The Euro & the Usability of Coins

It’s amazing how many times we overlook the importance of usability with objects we encounter on a daily basis. Take for instance, coins. This seemingly simple object has basic usability elements which should be considered during the design process:

1. Weight. It makes no sense to carry a coins which are heavy and are burdensome to transport in a pocket.
2. Size. They need to be small enough so that many of them can fit into a pocket, yet large enough to be easily read.
3. Material. Should be durable enough to resist wear and tear, yet not expensive to massively reproduce.
4. Art. A good coin should say something about the country and the culture it comes from.

I’d also argue there is a 5th trait which somehow seems to be lost in a survey of coins. Accessibility.

Let’s look at American coins.

There is zero logic to the corresponding value of the coin and the size. But most importantly it lacks any numeric representation. A foreigner using American coins needs to either recognize the coin or read the English text to interpret it’s value. Compare this with the Euro, which clearly denotes the value of each piece.

From an accessibility standpoint, American coins are unfriendly. They lack the universal visual data to quickly understand the value of each piece. Since we’re undergoing all this “change” lately, why don’t we just take a moment to revamp all our coins as well. Let’s make a Yankee version of the Euro.