Germans carry a purse but don’t wear their phone
100% of German men carry a purse as part of their wallet, in which they put their coins. Although this coin purse is a very handy feature of a wallet, be prepared for your American friends to make fun of your lacking manhood upon your return to the States for being a purse-carrying pansy. Real American men apparently always say “keep the change”, or at least use their debit cards to avoid the jing-a-ling. Enjoy your coin purse while in Europe, but be ready for holes in your pockets again after moving back.
Since Germany is a mostly cash based society that hates customer service, a coin purse can be quite useful when paying for something, because the cashier usually demands that you dig out some combination of coins, so that she doesn’t have to make as much change for you. Since Europeans decided to make their coins into categories of nearly equal size, shape, and color, you won’t be able to sort out the correct coins very quickly as 2 cents and 5 cents look basically identical. The 10 cent coin and 20 cent coin are also indistinguishable to the untrained eye, so trying to quickly sort through your coins to appease the cashier who doesn’t want to bothered with this task (although her coins are already sorted), while trying to keep things moving in the fast growing line of impatient shoppers isn’t really an experience you want to go through with. But having an empty coin purse to flash to the cashier to let her know that today she has to do her job is quite practical.
What the Germans almost never do is wear their cell phone on their belts. It makes it difficult to tell who is an important person in Germany, since no one is seen with a PDA, pager, work phone, and personal cell phone tethered to their waist, as a badge of their limitless availability to TCB. Maybe having a coin purse frees up a pocket for the Handy.
July 23rd, 2008 at 12:35 am
Well, considering the value of our coins, that should not be too much of an surprise, the 2€ coin is worth something about 3 dollars. I would prefer 1 and 2 € bills though.
On the other hand, coins do have an certain “medieaval” touch, that I really like. Even though the new € coins are designed pretty crappy and not as pretty as for example the british pund.
Cheers Kuang
July 23rd, 2008 at 12:44 am
Don’t forget that European favorite, the man purse (aka “murse”, or, in Seinfeld, the European Carryall).
July 23rd, 2008 at 12:50 am
Cell phones on the belt? I always assumed that only dorks and self important pricks would do that. I cannot imagine that anyone would take someone serious that wears his cell phone on the belt.
July 23rd, 2008 at 1:48 am
I agree with Kuang about the bills. Then I could stop having to exchange my 1 and 2€ coins for fake American dollar bills with bikini clad women printed on them every time I want to enjoy some eastern European female entertainment at Tahiti Club.
Although the trick is to use real American dollar bills and save yourself 0.33€ or so on the exchange rate…. 0 =)
July 23rd, 2008 at 6:32 am
More annoying than carrying coins with you is that you won’t EVER get to spend the 1-5ct-Coins. All they ever do is getting more and more, so someday i have to sort the whole thing and put all those shiny litle coins into a bag at home.
Once or twice a year im going to bring all those shiny litle coins back to my bank and got up to 1-2€ onto my bank-account… WHOOOOOOHOOOO!
July 23rd, 2008 at 6:43 am
Make this 100% minus one. I’ve never had a purse, and am a german male
I carry my money in my trousers’ pockets. Never been a problem.
July 23rd, 2008 at 6:54 am
What’s a TCB? Maybe Total c? business?
July 23rd, 2008 at 7:13 am
Make this 99% minus another one
I call coins “Abfallgeld” / “Trashmoney” and I collect it either in the car (To pay McD or the parking space) or in a ugly pig at home…
July 23rd, 2008 at 7:15 am
I like the 20 Cent (Euro) coin, its shape looks funny and distinguishable.
July 23rd, 2008 at 7:48 am
I think other countries like Holland got rid of the 1ct and 2ct coins by just rounding up or down for you. Sometimes you pay less, sometimes more, but in the end, its all the same.
Mobiles on a belt? I tried that once: what happend? I lost my phone. DUH! so..back to the pocket with the phone.
But thanks to you, i now know there is a difference between purse and wallet! But how do americans manage all there different cards? i am having more problems with that, the wallet gets thicker and thicker….like a brick in the pants.
