McDonald's cash register?
Otto J. Makela
a terribly complex order for a few patrons, will involve using
practically every single function in the cash register. This does
sound kinda plausible, considering how standardized a franchise is,
including the cash registers.
Indubitably the cash registers used my McD here in Europe are
different from the ones used in the United States, but it still
is an intriguing idea.
Does anyone have a recipe, or any McD employees here who remember
enough about the cash register to be able to start devising one?
Top Ten Annoying Things to Do at McDonald's
08/15/1998
10.Ask for a refund on your Happy Meal while holding a gun to your
head. (nicker)
9. Get your boyfriend/girlfriend, park in front of the drive-thru
window, and start making out. (Mrrov)
8. Keep asking for the wine list. (PES)
7. Pretend Ronald McDonald's house of charity is where you live, and
try to squeeze into the coin slot. (nicker)
6. Count all of your fries and complain to the manager that your
friend got two more than you. (Goober's Mom)
5. Stand right in front of a cash register, when the guy asks you if
he can help you, say "no" and continue watching the kitchen and
stuff. (Jerry the flying rat)
4. Sit next to the cash register and yell SUPER SIZE IT everytime
someone orders. (Rhino)
3. Whine that your Happy Meal made you, in fact, quite miserable, and
demand a full refund. (Jennie)
2. Prefix every word you say with "Mc". (Chris)
Wow, Leo's Girl, that really IS annoying...
1. Every time the cashier says "Welcome to McDonald's, may I take your
order?", sing "Did somebody say McDonald's?"
--
/* * * Otto J. Makela <o...@iki.fi> * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * */
/* Phone: +358 40 765 5772, FAX: +358 2040 64652, ICBM: 60N 25E */
/* Mail: Mechelininkatu 26 B 27, FIN-00100 Helsinki, FINLAND */
/* * * Computers Rule 01001111 01001011 * * * * * * * * * * * * */
Otto J. Makela
not a terribly complex order for a few patrons, will involve using
kinda plausible, considering how standardized a franchise is,
including the cash registers.
Indubitably the cash registers used by McD here in Europe are
Chris
Makela) wrote:
snip
> Top Ten Annoying Things to Do at McDonald's
> 08/15/1998
> 2. Prefix every word you say with "Mc". (Chris)
>
the whole thing including the 'Mc' and the 'TM' and the assistant looked
at me totally bwilderedly. I repeated it and cut out the crap and they
understood - unfortunately they didn't cut out the crap from the meal.
Chris "it was many years ago and I have never eaten anything from that
dreadful place since - there was just nowhere else at the time"
(de-x eamail address to de-spam)
Eric Boyd
chri...@xdircon.co.uk (Chris) wrote:
> In article <m3puvxx...@funland.helsinki.sonera.fi>, o...@iki.fi (Otto J.
> Makela) wrote:
> snip
> > Top Ten Annoying Things to Do at McDonald's
> > 08/15/1998
> snip
> > 2. Prefix every word you say with "Mc". (Chris)
> >
> I once tried some dreadful thing with a TM symbol in the middle - I read
> the whole thing including the 'Mc' and the 'TM' and the assistant looked
> at me totally bwilderedly. I repeated it and cut out the crap and they
> understood - unfortunately they didn't cut out the crap from the meal.
I saw a truck unloading equipment at a McDonald's that was being
remodeled. One of the boxes was marked "McFiltering Unit". Presumably it
was some device for processing french fry oil.
-seric
--
"There is nothing it is like to be a zombie."
-David Chalmers
Charles A. Lieberman
Otto J. Makela
> Indubitably the cash registers used by McD here in Europe are
> different from the ones used in the United States,
Are counter personnel at European McDs required to be literate, as a
practical matter?
--
Charles A. Lieberman | "I had an exhilarating, deeply moving, sharing mo-
Brooklyn, NY, USA | ment with the woman who brought you into this world"
| --Loomis Farkle gets *nasty*
http://calieber.tripod.com/home.html
mpl...@my-deja.com
yvro...@voicenet.com (Charles A. Lieberman) wrote:
> Thu, 23 Dec 1999 23:02:33 GMT
> Otto J. Makela
> > Indubitably the cash registers used by McD here in Europe are
> > different from the ones used in the United States,
>
> Are counter personnel at European McDs required to be literate, as a
> practical matter?
>
McDonald's restaurants in the USA used to have cash register keyboards
with pictures on the keys. They no longer do, now they have words. So,
do European McDonald's restaurants have words on the keys of their cash
registers?
--
Raymond S. Wise
Email: mplsrayPl...@yahoo.com
Remove "PleaseNoSpam" to email me.
Sent via Deja.com http://www.deja.com/
Before you buy.
Paul Anderson
>
> Thu, 23 Dec 1999 23:02:33 GMT
> Otto J. Makela
> > Indubitably the cash registers used by McD here in Europe are
> > different from the ones used in the United States,
>
> Are counter personnel at European McDs required to be literate, as a
> practical matter?
Yeahbut, can someone in the USofA make change without the video/LED
display?
And yes, I live here and I find our personnel generally blow chunks
where literacy and common sense should prevail.
Dan Tasman
> I've heard claims of a McDonald's "order from hell" which, while
> not a terribly complex order for a few patrons, will involve using
> practically every function in the cash register. This does sound
> kinda plausible, considering how standardized a franchise is,
> including the cash registers.
Domino's Pizza uses a one letter code to represent individual items. Try
calling a store, and ordering a pizza with the following topping, in the
following order -- onions, black olives, green peppers, anchovies, sausage
and mushrooms. In Domino's code, that order will spell out ORGASM.
HWM
n0-$p...@n0-junk.c0m (Dan Tasman) wrote:
> In Domino's code, that order will spell out ORGASM.
Somewhat orgastic topping... if it were not Yule and if I were not overweight
from the gluttony at my mother-in-law's, I'd spank you for bringing up
Domino's. That is one of the chains besides Miami Sub's that I'd like to see
land here. Though in that case I'd become real overweight. For pizza delivery
we'd need to spell out something obscene in Turkish.... 99% of the pies are
thin-crust and only Pizza Hut can make an edible pan pizza from the few tries
I've tasted around here and I still would rather 'Sinbad's Pizza and Kebab'
anytime.
Oh, they say we'll be getting KFC here so I wonder if the deep-fried rat
stories will start here too. -- Cheers, | De ore leonis libera me, Domine, et
a | HWM | cornibus unicornium humilitatem meam. | hen...@iobox.fi &
http://www.kuru.da.ru
Patricia Holtby
--
Otto J. Makela <o...@iki.fi> wrote in message
news:m3yaalx...@funland.helsinki.sonera.fi...
/* Phone: +358 40 765 5772, FAX: +358 2040 64652, ICBM: 60N 25E */
> /* Mail: Mechelininkatu 26 B 27, FIN-00100 Helsinki, FINLAND */
> /* * * Computers Rule 01001111 01001011 * * * * * * * * * * * * */
<snip>
11. As a Girl Scout Troop Leader, bring in your entire troop and have only
one child actually order something while the rest of the girls sit there
eating their sack lunches. (Sorry, K.D. -- it is another personal anecdote)
12. After a long car trip, race into the front lobby with your carsick child
and let them puke their guts out in front of all the customers ordering
their food. (not a personal anecdote, but it could happen)
13. Ignore your 3-year-old's pleas to go potty until it is too late then
send the child up to the front counter to ask, "Do you have napkins?" while
the wet spot spreads on the front and back of their clothes.
14. Make your bratty kids sit in a separate booth where they proceed to
annoy the hell out of everyone by kicking and jumping on their side of the
booth, fighting, hitting, whining, spitting, throwing food, pulling hair,
screaming, crying.....and the entire time you refuse to acknowledge you even
know who those children are (not necessarily a UL, but I have seen this one
repeated many times unto legend status)
15. Allow your child who doesn't yet quite know how to use a public facility
to go to the bathroom by themself -- leaving pee all over the place and
toilet paper shredded and thrown everywhere
16. Park slantwise in the only two remaining parking spots left in the
crowded parking lot
17. Decide to pay for your drive-thru order with all that loose change you
"just know" is laying at the bottom of your purse -- thus delaying the rest
of the line by another 15 minutes or so
18. Get to the pick-up window in the drive-thru and argue over every item in
your bag and insist it all be redone -- while you park there and wait --
absolutely refuse to go to their "holding area."
19. Now that McDonald's has gotten rid of most of their foam containers (at
least in the Los Angeles area), pick a new environmental cause on which to
harp as you stand in the lobby -- the plastic Happy Meal toys that emit
noxious fumes when your child sets them on fire, for example.
20. In an EXTREMELY LOUD VOICE thank the Manager for that "extra-special"
customer service he gave you while the two of you were alone in the Men's
Room.
Patricia "still-no-smileys-here" Holtby
K. D.
>11. As a Girl Scout Troop Leader, bring in your entire troop and have only
>one child actually order something while the rest of the girls sit there
>eating their sack lunches. (Sorry, K.D. -- it is another personal anecdote)
To repeat. *I* am not the one who has the problem with pesonal
anecdotes. It is the AFU honor council and off-topic / personal
anecdote patrol. Due to my own transgressions using personal
anecdotes to illustrate points I was trying to make, I was assigned
community service work in identifying *other* personal anecdotes on
AFU.
Sorry -- you'll probably be receiving your summons from the AFU
HC&OT/PAP soon.....
-KD
Richard Brandt
> To repeat. *I* am not the one who has the problem with pesonal
> anecdotes.
Then why don't you shut up about them, already?
In fact, why don't you shut the fuck up?
Fuck, Fuck, Fuck.
Richard "K.D.'s Filtered List Feels So Liberating" Brandt
--
Richard Brandt http://www.321Website.com/members/home/data/rsbrandt
"Usenet will get you through times of no cable better than
cable will get you through times of no Usenet."--Kip Williams
Stephan in Burlington
kaye...@hotmail.com (K. D.) wrote:
[snip her usual jammering on and on and on]
K.D.,
For some reason you just don't get it, do you? It has been explained
to you several times, and you still don't get it. Oh that's right,
most of the folks that go out of their way to explain it to you have
been killfiled by you.
I would tell you to fuck off, but I won't today, in keeping with the
spirit of the holidays, and all that stuff. Tomorrow, however, is
another day.
Stephan "Merry Christmas to all" Laengerer
--
Stephan in Burlington
"All generalities including this one are false." -- Horace Turell in rec.travel.cruises
Charles A. Lieberman
K. D.
> *I* am not the one who has the problem with pesonal
> anecdote patrol.
Funny, then, how the only person who ever seems to object, or even call
attention to it, is you.
Lee Rudolph
>Sorry -- you'll probably be receiving your summons from the AFU
>HC&OT/PAP soon.....
