "brand" was removed, but otherwise, the populace were told to take their $2 coins and like them. And we did, even though today we have perhaps a far more significant complaint about the $2 coin: it is far too easily counterfeited.