William Jennings Bryan championed free silver. The problem his constituency had was that prices were rounded up to convenient denominations but the smallest denominations were still too big. He wanted a bunch of silver money for smaller denomination coins to enhance commerce for the poor.
Here is a picture of a 10, 20, and a 1/2 coin they have in Morocco. The funny things is that until we got to Marrakech, we almost never saw the 10 and 20. We occasionally saw the 1/2. They are of too little value. The prices at the markets are all rounded to the nearest dihram. Even in the suprette of Essaouira, the prices are generally rounded to the nearest 1/2 dirham except for the Laughing Cow cheese which was 8.95 dh. But here in Marrakech in the actual grocery store, they don't round. It's like the United States in that the prices are precise to seemly random fractions of dirhams. I don't know if it helps commerce or if it helps the people of Marrakech be less ripped off than in the sticks.
I noticed the same thing in Nicaragua. In Managua, they had small paper money bills for the equivalent of dimes and nickels.
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