Sir - Kevin Myers's epic of outrage (An Irishman's Diary, September 23rd) over being held up at checkouts by women sorting small coins derives from his assumption that women relish small-coin sorting.
Contrariwise.
Women are on the side of the fiscal underdogs - the small victims of currency crises. My own close spousal observation suggests that men abandon small coins on surfaces throughout the home because they don't fit in the wallet, that elegant contributor to a smooth silhouette. Women then adopt and employ the strays. Absent their willingness to be weighed down and made to rattle, Ireland would be a continuous midden of twopences.
The fact that the rescuers don't get around to doling out the right coins until reminded is usually due to preoccupation attendant on recollection of recent Irishman's Diary delights. - Yours, etc.,
Terry Prone, Shielmartin Park, Sutton, Co Dublin.