My experience with vending machines is, that here in the States, machines are geared to taking US coins. Generally speaking vending machine operators like getting paid in their own currency. So one day at my wife's work, she got a Canadian Quarter in her change after getting a soda. Feeling slighted by the world she put it back in and hit change and got a US Quarter back. We tried an experiment, I gave her two dollars in Canadian Quarters and when she got home, she gave me two dollars in US Quarters. We have yet to try this with Canadian dimes and nickels, but I didn't want the vender to wonder why he was getting all this Canadian coinage and rewire the machine. Thinking back most machines I have used, most or all have returned Canadian coins I have tried to use. I guess I want to know are machines country specific? How do you program a vending machine to take one currency and reject others? Why might this machine take both? Is this odd or more normal than I think, because I never have Canadian coins in my pocket. The funny part to this story is that my wife works in a city in the Twin Cities area called....Little Canada
You can also do the same thing with filling your State Quarter album as a different quarter comes out ! Canada's money is worth almost as much as ours now, so just sneak it into change !
Right now at the bank of Canada 1.00 Can = 1.02 American.. I would be putting in y American quarters and hoping for the Canadian change
hmmm, I think the next time I go to visit my grandparents and we stop by a rest stop Im gonna try and see if I cant get that elusive Utah quarter. Just need that and a few territorys to finish off my set.
i might have an extra. I will check when I get home. if I do its yours .. on the house.. of course you will have to wait until the postal service is back to work here
That would be awesome lol. Just let me know, but for now I will continue my search. Ill let you know if I find one.
Canadian quarters minted from 1968 to 1999 were pure nickel, which meant they were magnetic and would be rejected by US vending machines. Canadian quarters minted since 2000 have a vastly different metallic composition, consisting of 94% steel and the remainder of copper and nickel. Maybe that new alloy can fake out US vending machines? On edit: Both types of alloys are magnetic. I wonder if the steel/copper/nickel quarters have a special property that allows them to slip through US vending machines? Or maybe vending machines in northern tier states are configured to accept Canadian coins? Do they accept Canadian dimes and nickels as well?
Ok. If not I will get one at the shop for you. I get them at even money so keep me posted. If you dont have one by the time our postal service is back in business I will send you it. what other ones do you need? I know I have a US Virgin Islands too
Depends on the machine. Most modern vending machines check insterted coins for various criteria: size and weight for example but also whether they are magnetic, "a little magnetic" or non-magnetic. How sophisticated such machines are also depends on what coins are used in a country. Here in the euro area we have €2 coins for example, and some people used 10 baht coins from Thailand, or 1 lira coins from Turkey, in vending machines. Both resemble the €2 piece but are worth less; older machines would not recognize the difference. Modern vending machines may also check inserted coins for thickness, conductivity or contact resistance. Some can even recognize characteristic design elements which of course means their software needs to be updated regularly. So quite a lot can be done - the primary questions are, what products can be purchased at a specific vending machine, and what is the highest denomination that the machine accepts? A chewing gum machine that accepts quarters only will not have to be as "clever" as a machine that sells electronic gadgets and swallows coins worth ten times as much ... Christian
When I was a kid in WI, I bought Canadian coins at 1/2 face from the local bank. I took them to a soda machine that sold soda for 25c a can. I'd put in 20c Canadian, then a Canadian quarter. I'd get back 20c US in change. The 45c Canadian cost me 22 1/2c and I'd get back 20c. Since I grew up awfully poor, soda was not in the house ever. What a great treat for me. Wonder if the vending guy sold the Canadian back to the bank?
Are US and Canadian coins of the same denomonation the same weight and composition? I thought Canadian coins were lighter?
