Penny Ante

[mikoyan29]

I had someone pay for two movie tickets (total came to $17 at the time) with all quarters, he dumped them on the counter... on a Friday night.. and slowly counted them out while his friend laughed hysterically. I wanted to choke him.

... but $100 in pennies!?!?!?!?!?! I will never complain about quarter guy again. That's just ridiculous!

At least you can do something with the quarters.

[bainsidhe]

To make things even weirder: When I worked WM, we would only accept rolls of coins if they were opened. Meaning that we'd technically need to open each and every roll of pennies to make sure they were indeed pennies and the correct quantity. If it wasn't a total waste of time, I'd probably insist the SCs wait around until I counted out all 200 rolls.

[vstorevigilante]

At least you can do something with the quarters.

Well, in that situation it wasn't the fact that quarters were useful or useless, but that there was a 600-person line up behind the guy, and he and his friend had literally thrown the quarters on the counter and were full of glee while counting them out very slowly and deliberately. Had it been a Tuesday afternoon or some other ridiculously slow time, I probably would've thanked him Save me bugging the managers for change.

[Racket_Man]

Okay, and I thought I had it bad when someone gave me $300 in $5 bills today. At least 60 $5 bills are relatively useful. Did you have to actually take the pennies?

got one better

about 2 years ago I had (through no choice of my own the only ready cash I had on hand) to pay for a big car repair with nothing but $5 bills -- to the tune of $1600. He was not happy but in this case money was money.

[Midnight_Angel]

I read in a book about weird Canadian laws that you can't pay for anything with more than 25 LOOSE pennies, but I don't know what the policy on rolled ones is, either

Well, in Europe we actually do have a law that no one has to accept more than 50 loose coins for a singla payment. With notes, there is no such limit.

[phantasy]

...At least they were rolled...

I had a guy pay me $50 in LOTTERY TICKETS in pennies. LOOSE PENNIES!!

In Peru, we have 1 cent pieces that look silver but feel light, like plastic, like fake funny money. You get them when you recieve change from the supermarket, but you can't use them anywhere else. I even had a homeless guy from the street who I gave it to GIVE IT BACK TO ME!

[SongsOfDragons]

Why did you even accept it? There's nothing that says you have to take any form of currency if you don't feel like it, and you certainly have the right to refuse to take currency brought for the sole purpose of harassing the staff.

You do not have to take pennies. Ever. You could put up a sign and say you're only accepting lima beans for the week if you felt like it and nobody could say "boo" so long as it was posted prominently and your price tags were changed to match.

^-.-^

You're correct of course, at least today. I did some research into Medieval coinage not too long ago. Once upon a time coins actually did have X amount worth of precious metal in them, silver and gold mainly, so were worth what was printed. The British Pound used to actually weigh a pound... and at this stage of currency history you could be executed for refusing the King's money!! Now of course, our coins' metal isn't actually worth what's printed on it - this is called debased currency and relies on people trusting that the worth hasn;t changed overnight.

Or something like that.

[Andara Bledin]

Now of course, our coins' metal isn't actually worth what's printed on it - this is called debased currency and relies on people trusting that the worth hasn;t changed overnight.

Or something like that.

Actually, if you want a highly entertaining and enlightening look at debased currency, check out Making Money by Terry Pratchett. It's a Discworld novel, and doesn't require that you've read any of the previous books, but if you want a better understanding of the main player, you could read Going Postal first.

^-.-^

[C-130]

Well i know where those customers would be told to go if it was me at your end. Customers give me more than 20 pennies and they are told you need to wait for me to get a superviser with scales and the ability to check all coins. That somehow usually produces a note or larger denomination from the customer.

[Darkforge]

When I was back in the cafe/bakery and we made our stuff fresh every day we used to give out some of the leftovers out to some of the local homeless people and after getting to know a couple of the "regular" ones the boss decided that we could let them change up their takings from their days beggings into more manageable notes/coins. As we went through change in our drawers really fast it helped us restock without needing to go to the bank.

Thankfully the boss was sensible about this, and said that they could only do this just before close (when we were quietest), and only if there were no customers in the queue.

Still, counting out that many 1p, 2p and 5p coins was certainly tedious when it came to counting our drawers at closing.


On a side note I think that in the UK there is a legal limit on the maximum of each coin that can be used for paying debts, but no limit of notes but I am not a lawyer so am not sure

[Magpie]

Actually, if you want a highly entertaining and enlightening look at debased currency, check out Making Money by Terry Pratchett. It's a Discworld novel, and doesn't require that you've read any of the previous books, but if you want a better understanding of the main player, you could read Going Postal first.

Actually Going Postal has a bit of explanation of the currency problem too. But you're just trying to get them hooked on the series.

[fireheart]

One of my coworkers once had a guy that paid for a $90 purchase in nothing but coins.

In Australia, we have 5c, 10c, 20c, 50c, $1 and $2 coins. (Notes are $5, $10, $20, $50, $100)

This guy had a mix of all the above, but the biggest pile was 20c pieces. The drawer was OVERFLOWING with that many 20c coins, the supervisor in charge kept asking all the operators if they wanted/needed 20c coins so she could get rid of them.

On the smokeshop counter, people keep wanting to pay for cigarettes with their loose coinage. So I get anything from $10-$80 in 20c-$5 notes. (I once had a guy give me $85 in $5 notes)

[Mikkel]

On a side note I think that in the UK there is a legal limit on the maximum of each coin that can be used for paying debts, but no limit of notes but I am not a lawyer so am not sure

In Denmark you don't need to receive more than 25 coins of each denomination.

[dalesys]

Actually Going Postal has a bit of explanation of the currency problem too. But you're just trying to get them hooked on the series.

Goddamn the pusher ma'am!

[RetailWorkhorse]

So....is that better or worse than someone trying to pay for a pack of gum with a 100$ bills?

How many brain cells did I just pop?

Actually Going Postal has a bit of explanation of the currency problem too. But you're just trying to get them hooked on the series.

Going Postal popped my Terry Pratchett cherry. I have got to get more of his books.