I dunno about this HC&OT business, but it really pains me to see
K. D. perpetrating another PAP smear.
Lee "Hot, Cold, and Oxygenated Tapwater?" Rudolph
Meredith Anne Robbins
> "K. D." wrote:
>
> > To repeat. *I* am not the one who has the problem with pesonal
> > anecdotes.
>
> Then why don't you shut up about them, already?
>
> In fact, why don't you shut the fuck up?
>
> Fuck, Fuck, Fuck.
I believe you left out, "You stupid bitch." HTH.
Meredith "Stupid, stupid, stupid" Robbins
--
http://www.eclectricity.org
http://www.exileinnetville.com
Steve Pegg
>*I* am not the one who has the problem with pesonal
>anecdotes. It is the AFU honor council and off-topic / personal
>anecdote patrol. Due to my own transgressions using personal
>anecdotes to illustrate points I was trying to make, I was assigned
>community service work in identifying *other* personal anecdotes on
>AFU.
Really? I must have missed this. Can you post the message-ID? Unless
it was in email -- in that case maybe you can post a paraphrase.
Sorry to put you out, but I find your posts strangely intriguing!
(Honor council -- is this that cabal they keep talking about?)
steve (sometimes it's hard to be a newbie) pegg
--
Steve Pegg steve...@denzil.com.uk
Hotmail address coming soon - no email to this address please
David B. Greene
>On Sat, 25 Dec 1999, Richard Brandt wrote:
>> "K. D." wrote:
>>
>> > anecdotes.
>>
>>
>> In fact, why don't you shut the fuck up?
>>
>> Fuck, Fuck, Fuck.
>
>I believe you left out, "You stupid bitch." HTH.
>
>Meredith "Stupid, stupid, stupid" Robbins
Meredith, here in afu we frown on the use of acronyms such as
HTH. If you can't take time to go read the FAQ then I suggest
you post elsewhere.
And that goes for you too, Richard, we've have had it with
these FUCK acronym threads. If you are so interested I
suggest you go read 'em in the Deja News archives.
Dave "just cleaning up the place a bit" Greene
David B. Greene
>"Patricia Holtby" <p.ho...@worldnet.att.net> wrote:
>
>>11. As a Girl Scout Troop Leader, bring in your entire troop and have only
>>one child actually order something while the rest of the girls sit there
>>eating their sack lunches. (Sorry, K.D. -- it is another personal anecdote)
>
>anecdote patrol. Due to my own transgressions using personal
>anecdotes to illustrate points I was trying to make, I was assigned
>community service work in identifying *other* personal anecdotes on
>AFU.
You know, I too once posted a personal annecdote on afu and got roundly
flamed for it. Of course that was just my own experience. :)
TWIAVBP
YMMV
Anyway, to get back on topic, a high school buddy and I once stopped
at a Dairy Queen where he ordered "a Brassiere (sic) Burger with
double patties." After the girl behind the counter regained her
composure I ordered a two scoop vanilla sundae with cherries on top
"and give it a whipped cream bikini top."
Dave "this internym intentionally left blank" Greene
Adie
> Meredith, here in afu we frown on the use of acronyms such as
> HTH. If you can't take time to go read the FAQ then I suggest
> you post elsewhere.
>
> And that goes for you too, Richard, we've have had it with
> these FUCK acronym threads. If you are so interested I
> suggest you go read 'em in the Deja News archives.
>
> Dave "just cleaning up the place a bit" Greene
Hey dont sweet it brother, were leaving.
--
The_Clash
The AGHLTFC official plonker.
Finding more and more reasons,
to <PLONK> more and more people,
each and every f*cking day!
ICQ 56362414
Dan Tasman
> Or at least it would if Doninos offered anchovies... but they don't.
> When I worked there, whenever anyone ordered a pizza with everything
> but anchovies, I'd tell them "You'll have to leave off something else
> - we don't offer anchovies."
At the few Domino's in the Buffalo, New York metro area, a region with a
_huge_ Italian-American population, anchovies are included on the list of
offered toppings.
On a related note, there aren't that many chain pizzerias in the Buffalo
area -- a few Pizza Huts in the 'burbs, a few Domino's, no Papa John's, and
_lots_ of independents. Buffalo's a strange city -- Pepsi outsells Coke,
Burger King is more popular than McDonald's, and despite the snowy weather
you see far fewer sport-utility vehicles on the road than you would find in
Miami or Houston.
Mark D. Lew
> McDonald's restaurants in the USA used to have cash register keyboards
> with pictures on the keys. They no longer do, now they have words. [...]
Can anyone confirm this? I assumed it was just a myth. I remember when
they first switched from numbers to words (ie, one button per item, as
opposed to entering the actual price on a number-pad cash register). At
that time, people asked sarcastically, "What next? pictures?" I wasn't
aware that pictures were ever actually used on the cash registers. It
doesn't sound very plausible to me.
mdl
Simon Slavin
yvro...@voicenet.com (Charles A. Lieberman) wrote:
> Are counter personnel at European McDs required to be literate, as a
> practical matter?
In order to interview and accept the job you have to fill in some
forms yourself. For the ones to accept the job, a manager of the
outlet watches you fill in the forms -- you can't get someone else
to do it.
Certain parts of the job involve reading safety-instructions which
are distributed in written form only. I believe that an inability
to read these leaflets (or whatever they are) would mean that you
could not do the work.
Ref: as told to me by a Brother Of A Friend.
Simon.
--
http://www.hearsay.demon.co.uk | John Peel:
No junk email please. | [My daughter] has modelled herself on you.
| Courtney Love:
| Oh, I'm so sorry.
Nick Spalding
Why not? They are used on all the supermarket vegetable weighing
machines that I know of. Sensible idea.
--
Nick Spalding
Olivers
>
> Mark D. Lew wrote:
>
> > that time, people asked sarcastically, "What next? pictures?" I wasn't
> > aware that pictures were ever actually used on the cash registers. It
> > doesn't sound very plausible to me.
>
> Why not? They are used on all the supermarket vegetable weighing
> machines that I know of. Sensible idea.
> --
> Nick Spalding
You have to have pictures to weigh your veggies? Are your yams weighed
in different fashion than your okra? Are not spuds and sprouts weighed
to the same level of accountability?
O Tempora! O Mores!
Here in civilized USAian climes, our vegetables and fruits are grown
with tiny ID numbers to ease the lot of ill-educated grocery checkers
unable to distinguish between a carambola and a saltimbocca, or Roma
Tomatoes and Burpless Cukes (most of which are purchased by
Pouter-breasted KDans in search of deeper orgasmic tranquility).
The Pendant Pedant's Irish Pennants (Emoticon unfir for composition or
local placement)
--
TMOliver
"Without occasional excess,
Moderation remains impossible."
Alice Faber
wrote:
> Nick Spalding wrote:
> >
> > Mark D. Lew wrote:
> >
> > > that time, people asked sarcastically, "What next? pictures?" I wasn't
> > > aware that pictures were ever actually used on the cash registers. It
> > > doesn't sound very plausible to me.
> >
> > Why not? They are used on all the supermarket vegetable weighing
> > machines that I know of. Sensible idea.
> > --
> > Nick Spalding
>
> You have to have pictures to weigh your veggies? Are your yams weighed
> in different fashion than your okra? Are not spuds and sprouts weighed
> to the same level of accountability?
Well, I don't know about your neck of the woods, but in these parts,
the checkers can't simply enter $0.79/lb (or whatever) and weigh the
produce. They have to enter a code number. I suppose this makes it
easier to change the prices (up or down). Both supermarkets provide the
checkers with lists, alphabetically arranged by produce name. However,
if the checkers can't find something in the list (sometimes the list
says, say, "green onions" while the checker is looking for
"scallions"), it can be a long wait, while they try to figure out what
something is. One supermarket has two large posters by the entrance to
the staff lounge, illustrating produce types, with name and code
number. Given the large variety of produce this supermarket sells, it's
not surprising if the cashiers, many of whom are high school students
on their first jobs, aren't familiar with all of them.
> Here in civilized USAian climes, our vegetables and fruits are grown
> with tiny ID numbers to ease the lot of ill-educated grocery checkers
> unable to distinguish between a carambola and a saltimbocca, or Roma
> Tomatoes and Burpless Cukes
Ah, so that's how I can tell the Texas produce from produce originating
in other regions.
Alice "starfruit and Cassava" Faber
--
==================I don't read crossposts==================
"That doesn't mean you can't flip it over and suddenly it works for a trip
to Schnectady. That's just bonus." RM Mentock on the New Criticism
***** Check out the goodies at http://www.urbanlegends.com *****
Nick Spalding
> Here in civilized USAian climes, our vegetables and fruits are grown
> with tiny ID numbers to ease the lot of ill-educated grocery checkers
> unable to distinguish between a carambola and a saltimbocca, or Roma
> Tomatoes and Burpless Cukes (most of which are purchased by
> Pouter-breasted KDans in search of deeper orgasmic tranquility).
Here in even more civilised Irish climes there ain't no checkers.
We are trusted to weigh our own produce.
--
Nick Spalding
R H Draney
> Bob Ward wrote
>
> > Or at least it would if Doninos offered anchovies... but they don't.
> > When I worked there, whenever anyone ordered a pizza with everything
> > but anchovies, I'd tell them "You'll have to leave off something else
> > - we don't offer anchovies."
>
> At the few Domino's in the Buffalo, New York metro area, a region with a
> _huge_ Italian-American population, anchovies are included on the list of
> offered toppings.
I'm going to have to check out the Phoenix equivalent to this issue...as the
"ORGASM" pizza contains a couple of things I wouldn't order anyway, I'll try
for a "MARS" instead, which is essentially my normal preference in pizza...the
anchovies are there not because I particularly seek them out, but because I
don't *mind* them, and enough people can't stand them that it keeps other
people out of MY pizza[1]....
> On a related note, there aren't that many chain pizzerias in the Buffalo
> area -- a few Pizza Huts in the 'burbs, a few Domino's, no Papa John's, and
> _lots_ of independents. Buffalo's a strange city -- Pepsi outsells Coke,
> Burger King is more popular than McDonald's, and despite the snowy weather
> you see far fewer sport-utility vehicles on the road than you would find in
> Miami or Houston.
Is not Pizza Hut owned by Pepsi?...or do I need to get a more current
almanac?....r
[1] "someone's been sitting in MY porridge!"
