It's Thanksgiving here, and what better way to spend the holiday than to be ridiculed by friends and family. But to steal their thunder, I shall insult myself...
I'm such an idiot. You know when you question something, and then when you find out the answer and it was so blatantly obvious that you feel like a dope for not seeing it immediately? Well that happened to me just a few days ago. I always kind of scoffed at Taiwanese bills because they are different sizes. Then after years of doing this, a few days ago I was curious how braille works, and while reading, it kicked me in the face. The money is different sizes so blind people can tell them apart. I'm such an idiot!!!
Now I really appreciate this feature, and I scoff america for not doing this with their money. Also i could be making this up, but on a blind feel test, the different denominations of bills actually feel different as well. The 500 bill even has raised tiny "500's" on a part of it.
As for the money itself, 100 = 3 bucks, 500 = 15, 1,000 = 30. 1,000 is the largest they have (well technically there is a 2,000 but i have never seen it), and as taiwan is still a very cash based society, when people make big purchases they have to care a fat stack of 1,000s with them. There are fake 1,000s and some convenient stores have a machine to make sure it's real, while most places the cashier will just hold it up to the light to check if it's real or fake. I've only ever seen a fake 500 though.
And yes, on the 1,000 that is elementary school students and on the 500 that is a youth baseball team. Why? Having never heard an official answer, I'm going to say it's because prostitution is pretty big in Taiwan, so they feel if your money has children on it and you see it, you may rethink your choice of soliciting a prostitute. And baseball gambling is huge in Taiwan, so might as well just put baseball on the money since that is what it will be used for. For you traditionalists who think that children and sports should not be on money, the 100 has you covered with a picture of Sun Yat Sen. I actually just looked up if there is any info about him secretly being a drug addict, as that would have rounded it out nicely of sex, gambling, and drugs. But no such luck. I can say that there is a very good medical school in Taiwan named after him and there they must sell pharmaceutical drugs, so yeah..I'll say that fits.
