Five coin Test

In my, “Three 20 cent coins, similar but totally different”, story, I told how I had obtained a Fijian and New Zealand Twenty cent piece, and how that the “Head” side of the coin was very similar to the Australian coin.

I then went on to say that “If I was to put a Fijian, a New Zealand and an Australian 20 cent coin heads up on a table, I suspect very few Aussies would be able to pick the Aussie coin without inspecting them all closely.” Well I decided to put my theory to the test.

To make it a little bit more challenging, I decided to use three Aussie coins with the two ring-ns. In picking my Australian coins I found that we too have a variety of faces on the “Tails” side but on the “heads” side we have two similar but distinctly different pictures of the Queen. On the earlier coins, she is younger. On the later Coins, she is a little older. Anyway I put my five coins face up on a table or bench and challenge people to choose the two duds.

Apart from those who cheat and read the writing on the face, most but not all, pick the Fijian Coin among their two guesses, but most again need a second go for the Kiwi coin, with a few never getting it till they come to the last coin.

Apart from being a time waster and amusing to some, what does my test prove?

It proves that mostly we don’t pay much attention to the small things, even to the point of not even being able to tell what is genuine and what is not. It seems that we don’t worry too much about the littler things but worry about the big things. Like counterfeit Fifty Dollar Notes.

Yet it has been said that if we get the little things right the big things will naturally follow. What say you? Walter