I stopped by the bank on Monday and grabbed 12 rolls of dollar coins. They're mixed, mainly presidential with a few Sac's and Susan B's mixed in. Also grabbed 4 rolls of half dollars. I've been spending them here and there over the past few days at various and assorted places and it blows be away the reaction to these things. Out of 15 or so transactions, more than half caused problems. I had one young girl at a fast food place flat out refuse to take them. The total was $7.40. I gave her 7 dollar coins and 1 half. She asked "What do you want me to do with this?" I told her the small ones are a dollar each, the the big one was 50 cents. She was like "Ummm no, we don't take these, you need cash" as she put them back on the counter and pushed them twords me. I then informed her that they are legal tender, and yes, you do have to accept these". She rolled her eyes and called the manager over. She holds them in her hand and says to him "What are we supposed to do with ALL these stupid things??" He obviously knew what they were and took them w/out a problem. This was a unique situation as far as the attitude, but a lot of other places mainly with younger people were just clueless. Some thought they were "Cool gold plated quarters", some thought they were canadian coins, some thought they were real gold "Dude! Is that real gold? You DO know that gold is worth like a grand right?". The biggest trouble with the half dollars is people thought they were "silver dollars". These things are really cool and an excellent alternative to paper, but the public awareness of these are absolutely horrible which is really just a shame. Anyone else have any interesting stories or experiences with these? Kinda interested to know what it's like in other parts of the country.
I've had similar experiences with dollar notes. Here, in Canada, we've had the $1 coin (loonie) for over twenty years and the $2 coin (toonie) for sixteen years. There's a whole generation that has never seen paper ones or twos, so, when you pay for something with a paper $1 or $2, you get everything thing from "that's so cool!" to "We don't take fake money." If I encounter a young clerk who shows interest in them, I'll give them a $1 and a $2 banknote for free. That usually leaves them speechless.:smile
I use these all the time... Dunkin' Donuts, MacDonalds, 7-Eleven, gas stations, liquor store, post office... all without a single question. I mix Presidential/Sacs, SBA's, Ike's, Kennedy halves and still can't get a reaction. Maybe because I live in the heavily populated northeast, retail establishments are more aware of current/past coinage. However, when I sell these at the local flea market, 90% of the "lookers" have never seen a dollar coin (which allows me to sell them three for five bucks, even though they are available at the local bank for face.. just three blocks away).
Mostly the clerks just grab the coins greedily with big eyes. Some say "cool" or other such things, but I've never had anyone not immediately accept them.
A bit off topic, we were at flying star the other day, and I asked for any halfs or dollars, she said no but I know what you are talking about, ask about rolls of coins, she pulls out a dime roll, a nickel roll and a penny roll, she charges me 7.50 for them, she says, I think that's what they are worth, and I said, ya that's right, so I put two quarters in the tip jar labeled, help provide counter intelligence! Haha
All I know is when I go to the banks in my town and the tellers see me, they are more then happy to dump their dollar coins (SACs, Pres, IKEs & SBAs) on me. As soon as I get to the window they tell me how many they have and the other tellers are like "oh i have this many".
