Funny story of a way to redeem cruddy clad :

Tom_in_CA

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Told this story years ago, but here it is again :

About 20 yrs. ago, we had a long series of winter storms that eroded our coast beaches. By the time that winter was over, I had a 3 gallon pale that was nearly full of clad ! There had to be hundreds and hundreds of dollars worth of clad, (after removing all the silver coins, of course).

I debated on rolling all the coins, and taking them to the bank, but .... didn't feel like doing that work.

One day, I noticed that in our local post office lobby, there was a vending machine that accept bills or coins, to buy stamps. And since my company sends out about 75 to 100 bills per month, we always went through a roll of stamps or more, every single month.

So I simply went to the machine, with my 3 gallon pale, and started feeding dimes, nickels, and quarters into the machine. When the digital counter reached high enough to buy a roll of 100 stamps, I merely hit the button. I get my stamps. Took all of 5 minutes. :cool3:

The next few months, I repeated the process, each time feeding $40 to $50 worth of change into it. No need for cleaning, rolling, etc.... And my company gets free stamps. Problem solved, eh ? :cool:

To be continued :
 
But about 5 or 6 months of doing this .... one night, I was down there feeding coins into the machine. The customer counters close by 5pm, but the lobby itself (that has the vending machine) is open till like 8 or 9pm. I was there in the lobby, late at night , feeding my coins into the machine.

But when the counter got up past $30-ish, it jammed. Some sort of error message came up. I tried to hit the change button (to abort and give me back my money), but it too wasn't working. So I can't press a button to make an order, I can't use the release/abort button, and I can't add more money. The machine was just froze, with my credit clearly showing on the counter screen.

Unwilling to loose my $30-ish and walk away, I noticed that there a buzzer button, in the lobby , that you could use for if you needed an after-hours attendant. I walked over and pressed the button

To be continued.
 
Someone came out the door, and I told him : "The machine's frozen up. And I'd either like to get some stamps, or my money back. Can someone please come un-jam it ?"

The postal clerk says : "Hold on, let me get the guy whose in charge of the machine". A minute later another fellow came out, with the keys to the machine. He sees my $$ credit on the counter. And puts his key in to open the vending machine. He fiddles for a moment with the tracks and the mechanisms.

Then all of the sudden he froze ! He looks REAL HARD at the inside components and the change that he's unloading from the tracks/mechanism. Then he spins around , looks at me wide-eyed and shouts : YOU !! IT'S YOU !!
:shock:
In an instant, I put 2+2 together, and figured "Oh no, he doesn't like the dirty brown coins". And I thought I might be in some sort of trouble that some chipped or bent coin had jammed the machine. But it turns out, he wasn't upset about that. That was simply a matter of removing the single coin that jammed it, and simply hit his re-set button.

to be continued :
 
Instead, what his shock & awe was about, was an on-going mystery that this post office staff had been having. He related to me that it was his job, in that office, to empty the vending machine each day, and roll thec coins, to be deposited at their bank.

And one day, 5 or 6 months earlier, all of the sudden he noticed 100+ coins that were various shades of green, grey, black, brown, etc.... So much so, that he even had to stop, look closely at each one, to even determine dime vs penny, or quarter vs slugs, etc.... And as he studied each one, it was plain to see that, yes, they were legitimate coins. Albeit funky colored and strange. :?: :blink: :hmmm:

So he simply kept rolling them. And they went out in the normal daily deposit the next day. The following month, at about the same time of month, he encounters the same thing: 100+ odd strange colored coins ! :?: :twisted: And again, he realizes they're legit, so he rolls them again as usual.

By the 3rd month though, the post office got an irate call from the bank. They were complaining about these coins.

to be continued ...
 
It turns out, that when the post office submits the rolls of coins, there is a digital tracking somehow (perhaps the acct. # written on the outside of the roll ?) . The bank , in turn, merely passes out the rolls to other customers . Eg.: Persons who need coins , simply buy rolls. So the rolls are essentially not even opened, on the bank's end.