July 23rd, 2008 at 8:36 am
Coins suck! I imported a money clip from the US. Works much better. Get rid of all coins < 1€ and put the rest in the designated pocket in your jeans.
July 23rd, 2008 at 8:39 am
I agree with michael, mobiles on the belt look totally stupid and braggy in my eyes.
July 23rd, 2008 at 8:59 am
Yeah, that’s just because mobiles on the belt look really gay. Und spießig, as you would say in Germany.
July 23rd, 2008 at 11:05 am
I hate that you’re always right
July 23rd, 2008 at 11:10 am
Wearing your cellphone on the belt is so 90s. I would be embarassed to do that nowadays.
July 23rd, 2008 at 11:36 am
yeah, it’s annoying waiting for someone to search for the correct change at the register….but it still beats getting stuck behind customers in the US who take forever writing checks ;^)
July 23rd, 2008 at 11:49 am
Finally someone who noticed that as well: I am so annoyed when they ask me if I can dig out xx cent so they won’t have to call their manager to get new supplies of coins for their cash registers. So, if I am tired or in a foul mood, my answer usually is NO.
About the mobile phones and belts … YIKES! That is so disgusting. I don’t think anyone of serious rank would do that, as it looks cheesy and completely stupid. And remember: if you are important, you know it and the people that need to know it know it as well. You don’t have to show off.
Only people with some serious self-esteem issues would do that, I guess.
July 23rd, 2008 at 12:19 pm
When mobiles started to spread in germany (yes, 10 years ago, it wasn’t standard to own one) lots of people wore it on their belts. Maybe to show “Yeah, I am really important, so important, I don’t care to pay 50€ fee per month plus 2€ per minute talking…” To make fun of them, some of us wore several phones (without contract or cash on it) on the belts. 90s…
And the Coins: As you already noticed, Germans sweat the small stuff
Since our smallest bill is 5 €, obout 7 $, you should be really rich to avoid coins. But I would although apreciate to abolish the 1 and 2 cent coins, like for example Finland does.
July 23rd, 2008 at 2:13 pm
Did anyone else hear the recent survey at grocery cahs register’s that you are quicker when everyone pays with cash than when everyone would pay with plastic? Maybe that is why we like our coins. Maybe it is timesaving. Who knows.
But I guess on the other hand this survey didn’t take all age groups into consideration. There actually are people in Germany who have the balls to pay a loaf of bread with only cent coins. Or they just stick their wallet into the face of the registar so s/he can collect the exact amount him/ herself.
July 23rd, 2008 at 3:23 pm
First thing I got rid off when I moved to the US… the big wallet with coin purse. Plastic money FTW!
July 23rd, 2008 at 4:15 pm
The more recent debit card terminals in grocery stores are really quick … doesn’t take 10 seconds for the entire transaction, provided you have your card ready and don’t mess up the PIN.
Anywho … I like my coin purse. Got some nice Souvenirs in there, like a Florida Quarter (which also works as a shopping card coin) and some smashed pennies with animals on them.
When I’m in the US I use a money clip with card holder though. When in Rome do as the romans do, right?
July 23rd, 2008 at 4:35 pm
Hi
Euro-Coins are very easy to identify:
1, 2 and 5 cent: copper colour… different in size
10, 20 and 50 cent: brass colour, different in size. 10 and 50 Cent have fine scallops at the edge. Pretty is the 20 Cent coint - it is shaped like a flower (Seven indents at the edge (”Spanish flower”))
1 Euro inside silver, outside golden ring
2 Euro inside gold, outside silver ring, bigger in size, embossed letters (different for each country), embedded in mills, all around the edge
it is so easy: the biggest coin of every colour is the most valuable coin
Higher value = higher weight!
And the coins are very easy to recognize for blind people !
Wendy
July 23rd, 2008 at 4:46 pm
Frank, “take care of business”.
July 23rd, 2008 at 6:12 pm
“Since Europeans decided to make their coins into categories of nearly equal size, shape, and color, you won’t be able to sort out the correct coins very quickly as 2 cents and 5 cents look basically identical.”
