This evening I took my two sons to a Papa Gino's to pick up a couple pizzas for dinner so my wife ,who worked late wouldn't have to cook. The bill came to $20.51. I gave the friendly person behind the counter a twenty dollar bill, a clad Kennedy half and a zinc cent. He appeared to be utterly confused, looked me in the eye holding the Kennedy half and with a straight face said " I don't think we take these anymore".:rolling: I replied to him with a quick "What are you talking about? It's U.S. legal tender. You have to take it." He followed with "I'll ask my manager" and dissappeared around the corner. The young and embarrassed counterperson returned with his apologetic manager folowwing him. The manager said to him that "there were also silver dollars before the Susan B. Anthonys ... and some nickels used to have buffaloes on them." I was graciously allowed to spend my half dollar and we returned home triumphant with our pizzas and the knowledge that the Kennedy half has not in fact been de-monetized. What are they teaching kids in schools these days? To be sure numismatics 101 is not a required course at pizza school.
I get a kick out of doing that too---sometimes I use $2 bills along with other odd coins---I did learn that even though it is US Legal Tender a store is not under law to take it--they can charge you in any type of payment they want---just in most cases they aren't going to get any other than Legal Tender... Speedy
Yeah I was going to say... they don't. I teach the kids that the stores don't *have* to take any particular coin or bill -but seriously we teach the kids lots of things. Although they most certainly do see and work problems with the Kennedy half, it just doesn't circulate all that much and I find that people are somewhat surprised to see it. It's not exactly rare, but it's not something one typically whips out at a store or has in change either. If your change comes to > $0.50, you're more likely to get quarters, dimes, nickels, etc. Speaking of... they aren't helping us by changing them all the time (as far as visual recognition), though kids are more aware of the state designs. One day someone will question the non-state quarters and you'll really go nuts. A certain percentage of the population (right now, this very second) is confused about things like $2 bills (some will wonder if they are real), the golden dollar (it's really gold), Susan B's (it's a quarter), the new $10 bill (even though it's been out for some time now), and the Kennedy half. It's just a given.
That's funny, Buy them book's send them to school, and what do they do, they eat the teacher The educational system in this country (US) is deplorable, they really seem to pushing FCAT and that if you don't score good on it, you'll be moved to the next grade until HS, then you get held back, there is kid's getting diploma's that cant hardly read or write, just so the teacher's won't have to deal with them anymore. My 16 yo goes to brand new school and he come's and tell's us how some of the student's get drug's into school, and yet I pay taxes to have a uniformed police officer there during school hrs........ranting
I work with teens in my business and find it to be an advantage that they are unaware of older coins. One day this summer one of my employees called me over to the register because he opened a roll of quarters and said something is wrong with these quarters. I told him no problem let me give you some new ones. The roll he opened was all silver.
It's always interesting to hear one of these stories. To SamJimmy's point, my wife teaches 1st grade. They do lessons in money and counting money and things like that. She says the same thing, that changing the designs all of the time doesn't help her cause. Not that it's that hard to figure out, but when you're trying to teach a youngster to count money and starting from scratch, she's found that all of the design variations causes some issues.
My wife's grandmother gave me a big stack of circulated, post-70 halves. I put them in my change jar, and use them regularly to get my Sunday newspaper. I use Sackies and SBA's as tips at restaurants. I can even remember 6 years ago getting a Sacky at a bank for face value and selling to my boss for $1.25 because she thought it was "rare." (She was a jerk, and deserved it, and honestly not all that bright).
halves I use halves almost daily now, Mainly to recycle the rolls I search and put some in circulation, but I also do it to see reactions. Most people, especially younger people have to turn them a few times to figure out what they are. The other day an older lady spoiled my fun though, she didn't even take a second glance and gave me proper change!! She must have used a few in her time. I can't wait till the presidential dollars come out, I should be able to cause some confusion with them!
A couple of years ago I asked a bank teller if she had any half dollar coins [I was searching for silver]. She hesitated, looked at me funny, and said, "You mean dollars?" I said, no, half dollars. She said, "Let me ask the manager." Clearly she had never heard of them but was sort of humoring me. The manager explained to her that they did, in fact, exist, but that the bank didn't have any to give me. Utterly amazing!
It's funny what people think of "strange" money. I've had people pay with bills from the 30's and 50's without a second thought, gotten a Morgan dollar, buffalo nickels, Mercury dimes, you name it. Then they don't want to spend a 2003 $2 bill because they think it's rare. I also work with a lot of immigrants from various parts of the world, thier reactions are just as strange. Many of the Africans I work with don't want the big head $10's and $20's, they only want the colorized ones, no matter how many imes I tell them the old ones are still good. I've also heard that in South America if have, say, a torn $20 bill, a merchant will only give you $15 for it.
I used to give my kids 1/2 dollars and Ikes for lunch money, until they started to beg me not to. Their friends used to look at them strange, and the lunch lady was clueless. I used JFK's at a chinese take out one time and then looked back as all the employees dove into the register and they divied them up. Fun, try it some time.
I travel quite a bit outside the US and can verify that observation. In transporting cash, and I have always been very picky about which $100 bills to except from a bank cash withdrawal; no new designs (though this seems not to be a problem any more) and NO bills highly worn or ripped to any degree. Bills that don't look 'nice' may command LOWER black market exchange rates by some fraction, or make the deal go sour from the start. I've been asked by some people to bring only new, crisp bills and they can assure me primo rates. Similar traps occur while using currencies in countries where businesses won't accept torn or worn bills of their OWN money. As a foreigner one is a target for unloading slightly torn notes in change. These notes are subsequently refused by any vendor thereafter.
Two sisters-in-law from Japan were here in October, and they had obtained some $US at a bank before leaving home. They had packets containing $300 in fresh, consecutively numbered, $1, $10, $20 and $50 bills. Wrinkled Japanese currency is pulled from circulation by the banks and within a fairly short time after a change in currency no one but a bank will accept the older version. The banks will only accept them for deposit, and won't credit the account until they have authrenticated the bills. It took me a week to get credit at Mizuho Bank for a batch of older billls I had accumulated below face value by buying "lots" on EBay. :headbang:
