Spent $45 in halves yesterday: The "Half Spending Promotion Saga" continues...

It's the step just before teenager.

 

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I usually get deuces at the bank...and basically leave them as tips at restaurants along with a business card. IT WORKS!! I also give deuces for change, for people that like them, but most people that like them, wont spend them. Sometimes they are given as gifts inside a birthday card, and again usually saved in a trinket drawer. I have been known to frequent a gambling establishment or two every now and then, and I always come home with pockets full of halves. Some casino's have 50 cent chips so that sucks. I spend my halves all over the place, I dont care if I get a dirty look (who looks more stupid...someone innocently spending legal tender...or the cashier that looks as if you just handed them monopoly money).

 

Love your effort, something I do from time to time is when my family has a yard sale I will give change back in half dollars. People stare at the halfs for a second, smile and put them in their pocket. :yes:

 

I wonder if I spend IKE coins, will stores still accept them?

 

Update:

Well, I went back to the pizza place today and got a medium pizza, and I spent $7.50 in halves there again, and left one for part of a tip (I had planned on spending all $8 worth on the pizza and still getting change, but it turned out, less than $7.50 covered it. So I asked the cashier girl, "Did you hand out any of those last halves in change to people, that I gave you the other day?" and she said "I don't know. I think there are still a few in the vault" and I think thats a bad sign, unfortunately. They may have just put them all in the safe for all I know. *sigh* Why can'y these people just use $2 bills and halves like any other denomination? Get the public used to them by businesses always using them, and people will accept them more readily than accepting replacing the $1 bill with a dollar coin, or even, eliminating the cent in my opinion. The problem would be solved if vending and self checkout machines spit these two denominations out at their customers, since most people are not going to go out of the way to go to the bank just to get them. In fact, the BANKS and credit unions could solve the problem by handing them out, seeing as, no matter what, the maximum amount of halves you would have to carry is ONE, and the maximum amount of $2 bills you would have to carry is TWO. Now, how hard is that to handle?

Now I know most of us Americans have a problem with changing our spending habbits and atitudes, but how hard could it be to cary around one half and one or two $2 bills? I mean, sure spending some money at stores after going to the bank might score you a few more halves or $2 bills, depending on how many stores you go to, and what denominations you spend. But I can almost gurrentee that almost no one would be walking around with more than five halves in their pocket if that many, or five $2 bills in their wallet if that many, as they could spend the halves and $2 bills almost as soon as they get them if they are going to another store or two, and at the end of the day, many people empy their pocket change and save it in a jar or piggy bank anyway. And as for any extra $2 bills, for them, tomorrow is another day.

 

Of course stores will still accept Ikes. I spend them all the time, because most Ikes are only worth $1. They are limited, but fun to spend.

 

That's right, they don't want them and they don't care. I would applaud your efforts if I understood the reason for it. You can't get people to use something they don't even care about.

 

Really? I got 4 Ikes that were sitting in a teller's tray. I sold it to someone at face.

 

They are legal tender, they have to accept them.

 

Businesses don't want to hand them out because people don't want them. Irritating your customers by giving out change in inconvenient ways is a sure fire way to reduce your business by driving away good customers. Imagine if a business gave out all it's change in $1 bills because the owner liked the $1 bill. Again, I understand what you are doing...and I too like the half dollar and $2 bill, but the vast majority of our population neither like them nor care about them. I can see people not minding the $2 bill but the half dollar is a large heavy coin and people don't want them.

While they are legal tender...any business can refuse any form of payment. They don't have to accept them. I have never heard of a business not accepting an Ike though.

 

I can see this too, mainly because at least most self checkout machines and some vending machines accept $2 bills...

...but most, if not all self checkout machines and vending machine do not accept halves. So that is why I think people don't like them. I don't think the issue is the big bulky size, because you wouldn't have to carry too many ar one time. Only a few at a time, if you weny to one store and got a half in change, and then went to another store, were you owe the cashier $0.50 or more, then BINGO! bye bye half! Or if you had multiple halves you could always spend more than one, just like with quarters. I just wouldn't go balistic, and spend tons of them in one place. The only reason I currently am, is to try to see if stores will circulate them for me.

 

If I were a cashier and knew nothing about coins, I'd try to get rid of the weird stuff by passing it on and getting my till back the way I want it.

All these circulated halves and deuces will just either go back to the bank or in someone's sock drawer. There is a reason the mint doesn't need to coin halves and dollars anymore.