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Message:: [QUOTE="GDJMSP, post: 1414489, member: 112"]Good Lord ! Guys, it's so simple as to be pathetic. The reason that the govt. referred to the Nothaus pieces as "coins" is the very same reason that John Q. Public calls them coins - they don't know what else to call them. There simply isn't another word that coveys the same meaning and level of understanding. Same thing goes for Daniel's pieces. Here, on this forum, I can say pieces and you KNOW what I am talking about. You know and understand what pieces means when I use it in this context. But I were out in public someplace and I used the word pieces in the very same sentence above John and Jane Public would look at me and go - HUH ? But if I said coins, they'd know what I meant. It's called common usage. Words, with very specific and exacting definitions, are misused in ordinary conversation ALL THE TIME. And that is what happens with the word coins. People simply do not know what other word to use. It's kind of like calling a cent a penny. A cent isn't a penny anymore than a cent is a dime. But it IS what people call them, penny is the word that people use. It's common usage. No, it doesn't make it right. But it does make it understandable.[/QUOTE]