--
"You are not expected to believe that I really have vibrating
rhubarb in my house."--Peter Deutsch
Nina Neudorfer
Alice Faber <fab...@rcn.com> wrote
>
> Well, I don't know about your neck of the woods, but in these parts,
> the checkers can't simply enter $0.79/lb (or whatever) and weigh the
> produce. They have to enter a code number. I suppose this makes it
> easier to change the prices (up or down). Both supermarkets provide the
> checkers with lists, alphabetically arranged by produce name. However,
> if the checkers can't find something in the list (sometimes the list
> says, say, "green onions" while the checker is looking for
> "scallions"), it can be a long wait, while they try to figure out what
> something is. One supermarket has two large posters by the entrance to
> the staff lounge, illustrating produce types, with name and code
> number. Given the large variety of produce this supermarket sells, it's
> not surprising if the cashiers, many of whom are high school students
> on their first jobs, aren't familiar with all of them.
>
I've received cilantro at parsley prices etc. But I've also sent my
ex-husband on an emergency run for leeks, only to have him return home with
bok choy.
--
Nina "what goes around... "
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"I hear what you're saying, but it don't matter now, your point is mute."
----another conversational gem from the Auctionwatch message board
Alice Faber
<nin...@mindspring.com> wrote:
> Alice Faber <fab...@rcn.com> wrote
> >
> > Well, I don't know about your neck of the woods, but in these parts,
> > the checkers can't simply enter $0.79/lb (or whatever) and weigh the
> > produce. They have to enter a code number. I suppose this makes it
> > easier to change the prices (up or down). Both supermarkets provide the
> > checkers with lists, alphabetically arranged by produce name. However,
> > if the checkers can't find something in the list (sometimes the list
> > says, say, "green onions" while the checker is looking for
> > "scallions"), it can be a long wait, while they try to figure out what
> > something is. One supermarket has two large posters by the entrance to
> > the staff lounge, illustrating produce types, with name and code
> > number. Given the large variety of produce this supermarket sells, it's
> > not surprising if the cashiers, many of whom are high school students
> > on their first jobs, aren't familiar with all of them.
> >
> Sometimes the identification problem can work in your favor. Several times
> I've received cilantro at parsley prices etc. But I've also sent my
> ex-husband on an emergency run for leeks, only to have him return home with
> bok choy.
I've had similar experiences (cilantro at parsley prices, I mean, not
bok choy for leeks--they don't even look alike, aside from being green
and ivory colored), and given up utterly on correcting the checkers. It
looks like parsley, and they know the code for parsley, so why fight
it?
Alice "but it must have been a hell of a Vichysoisse" Faber
Plato
>Here in even more civilised Irish climes there ain't no checkers.
>We are trusted to weigh our own produce.
Eh????
Most of the weighing scales there have been taken away for forensic
analysis.
Civilised and Irish???
Place is full of fukkin' terrorists mate.
Invid Fan
<n0-$p...@n0-junk.c0m> wrote:
> On a related note, there aren't that many chain pizzerias in the Buffalo
> area -- a few Pizza Huts in the 'burbs, a few Domino's, no Papa John's, and
> _lots_ of independents.
Well naturaly. No one who who likes good pizza is going to eat at a
chain! Besides, they have horrible wings and don't sell subs. A good
Buffalo pizza place must sell subs as well ^_^
On another related note, a national survey awhile ago showed Buffalo at
the low end of the pizza consumption scale because they only polled
Dominos and Pizza Hut. Next thing you know they'll say we don't eat
wings...
--
Chris Mack "You do NOT, I repeat, do NOT ask a guest in my
'Invid Fan' home to make a PILLAR OF FIRE!!"
"I asked him IF he knew how!! IF! IF! IF!!"
In...@localnet.com -Cerebus:Jaka's Story
Estron
> Is not Pizza Hut owned by Pepsi?...or do I need to get a more current
> almanac?
It used to be, as did Taco Bell and KFC, but the three of them were spun
off or sold off a year or two ago. The 1997 World Almanac lists their
owner as PepsiCo, but the 2000 World Almanac lists their owner as Tricon
Corp.
--
As always, all opinions are just that.
Pax vobiscum.
est...@tfs.net
Kansas City, Missouri
Philippe Nave
>
> Yeahbut, can someone in the USofA make change without the video/LED
> display?
On a number of occasions, I have watched in horror while a teenager
struggled mightily with the problem of counting out coins for change
*after* the machine displayed the amount! I figure it's only a matter
of time before the machines are built to display the coin count (as
in "two quarters, a dime, and a nickel") graphically.
> And yes, I live here and I find our personnel generally blow chunks
> where literacy and common sense should prevail.
Hear, hear.
Philippe "you want fries with that?" Nave
--
=======================================================================
Philippe D. Nave, Jr.| 'Cry havoc, and let slip the dogs of war!'
Denver, Colorado USA | How's my posting? 1-800-DEV-NULL
pn...@lucent.com | Reality 2.0: Score counter, extra men, and hints
Otto J. Makela
> On a number of occasions, I have watched in horror while a teenager
> struggled mightily with the problem of counting out coins for change
> *after* the machine displayed the amount! I figure it's only a matter
> of time before the machines are built to display the coin count (as
> in "two quarters, a dime, and a nickel") graphically.
An interesting episode was when I tried paying at a Washington DC
burger place (not one of the megachains) with a Susan B. Anthony one
dollar coin I'd got earlier that week from a ticket vending machine in
NYC Grand Central station. The guy at the cash register looked at it
as if though he'd never seen one, and then told me that he could not
accept it. I told him that he should be able to, as it supposedly is
legal tender for any commerce, but didn't push the point as there was
something of a rush hour crowd there and I had other small change on me.
Is it common in US not to recognize your own national currency?
(I didn't stop to think twice about using a coin dollar -- over here
in Finland the smallest paper money we have is a 20 mark bill, worth
about $3.33 these days; 10 marks is a largish silver+gold-color coin)
Reminds me of the story by Peter Leppik who wanted to pay at Taco Bell
with a $2 bill and the store manager called security on him for supposedly
trying to pass on "funny money":
http://www.shorejournal.com/9706/net0601a.html
http://users.lanminds.com/~mohanraj/Amusing/taco.html
http://www.isc.rit.edu/~tgf6596/wit/tacobell.txt
--
/* * * Otto J. Makela <o...@iki.fi> * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * */
K. D.
On Thu, 30 Dec 1999 09:51:49 -0500, R. Bruce <r...@worldnet.att.net>
wrote:
>Now if they would only get rid of pennies. I'm tired of throwing them
>in the trash.
Pennies are tiresome and hardly worth the effort. Still, throwing
them away hardly helps matters -- the US mint has to mint that many
more......
-KD
Olivers
>
>
> Now if they would only get rid of pennies. I'm tired of throwing them
> in the trash.
Don't the convenience store counters in your neighborhood (except those
operated by particulary parsimonious bands of immigrants pursuing the
'merkin dream) feature the ubiquitous little bowls/dishes for extra
pennies - You leave yours, and the next guy will have the couple he
needs - which have proliferated amongst placed clerked by gentlefolk?
The recent phenom, beginning to be widespread hereabouts, has a warm and
fuzzy appeal, but one wonders about the potential UL, "Store Clerk grows
feelthy rich taking pennies from Penny Dish!"
ra...@joesbar.cc.vt.edu
> An interesting episode was when I tried paying at a Washington DC
> burger place (not one of the megachains) with a Susan B. Anthony one
> dollar coin I'd got earlier that week from a ticket vending machine in
> NYC Grand Central station. The guy at the cash register looked at it
> as if though he'd never seen one, and then told me that he could not
> accept it. I told him that he should be able to, as it supposedly is
> legal tender for any commerce, but didn't push the point as there was
> something of a rush hour crowd there and I had other small change on me.
> Is it common in US not to recognize your own national currency?
Well, it's probably common not to recognize a Susan B. Anthony dollar
coin. They were introduced as a cost saving measure, but were too
similar to quarters and were never popular. The post office vending
machines give them as change, but I rarely see one otherwise.
The burger joint cashier may have never seen one. He may have been
new at the job. They aren't so rare that a cashier would not see
one ever, just not often.
> Reminds me of the story by Peter Leppik who wanted to pay at Taco Bell
> with a $2 bill and the store manager called security on him for supposedly
> trying to pass on "funny money":
In France there is a 20 Franc coin, but you don't see it very often.
Mostly you see 20 Franc notes. I lived there over a year and only
saw 3 or 4 of the coin, but never had any trouble spending them.
--
*****************************************************************************
* Bill Ranck +1-540-231-3951 ra...@vt.edu *
* Virginia Polytechnic Institute & State University, Computing Center *
*****************************************************************************
gr...@apple2.com
o...@iki.fi (Otto J. Makela) wrote:
>Philippe Nave <pn...@lucent.com> writes:
>>Paul Anderson <pan...@my-deja.com> wrote:
>>> Yeah but, can someone in the USofA make change without the
>>> video/LED display?
>> On a number of occasions, I have watched in horror while a teenager
>> struggled mightily with the problem of counting out coins for change
>> *after* the machine displayed the amount! I figure it's only a
>> matter of time before the machines are built to display the coin
>> count (as in "two quarters, a dime, and a nickel") graphically.
There were registers in common use that would dispense correct coin
change automatically, eliminating the need for the teenager behind the
register to know how to make change... except for paper currency. It
used to be the local Wendy's always had one of those. Apparently it
ceased to function and was replaced with a different register without
that feature. Or they got tired of refilling the coin stacks inside the
dispenser.
> An interesting episode was when I tried paying at a Washington DC
> burger place (not one of the megachains) with a Susan B. Anthony one
> dollar coin I'd got earlier that week from a ticket vending machine
> in NYC Grand Central station. The guy at the cash register looked at
> it as if though he'd never seen one, and then told me that he could
> not accept it. I told him that he should be able to, as it
> supposedly is legal tender for any commerce, but didn't push the
> point as there was something of a rush hour crowd there and I had
> other small change on me. Is it common in US not to recognize your
> own national currency?
Some people just aren't aware of all denominations of our currency. Two
dollar bills, dollar coins, even 50 cent pieces are rarely seen, but are
still in circulation.[1] (We've had dollar coins before the Susan B.
Anthony dollar coin, but they were much larger.) Currently we don't
mint any new dollar coins, but there are lots of SBA dollar coins that
still haven't been circulated, and maybe never will be. Apparently new
coins are going to be minted.
I wonder if someday the 50 new quarters we have now are going to be
looked upon with similar skepticism and refused. Well, they still
accept bicentennial quarters. But what about the paper money with the
smaller pictures of dead presidents? They seem to be doing a pretty
good job at getting the old bills out of circulation, so I guess
eventually we'll have some teenager behind a register that has never
seen one refusing to accept it and calling the feds on people.
Well, there are the dollar coins advertised on television for
collectors, such as most recently the colorized so-called-millennium
coin. If you watch carefully, you might catch the small print being
flashed on the screen briefly that says it is not legal tender. (If it
were legal tender, having the face painted like that would surely be
illegal defacement of the currency.)
