Donate to Remove ads

Got a credit card? use our Credit Card & Finance Calculators

Thanks to johnstevens77,Bhoddhisatva,scotia,Anonymous,Cornytiv34, for Donating to support the site

Coins and coinage

Mind that apostrophe.
AleisterCrowley
Lemon Half
Posts: 6381
Joined: November 4th, 2016, 11:35 am
Has thanked: 1880 times
Been thanked: 2026 times

Coins and coinage

#220650

Postby AleisterCrowley » May 10th, 2019, 12:51 pm

Reading this article on the BBC;
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-48201920

This bit made me slightly uncomfortable
'The Royal Mint, the cash handling industry, banks and the Post Office regularly review the amount of coins circulating in the system.'

Now I, rightly or wrongly, would have written 'the amount of coinage circulating' or 'the number(s) of coins circulating'

What is correct, given that they are actually reviewing the numbers of various denominations of coins in circulation?

UncleEbenezer
The full Lemon
Posts: 10691
Joined: November 4th, 2016, 8:17 pm
Has thanked: 1459 times
Been thanked: 2965 times

Re: Coins and coinage

#220659

Postby UncleEbenezer » May 10th, 2019, 1:37 pm

"the amount of [plural]" grateth a little, indeed. But I'm not sure "coinage" is any better: the meaning is subtly different.

Should a lexical analysis consider the amount of words in our discourse, or the amount of word? Obviously neither: we might consider the amount of text, or we might formulate it differently to review volumes of verbiage.

swill453
Lemon Half
Posts: 7962
Joined: November 4th, 2016, 6:11 pm
Has thanked: 984 times
Been thanked: 3643 times

Re: Coins and coinage

#220670

Postby swill453 » May 10th, 2019, 2:27 pm

How about "amount of coin circulating..."?

Scott.

jfgw
Lemon Quarter
Posts: 2539
Joined: November 4th, 2016, 3:36 pm
Has thanked: 1097 times
Been thanked: 1146 times

Re: Coins and coinage

#220734

Postby jfgw » May 10th, 2019, 6:12 pm

swill453 wrote:How about "amount of coin circulating..."?

Scott.


"Amount" is used with a mass noun so I would consider "amount of coin" and "amount of coinage" to both be correct and of equivalent meaning. "Amount of coin", to me, sounds the better of the two although it may confuse those who think of the word "coin" purely as singular. (The "amount of coin" in a half-crown is several times the "amount of coin" in a farthing.)

"Amount of coin" is ambiguous, however. Does it refer to the number of coins, The total value of those coins, or the total mass of those coins?

Julian F. G. W.

XFool
The full Lemon
Posts: 12636
Joined: November 8th, 2016, 7:21 pm
Been thanked: 2608 times

Re: Coins and coinage

#221076

Postby XFool » May 12th, 2019, 2:48 pm

AleisterCrowley wrote:Reading this article on the BBC;
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-48201920

This bit made me slightly uncomfortable
'The Royal Mint, the cash handling industry, banks and the Post Office regularly review the amount of coins circulating in the system.'

Now I, rightly or wrongly, would have written 'the amount of coinage circulating' or 'the number(s) of coins circulating'

What is correct, given that they are actually reviewing the numbers of various denominations of coins in circulation?

Me, I might have said "quantity of coins/coinage circulating"

quantity
/ˈkwɒntɪti/
noun
1. the amount or number of a material or abstract thing not usually estimated by spatial measurement.
"the quantity and quality of the fruit can be controlled"
synonyms: amount, number, total, aggregate, sum, quota, group, size, mass, weight, volume, bulk, load, consignment, expanse, extent, length, area; More


But then:

coinage
/ˈkɔɪnɪdʒ/
noun
1. coins collectively.
"the volume of coinage in circulation"


So possibly should be "size/volume of coinage circulating".


Return to “Pedants' Place”

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 7 guests