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"Have you got eight quarters in your pocket right now? I rest my case."
— Wall Street Journal circulation VP Ian Johnson makes the case for credit-card readers on newspaper vending machines, shows that he is professionally unconcerned with the "people who live in urban areas and have to use coin-operated laundry machines" demographic.
GASP! *Drops monocle into martini in disgust*
No, but I have a quarter, which is about what a WSJ is worth.
I actually think this shows tremendous concern for people who use laundry machines. I once gave my roommate a dollar bill for a single quarter because I was one short of the 10 I needed to do a wash and dry. A quarter is worth far more than 25 cents! You can't be pissing them away on newspapers.
So true! Don't know why, but recently in my building, the number of quarters required to do a wash went from 8 to 7 – I still feel like I've won a prize every time I do laundry.
I have two Sacagawea dollars in my pocket.
I am also the only person in this country that can make that claim.
I fell for the post office's promise that its stamp vending machine accepted $20 bills and ended up with a literal pantsload of Sacagaweas. I used them to tip bartenders.
(Of course, that's where I spend most of my discretionary income anyway…)
Not joking – I have three. I got change from some vending machine thusly. Not sure where I'll ever be able to use them.
I have two Sacagawea dollars in my wallet's change purse. Being a lady, I seldom have pockets in which I carry change.
We are all victims of the post office vending machines…
In 2007, I made the horrible, horrible mistake of feeding a MBTA machine $20 to refuel my CharlieCard for one lone trip.
Three years later, I have every damn American loonie ever minted clogging up my junk drawer. The zombies working in borderland won't take them ("What do you Canadians think we are, stupid?").
No no no, you're supposed to use the US dollar coins to buy stamps! Thus tearing the system a new asshole.
And by newspaper vending machines…you mean computers, right?
Sorry, but no… I am just happy to see you.
In Japan, the newspaper vending machines give you a paper, a self-heating can of miso soup, a beer, and release your second Chakra.
.01, .02, .05, .1, .2, .5, 1, 2. That's the euro coins. Covers all of your vending-machine needs. And you don't need to carry crumpled-up pieces of paper that aren't worth shit, like one-dollar bills.
Having a 1€ or 2€ coin in your pocket feels great.
I took a trip to Paris in college, and for weeks afterward I carried a 2€ piece around. It was worth like, 3 bucks! I felt like a high roller.
I've spent about a third of my life in a largely coin-based economy (England), and have come to the conclusion that coins are a plague. They create, and then fall through, holes in your pants pockets, they get stuck in everything (car seats, sofa cushions), they weigh a ton, they cost far more to print than paper money, and they're harder to decipher – hence the "I'm a tourist trying to buy something at Walgreens, I have no idea what all of this is in my pocket, so I'm going to just dump it all on the counter and trust you to sort it out" problem.
You can take my paper $1 bills when you pry them from my cold, dead hands. Or I'll happily exchange them for your paper $5 bills.
As someone who lives in said coin-based economy, I strongly concur that coins are the plague.
If you don't think your one-dollar bills are worth anything, you're welcome to send them to me. I'll make good use of them.
@lbf Think of the poor strippers! No one tips 5€ nowadays.
Coin-operated laundry machines!? Don't you people have those HOF cards?
Wait. What person reliant on coin-operated laundry machines carries $2 in quarters in his pockets? You HOARD that shit.