Yet still many places freely (ignorantly) accept and dispense Canadian
and other foreign coin currency of approximate sizes, shapes, and colors
of US coins (usually only quarters, dimes, and pennies). So if it looks
like the common coinage and represented as the common coinage, most
people don't give it any thought.
[1] Occasionally when I go to cash a check at a bank I ask for as much
unusual currency as possible. I like spending deuces, SBAs, and
half-dollars. A little impromptu intelligence test. A friend told of a
friend (yes, I'm skeptical too) who would get a pack of two dollar bills
and on the edge of each he'd put some of the adhesive you'd find on
Post-It Notes, just so he could have the stack, pull off a bill like it
were a Post-It Note, and stick it to the side of the register. More
often than not he'd use them for tips at restaurants. I wonder if that
also would be considered illegal defacement of the currency.
--
-- --- <gr...@apple2.com>
-- -- -- ------------------------------------------------------------------
-- -- --- <http://www.war-of-the-worlds.org/>
--- (Not associated with Quake Clan Deimos, War Machine of Mars)
Gerald Belton
>accept bicentennial quarters. But what about the paper money with the
>smaller pictures of dead presidents? They seem to be doing a pretty
>good job at getting the old bills out of circulation, so I guess
>eventually we'll have some teenager behind a register that has never
>seen one refusing to accept it and calling the feds on people.
It's already happened to me. In a McDonald's in New Orleans, almost
two years ago. I ordered lunch and asked if they would take a $100
bill. They said yes.
Then they held the bill up to the light, couldn't find the plastic
security strip in it, and refused to take it.
Gerald "series 1963" Belton
--
And if we thought folks were piss-poor writers a few years back, well, hell -- today's USENET
reader is a drooling mouth-breather with the literary capacity (and
facility for communication) of a dead, rotted yak, and about as much
appeal and worth. -- Abby Franquemont in alt.peeves
Lee Rudolph
>On Thu, 30 Dec 1999 09:51:49 -0500, R. Bruce <r...@worldnet.att.net>
>wrote:
>
>>Now if they would only get rid of pennies. I'm tired of throwing them
>>in the trash.
>
>Pennies are tiresome and hardly worth the effort.
I hate to admit that, on the actions-speaking-louder-than-words
scale, I seem to be coming around to this belief myself: yesterday
I spotted a penny on the pavement as I was getting into my car,
fumbled the recovery operation, and actually left the money behind
instead of getting out of the car and kneeling on the asphalt to
grope underneath.
>Still, throwing
>them away hardly helps matters -- the US mint has to mint that many
>more......
Hey, speaking of mints and cash registers...
ObUL: The Board of Health discovered that N% of the mints
next to cash registers are contaminated with [urine|hepatitis].
Lee "not that an ObUL makes up for a Personal Anecdote" Rudolph
MMM
gr...@apple2.com wrote in message ...
>
>Well, there are the dollar coins advertised on television for
>collectors, such as most recently the colorized so-called-millennium
>coin. If you watch carefully, you might catch the small print being
>flashed on the screen briefly that says it is not legal tender. (If it
>were legal tender, having the face painted like that would surely be
>illegal defacement of the currency.)
>
>
bullion coins.
I believe they are accepted at banks, but with a bullion value of about $5,
you would
be losing $. The painted ones retail for between $15-$20, so you are paying
for
the painting and marketing. I like how they advertise them as the "last
silver dollar
of the millenium" Duh. Of course we could start the arguement/thread about
the
"real" end of the millenium.
MMM
charles bishop
> Olivers wrote:
>
> > Here in civilized USAian climes, our vegetables and fruits are grown
> > with tiny ID numbers to ease the lot of ill-educated grocery checkers
> > unable to distinguish between a carambola and a saltimbocca, or Roma
> > Tomatoes and Burpless Cukes (most of which are purchased by
> > Pouter-breasted KDans in search of deeper orgasmic tranquility).
>
> Here in even more civilised Irish climes there ain't no checkers.
> We are trusted to weigh our own produce.
> --
> Nick Spalding
Somewhat A.C. Clarkeish, I offer the following in case someone wants to
patent it:
Insert the proper gene (perhaps from a striped bass) into fruits and
veggies so they come with their own bar code on the skins.
Charles
charles bishop
Rudolph) wrote:
> kaye...@hotmail.com (K. D.) writes:
>
> >On Thu, 30 Dec 1999 09:51:49 -0500, R. Bruce <r...@worldnet.att.net>
> >wrote:
> >
> >>Now if they would only get rid of pennies. I'm tired of throwing them
> >>in the trash.
> >
> >Pennies are tiresome and hardly worth the effort.
>
> I hate to admit that, on the actions-speaking-louder-than-words
> scale, I seem to be coming around to this belief myself: yesterday
> I spotted a penny on the pavement as I was getting into my car,
> fumbled the recovery operation, and actually left the money behind
> instead of getting out of the car and kneeling on the asphalt to
> grope underneath.
>
Did you do a quick mental calculation for your hourly rate in picking up
the Cu? I got $12-6/hr. Not exactly union wages, but nothing to sneeze at
either. Plus you get paid for exercising.
Charles, they might be able to pay me enough, Bishop
Richard Brandt
> I don't think I've seen a Susan B. Anthony dollar in ten or fifteen
> years. It wouldn't surprise me if many younger people had never seen
> one. They never caught on, supposedly because they resembled quarters
> too closely.
Some postage-stamp vending machines offer them as change.
Richard "Didn't Know 'Bicentennial' Was A State" Brandt
--
===Richard Brandt is at http://www.spaceports.com/~rsbrandt===
"Weekly pregnancy test kits are awarded."
-- one really odd contest prize
Richard Brandt
> Well, it's probably common not to recognize a Susan B. Anthony dollar
> coin. They were introduced as a cost saving measure, but were too
> similar to quarters and were never popular. The post office vending
> machines give them as change, but I rarely see one otherwise.
When Mexico introduced the new one-peso coins in the 1980s, it was
[possible UL warning] so similar to the U.S. quarter that
vending machines would accept them in place of the proper
coinage. Once the Peso devalued to about 4000/dollar this became
a very tantalizing prospect.
To bring up the similarity to pennies: Mexico (not suprisingly)
found it less than cost-effective to keep minting the one-peso coins.
Now there's the New Peso, bolstering up rates-of-exchange by
being worth x-hundred Old Pesos, but I don't think the one-peso
coin will make a big comeback.
Richard "Misses Peso Classic" Brandt
Larry Palletti
[snip discussion of the SBA dollar coin)
>
> Currently we don't mint any new dollar coins, but there are lots of
> SBA dollar coins that still haven't been circulated, and maybe
> never will be. Apparently new coins are going to be minted.
Just had an encounter (today, in fact) with the stamp vending machine
at the local post office. Three Anthony dollar coins in my change --
and one of them bears a 1999 date. I'm loojinf at it as O typw.
I too believed the tale about the zillions of unwanted SBA coins
stashed away in bank vaults, with none having been minted for years.
Yet here's a spanky shiny one dated 1999.
Some cites:
"The Coin Coalition reports that, though the Anthony dollar is not
widely used, many operations such as mass transit
systems and vendors currently use it. However, there is only
about a two-year supply of Anthony dollars now
available. As of October 1997, there were 126.8 million Anthony
coins.
"A new dollar coin with Native American Sacajawea [sic], who
helped guide Lewis and Clark, will be minted in 2000. The
U.S. Treasury is also expected to mint some Susan B. Anthony
dollars this fall in order to maintain the supply of
dollar coins until the Sacajawea coin can be minted."
(www.susanbanthonyhouse.org/dollar.html)
The US Mint's website says 1999 SBA proofs and uncirculated coins are
available for sale. No mention of how many the mints are cranking
out.
There's a goodly dose of ULishness in that business of "people don't
like the SBA because it's too close in size to the quarter." They
seldom voice complaints about the dime and the nickel ... or the
half-dollar and the old Eisenhower dollar. Cent and dime, for that
matter, although the different colors tend to distinguish them. All
of these combinations are very close in size but seem to be seldom
confused.
Are the complainers the same ones who don't like two-dollar bills
because they "get them mixed up with twenties"? When I've pointed out
that they don't easily confuse tens and ones, or fives and fifties,
they logically point out that "that's different."
Sounds more like a dislike for and mistrust of things new and
unfamiliar.
Larry Palletti
East Point/Atlanta, Georgia
http://www.palletti.com la...@palletti.com http://www.booksoncreeen.com
--
0pinionated, but lovable
Elitist pig
Lyle Craver
>Yet still many places freely (ignorantly) accept and dispense Canadian
>and other foreign coin currency of approximate sizes, shapes, and colors
>of US coins (usually only quarters, dimes, and pennies). So if it looks
>like the common coinage and represented as the common coinage, most
>people don't give it any thought.
I'm a Canadian whose job includes running a cash register and I
remember the day about three weeks back and got coins from
Britain, Norway (I think) and of course the usual US small change
(pennies and dimes mostly)
Of course we Canucks have had numerous commemorative coins - 12
separate quarters in 1992, with 12 more in '99 and 12 more
scheduled in '00. We also had special coins (1 ea. in each
denomination) in 1967 - but that was at least our national
centennial.
I routinely exchange the 'special' quarters out of the till with
my own - consider it one of the perks. I recently was sent to the
bank and got 3 rolls of "December 99" quarters. All brilliantly
uncirculated so they MAY be worth something some day. Then again,
maybe not...
------------------------------------
To reply to me remove 1 from address
Dustin K. Anderson
>
> On Thu, 30 Dec 1999 13:00:39 GMT, o...@iki.fi (Otto J. Makela) wrote:
<snip SBA dollar question/anecdote>
> I don't think I've seen a Susan B. Anthony dollar in ten or fifteen
> years. It wouldn't surprise me if many younger people had never seen
> one. They never caught on, supposedly because they resembled quarters
> too closely.
>
> In March the US Mint will be issuing a new dollar coin featuring
> Sacagawea. In order to prevent confusion with the quarter, it will be
> gold colored with smooth edges.
>
> Now if they would only get rid of pennies. I'm tired of throwing them
> in the trash.
Your parting remark reminds me of a story I heard years ago, and
upon review, is quite possibly an urban legend, in that it features
classic elements:
* Amazing 'facts', springing from mundane things.
* Lack of specifics
The story went something like this: "You shouldn't throw pennies
away, they really add up. I heard about these trash collectors who
sift through the garbage in the dumps, and haul out (bignum) dollars
in pennies every year"
Immediately, I have to wonder if anyone would really be inclined to
follow the road to wealth that led through a garbage dump, digging it
out one penny at a time.
Dustin "Pennies from heavin'" A.
