The Lemon Fool

Reading this article on the BBC;
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-48201920

This bit made me slightly uncomfortable
'The Royal Mint, the cash handling industry, banks and the Post Office regularly review the amount of coins circulating in the system.'

Now I, rightly or wrongly, would have written 'the amount of coinage circulating' or 'the number(s) of coins circulating'

What is correct, given that they are actually reviewing the numbers of various denominations of coins in circulation?

"the amount of [plural]" grateth a little, indeed. But I'm not sure "coinage" is any better: the meaning is subtly different.

Should a lexical analysis consider the amount of words in our discourse, or the amount of word? Obviously neither: we might consider the amount of text, or we might formulate it differently to review volumes of verbiage.

How about "amount of coin circulating..."?

Scott.

swill453 wrote:How about "amount of coin circulating..."?

Scott.

"Amount" is used with a mass noun so I would consider "amount of coin" and "amount of coinage" to both be correct and of equivalent meaning. "Amount of coin", to me, sounds the better of the two although it may confuse those who think of the word "coin" purely as singular. (The "amount of coin" in a half-crown is several times the "amount of coin" in a farthing.)

"Amount of coin" is ambiguous, however. Does it refer to the number of coins, The total value of those coins, or the total mass of those coins?

Julian F. G. W.

AleisterCrowley wrote:Reading this article on the BBC;
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-48201920

This bit made me slightly uncomfortable
'The Royal Mint, the cash handling industry, banks and the Post Office regularly review the amount of coins circulating in the system.'

Now I, rightly or wrongly, would have written 'the amount of coinage circulating' or 'the number(s) of coins circulating'

What is correct, given that they are actually reviewing the numbers of various denominations of coins in circulation?

Me, I might have said "quantity of coins/coinage circulating"

quantity
/ˈkwɒntɪti/
noun
1. the amount or number of a material or abstract thing not usually estimated by spatial measurement.
"the quantity and quality of the fruit can be controlled"
synonyms: amount, number, total, aggregate, sum, quota, group, size, mass, weight, volume, bulk, load, consignment, expanse, extent, length, area; More

But then:

coinage
/ˈkɔɪnɪdʒ/
noun
1. coins collectively.
"the volume of coinage in circulation"

So possibly should be "size/volume of coinage circulating".