【一起听英语】硬币

生产硬币的成本有多大，一美分的硬币生产成本会比它本身的价值还大吗？

Rob: Hello I’m Rob and this is 6 Minute English. With me today is Finn. Hello Finn.

Finn: Hello Rob.

Rob: Today we’re discussing money.

Finn: Money – a subject close to my heart. But we’re not talking about big money are

we?

Rob: No, we’re talking about the humble 1 penny. The Canadian penny, to be more

precise. It’s going to be withdrawn 2 from circulation because production costs

have exceeded its monetary 3 value.

Finn: So there’s not much time left to ‘spend a penny’!

Rob: That’s a very good penny idiom and I’m sure there are plenty more we’ll mention

in today’s programme.

Finn: Yes – but of course the penny is not the proper name for this small Canadian

coin – its official name is the cent. Do we have any cent idioms today?

Rob: We don’t but, as always, I do have a question to ask you.

Finn: OK.

Rob: Well, on the theme of money, in which country would you use the Tambala coin?

Is it:

a) Malawi

b) Madagascar

c) Myanmar

6 Minute English © bbclearningenglish.com 2013

Page 2 of 5

Finn: I don’t know the answer. It sounds like an African country, so I’m going to say

Malawi.

Rob: Malawi. Well, I’ll let you know the answer at the end of the programme. But let’s

get back to the news the Canadian penny – or cent - is being withdrawn from

circulation.

Finn: The Royal Canadian Mint will no longer distribute the coin to financial institutions

around the country, but it will remain legal tender.

Rob: Legal tender – that means shops can still accept the coin as payment for things.

But it’s slowly going to disappear because places like banks will not be given any

new ones. So why is this?

Finn: I suppose the coin does not have much value – and personally, I find having

loads of small coins in my pocket really annoying.

Rob: It’s true, although all those pennies can add up to a lot of money, so I like to

save them in a big jar. People say if you take care of the pennies, the pounds

will take care of themselves!

Finn: Well in Canada, at least, there will be fewer pennies to collect, it might be nickels

instead. Nickels are worth five cents each. That’s because the government has

advised shop owners to round out prices to the nearest nickel for cash

transactions. That means to increase or round up, or decrease or round down to

the nearest nickel.

Rob: Canada is not alone in withdrawing small coins. Other countries, such as New

Zealand, Australia, the Netherlands, Finland and Sweden, no longer use the

penny. And here in the UK, some people think the penny is a waste of space.

Finn: Peter Nichols is a coin dealer 4; would he miss the British penny if it was

withdrawn?

Peter Nichols, British coin dealer:

Not at all, I don’t even count them in the till. When the section gets too full I put them in the

charity box, that’s more where it comes from now, yeah.

6 Minute English © bbclearningenglish.com 2013

Page 3 of 5

Rob: So he wouldn’t miss them. The pennies he gets now go in to a box where money

is collected for charity. So they are a nuisance – they just get in the way.

Finn: Of course the other problem with these small coins is how much they cost to

make. They are not cost-effective. In Canada, it costs 1.6 cents to make a 1 cent

coin. That means it costs the economy a pretty penny.

Rob: A pretty penny! That means a large sum of money. Yes, the Canadian economy

makes a loss of 11 million Canadian dollars every year by making these coins.

That’s a big loss from a small coin. But back in the UK, some people are fond of

this humble coin. They want to look after the penny.

Finn: Could we say they are ‘penny pinchers’ Rob? That’s what we call people who are

careful with how they spend their money – they count every penny!

Rob: That’s not me and it isn’t Phil Mussel, who is a numismatist 5 – that’s someone

who collects and studies coins…

Phil Mussel, Director of Coin News magazine:

I think it would be a great shame if we got rid of the penny. It’s one of those iconic coins of

Britain. We've had the coin since 780, and we’ve had it ever since. In fact up until the

fourteenth century, it was the only coin in circulation.

Finn: So Phil Mussel is nostalgic about the British penny. He calls it an iconic coin – it

represents or is a symbol of British currency.

Rob: By getting rid of the penny altogether, there is fear that it could create

inflation, as shop keepers round up prices.

Finn: Phil Mussel fears if it happened in the UK, prices would only go up – that is

inevitable 6 – it will happen.

Rob: Well that would make our wallets and pockets a lot lighter 7!

Finn: What? Ah, the penny’s dropped, I see what you mean!

Rob: Good. Well here is something that is inevitable, the answer to this week’s

question. Earlier, I asked you in which country would you use the Tambala coin?

Finn: And I said Malawi. Was I right? 

6 Minute English © bbclearningenglish.com 2013

Page 4 of 5

Rob: You were right. The Tambala coin is legal tender in Malawi 100 Tambalas make

one Kwacha. OK, it’s almost time to go but before we do, Finn could you remind

us of some of the words we have heard today.

Finn: Yes. We heard:

humble

circulation

legal tender

to round out, up or down

a nuisance

a pretty penny

numismatist

iconic

inflation

inevitable

Rob: Well, that’s all we have time for today. Please join us again soon for Six Minute

English from bbclearningenglish.com