Dustin K. Anderson
>
> In article <tfhc6ss8cjcm1ul77...@4ax.com>, spal...@iol.ie wrote:
>
> > Olivers wrote:
<snip>
> Somewhat A.C. Clarkeish, I offer the following in case someone wants to
> patent it:
>
> Insert the proper gene (perhaps from a striped bass) into fruits and
> veggies so they come with their own bar code on the skins.
Ooo, good idea. But let's use Zebra genes instead, so that in a
pinch, the fruit can speak up and announce its identity.
Dustin "Can't you see it's okra, Wilbur?" A.
Ryan Claycamp
>In article <m3iu1g6...@funland.helsinki.sonera.fi>,[snipped]
>
>Well, there are the dollar coins advertised on television for
>collectors, such as most recently the colorized so-called-millennium
>coin. If you watch carefully, you might catch the small print being
>flashed on the screen briefly that says it is not legal tender. (If it
>were legal tender, having the face painted like that would surely be
>illegal defacement of the currency.)
>
There is a web site where you can track where your money goes after it
leaves your hands. It is located at < http://www.wheresgeorge.com/ >.
Since you must get the URL on the bill so others can track it, the
issue of defacement of currency as has been dealt with. Here is the
section of U.S. code from the Bureau of Engraving and Printing:
Defacement of Currency
Defacement of currency is a violation of Title 18, Section 333
of the United States Code. Under this provision, currency
defacement is generally defined as follows: Whoever mutilates,
cuts, disfigures, perforates, unites or cements together, or
does any other thing to any bank bill, draft, note, or other
evidence of debt issued by any national banking association,
Federal Reserve Bank, or Federal Reserve System, with intent
to render such item(s) unfit to be reissued, shall be fined not
more than $100 or imprisoned not more than six months, or both.
Defacement of currency in such a way that it is made unfit for
circulation comes under the jurisdiction of the United States
Secret Service. Their address is: United States Secret Service,
1800 G Street, N. W., Washington, DC 20223.
Since coloring money wouldn't render it unfit for circulation, it
would be okay.
>
>[1] Occasionally when I go to cash a check at a bank I ask for as much
>unusual currency as possible. I like spending deuces, SBAs, and
>half-dollars. A little impromptu intelligence test. A friend told of a
>friend (yes, I'm skeptical too) who would get a pack of two dollar bills
>and on the edge of each he'd put some of the adhesive you'd find on
>Post-It Notes, just so he could have the stack, pull off a bill like it
>were a Post-It Note, and stick it to the side of the register. More
>often than not he'd use them for tips at restaurants. I wonder if that
>also would be considered illegal defacement of the currency.
>
Again, it is not illegal as long as it is not unfit for circulation.
Ryan
--
My President sold our country's nuclear secrets to Communist China and
all I got was this .sig file
R H Draney
> There's a goodly dose of ULishness in that business of "people don't
> like the SBA because it's too close in size to the quarter." They
> seldom voice complaints about the dime and the nickel ... or the
> half-dollar and the old Eisenhower dollar. Cent and dime, for that
> matter, although the different colors tend to distinguish them. All
> of these combinations are very close in size but seem to be seldom
> confused.
Not dime and nickel...should be quarter and nickel, and they're distinguished (as
are dime and cent) by smooth vs corrugated edges...(another possible UL is that
this is done to help out the blind?)....
But I know from first-hand experience that cashiers will think a SBA is a quarter
(and keep holding a hand out waiting for the other $0.75 they think you're short)
unless you *make* them look at it more closely...also recall suggesting to one
food-court employee that she put the dollar coins in a different part of the cash
register so someone on a later shift doesn't give it to another customer as a
quarter in change....r
Larry Palletti
<dado...@earthlink.net> wrote:
>Larry Palletti wrote:
>
>> There's a goodly dose of ULishness in that business of "people don't
>> like the SBA because it's too close in size to the quarter." They
>> seldom voice complaints about the dime and the nickel ... or the
>> half-dollar and the old Eisenhower dollar. Cent and dime, for that
>> matter, although the different colors tend to distinguish them. All
>> of these combinations are very close in size but seem to be seldom
>> confused.
>
>Not dime and nickel...should be quarter and nickel, and they're distinguished (as
>are dime and cent) by smooth vs corrugated edges...(another possible UL is that
>this is done to help out the blind?)....
>
I've heard that. But the real reason for the milling on the coin is
to prevent shaving. Nasty folks used to carve little bits of the
silver & gold off the coins, and no one would be the wiser (for a
while, at least). The milling was introduced to prevent that.
Shaving the coins wasn't all that profitable (for silver, anyway).
But it probably brought in more loot than hunting for cents at the
dump.
Larry Palletti
East Point/Atlanta, Georgia
http://www.palletti.com la...@palletti.com http://www.booksoncreeen.com
--
0pinionated, but lovable
"No neams no." -- RamblerIII
Lynrd
R H Draney wrote:
>
> Larry Palletti wrote:
>
> > There's a goodly dose of ULishness in that business of "people don't
> > like the SBA because it's too close in size to the quarter." They
> > seldom voice complaints about the dime and the nickel ... or the
> > half-dollar and the old Eisenhower dollar. Cent and dime, for that
> > matter, although the different colors tend to distinguish them. All
> > of these combinations are very close in size but seem to be seldom
> > confused.
>
> Not dime and nickel...should be quarter and nickel, and they're distinguished (as
> are dime and cent) by smooth vs corrugated edges...(another possible UL is that
> this is done to help out the blind?)....
>
> (and keep holding a hand out waiting for the other $0.75 they think you're short)
> unless you *make* them look at it more closely...also recall suggesting to one
> food-court employee that she put the dollar coins in a different part of the cash
> register so someone on a later shift doesn't give it to another customer as a
> quarter in change....r
> --
> "You are not expected to believe that I really have vibrating
> rhubarb in my house."--Peter Deutsch
If I recall correctly, the Susan B. Anthony coin was originally supposed
to have thirteen sides, so it was easily distiguishable from a quarter
by its shape.
Vending machine manufacturers protested this as the coins wouldn't work
in exsisting mechanisms, so it was changed to round. The compromise was
the thirteen flats still appear on the face of the coin, but the coin is
round, looks like a quarter, and confuses the cashier at McDonalds.
/crawls back under bridge.
--
ZipPy[TiT][WASTED]
"If you ain't got the beat,
You can forget about the heat"
Ulo Melton
> The story went something like this: "You shouldn't throw pennies
>away, they really add up. I heard about these trash collectors who
>sift through the garbage in the dumps, and haul out (bignum) dollars
>in pennies every year"
> Immediately, I have to wonder if anyone would really be inclined to
>follow the road to wealth that led through a garbage dump, digging it
>out one penny at a time.
Only if they're descendants of the Victorian sewer-hunters. From Henry
Mayhew's _London Labour and the London Poor_ (1861):
[begin quote]
The shore-men [i.e., men who scavenge the sewers for a living] find great
quantities of money--of copper money especially; sometimes they dive
their arm down to the elbow in the mud and filth and bring up shillings,
sixpences, half-crowns, and occasionally half-sovereigns and sovereigns.
They always find the coins standing edge uppermost between the bricks in
the bottom, where the mortar has been worn away.
[end quote]
To get a better sense of just how reliable of informants the
sewer-hunters were, see:
http://www.sewergator.com/misc/sewerswine.htm
--
Ulo Melton (melt...@sewergator.com)
www.sewergator.com - Your Pipeline to Adventure
Alan Barclay
Lynrd <ly...@bellsouth.net> wrote:
>Vending machine manufacturers protested this as the coins wouldn't work
>in exsisting mechanisms, so it was changed to round. The compromise was
>the thirteen flats still appear on the face of the coin, but the coin is
That's strange, the multi-sided coins of other nations are specially
designed to measure the same regardless of the orientation of the coin,
especially so that coin operated devices have an easy time. That's why
they always have an odd number of sides (So you're always measuring
a point against a side), and the sides aren't flat, but have a slight
curve to the side to make it the same even if the coin isn't inserted
with a point directly up (or down).
I'd presume that the US mint would be aware of the design of these other
coins, since they were introduced many years earlier. I belive the first
such coin was the 7 sided UK 50p coin, introduced in 1969.
RRS
>
> The story went something like this: "You shouldn't throw pennies
> away, they really add up. I heard about these trash collectors who
> sift through the garbage in the dumps, and haul out (bignum) dollars
> in pennies every year"
>
> Immediately, I have to wonder if anyone would really be inclined to
> follow the road to wealth that led through a garbage dump, digging it
> out one penny at a time.
I don't know about the garbage, but I empty my change into a bowl every
evening, then roll the coins every month or so and deposit them in the
bank. Most of the coins are are pennies and it adds up to a couple of
hundred dollars a year. Not a fortune, but it takes no great effort to
accumulate it.
Robin "a penny saved" Storesund
Michael Bungey
1999, ra...@joesbar.cc.vt.edu spewed forth the following:
>In France there is a 20 Franc coin, but you don't see it very often.
>Mostly you see 20 Franc notes. I lived there over a year and only
>saw 3 or 4 of the coin, but never had any trouble spending them.
That's one on which YMMV...
I was there for 2 weeks, paid for everything cash, and must have had 7
or 8 of them the whole time... fairly common... may depend on region of
course...
--
Michael Bungey
<Irrelevant quote>
"My sig is my sig, and I refuse to have anyone tell me how I can express
my individuality, in whatever way I happen to choose."
Dan AKA Shaolin 25/12/99
</Irrelevant Quote>
Nick Spalding
> That's strange, the multi-sided coins of other nations are specially
> designed to measure the same regardless of the orientation of the coin,
> especially so that coin operated devices have an easy time. That's why
> they always have an odd number of sides (So you're always measuring
> a point against a side), and the sides aren't flat, but have a slight
> curve to the side to make it the same even if the coin isn't inserted
> with a point directly up (or down).
>
> I'd presume that the US mint would be aware of the design of these other
> coins, since they were introduced many years earlier. I belive the first
> such coin was the 7 sided UK 50p coin, introduced in 1969.
There was an earlier British polygonal coin that didn't have this
characteristic, the sides were straight and 12 in number. This was
the pre-decimal threepenny piece current from sometime in the
mid-thirties until it was withdrawn as it had no exact decimal
equivalent in coinage. 21.1mm across flats, 2.5mm thick at the
raised rim according to my ca. 1890 vernier calliper.
--
Nick Spalding
LKRZ
>evening, then roll the coins every month or so and deposit them in the
>bank.
Has anyone used the commercial change converters where you deposit all your
loose change and get back dollar bills?
I've seen one in a Harris-Teeter supermarket in Atlanta and another in a drug
store in Ohio, I think. Ohio or Tennessee (I traveled a lot this year. Just
remember it was in a small town.)