But one day, one of the recipients of a few of the rolls of coins, had come BACK into the bank, to complain . Naturally, the bank was also equally perplexed. So they, in turn, were able to track down where the coins had come from : The post office. So they called the post office to complain. The post office, in turn, turned to this one employee, since they knew he dealt with the coins that come in through the vending machines.

So this poor guy was put on the hot seat, having to talk to the bank. He merely said "They're real coins, right ?" To which the bank agreed that , yes, they're not forged or fakes or whatever. So the post office guy essentially tells them: "Then it's your problem". And I think the bank just dropped the matter, as there was nothing really they could say or do to the post office. He and the other postal workers were just as perplexed. But .... it wasn't as if they were going to throw the coins away , lest their books not be balanced. Nor did anyone there think it was their job to wash them first, etc...

So the matter appeared to just go away. Until the guy ran into me, late at night, in the lobby there.

To be continued ...
 
I thought "Oh no ! I'm in trouble" . Yet the whole time I'm thinking :

"Wait, there's nothing illegal here. This is legal tender. Right ? So I haven't done anything wrong, eh ?"

So I proceeded to tell the guy that: " I find these metal detecting, and I need stamps, so ... I didn't think there would be any issue. " And .... "gee, I'm sorry I jammed your machine tonight". :blink: :sorry2:

But after he told me the story about the bank, and the ongoing mystery at the post office, we both got a good laugh ! And he proceeded to ask me about metal detecting (Eg.: "What's the best thing you ever found", blah blah).

He went back inside, and I finished my stamp purchase . I continued doing that even in subsequent months. But at a certain point, they no longer have those machines in our local post office. Not sure why. I think because people are increasingly going cashless . Debit and credit cards, so vending machines,for stamps at least, are a thing of the past.

Hope y'all enjoyed that :)
 
Haven't used a stamp in years although still trying to find an outlet to cash in my crusty coins..
 
Tom! Your fingers need a rest! To be continued….


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
Great story!

But I'd never do something like that. I'd buy stamps with company money and take it as a deductible expense. But then again, the time saved buying stamps this way might be be worth more than the tax benefit...
 
Tom. many machines wont take the tarnished coins here, not even clean dark ones, the vending machine in my building wont. they set these new sensors i guess. you used to be able to shove coins in, hit a refund and get clean coins, a neat sneaky little trick. you can shove a dollar bill in hit refund and get coin change back, not the dollar, that still works. . i tried some tarnished soil stained new quarters, and some wood chip lot stained quarters, not worn just color stained, and it rejected the coins themselves. got them all back.

the sweetheart at my bank, takes my coin rolls, and i tell her upfront, they are ugly but tumbled clean coins, send them back to the mint. no issue. i put the good ones in a roll themselves for a few in the drawer keepers for her. i will stick the famous Felix pennies in a center roll to the mint. they are my tax money, we paid for them, still legal tender. by doing this i solve problems. quick harbor freight tumble with rocks and ammonia, rinse them off, get the dirt off. good in one roll for teller, not bad in one roll, bad in another marked strictly to the mint. Teller happy --Carey happy--tax money well recovered. . i rolled $40 worth of pennies for my Grandkids account. they add up and getting rid of them for better targets since zinc is a masking strong signal. good all way around except the Knee bends.

Tom--you are educated probably more than most of us formally... a question--- does the mint actually clean coins for re circulation, or dollars? i remember on the drug squad at one time bank tellers fingers would go numb from cocaine residue on 20 dollar bills rolled up to snort thru. we had court cases on residue and random testing showed most bills contaminated. and God only knows where the prostitutes carry their money too.. eeewww.... and coins dont even go there, washed out from sewage etc.. doogie doo and urine on the grounds, but metal can be chemically cleaned...

Sweden is going total plastic and doing way with currency. ohhh the ramifications even digital currency is causing now... maybe the barter system of usable goods coming back in small places? you trade legal advice for a case of tuna in the inflated future? Orwellian days ahead?

extreme yea... but todays atmosphere is extreme too.

so do we get card detectors? hutn those lololol count me out...

an idea.. make a sim card that works a detector. sell a unit thats basically a power plant, and have removable sim cards the for the applications you want. maybe change coils.

i see the day a waterproof cell phone with viable metal detector capabilities just go to the app and attache the cable to the phone on the shaft and coil. it calls you up and says We have a winner on a good target... ahhh dreaming... nightmares! back to work......
 
