The only reason I have is that any separation would become a convention that can have different interpretations for different people inside the same currency area. Therefore, the best way to show a value in a paper money is just the number. Fractions will then be used as "cents" in coins. Besides, I agree this generalized procedure will pose problems for tourists and elderly.

Thanks Carlos!

It sounds as if central banks are looking for consistency in presentation of number to avoid confusion across national standards?

Our research, now up to 8 countries in Africa, Asia and the Pacific, is finding large minorities in every nation who can read 1-digit numbers, but not 3+ digit numbers (place value notation). It turns out that place value notation is not well taught in many primary school systems. As a result the design and appearance of cash denominations appears to offer the most advanced schooling many ever receive in how to interpret and use large numbers.

Do you think consistent use of separators might help people to learn this skill? Beyond any issues for tourists and the elderly, do you think that this is a factor central banks should be considering in note design?

Thanks

Please, consider all my answers as personal ones, in no way institutional ones. Yes, I think that, in general, CBs are looking for that kind of consistency. It's very relevant your point from the social point of view, though. From the socio-political point of view, it will surely pose real ethical problems in relatively high-inflation countries, just like those in Africa and Latin America (I mean, Venezuela and Argentina). But note that in those not-very-sound economies, it is "normal business" to keep people far from understanding the real reasons for which a central bank is allowed to inflate (and thus they will not care about 'educational problems' at all). On the other side, for cases like Peru, inflation is really near international standards (below 5 %), so the bills' life-expectancy can really be a long one. Under these circunstances, central banks will follow the aforementioned consistency while leaving the educational issues to be addressed by the Educational Systems (since _they_ should make sure children understands any kind of number notation after sound primary-school years).

I afraid my following personal opinion and observational findings@@ may cross the questions boundary. So, it is better to apologize in advance for any inconveniences.

In note and coin designing, the central bank/government in many countries, so far my knowledge, gives concentrations in certain traditional elements; most of which facilitate 1. security features to prevent fake note productions; 2. use of materials based on denominations; 3. local culture and heritage based graphics; 4. differentiation of sizes and some touchy feelings so that specially people without vision may get some advantages; 5. frequent change of designs and color variations to prevent counterfeit/ curve black market, durability etc.

For the people who are innumerate, illiterate and semi-illeterate, in my opinion it has so far not been given importance of problem counting "zeros". The question is why?

The design and development (technology) of currency is so far developed country theory and practices led. Many of the central banks still rely on foreign country for modern day paper or metal money production. I have in my lifetime, experience of using currency, that's metal content/value was more than the currency denomination value. So, the metal coin suddenly started vanishing and the regulator later realized that with that metal coins, a producer can produce 5 small spoons like goods. Here I have made my discussions long because, designing a money is so complex and needs so much considerations. Now needs socioeconomic considerations because, if we can't make the medium of exchange more inclusive, we can't achieve sustainability in many dimensions and goals.

To be specific, 1) money design should be inclusive and should have global common standards with inherited flexibility in principles considering high inflation, weak or strong economy; needs to be more people oriented.

2) Use of universal icons and common symbols may be the best solutions- universal consensus/ R&D needed.

3) Use of commas, separators may demand another upper level of knowledge and sensitization need. In paper money design, including personal financial planning and record keeping, "boxed line" method is good. We may just sensitizing that "one" box, "two" box.....currency value or cash asset (in currency, passbook, diary, ledger, receipt etc); here more R & D is needed.

I see the future world is icon and symbol based for various reasons. I hope to work in a more structured way in teams for uplifting my knowledge gap, knowledge sharing and also sharing my experiences.

Thanks, Shobhon. What is a 'boxed line' method? (Excuse my unfamiliarity with this term, please).

In banks, when we previously in manual banking, we needed to create every debit and credit vouchers in writing in a very short period of time. I was in corporate banking and it was in Branch. I had to deal with big digit transfers. So, it was very obvious chance of making wrong, where we need to make lots in short time. So, previously the number writing space was flat. We tried to draw imaginary lines by dividing the space. Later, when we discussed those with the management, they had provided different color vouchers- different for debit, credit, cash withdraw, transfer etc. In number writing space, they provided box type spaces. So, we were confident enough that we are writing the correct value. It had also another benefit. At the end of the day, we had to sort and separate each voucher and make the entire transactions balanced before leaving the bank. The boxes and color vouchers helped us to find out and match the right combinations of vouchers quickly. So, the color voucher and box lines helped me a lot. I had the opportunity to train many new bankers and interns and I used to say them if you don't understand debit or credit, first remember the colors combinations. And for ensuring you are putting big numbers right, calculate the boxes and first make sure that in both debit and credit voucher, you filled up the equal number of boxes. It grew their confidences a lot and they had become skilled to identify large numbers more quickly and also could input them in cheques, ledger books, vouchers etc. Most of the people replied me that learning to write or identify large numbers were very helpful for them. (This is how I trained new bankers to do such basic banking-mainly record keeping, even they are well educated, they feel uncomfortable to write large numbers in vouchers or ledgers). Can further research and innovations of representing numbers in boxes with different icons and other features, may solve the problem to other segments in currency and coins?

Thanks Shobhon!

This seems quite reasonable - and like you, I thought about this early on. I used boxes to divide numeral places in passbook in savings groups. But it quickly became obvious that for oral adults, all these boxes just made the whole interface even more abstract and intimidating.

Could number places on bills be colour coded, so that the user would always know that the first three places were consecutively darker colours of blue, the next three consecutively darker colours of green, etc? It might also be possible to put coloured squares (with no actually boxes delineated around them) that are arranged in groups of three. What do you think?

Brett

Dear Brett, In my thinking, both "the number places on bills be colour coded with different colors" and "coloured squares in group of threes"; are better solutions than using numeric separators.

Such design types may bring benefit to both users and issuers in this digital age too.

Such design nature may benefit in developing handy/mobile and cheap digital devices like fake note easy detection, automatic note value detection/checking, counting tools development or

Who can tell in this age of AI, "the entire circulation history of a note" (if gone through a mobile scanning device) may be found stored automatically in the ledger book- that may be used as an alternative proof of transactions and can give so much analytical data on use of money!!!!

The main point is that giving special attentions to "design aspect"- would hopefully open up many gates of solutions . At the same time, I feel confidence that your ideas and researches are going right and would be successful in designing workable solutions for the "oral" people in better handling cash in various situations and needs.

I am thankful to you in learning and sharing ideas and by getting your in-depth feedback always to track or open up new points. Thank you again !!

i dont understand the question. My central bank includes separation in long-digit numbers

Peterson K Ozili Brett, mentioned "most" central banks ! So, would be nice to know the name of your country. Thank you.

Hi Peterson K Ozili!

Which central bank are you referring to? I notice that Nigeria, for example, doesn't separate in the naira.

Brett Matthew

oh i see. I was referring to the currency values in the publications of the Central Bank. Now i know you were referring to the currency values in "bank notes".

The reason for omitting the comma might just be artistic. The design might not look nice with the comma. Or, it could be that a comma is not a number, therefore, it should not included. These are some thoughts