Says the american with a wallet full of green, ABSOLUTELY identical looking, paper money
“Since Germany is a mostly cash based society that hates customer service”
Thats so not true, but we use ec/maestro-cards instead of credit cards because many shops refuse to take credit cards because of the high fees they have to pay to the credit-companies. Personally I just need cash to buy breakfast….and weed (and to “refuel” my cash card/employee-id to buy lunch @work — I work in an office where actually no cash is used to buy stuff, but we still have an ATM in the lobby)
“What the Germans almost never do is wear their cell phone on their belts”
Thats because we aren’t frickin’ morons who are desperately trying to look stupid
July 23rd, 2008 at 7:31 pm
*I* do wear my cell phone on my belt! Although most of the time it is hidden underneath the shirt or pullover. In fact, the thought that this could be considered pretentious never has occured to me until I read this comments here! (Every Hartz-IV-Empfänger can nowadays afford to own a cell phone, so what is there to brag about?) The reason I wear my phone on the belt is that I have more space in my pockets this way, and I don’t have to rummage for it when I want to use it or it rings. It is very - handy! (Pun of course intended!
)
July 23rd, 2008 at 7:39 pm
What I noticed was the automatic refering to the cashier as a “she” … although the majority of cashiers in Germany and elsewhere may be female, this still seems a little prejudiced, or something. whatever.
July 23rd, 2008 at 7:41 pm
btw, wearing your cell on the belt is SO horrible. that’s just awful and actually fits some german stereotype I have in my head.
July 23rd, 2008 at 7:41 pm
Are you accusing me of generalizing too much on this site?
July 23rd, 2008 at 7:45 pm
“The 10 cent coin and 20 cent coin are also indistinguishable to the untrained eye”
Oh, that’s easy: Just look at the coin, the value is minted on it in big digits.
Compare that to the US, were you get frickin’ nickels and dimes (same material, different size), so you never know which one is 10ct (hint: the smaller one is worth more). Dent already mentioned the all-green, same size bills.
July 24th, 2008 at 7:33 am
Wer den Pfennig nicht ehrt, ist des Talers nicht wert!
July 24th, 2008 at 12:27 pm
Taler btw: comes from Friedrichstaler… Friedrichstaler comes from the area around of Freiberg (Saxonia, Germany) and Dollar is just a false pronunciation of Taler.
Soo… we Saxons kind of invented the american money.^^
July 24th, 2008 at 1:32 pm
Here’s my two cent:
come to britain were the coins sustained three changes of type and are still on circuit, so you ask yourself as tourist if you’re given false money on return plus you’re coming back with tons of coins because you’re not able to spend them. Not to mention british and scottish bills wo show different persons!
July 24th, 2008 at 10:50 pm
Well, “keep the change” would be a bad concept, as we don’t have Bills smaller than 5 €. So at worst you would lose about 4 Euro, which, given the current transaction rate are probably about 63 US$…
July 30th, 2008 at 6:15 pm
If you keep your phone on so people can reach you, much less clipped to your belt so you can easily answer it, you’ve missed the point of what it is to be important … I’m not on call, I do the calling.
July 31st, 2008 at 8:19 am
“Take care of the pence and the pounds will take care of themselves.”
August 1st, 2008 at 7:47 am
There are some cuss words in Germany which are somewhat comparable with pantywaist, for example Weichei (Soft-egg) or Warmduscher (Warm-showerer). A newer variation is Handy-am-Gürtel-Träger (Mobile-on-the-belt-wearer).
Btw: I carry my mobile unvisible in the pocket of my shirt, saved by a very slim unimposing cord around my neck. That’s the only way for me to protect the display against scratches. This is especially reasonable since mobiles became more and more pocket PCs with high resolution touch screens. Wearing mobiles on the belt causes scratches or in case of leather cases the displays get matt (milky). Furthermore a mobile on the belt is not really reachable when sitting in the car with safety belt around the hip.