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Message:: [QUOTE="CaptHenway, post: 4954797, member: 13813"]When I started working in Chicago the CTA issued a small copper-nickel token that worked in both the bus fare boxes and the subway turnstiles. There was also a larger handicapped token that I used, but to use one you had to show the bus driver or the subway booth collector your pass with your picture on it. The small token was the same size as a German one pfennig piece, which was worth about one fourth of a cent. The coin shop I worked in downtown bought in foreign coins that people brought back from trips at a steep discount. The First National Bank of Chicago in the next block had a foreign exchange teller that bought the paper, but they did not want to bother with the coins and then sent people over to us. We kept getting people coming into the coin shop wanting to buy one pfennig pieces in bulk, and they always had some b.s. excuse for why they wanted them. A kid's "art project" was a popular lie. I liked to mess with their heads. One guy said he needed 100 one pfennigs for his kid to give out in his German language class at school. I said "Come on in and I'll take care of you." He came in and I showed him a tray with one hundred somewhat larger but perfect for a giveaway TWO pfennig coins on it, total price to him one dollar. He hemmed and hawed and said that he needed ONE pfennigs. I looked him in the eye and said "Oh no, we don't sell those. Crooks use them in the turnstiles!" He left.[/QUOTE]