Do non-numismatists appreciate "odd" currency?

I frequently like to use "odd" currency such as half dollars, presidential dollars, and 2 dollar bills when leaving a tip or making a small purchase. I'd like to think that the recipient appreciates the currency for the novelty and maybe it will spurn some interest in numismatics (or perhaps they know someone to give it to). Sometimes the recipient voices their appreciation or interest to me, but most often the transaction takes place without comment.

My wife finds this practice rude. She feels that the "odd" currency creates a hassle for the recipient, and if they really wanted it they would seek it out on their own.

Now I realize I'm asking a biased audience, but what do my fellow CT members think?

 

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I also like to use "odd" coins and currency for transactions. I mean I am not spending morgans or mercs, but things like susan b anthony dollars, or Kennedy half dollars

 

I think some of them do, but others definitely do not. I like to leave a "trifecta" when leaving a tip or making a cash purchase like at a fast food joint. That is, I pay with a Kennedy Half, an Ike Dollar and a $2 bill. When used as a tip, I think the trifecta is enjoyed by most as interesting and different. When used to pay for a retail purchase though, most folks get a little frustrated by the trifecta as there is no room in their cash drawers for any of the denominations... Either way, it's pretty fun for me

 

My bank frequently gets UC current issue P small dollar rolls.

I started back when the "Godless" Washingtons were found and have just kept getting the newer issues as they were released so I could search them for "Whatever".

I consider it free fun, never find much and then use them at my video store/local paper stand/one Fast Food joint close to the office (one cashier there covets different coins) & corner Mom & Pop grocery. They have begun asking if I have the "new" ones now. The rest get dropped at random as tips on a regular basis.

My favorite neighborhood Premo Mexican restaurant has gotten used to it and has provided us with their new hires so they can watch their Newbie bite their tips as I leave.

 

Around here most of the durn cashiers don't evern know what a half dollar is and have to call a supervisor. Of course, sometimes the super doesn't know either!

 

I have regularly used the Presidential dollars on a consistent basis for small purchases (what else do you do with all of those rolls you sort through?) and have found that most people don't even give them a second look. It seems to me that majority of people / cashiers have absolutely no interest at all in the collectable side of the coins, just the currency side.

Of course I did have one issue in Center City Philadelphia. I attempted to pay for parking ($7.50) with Presidential Dollars, and the attendant would not take them. There was no on site supervisor, and the cashier was obviously from an African country and English was not his first language. I finally convinced him that they were legal tender, but he insisted on taking my license plate number incase I was passing 'toy money' as he called it.

 

This is a big problem that I've found in New York City as well. I like to use the strange stuff for small purchases as well, but it often leads to conflict. The ridiculous thing is that this applies beyond the true "strangeties" of halves, $2 bills, and (God forbid!) Ikes. Try using a $50 to pay for a $10 transaction at a lunch place... the cashier looks at you like you just spit in their face. For such an expensive city, you'd think they'd be more used to it...

 

My local ice cream parlor looks forward to me showing up with my extra halves. Last time I went they complained that they needed more.

 

"Change you can believe in" ... what's up with that?

Results vary. My former local coin club regularly hangs out at the same restaurant and when that started, the odd coins were interesting, but after ten years of it, the waitresses just stopped ogling at No-Date Buffalo Nickels.

I do get rolls of Presidential Dollars and Half Dollars and spend them around town for coffee, etc. In Ann Arbor, it's not much of a problem. Sometimes young people have to call a supervisor. Mostly, though, I think that US money looks America and anyone literate in one medium can pretty much read another.

Sometimes on a coin board like this you see the other problem. "What is this coin?" and its from China or India and they post the image upside down. Writing leads the eye. It's a rule going back to cuneiform, and probably back to cave paintings and woven patterns in fabric. But if the coin does not have a Man Looking Rigth with an Eagle on the Back, they can't tell up from down or right from left. It is a form of illiteracy.

I have some holed coins, A couple are European silvers that are holed at right angles to the images. So, whoever used the coin for decoration did not perceive the figure-ground presentation. They did not see the images as images.

Literacy has to be learned. Retail sales clerks handle enough currency that after a few weeks on the job, they have seen most of it. Then we come along ...

 

50% love to get it and think it's the greatest
50% despise it and think it's rude

The ones that hate it usually trade it to the other ones that love it as soon as they get it so both end up happy

 

Why would people think it's rude? They're awesome and a lot of people don't have them.
If I had a ton of money to spare and I didn't care about what I spent... I would be giving people two and three cent pieces haha.... I wonder what they'd say

 

Well you are not all people.
Just like a scarf that was made with a special stitch...some persons would love it and others would think why would I be given that!
It's the reason Roll searchers find great coins and silver in them all the time too.
Yes to me I would be in the 50% that would love to get them but I am a coin collector

 

Funny this should come up now... one of my friends from highschool just posted on her facebook asking if anyone had ever seen/believes in $2 bills. She got eleven positive responses and zero negative. So our generation isn't entirely ignorant.

 

I don't think the practice is rude. I have used $2 bills for tips before on multiple instances, and I have universally received positive feedback.

 

A drive in diner in Lansing gives halves out for change regularly. The customers seem to enjoy it.

 

If your talking about $2 bills then no I've never heard of a complaint there but I thought we were talking about dollar coins, halves and such...

 

I sometimes add to a regular tip with a $100 trillion note from Zimbabwe. Sometimes people enthuse over it, sometimes they try to give it back.

 

I was referring to any type of odd currency, so $2 bills included. I have never received a negative comment from anyone other than my wife for using them.

Typically I'll refrain from using when we're together, but will use them liberally when alone.

She wanted me to ask servers, cashiers, etc. to see what they thought...so I figured I'd give it a test run on the CT forum.

Seems that most people will use them...but its up for debate what the receivers feel about them :/

 

My wife had a job waiting tables when she was younger, and said she enjoyed getting unusual and interesting things as long as they were something she could spend.

 

most people in my experience are largely indifferent to the practice, as long as they can spend it.