Question on Euro Coinage
I have a question on terms about our currency in Ireland.
After close on a decade away in which the changeover to the Euro from the Irish Pound took place, followed by little communication with people since my return to Ireland, I’m not as proficient on current words and phrases as I used to be.
You know the way we have change, and in pre-Euro days that change was made up of coppers and silver, well, how do we refer to the coinage that we use now?
Coppers I imagine are still coppers, only now in the denominations of 1 cent, 2 cent and 5 cent, but do we have a term for those goldy kind of coloured coins that are the 10c, 20c and 50c? Officially they’re Nordic Gold but I haven’t heard anybody at a bus stop ask anyone else if they had any Nordic Gold. I wish they would though.
And what of the partly silvered 1 euro and 2 euro coins - is there a colloquial reference to them? Can they still be referred to collectively as “silver”, or do we now have to be horribly specific as in “Do you have any 1-euro or 2-euro coins?”
I hope we’re not stuck with just a single word for all coinage, especially if that word is “coins”, and much as I like the term “slurry” I’d like there to be a range of words to play with.
How do you talk about your coins?
See Related:
• Banking 365
• Euro-Dollars
• Changing Euros to Dollars in the Midwest
• Finding Money on the Streets of Ireland and America
• Dublin Slanging Match
Eolaí gan Fhéile:
I’ve picked up a considerable amount of slang from my Canadian friends, including some coinage terms - “looney” for €1 (and CAD$1) and “tooney” for €2 (and CAD$2). Better than nothing!
Can’t say I’ve many new or least interesting terms.
Rubbish and junk are commonly used for 1c and 2c. The 5c could be included in this were it not for the pint in so many places costing €x.x5 - it is therefore a useful denomination.
Shrapnel for all coins below €1 though the word was in use pre-euro.
The €1 and €2 may be heard referred to as 1 yo-yo and 2 yo-yos or simply as a 1 and a 2 sans euro.
I’ve heard quid used for notes but not coin. Never have a heard a term that specifically applies to the 10c-20c-50c grouping.
Now none of that was of any help to you I know, but just to help you even less I’ll tell you a carpenter friend of mine always says the clankle-clankle during the week leads to the crinkle-crinkle on a Friday which becomes the clinkle-clinkle by Monday.
Catherine - I like tooney, but I’m not so keen on looney - which kind of kills the context. And I do agree it is better than nothing - do you ever Irishize the Canadian slang you’re picking up (and I don’t even know what I mean)?
Primal - That carpenter friend of yours wouldn’t have that issue if he wore an itsy bitsy teeny weeny yellow polka dot bikini.
I hadn’t discerned yo-yos being exclusively a coin term - is it? And I can’t say for certain but I would have guessed that I’ve heard cuid used for all forms. I need to pay more attention. Or just start my own terms. There could be gold in it. Nordic gold.
You’ll have to coin new terms for them yourself, Eolai.
I stand corrected. Yes, yo-yos can refer to notes, though in my experience it is more commonly used for coin only.
Cuid (quid for English speakers - don’t want to have Cuil being pronounced quil now do we?) I’ve found to be used for notes only.
Now that I remember, a two pound piece may be used for the €2.
All that said, I am a KE-reg, you a D. There will be differences/variations. What we need here is input from the G, C, DL etc. regs.
Ms Problem - Hmmmm. Euro so funny. Ha Ha!
Primal - the BBC TV programme Click covered Cuil last night, and didn’t trouble its English-speaking viewership with how ridiculous the “Irish” name is, instead in the brief and dismissmive report just told how the new search engine says its name should be pronounced.
If I ever become social again I’ll keep a close eye on regional variations.
Catherine - eh, you really can’t use the Looney in this case - it’s kind of Canada specific (the Canadian dollar has a loon on it = looney). Just seems off..
New slang will evolve eventually. Me, I just call them Euros (en masse) and get depressed over the exchange rate.
My fave slang for US currency has always been dead presidents
Susan - oh I know, it’s purely because of the denominations. I suppose this counts as “Irishising” Canadian slang