Have you ever done this for fun?

Usually after I have bought a bunch of half dollars, I bring them back to a bank and run them through the lobby coin sorter. If you have an account, there is no charge. Sometimes though, I will save some and spend them. For example, I would pay for my meal with all half dollars at the Burger King drive through. There was this one lady who worked there who just got giddy every time I went there as she always bought the half dollars back from Burger King. Now, these were regular Kennedy half dollars. No silver at all. At other places, the cashier would look at me and state they do not take “foreign” money. It is always a kick to see their expressions.

 

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lol foreign money????

good grief. the public is woefully ignorant about the money their own country makes. people turning down 2 dollar bills thinking they're not real. people thinking sacs are play money your kids left on the table.

and now a kennedy half dollar is foreign money?

this is SAD. its not funny amusing or even slightly entertaining. this is painfully sad. its like people who cant find iraq on a globe or cant name who the person is in a pic like dick cheney for example.

some idiot couldnt name the liberty bell on jay leno the other night. it might be really amusing to laugh at the lack of education but i dont think its funny at all. i dont care if you dont know who dick cheney is but to not know what the liberty bell is is really sad.

 

I enjoy spending "odd" money such as two dollar bills, Kennedy halves and golden dollars. Oftentimes the cashier scratches her head trying to figure out where to put this "odd" money in their cash register tray.

"Odd" money is also great for tips. Waitstaff are often so excited to get a two dollar bill as a tip that they overlook the fact that the tip should have been more!

 

golden dollars are odd money? ya I spend halves, two dollar bills, ike's etc fun to watch the returned expressions.

 

Ive told this story before, but the last time I spent a half dollar was at Target, and the cashier had to look at it and read it to determine its value... oye!

 

I love doing this. I bought a cup of coffee once with a morgan dollar just to see the reaction I would get. I also like to tip silver rounds from time to time.

 

Theres a coffee shop around the corner from me. I gave the girl at the counter a SBA dollar and a JFK half and said keep the change. lol She asked me to stay there while she got her boss. He told me the only take American money ( there all from India ). I said what are you saying? This is American money. They almost didnt take the coins until a cop standing in line behind me butted in and said the them. Its REAL and i have the right to spend it. they gave the two coins back to me and the coffee for free. lol I think. Im gonna hit the other coffee shops in my area for a free drink.

 

American money these days is unfortunately made of plastic!

 

Obviously the words "United States of America" and an American president don't mean anything.

Phoenix

 

I've had a harder time even phasing people... RTD gives out SBA dollars, Sacagaweas, and president dollars as change from the ticket machines, so most people in the metro Denver area are pretty familiar with them and don't give them a second glance. When I spent some spare Monroe dollars at Chipotle, the cashier did remark "These are new ones, right?"

Sometimes people will look at half dollars I spend for a few seconds, but I'd never have any question whether it was legitamately US money. Did have one time someone think it was a dollar... and one time someone asked me "they just started minting these right?" (Um, no, they've been minting them since 1964, and stll do...) Does amuse me sometimes that people who weren't even born when they started minting Kennedy halves have never seen one in their life, apparently.

Wonder if they'll be any confusion when the Kennedy dollars come out in 2015?

 

I've been using half dollars for a long time as tips in restaurants, getting into the flea markets and any other place where such a coin would not hold up a line. In many places they are grabbed as if ther were Gold. What I mean by holding up a line is my attempts to use a $2 bill at a Walmart store ended up with me holding up the line while the cashier called for a head cashier to verify the usage of that bill. And then she too had to call someone. I will never again attept to use one of those baby sized dollars. At a restaurant, crowded, I left several of the president dollars on the table as a tip. While walking away to pay the bill the waitress bellowed out "Mister, you left some of your kids play money on the table"
Never again will I use those things.

 

Last night before the college hockey game started I bought a program. The price was $3 and little boys about 10 years old were selling the programs.

I walked up to a kid, asked for a program and pulled out a Washington dollar and asked if he knew what it was. He said "No" and I said that it was a dollar. Then I pulled out a $2 bill and said that was two dollars. His eyes were as big as silver dollars. I said, "One dollar plus two dollars is $3, right?" He said "Yes" and took the money.

As I was walking away I looked back I and saw him running over to his mother proudly holding up the $2 bill.

I bet he looks at his money just a bit closer now.

 

I do it too on occasion and get wierd looks with the new dollar coins. Around here, you'd be suprised at how many peso's float around in circulation with no problem, but a USA coin gets stared at, lol

 

maybe because you're in Southern territory... closer to Mexico. lol
but in the past 5 years or so, I have not gotten a Peso. Canadian change, yes, but not pesos... lol

 

Modern Mexican coinage (since about 1991, when they renumerated the peso) is mostly bi-metallic and pretty hard to get confused with US coinage. I see it happen ocassionally, but not as much as it used to... most Canadian coins have identical or nearly identical dimensions to US coinage and can sneak in more readily into US circulation.

Many other countries that produce coins similar in dimension to US coins have the coins sneak into US change also... A large portion of my world coin collection is actually pulled from US circulation lol... have started to lose track of how many I've found that way.

On the main subject I have finally found a bank that routinely carries $2 bills... fresh, crisp ones at that... and ocassinally I will pick up a supply of them to get them circulated just for the fun of it lol...

 

A Morgan TwoSon? I admire you for living dangerously I have a good one myself. I work at a Cumberland Farms in the suffer when I am not at school. All of my coworkers know that I am a collector, so when neat coins come through the register they will usually ask me about them. One night I came in when I wasn't working to get a soda. This one guy I work with pulls me aside and tells me that he has something he has never seen before and wants to know what it's worth. I belted out laughing when he handed me a PLASTIC play money Roosevelt dime! A less fortunate woman had used it to help pay for a coffee. I didn't want to laugh at him, but really, how could I help it? PLASTIC!!!!

 

My 4 year old son and I let mommy sleep in on the weekends, so we go to breakfast every Saturday morning, then go to the bank to see if they have any new Sacs (he's trying to fill up his folder). I noticed a silver coin in the cashier's Presidential dollar rack. I thought at first it might be the new Monroe dollar struck on the wrong planchet, so I asked her if I could see it. She looked at it and said with a dumbfounded look, "What IS this?". It was an SBA dollar. Even this generation of bank workers need a tutorial in American currency.

 

done this for fun

i'll bet if the dollar bill disappeared even the bank employees will actually learn what these buck coins are.

 

I live in England but have spent holidays in Florida for the las t few years (back again this May -June).

Last time I was on holiday (2006) I tried to pay a $5 bill with 1 x regular paper $, 1 xsilver cert, 1 x Eisenhower, 1 x SBA and 1 x Sac. The cashier insisted I used a $5 note as she was not sure about most of the 1$. (My wife gave me a telling off for playing embarrasing games.)

 

Considering how Clarkson bashed the South on Top Gear, i'm surprised you still come to the USA.