Belgium trolls France with bonkers new commemorative coin Belgium has taken international trolling to the next level by minting a €2.50 coin to celebrate the Battle of Waterloo. France had objected to the plan to mint a €2 coin to mark the 200th anniversary of Napoleon's defeat and Belgium duly scrapped 180,000 coins. France said the battle “has a particular resonance in the …
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"(and why would you use it if it cost you 6Euro and it's only worth 2.5Euro)"
I take it you've never seen Brewster's Millions (R.I.P. Richard Pryor and John Candy).
It is also wrong. The coins can NOT be used to buy anything, even in Belgium. They are a collectors item, no more, no less.
If you dig a bit deeper there's a whole scene of coin collectors for these kind of things. The idea being that they are pretty rare and some day might be worth more. Or they like collecting them more than they like stamps? Who knows ;)
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Someone pulled those 20p coins out of a proof set and spent them. Some people working the register are suspicious of anything they don't recognize (like people in the US who refuse a $2 bill even though they are legal tender, since they are rarely used) and some will take anything if it is looks legit - and after all, they are only 20p, and who would counterfeit a 20p coin?
I mean, YOU got them as change at some point and didn't refuse them, right? If someone gave you a washer in change instead of a penny, and you decided to accept it because "hey I need a washer exactly that size, this will save me a trip to the hardware store" would that mean that people who say a washer isn't legal tender are wrong?
It can be used anywhere. However, due to the fact that it isn't legal tender, it can be refused when presented to settle a debt.
Same with Scottish and Northern Ireland pound sterling notes - can be accepted as payment for a debt anywhere in the UK, but as it's not legal tender it can be refused.
Credit cards, debit cards, cheques and other non-cash methods of payment aren't strictly speaking legal tender (i.e. it's totally legal for the person who is owed the money to refuse it)
Most Bank of England notes aren't legal tender in Scotland either, because the definition of it is so tight.
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When I visited the 'Panorama' near the battlefield, it left me with the impression the French had won. The true battlefield is no longer there in memoriam, as the French carefully scooped up all the topsoil to make the monument. Did we only get to keep our 'Waterloo' station because we added a fraction for Eurostar?
Some years back, some particularly publicity-desperate petty French politician complained loudly about the Eurostar terminus being at a place named after Waterloo.
The English reaction, which I saw from several independent sources, was "Certainly squire. No problem. We'll get the name changed right away. Agincourt Station it is."
It almost makes me want to use the Euro so we could employ their coin here.
Well this year we're rubbing the German's noses in it again with new £2 coins celebrating the first world war and a 50p coin for the Battle of Britain. Sadly it looks like the Royal Mint have missed the opportunity to bait the French with a 600 year anniversary Agincourt pound coin.
Well this year we're rubbing the German's noses in it again with new £2 coins celebrating the first world war and a 50p coin for the Battle of Britain.
Just the one German? And he's got more than one nose? (Check your punctuation.)
Actually, probably not even one. The ones I've met - Germans that is, not noses - seem pretty indifferent. We're the ones who seem to have retained the chip on the shoulder.
"the point is to annoy the French"
Maybe it wasn't. Maybe it was the only thing they could come up with to put on a coin. Let's face it, the list of famous Belgians probably has a single entry, and that's Poirot, so after you've put him on one coin, you're a bit stuck. And even then, that's only one side of the coin sorted.
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@Ledswinger, Ah yes... people always mistake Jaques Brel for a Frenchman ;-)"
Ahhh, but do not forget Plastique Bertrand, Jean Claude Van Damme et. al.
In fact Belgian punches above its weight for well known people given its size.
One of my French Army songs used to have the following in it:
"Pour les Belges y en a plus. Ce sont des tireurs au cul"
So perhaps the French deserve all they get.
"Don't know any famous Belgians outside of Poirot? Are you mad?"
No, I am not mad, but I seem to be single-handedly waving the banner of secretly self-deprecating British pretend-xenophobia, fighting off the barbarians who could evidently sit through Fawlty Towers: The Germans without cracking a smile (and who'd probably conclude that the humour was at the expense of the Teutons).
Fawlty Towers seems quite popular in Belgium and I even had some German friends who liked it... as an aside.
I think Belgium also holds the record for the most parliaments per capita and perhaps per square kilometer too :-)
It may also have the record for the longest period without a government in a Western country.
These last two are just speculation on my part...
"Gerardus Mercator, Leo Baekeland, Georges Lemaître , Jacky Ickx, Eddy Merckx, Justine Henin"
Famous?! I have never heard of any of those before now...
Mercator -- map maker
Baekeland -- plastics
Lemaître -- the Big Bang Theory
Ickx -- race-car driver
Merckx -- no clue
Henin -- tennis player.
If you've really never heard of Mercator, you paid no attention in geography class. Really. And if you've really never heard of Lemaître, you probably didn't pay much attention in physics class, either.
"In fact Belgian punches above its weight for well known people given its size."
Doesn't every country in the world (of any size) claim that, with the sole exception of Wales? I suppose the Belgians can take comfort that at least they weren't born Welsh.
In fact, maybe there's a way forward for Belgian odd-denomination coins: Countries we Belgies are glad we're not.
To be fair we celebrate Dunkirk as if it was a victory when in fact it was our troops running away as fast as they could.
Thatr's not intended as a slur on their bravery, it was the right thing to do it's just that we seem to act as if it was some great victory.
"To be fair we celebrate Dunkirk as if it was a victory"
We were fortunate that at the time Hitler still seems to have thought there was a possibility of making peace with Britain. German soldiers have said after the war that they were reluctant to shoot.
But we're British - celebrating massive cock-ups is what we do, it's part of the national culture of self-deprecation.
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