Please stop doing this! US coins provide no scale information for people who aren’t in the US – we have no idea how big your coins are!
At least use a tape measure, or better still some sort of grid pattern. And provide dimensions for stuff!
Thanks. Apart from that, everything is great! 
The Size of a US Quarter is .955" (inches) 24.26mm
But seriously … its no different than using a hand to show the size of the iphone. Or a thumb… etc… I don’t think the size of the reference is to give an exact size. Just the general gist.
I’m pretty sure they have Google in Australia. I used Google to find out that the Australian dollar coin is larger than the US quarter by less than 1mm. That should give you a pretty good comparison.
-Bill
I went to the carwash yesterday and have a pocket full of quarters.
Anyone wishing to have a “valuable” US quarter calibrated to Internet Picture Specifications, send me a PM me with the subject “quarter” with your address and one will be rushed to you free! Quantities are limited, so be sure to act today! 
Each quarter of random vintage is exactly 24.26 mm in diameter, stamped with its year of calibration on the top surface. Sorry, no choosing which year. Composition is 91.67% copper and plated with 8.33% nickel for a hard surface, with a mass of 5.670 grams.
dattaway:
I went to the carwash yesterday and have a pocket full of quarters.Anyone wishing to have a “valuable” US quarter calibrated to Internet Picture Specifications, send me a PM me with the subject “quarter” with your address and one will be rushed to you free! Quantities are limited, so be sure to act today!
Each quarter of random vintage is exactly 24.26 mm in diameter, stamped with its year of calibration on the top surface. Sorry, no choosing which year. Composition is 91.67% copper and plated with 8.33% nickel for a hard surface, with a mass of 5.670 grams.
:lol: :shock:
I’ve been listening and am interested in what you think about using something other than the quarter for a size reference. We have been debating whether or not to retire the quarter to something a little more friendly to our international fans. We will be posting a new product in the next couple of days with the new ruler graphic. We will still provide an image with the quarter on those super tiny products just for a more tangible view in addition to the ruler graphic. If any of you take a look at the image with the new ruler, I’d love to hear your thoughts.
AnnDrea
Marketing Director
SparkFun Electronics, Inc.
Personally, I happen to think that a quarter is quite handy as a size-reference. Using a ruler is somewhat redundant – whenever I’ve purchased a part, I often check out the datasheet before hand to get exact measurements, and sometimes even draw it out on a piece of paper. Using a ruler as a size reference is keeping the reference abstract, where as using something as common as a quarter really helps to make the size concrete.
Unforunately for the international customers this may not help a great deal, but in this case using a ruler would only provide the same information as is present on the datasheet. I know very little about the sizes of coins across the world, but I would imagine that many currencies have both large and small coins, and that it’s probably safe to say that there aren’t too many coins out there that are very much larger than a quarter – maybe that would help in providng an additional size reference, by saying, ‘hmm, this quarter is about the size of , plus or minus, say, 25%’.
After all, it’s just for a quick size-reference. It’s not like we have our eagle grid size set to ‘quarter’, and take it down to ‘dime’ for the really tricky traces.
A US Quarter is nominally 24.26mm diameter. An AUS $1 coin is 25mm, and a half Euro coin is 24.25mm. Given the difference between these coins is between 0.74 and 0.01mm, I don’t see a problem using a quarter for size reference.
Keep the coin. You can add a ruler in addition to the coin if you want, but it won’t be as effective as seeing the product relative to a coin. A good example is the Bluetooth module currently on the front page (http://www.sparkfun.com/commerce/produc … ts_id=8497). Keep in mind that any ruler should be marked in U.S. as well as metric units for those of us that are metrically challenged.
riden:
Keep in mind that any ruler should be marked in U.S. as well as metric units for those of us that are metrically challenged.
Don’t you mean the ruler should also have metric units for those that are Imperially challenged?
I also think you should keep the quarter. You could add an order option that would allow a customer to receive a quarter along with their shipment for future reference. I bet you could get about 25 cents for it!
-Bill
So they are really clost to each other. hmm.daemondust:
A US Quarter is nominally 24.26mm diameter. An AUS $1 coin is 25mm, and a half Euro coin is 24.25mm. Given the difference between these coins is between 0.74 and 0.01mm, I don’t see a problem using a quarter for size reference.
The product we posted with the ruler is the 28 Pin PIC Development Board by Olimex. We have started shooting everything with the ruler, but will continue shooting at least one view with the quarter for that added real-world reference. Hopefully this will appeal to almost everyone involved.
By the way, we use the same quarter in every shot… at least since January of 2007 when I started handling the photos.
I cant beleive there is actually a person out there that would even take the time to complain about somthing so petty as that.
If you want to know the size take a look at the data sheet :roll: .