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Using Euro coins as weights (2004)

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180 points Tomte | 10 comments | 20 Oct 24 10:18 UTC | HN request time: 0s | source | bottom
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modulovalue ◴[20 Oct 24 12:53 UTC] No.41895049[source]▶
I'm using euro cents as weights in my weighted vest.

When I started doing this I didn't want to afford dedicated weights as it seemed like a waste of money, but I had many cents saved up from my childhood, which I started to use instead.

I have roughly 15kg in euro cents in my vest and I'm regularly talking walks with it.

To get one kilo you need 435 cents and it turns out that in Germany you can also "buy" coins "for free" at the "Bundesbank", that is, you can exchange actual money for weights without any fees. You give 4 euros and 35 cents and you get a kilo. Once you need the money back, you can also sell those coins back to them for free.

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1. thenthenthen ◴[20 Oct 24 13:24 UTC] No.41895217[source]▶
Could you explain more? I do not understand how you can buy coins for free by paying coins for “weights” (what are these weights? What are they made from?). Also, what is the use for this? To check of your coins are real? Calibrate your coin scale?
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2. thfuran ◴[20 Oct 24 13:26 UTC] No.41895237[source]▶
You give bills and get pennies.
3. MadnessASAP ◴[20 Oct 24 13:26 UTC] No.41895239[source]▶
The coins are weights, the actual money is paper or electronic money.
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4. thenthenthen ◴[20 Oct 24 14:01 UTC] No.41895420[source]▶
How do you pay 35 cent in paper is still a mystery. But OP just means you can exchange/buy coins (and use them as weights)?
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5. flohofwoe ◴[20 Oct 24 14:15 UTC] No.41895508[source]▶
I guess OP means you don't need to buy above or sell below its value when "buying" or "selling" a metric shitton of small coins (like you would for gold for instance).

15 kilograms sounds excessive though, I bet the bank clerks hate that trick ;)

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6. brianshaler ◴[20 Oct 24 14:16 UTC] No.41895517{3}[source]▶
You should be just as mystified about the 4€ component.
7. thfuran ◴[20 Oct 24 17:05 UTC] No.41896821[source]▶
Banks usually stock pre-counted rolls of coins, and it's not much hassle to count out several of those. Though I guess 15 kg is probably going to be several dozen.
8. trompetenaccoun ◴[20 Oct 24 20:10 UTC] No.41898145[source]▶
Excuse the nerdy nitpick, I get the point but technically as far as "actual" money goes that's the coins. Electronic entries in bank ledgers are not legal tender.

One can of course go further and question if banknotes and coins should be called actually money. Today the nominal value is completely disconnected from what the metal is really worth, it's not like with gold coins back in the day. And once collective belief in the value is lost fiat money quickly becomes worthless. Zimbabwe and Venezuela are recent examples.

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9. killingtime74 ◴[20 Oct 24 20:16 UTC] No.41898176{3}[source]▶
Have to correct your nitpick. What you're talking about is currency not money. Not being legal tender doesn't mean it's not money. The majority of money sits as electronic entries in each country's central bank. https://www.investopedia.com/terms/c/currency.asp#:~:text=Th....
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10. trompetenaccoun ◴[21 Oct 24 00:09 UTC] No.41899580{4}[source]▶
True. I'm talking about private bank books, the kind of "electronic money" regular people use, which I assume is what the comment above referred to. Since only financial institutions have access to central bank accounts.