You dump your loose change into the machine and it sorts it and spits out
dollar bills. I believe it charges a nickel for every dollar spit out.
gr...@apple2.com
ry...@southwind.net wrote:
> Defacement of Currency
>
> Defacement of currency is a violation of Title 18, Section 333
> of the United States Code. Under this provision, currency
> defacement is generally defined as follows: Whoever mutilates,
> cuts, disfigures, perforates, unites or cements together, or
> does any other thing to any bank bill, draft, note, or other
> evidence of debt issued by any national banking association,
> Federal Reserve Bank, or Federal Reserve System, with intent
> to render such item(s) unfit to be reissued, shall be fined not
> more than $100 or imprisoned not more than six months, or both.
>
> Defacement of currency in such a way that it is made unfit for
> circulation comes under the jurisdiction of the United States
> Secret Service. Their address is: United States Secret Service,
> 1800 G Street, N. W., Washington, DC 20223.
>
> Since coloring money wouldn't render it unfit for circulation, it
> would be okay.
Wouldn't that depend on the method of coloration? The coin in question
only had surface dyes added which accentuated the artwork, but what if
your child got into you wallet and put a thick coating of crayon over
your bills? Or worse, magic marker? What about a professional
recoloring of bills?
I remember seeing a show on The Discovery Channel which dealt with new
paper currency, such as facts that attempts at incorporating holograms
failed the crumple test. Also part of the program was restoration and
replacement of damaged money, such as a stack of bills that got burned
in a fire. As long as they could establish one piece of the currency at
the same spot on each bill as unique and legal, you can have it all
replaced with equivalent, undamaged currency. (It was years ago though,
so I don't remember the name of the program. I'm mostly sure it was TDC
and not TLC.)
> Again, it is not illegal as long as it is not unfit for circulation.
So the question falls to what constitutes fitness for circulation. Any
hard information on that, or is that left up to the discretion of the
US-SS?
Phil Edwards
wrote:
>Three Anthony dollar coins in my change --
>and one of them bears a 1999 date. I'm loojinf at it as O typw.
If yoi can't toich-typw yoi'd bw bwttwr off loojinf at thw kwyboars.
Phil "f u cn rd ths u cd b Mdln Pg!!!" Edwards
--
Phil Edwards http://www.users.zetnet.co.uk/amroth/
"Can it be that some fiend has cloned Jicksma?"
- Alan Follett, 1999-12-30
Madeleine Page
>>Three Anthony dollar coins in my change --
>>and one of them bears a 1999 date. I'm loojinf at it as O typw.
>If yoi can't toich-typw yoi'd bw bwttwr off loojinf at thw kwyboars.
Hr hr.
>Phil "f u cn rd ths u cd b Mdln Pg!!!" Edwards
T tks mr thn drpg vwls t b Mdln Pg, Dwds, nd dnt y fgt t.
Madeleine "did that lad just call me a a Maudlin Pig?" Page
--
Harpy New Year to one and all and many snarly returns.
Charles A. Lieberman
> There were registers in common use that would dispense correct coin
> change automatically, eliminating the need for the teenager behind the
> register to know how to make change... except for paper currency. It
> used to be the local Wendy's always had one of those.
Lotsa Wendys' still do. All but two of the five I can, offhand, recall the
counters of use them.
--
Charles A. Lieberman | "I had an exhilarating, deeply moving, sharing mo-
Brooklyn, NY, USA | ment with the woman who brought you into this world"
| --Loomis Farkle gets *nasty*
http://calieber.tripod.com/home.html
Alan Barclay
Nick Spalding <spal...@iol.ie> wrote:
>Alan Barclay wrote:
>
>> That's strange, the multi-sided coins of other nations are specially
>> designed to measure the same regardless of the orientation of the coin,
>
>characteristic, the sides were straight and 12 in number. This was
>the pre-decimal threepenny piece current from sometime in the
>mid-thirties until it was withdrawn as it had no exact decimal
>equivalent in coinage. 21.1mm across flats, 2.5mm thick at the
>raised rim according to my ca. 1890 vernier calliper.
Yes, there were many straight sided coins issued before the 50p coin,
but I don't think that machine operation was quite so important in 1937
when that 3d coin was introduced, or even in 1944 when the Canadian 5c
coin (also 12 sided) was introduced.
Lon Stowell
Lee Rudolph <lrud...@panix.com> wrote:
>kaye...@hotmail.com (K. D.) writes:
>
>>On Thu, 30 Dec 1999 09:51:49 -0500, R. Bruce <r...@worldnet.att.net>
>>wrote:
>>
>>>in the trash.
>>
>
>I hate to admit that, on the actions-speaking-louder-than-words
>scale, I seem to be coming around to this belief myself: yesterday
>I spotted a penny on the pavement as I was getting into my car,
>fumbled the recovery operation, and actually left the money behind
>instead of getting out of the car and kneeling on the asphalt to
>grope underneath.
I dunno if it is the vanishingly small value of the coin
or just encroaching old age. I've noticed that as the
ages pass, I haven't picked up a penny in years, rarely
bother for nickels or dimes, seems the quarter is about
my minimal stoop fee. Although a friend's young daughters
used to be willing to roll pennies for payment in the coins
themselves, but now only go for the larger coins.
Lon Stowell
>"R. Bruce" wrote:
>>
>
>>
>> Now if they would only get rid of pennies. I'm tired of throwing them
>> in the trash.
>
>operated by particulary parsimonious bands of immigrants pursuing the
>'merkin dream) feature the ubiquitous little bowls/dishes for extra
>pennies - You leave yours, and the next guy will have the couple he
>needs - which have proliferated amongst placed clerked by gentlefolk?
>
>The recent phenom, beginning to be widespread hereabouts, has a warm and
>fuzzy appeal, but one wonders about the potential UL, "Store Clerk grows
>feelthy rich taking pennies from Penny Dish!"
More likely "United States Mint has declared that 90% of all
coins in penny dishes have been contaminated with urine."
rwal...@my-deja.com
>
> Some people just aren't aware of all denominations of our currency.
Two
> dollar bills, dollar coins, even 50 cent pieces are rarely seen, but
are
> still in circulation.[1] (We've had dollar coins before the Susan B.
> Anthony dollar coin, but they were much larger.) Currently we don't
> mint any new dollar coins, but there are lots of SBA dollar coins that
> still haven't been circulated, and maybe never will be. Apparently
new
> coins are going to be minted.
>
1999 Susan B. Anthony dollars were minted (the first since 1981) and the
new Sacajawea dollar will be minted beginning in 2000.
--
Robert A. Walker, Ph.D.
Biological Anthropologist
Anatomist
Sent via Deja.com http://www.deja.com/
Before you buy.
jonathan miller
> A long while back I believe there was a thread discussing whether
> rumors of penny shortages in the US were legendary. They are. See:
> http://cnn.com/US/9907/10/penny.shortage/
>
> *Ahem*. Sorry about that. My bad.
And why is there a penny shortage? Because they aren't worth enough to take
down to the bank and exchange for real money.
Damn! I had resolved not to talk about politics this year.
Jon Miller
jonathan miller
> Since coloring money wouldn't render it unfit for circulation, it would be okay.
Thank God! I've been hiding all those quarters from my jukebox in my mattress so
the feds wouldn't get me.
Jon "and I didn't get a wink of sleep" Miller
Larry Palletti
No doubt because you have a jukebox in your mattress. May I suggest
installing a batch of Andy Williams, John Denver, and Barry Manilow
records? That'll put you to sleep for sure.
Larry Palletti
East Point/Atlanta, Georgia
http://www.palletti.com la...@palletti.com http://www.booksoncreeen.com
--
0pinionated, but lovable
ObUL: Richard Byrd and Roald Amundsen were the coolest men of the 20th Century.
Mike Holmans
<la...@palletti.com> decided to impart
>On Sat, 01 Jan 2000 01:45:04 -0600, jonathan miller
>>mattress so the feds wouldn't get me.
>>
>>Jon "and I didn't get a wink of sleep" Miller
>
>No doubt because you have a jukebox in your mattress. May I suggest
>installing a batch of Andy Williams, John Denver, and Barry Manilow
>records? That'll put you to sleep for sure.
Kids, please don't take any notice of Wicked Larry. He doesn't mean
well. All Larry wants you to do is take an axe and hack your bed into
smithereens. Everybody knows that Noriega only surrendered because he
had been informed that if he wasn't going to succumb to Michael Jackson
and ZZ Top, the above-mentioned three were the next level of escalation.
Mike "if those had failed, it would have been necessary to deploy Celine
Dion and Alanis Morrisette, but so far no crisis has got so bad that
this has ever proved necessary" Holmans
Monte Davis
<af...@rgfn.epcc.edu> wrote (allowing for snippage):
>Some postage-stamp vending machines offer them as change.
They're standard as change from $10 and $20 bills in New Jersey
Transit's ticket-vending machines, as well as the machines that sell
multi-fare passes for the PATH trains between Manhattan and NJ.
Monte "I'm a commuter and I vote, two outa three ain't bad" Davis
Charles Wm. Dimmick
> The story went something like this: "You shouldn't throw pennies
> away, they really add up. I heard about these trash collectors who
> sift through the garbage in the dumps, and haul out (bignum) dollars
> in pennies every year"
Well, I've worked out my own retrieval statistics as follows:
In an average week I pick up about 28 cents walking from my car
in the parking garage to the office. Since I'm going that way
anyway and since I can fetch without breaking stride this is not a
waste of time. 52 weeks x 28 cents = $14.56, which is
roughly the cost of a large pizza with mushrooms, green
peppers, and onions, so I get one good meal a year for me and
Charleen for free. My thanks to all of you who have provided.
Charles D.
Maggie Newman
>a quarter
>(and keep holding a hand out waiting for the other $0.75 they think
>you're short)
>unless you *make* them look at it more closely...also recall suggesting to one
>food-court employee that she put the dollar coins in a different part of
>the cash
>register so someone on a later shift doesn't give it to another customer as a
>quarter in change....r
Actually, this puts me in mind of a possible ULish explanation I heard
for the failure of the SBA to thrive: most cash registers are designed
without enough slots to hold a new denomination other than penny, nickel,
dime, quarter. I think we have discussed this in the past but I'm too
lazy to go look.
Maggie "millennial weariness" Newman
--
"If a bloke came up naked sweeping the road as he went I'd
know him to be a Jainist monk regardless of his physical
features."
HWM
Charles A. Lieberman
Lynrd
> If I recall correctly, the Susan B. Anthony coin was originally supposed
> to have thirteen sides, so it was easily distiguishable from a quarter
> by its shape.
>
> in exsisting mechanisms, so it was changed to round. The compromise was
> the thirteen flats still appear on the face of the coin, but the coin is
I'm for something like the £1 coin, thick enough to have an inscription on
the edge.
