Change Confusion

“Change” in the US it seems to have acquired two opposite meanings. Webster’s has: (1) “money returned when the payment exceeds the amount due” and (2) “coins of low denomination.” Change outside the US rather clearly means the money the toll collector gives back to the customer after they have tendered too large a denomination bill or too large a coin – definition #1. In the US on the other hand the second definition seems to have gained an ascendancy and “CHANGE” signs are often placed above lanes with Automatic Coin Machines (ACM), precisely where it is impossible for the motorist to get change in the first sense. On the Fredericton-Moncton toll road NB they have a real operational problem where the linguistic cultures mix. There’s confusion. Abolish the silly word. Say ‘Coins.’