Today I paid for an item that cost $6.06 with a 5-dollar bill, a Susan B. Anthony 1-dollar coin and a Kennedy 50-cent coin. I received 94 cents back in change. Didn't realize it until I arrived home. I thought the kid had it figured out because I handed him each coin separately and he looked at both sides of each coin. Flummoxed him with two shiny metal coins!!! At least it didn't hold up the drive-thru lane like the time I paid for my item with Ikes!
Bad experience today! NYC bus and train fare went up .25 cents. I only had 1 fare left on my Metrocard this morning so I had to dig into my change jar. On the bus I inserted my Metrocard and I needed to insert a quarter to bring it up to $2.75 but I dropped the quarter and it rolled off the bus and into a street gutter. The bus driver laughed and said "Don't worry next time".. Now I'm stuck wondering how many other coins could be down in that same gutter!
The cashier thought the Kennedy was a $1. Nowhere does it say 50 cents on that coin. He only saw the dollar part.
I paid my tip yesterday at a local eatery with 8 Kennedy halves. Waitress was tickled pink. You'd think she struck gold.
Bought a hot chocolate at Starbucks once with half dollars. Total was $4 and change...handed him 9 Kennedys, told him to keep the change, and he replied, "Are you sure? That's a really large tip!" I told him to look a little closer at the coins...thought they were dollars. I guess reading is difficult sometimes.
I went through a toll booth not to long ago (I was still looking for my dump bank), and paid the $0.50 toll with a roll of Cents. They guy threw them hard, so they exploded everywhere. I put the truck in park, and let the guy rant and rave about 'pennys'. I did the only other thing i could think of to make him 'go postal' and asked for a receipt. He lost it at that point. Due to this guys reaction, I now bring them unrolled and take my time counting them. The toll was to have been removed once the bridge was paid for anyway. Good fun.
The other day, after paying for lunch with a debit card, I left a $2 and an Ike as the tip. Wish I could have seen the reaction but had to keep moving.
Another tip - if you're going to Europe, take a couple of rolls of nice Kennedy 50c with you (not silver, of course) - they make good tips (in addition to the tip that's normally added directly to your check ) and little gifties. Favorite U.S. coin in the EuroZone. If you're in London or Dublin, take them into a small, seedy pawn shop and offer to swap them for "other" U.S. coins, like Indianheads, etc.
You would think the State Toll booth would gladly accept all form of currency. Besides, if others would do it also creating traffic jams, and burdening these booths with tons of cents, then possibly the State would honor their original agreement to only charge tolls until the bridges were paid for (years ago this was achieved). They make EZ Pass for people who don't like sitting behind me anyway.
When I was last raking silver from half boxes ( almost 7 years ago), I didn't feel it fair to dump the leftovers at a bank, so Walmart got a run for small purchases.
Well, since you didn't realize you had the wrong change until you got home, it sort of sounds like you flummoxed yourself, too.
Try using SBA's - they think you gave them a quarter. I had to actually point out to a clerk the two quarters she gave me in change are not quarters, but dollars.
When I was in high school me and my friends would pay at McDonald's with Ike's, sba's and halfs. It always ended with the manager having to come over and approve the transaction. Mainly we just liked seeing the total look of confusion on the cashier's face.