STLauer
small business and, as a matter of course, went cash register
shopping. While they do come in a many flavors and styles, the
money trays were almost interchangeable between brands. The
standards where:
1. economy model 4 bill slots / 4 coin bins
2. middle grade 4 bill slots, 1 coupon slot / 5 coin bins
3. deluxe model 4 bill slots, 1 wide coupon slot / 6 coin bins
I do remember one high priced machine which had 6 bill slots /
6 coin bins but I think it was meant for a BMW dealership in an
inner-city local.
All but the deluxe model could not handle the full range of US coins,
and none had a place for the 2 dollar bill.
Paul...you don't own a business, it owns you...Lauer
cdj...@ualberta.ca wrote in message <84mbc9$hc0$1...@pulp.srv.ualberta.ca>...
>Maggie Newman <smne...@gsbfac.uchicago.edu> wrote:
>> Actually, this puts me in mind of a possible ULish explanation I heard
>> for the failure of the SBA to thrive: most cash registers are designed
>> without enough slots to hold a new denomination other than penny, nickel,
>> dime, quarter. I think we have discussed this in the past but I'm too
>> lazy to go look.
>
> IIRC, .ca cash registers are identical to .us cash registers, and
>we've had no problem here with putting in two new coins[1] over the last
>decade or so. Of course, I could quite possibly be wrong.
>
> [1] -- Loonie & Twoonie.
>
> CJ
>--
>"Adulthood is the realization that stupidity is permanent and terminal....
>There's different degrees, and some people are better at hiding it than
>others. But it's congenital.... See what happens when bad things happen to
>you when you're young? You become cranky and cynical like me." - Peter
David
cdj...@ualberta.ca
Timotio
> When Mexico introduced the new one-peso coins in the 1980s, it was
> [possible UL warning] so similar to the U.S. quarter that
> vending machines would accept them in place of the proper
> coinage. Once the Peso devalued to about 4000/dollar this became
> a very tantalizing prospect.
>
My parents are missionaries, and we lived in Mexico from 1990-1992. I
remember the un-pesos. We got big bags of several thousand each, and
gave them out as souvenirs when we would visit churches. Also, to
demonstrate the poverty there, we put one dollar's worth (at the time
3400) into a bag, and my dad would have the biggest guy in church come
to the front. Then he would hand him the bag, say "This is one dollar.
Can you imagine taking your girlfriend out to eat, and having to pay
with these?"
We still have some coins (a small coffee can full). Few machines accept
them, but I have noticed (on accident) that those annoying air pumps at
gas stations accept them (that's what they get for making me pay for
air).
> To bring up the similarity to pennies: Mexico (not suprisingly)
> found it less than cost-effective to keep minting the one-peso coins.
> Now there's the New Peso, bolstering up rates-of-exchange by
> being worth x-hundred Old Pesos, but I don't think the one-peso
> coin will make a big comeback.
Well, all they really did was drop 3 zeros off the number. You should
have seen visitor's faces when we would pay for stuff with a 20,000
peso note! Now the equivalent would be 20 pesos. Their economy is still
in free-fall, bless their hearts.
Tim
R H Draney
> > When Mexico introduced the new one-peso coins in the 1980s, it was
> > [possible UL warning] so similar to the U.S. quarter that
> > vending machines would accept them in place of the proper
> > coinage. Once the Peso devalued to about 4000/dollar this became
> > a very tantalizing prospect.
>
> We still have some coins (a small coffee can full). Few machines accept
> them, but I have noticed (on accident) that those annoying air pumps at
> gas stations accept them (that's what they get for making me pay for
> air).
>
> > To bring up the similarity to pennies: Mexico (not suprisingly)
> > found it less than cost-effective to keep minting the one-peso coins.
> > Now there's the New Peso, bolstering up rates-of-exchange by
> > being worth x-hundred Old Pesos, but I don't think the one-peso
> > coin will make a big comeback.
If I may interject a possible UL at this point: is it deliberate on the
part of either country that Canadian and US coins of the same denomination
are close enough to the same size to "pass" as each other?...I know there
have been periods when the conversion rate was uneven enough that stores
felt it necessary to post signs stating "No Canadian Money!"....
R H "is the Japanese sen (100 per yen) a mere theoretical construct or do
they actually mint them?" Draney
R H Draney
> cdj...@ualberta.ca wrote in message <84mbc9$hc0$1...@pulp.srv.ualberta.ca>...
> > IIRC, .ca cash registers are identical to .us cash registers, and
> >we've had no problem here with putting in two new coins[1] over the last
> >decade or so. Of course, I could quite possibly be wrong.
> >
> > [1] -- Loonie & Twoonie.
Didn't the former *replace* a paper currency?...all you had to do was yank the
spring clip out of the slot for one-dollar bills....
> Back in my foolish youth of..mumble..years ago I opened my own
> small business and, as a matter of course, went cash register
> shopping. While they do come in a many flavors and styles, the
> money trays were almost interchangeable between brands. The
> standards where:
>
> 1. economy model 4 bill slots / 4 coin bins
> 2. middle grade 4 bill slots, 1 coupon slot / 5 coin bins
> 3. deluxe model 4 bill slots, 1 wide coupon slot / 6 coin bins
>
> I do remember one high priced machine which had 6 bill slots /
> 6 coin bins but I think it was meant for a BMW dealership in an
> inner-city local.
>
> All but the deluxe model could not handle the full range of US coins,
> and none had a place for the 2 dollar bill.
Or the $50, or the $100...one makes trade-offs...you also see few enough
half-dollars and dollar coins that you can just throw the "odd ones" into their
own compartment...it's not like you're often going to have confusingly large
quantities of both at the same time....r
--
"You are not expected to believe that I really have vibrating
rhubarb in my house."--Peter Deutsch
Lorrill Buyens
Guinness Book of World Records, Richard Brandt <af...@rgfn.epcc.edu>
ate seventeen helpings of lutefisk, then belched:
>ra...@joesbar.cc.vt.edu wrote:
>
>> Well, it's probably common not to recognize a Susan B. Anthony dollar
>> coin. They were introduced as a cost saving measure, but were too
>> similar to quarters and were never popular. The post office vending
>> machines give them as change, but I rarely see one otherwise.
>
>When Mexico introduced the new one-peso coins in the 1980s, it was
>[possible UL warning] so similar to the U.S. quarter that
>vending machines would accept them in place of the proper
>coinage. Once the Peso devalued to about 4000/dollar this became
>a very tantalizing prospect.
I Remember Reading that people who returned from the Sarajevo
Olympics soon discovered that a particular low-denomination
Yugoslavian coin was the perfect size for fitting in NY subway
turnstiles.
--
| Doctor Fraud |Always believe six|
|Mad Inventor & Purveyor of Pseudopsychology |impossible things |
| Weird Science at Bargain Rates |before breakfast. |
Support the Jayne Hitchcock HELP Fund
http://www.geocities.com/hollywood/6172/helpjane.htm
Lyle Craver
wrote:
>Vending machine manufacturers protested this as the coins wouldn't work
>in exsisting mechanisms, so it was changed to round. The compromise was
>the thirteen flats still appear on the face of the coin, but the coin is
>round, looks like a quarter, and confuses the cashier at McDonalds.
Don't know why - we Canadians have an 11-sided $1 coin which are
accepted in nearly all vending machines up here ... the tobacco
vending machine operators werethe driving force for the $1 (1987)
and $2 (1996?) coins. [I'm certain of the date on the$1 since my
daughter was born that same day and it was a major news story;
I'm workingfrom memory on the $2]
------------------------------------
To reply to me remove 1 from address
Louise Bremner
> a particular low-denomination Yugoslavian coin was the perfect size
> for fitting in NY subway turnstiles.
The Korean 500-won coin is virtually the same size as the Japanese
500-yen coin, except that it's slightly heavier. It's also worth far
less. It seems that someone, somewhere is going to a great deal of
trouble to drill shallow holes in 500-won coins to make them weigh the
same as 500-yen coins, because large numbers of these drilled 500-won
coins have turned up in Japanese slot-machines recently.
Louise "does drilling count as shaving?" Bremner
______________________________________________________________________
log at gol dot com
HWM
> We still have some coins (a small coffee can full). Few machines accept
> them, but I have noticed (on accident) that those annoying air pumps at
> gas stations accept them (that's what they get for making me pay for
> air).
A little "oops" that happened when Estonia got independent and got its
own money, "krooni" a.k.a. the crown. The one-crown coins were just the
same size as a German one-mark coin, but the value was say 1/5. Nothing
dawned until the German border guards stopped a few Ladas with sly
overweight and found mint-fresh crown bundles in the boot. The trick is
that in Germany there are cigarrette machines scattered almost
everywhere and the cigarette trade is very big in certain 'mafia'
circles. Nevertheless the governments exchanged a few poisonous remarks
over this incident.
I also spied a few 'funny-sized' coins in the till. It seems a Czech 50
koruna and a Italian 1000 lira (wasn't that sure which it was) are
bi-metal coins. Resemble quite a lot the Finnish 10-mark piece. The
Finnish 10-marks is worth say 2$, the lira maybe 20cents as is the 50
koruna piece. These however do not fit the vending machines.
The only 'motherload' would be to find old 20-penny coins that fit the
parking meters as 1-mark coins, but they were discontinued way back and
the coinage as well as paper money are going to disappear with the
advent of the Euro next year. It'll be fun and games then!
Cheers, | De ore leonis libera me, Domine, et a |
HWM | cornibus unicornium humilitatem meam. |
hen...@iobox.fi & http://www.kuru.da.ru
cdj...@ualberta.ca
> spring clip out of the slot for one-dollar bills....
Both did.
Don Cochrane
wrote:
>If I may interject a possible UL at this point: is it deliberate on the
>part of either country that Canadian and US coins of the same denomination
>are close enough to the same size to "pass" as each other?...I know there
>have been periods when the conversion rate was uneven enough that stores
>felt it necessary to post signs stating "No Canadian Money!"....
Back in the '60s and '70s, when I was a wee lad, the economics were
such that the Canadian dollar was actually worth a bit more than its
USAian counterpart. I believe (and will try to get a cite) that the
imbalance was something in the order of $1.03 US to $1.00 CAD. For
many years, we accepted that the currencies were more or less equal
and, in fact, most places close to the borders accepted the other
country's currency 'at par'.
As for the design of the coins, I have heard (but no cite) that this
was intentional so as to avoid confusion between the two sets of coins
(as any Canadian will tell you, US coins are common in one's change).
They used to be pretty much interchangeable in coin-op machines, but
today's more sophisticated mechanisms mean that the Canuck coins are
rarely accepted in the USAian machines and vice versa.
Although our dollar continues to trade at a value far below that of
our southern neighbour, it is not reason in itself to design a whole
new series of coins.
Speaking of ridiculous subdivisions of currency units - when I lived
in Hungary, the forint (already itself worth about a cent) was further
divided into 100 'filler'. I recall seeing coins of 10 filler
denonimation, but they are out of circulation now.
Don "trade you a caribou for liberty any day" Cochrane
Lynrd
I was working from memory,as I have not been able to find any reference
to the original design of the coin. I read this when the coin was first
issued back in the seventies in the Hayward, CA Daily Review.
Could be that the science of vending machines has advanced some since
then, or more likely there is some foul plot by kidney stealing die
operators to only issue round coins in the US.
--
ZipPy[TiT][WASTED]
"If you ain't got the beat,
You can forget about the heat"
Dustin K. Anderson
Aha, but what about lower back strain? If you're not breaking
stride, you are obviously not bending at the knees to retrieve
that wayward coinage. Have you factored in the yearly cost of
aspirin, or your pain-reliever of choice?
Dustin "there's no such thing as a free meal" A.
Captain Infinity
in article
<ctbishop-301...@pool0289.cvx21-bradley.dialup.earthlink.net>
charles bishop wrote:
>Somewhat A.C. Clarkeish, I offer the following in case someone wants to
>patent it:
>
>Insert the proper gene (perhaps from a striped bass) into fruits and
>veggies so they come with their own bar code on the skins.
Yeah, but who wants to have to de-scale their oranges and okra?
**
Captain Infinity
..."Try breeding an earthworm that can change into a butterfly,
it's a lot easier just gluing them to paper airplanes."
--WizardZed, in <6gplfu$7...@sjx-ixn4.ix.netcom.com>
Captain Infinity
R. Bruce wrote:
>On Thu, 30 Dec 1999 13:00:39 GMT, o...@iki.fi (Otto J. Makela) wrote:
>
>>An interesting episode was when I tried paying at a Washington DC
>>burger place (not one of the megachains) with a Susan B. Anthony one
>>dollar coin I'd got earlier that week from a ticket vending machine in
>>NYC Grand Central station. The guy at the cash register looked at it
>>as if though he'd never seen one, and then told me that he could not
>>accept it. I told him that he should be able to, as it supposedly is
>>legal tender for any commerce, but didn't push the point as there was
>>something of a rush hour crowd there and I had other small change on me.
>>Is it common in US not to recognize your own national currency?
>
>I don't think I've seen a Susan B. Anthony dollar in ten or fifteen
>years. It wouldn't surprise me if many younger people had never seen
>one. They never caught on, supposedly because they resembled quarters
>too closely.
One of the Post Offices near where I live dispenses SBA dollar coins in
change in their stamp book machines. For a while I would visit there,
buy a 32 cent stamp with a 20 dollar bill, and save the 19 SBA dollar
coins that I got in change. Then I'd give 25 or 50 of them as a
birthday present, or for some other celebration gift where money was
appropriate.
A little different, a little fun, and spendable if things get tight.
**
Captain Infinity
..."He who sees the Bozotic in all things sees Kibo.
He who sees the Candy only sees himself only."
--Michael Straight
Captain Infinity
Philippe Nave wrote:
>On a number of occasions, I have watched in horror while a teenager
>struggled mightily with the problem of counting out coins for change
>*after* the machine displayed the amount! I figure it's only a matter
>of time before the machines are built to display the coin count (as
>in "two quarters, a dime, and a nickel") graphically.
The local Wendys have a cash register that dispenses the change into a
little holding trough. The cashier doesn't even touch it; the customer
is supposed to take it as it's dispensed. All the cashier handles are
the bills and incoming change, and I'd hazard to guess that even that
action will be handled by machinery in the near future.
**
Captain Infinity
...please speak directly into the clown's face, thank you
Captain Infinity
Charles Wm. Dimmick wrote:
>Well, I've worked out my own retrieval statistics as follows:
>In an average week I pick up about 28 cents walking from my car
>in the parking garage to the office. Since I'm going that way
>anyway and since I can fetch without breaking stride this is not a
>waste of time. 52 weeks x 28 cents = $14.56, which is
>roughly the cost of a large pizza with mushrooms, green
>peppers, and onions, so I get one good meal a year for me and
>Charleen for free. My thanks to all of you who have provided.
"Always look up, never look down, or all you'll ever see are the pennies
other people drop." --Unknown, but I read it in a Harlan Ellison book
**
Captain Infinity
Captain Infinity
Dustin K. Anderson wrote:
> The story went something like this: "You shouldn't throw pennies
>away, they really add up. I heard about these trash collectors who
>sift through the garbage in the dumps, and haul out (bignum) dollars
>in pennies every year"
>
> Immediately, I have to wonder if anyone would really be inclined to
>follow the road to wealth that led through a garbage dump, digging it
>out one penny at a time.
There are worse ways of making a living. One could work at McDonalds,
for instance.
**
Captain Infinity
..."You couldn't deny that, even if you tried with both hands."
--the Red Queen, _Through The Looking Glass_
B. Richardson
> Once Upon A Time in alt.folklore.urban,
> in article <m9rm6sgjmr0en4ggp...@4ax.com>
> R. Bruce wrote:
>
> >On Thu, 30 Dec 1999 13:00:39 GMT, o...@iki.fi (Otto J. Makela) wrote:
> >
> >>An interesting episode was when I tried paying at a Washington DC
> >>burger place (not one of the megachains) with a Susan B. Anthony one
> >>dollar coin I'd got earlier that week from a ticket vending machine in
> >>NYC Grand Central station. The guy at the cash register looked at it
> >>as if though he'd never seen one, and then told me that he could not
> >>accept it. I told him that he should be able to, as it supposedly is
> >>legal tender for any commerce, but didn't push the point as there was
> >>something of a rush hour crowd there and I had other small change on me.
> >>Is it common in US not to recognize your own national currency?
If you'd wanted to push it, it's technically against the law for a merchant
to refuse properly tendered U.S. currency if he/she customarily accepts U.S.
currency in the course of business.
I get a kick out the movie theaters around here that have signs up saying
that no bills larger than $20 will be accepted. At first I thought it was
because they couldn't make change for the larger denominations, but one day
when I was there buying tickets for a group of friends for a later show, I
tried to pay a $49.00 charge with a $50.00 bill and they refused it. I told
the clerk that's all I had and they said sorry, they couldn't take my
business. (I really didn't have any other money on me and after waiting in
line for 25 minutes to buy the tickets, I wasn't about to go find an ATM then
come back and go through the process again.)
Their excuse was that $50.00 bills are too easy to counterfeit and I told
them that was nonsense-- all bills are equally difficult to counterfeit, that
the $20 bill is the most frequently counterfeited, and that moreover it was
illegal for the theater to refuse my bill which says quite distinctly on the
front "This note is legal tender for ALL debts, public and private." She
responded sarcastically that if I felt that strongly, I should call the
police on them, at which point I showed her my credentials, identifying
myself as a Secret Service special agent and asked to see the manager.
Suffice to say it only took about 3 minutes with the manager before my bill
was accepted with apologies. I even got a few free passes for "my
inconvenience."
> One of the Post Offices near where I live dispenses SBA dollar coins in
> change in their stamp book machines. For a while I would visit there,
> buy a 32 cent stamp with a 20 dollar bill, and save the 19 SBA dollar
> coins that I got in change. Then I'd give 25 or 50 of them as a
> birthday present, or for some other celebration gift where money was
> appropriate.
Those coins are common here in Houston. We use the SBAs a lot for the toll
road change baskets here. Incidentally, there's a new dollar coin coming out
soon. It will have Pocahontas on the face and will be gold in color. The
government is really pushing this one, unlike the SBA, because they want to
stop printing the $1 bill.
Antifrance
> Those coins are common here in Houston. We use the SBAs a lot for the toll
> road change baskets here. Incidentally, there's a new dollar coin coming out
> soon. It will have Pocahontas on the face and will be gold in color. The
> government is really pushing this one, unlike the SBA, because they want to
> stop printing the $1 bill.
Sacajawea (sp?), actually. She was a guide for Lewis and Clark.
HTH.
--
Brendan Dillon (aka Antifrance),
General Purpose God
antif...@yahoo.com
http://ducttape.simplenet.com
"I kept hoping that the fireworks will suddenly
turn into firebombs and make that ugly big metal
thing explodiate and fall and kill a few million
French people, and some cockroaches too." -Sergey Bukhman
Lon Stowell
>
>If you'd wanted to push it, it's technically against the law for a merchant
>to refuse properly tendered U.S. currency if he/she customarily accepts U.S.
>currency in the course of business.
This unfounded claim floats thru every few months....
Got any cites for the laws that support your claim? In particular
any reputable cites for any laws that would support your implied
claim that businesses are required to take large bills?
>
>I get a kick out the movie theaters around here that have signs up saying
>that no bills larger than $20 will be accepted. At first I thought it was
>because they couldn't make change for the larger denominations, but one day
>when I was there buying tickets for a group of friends for a later show, I
>tried to pay a $49.00 charge with a $50.00 bill and they refused it. I told
>the clerk that's all I had and they said sorry, they couldn't take my
>business. (I really didn't have any other money on me and after waiting in
>line for 25 minutes to buy the tickets, I wasn't about to go find an ATM then
>come back and go through the process again.)
No law required that theater to take your bill....or even to
allow you to buy the ticket were you to proffer the exact
change.
Lon Stowell
>
>If I may interject a possible UL at this point: is it deliberate on the
>part of either country that Canadian and US coins of the same denomination
>are close enough to the same size to "pass" as each other?...I know there
>have been periods when the conversion rate was uneven enough that stores
>felt it necessary to post signs stating "No Canadian Money!"....
I'm surprised you have to ask. It is a plot to make the
inevitable invasion easier. The invading armies will have
no difficulty with obtaining stamps, soft drinks, condoms,
and access to pay toilets.
Lon Stowell
>
>Back in the '60s and '70s, when I was a wee lad, the economics were
>such that the Canadian dollar was actually worth a bit more than its
>USAian counterpart. I believe (and will try to get a cite) that the
>imbalance was something in the order of $1.03 US to $1.00 CAD. For
>many years, we accepted that the currencies were more or less equal
>and, in fact, most places close to the borders accepted the other
>country's currency 'at par'.
In the 50's, merkin merchants in NoDak and Montana would often
honor Canadian dollars at $1.05 worth of US goods. Some
Canadian stores in British Columbia and Alberta would charge
extra for US currency but not coins, some would charge extra
for coins, and some service stations [1] would honor merkin
money at face value as a courtesy.
[1] An antiquated institution where you could get automobile
fuel, free windshield washes, free oil checks, free water,
free air [checked at every stop upon request] free minor
auto troubleshooting, free maps, and free restrooms.