Tom. many machines wont take the tarnished coins here, not even clean dark ones, the vending machine in my building wont. they set these new sensors i guess. you used to be able to shove coins in, hit a refund and get clean coins, a neat sneaky little trick. you can shove a dollar bill in hit refund and get coin change back, not the dollar, that still works. . i tried some tarnished soil stained new quarters, and some wood chip lot stained quarters, not worn just color stained, and it rejected the coins themselves. got them all back.

the sweetheart at my bank, takes my coin rolls, and i tell her upfront, they are ugly but tumbled clean coins, send them back to the mint. no issue. i put the good ones in a roll themselves for a few in the drawer keepers for her. i will stick the famous Felix pennies in a center roll to the mint. they are my tax money, we paid for them, still legal tender. by doing this i solve problems. quick harbor freight tumble with rocks and ammonia, rinse them off, get the dirt off. good in one roll for teller, not bad in one roll, bad in another marked strictly to the mint. Teller happy --Carey happy--tax money well recovered. . i rolled $40 worth of pennies for my Grandkids account. they add up and getting rid of them for better targets since zinc is a masking strong signal. good all way around except the Knee bends.

Tom--you are educated probably more than most of us formally... a question--- does the mint actually clean coins for re circulation, or dollars? i remember on the drug squad at one time bank tellers fingers would go numb from cocaine residue on 20 dollar bills rolled up to snort thru. we had court cases on residue and random testing showed most bills contaminated. and God only knows where the prostitutes carry their money too.. eeewww.... and coins dont even go there, washed out from sewage etc.. doogie doo and urine on the grounds, but metal can be chemically cleaned...

Sweden is going total plastic and doing way with currency. ohhh the ramifications even digital currency is causing now... maybe the barter system of usable goods coming back in small places? you trade legal advice for a case of tuna in the inflated future? Orwellian days ahead?

extreme yea... but todays atmosphere is extreme too.

so do we get card detectors? hunt those lololol count me out...

an idea.. make a sim card that works a detector. sell a unit thats basically a power plant, and have removable sim cards the for the applications you want. maybe change coils.

i see the day a waterproof cell phone with viable metal detector capabilities just go to the app and attache the cable to the phone on the shaft and coil. it calls you up and says We have a winner on a good target... ahhh dreaming... nightmares! back to work......
 
Tom. many machines wont take the tarnished coins here, not even clean dark ones, the vending machine in my building wont. they set these new sensors i guess. you used to be able to shove coins in, hit a refund and get clean coins, a neat sneaky little trick. you can shove a dollar bill in hit refund and get coin change back, not the dollar, that still works. . i tried some tarnished soil stained new quarters, and some wood chip lot stained quarters, not worn just color stained, and it rejected the coins themselves. got them all back.

the sweetheart at my bank, takes my coin rolls, and i tell her upfront, they are ugly but tumbled clean coins, send them back to the mint. no issue. i put the good ones in a roll themselves for a few in the drawer keepers for her. i will stick the famous Felix pennies in a center roll to the mint. they are my tax money, we paid for them, still legal tender. by doing this i solve problems. quick harbor freight tumble with rocks and ammonia, rinse them off, get the dirt off. good in one roll for teller, not bad in one roll, bad in another marked strictly to the mint. Teller happy --Carey happy--tax money well recovered. . i rolled $40 worth of pennies for my Grandkids account. they add up and getting rid of them for better targets since zinc is a masking strong signal. good all way around except the Knee bends.

Tom--you are educated probably more than most of us formally... a question--- does the mint actually clean coins for re circulation, or dollars? i remember on the drug squad at one time bank tellers fingers would go numb from cocaine residue on 20 dollar bills rolled up to snort thru. we had court cases on residue and random testing showed most bills contaminated. and God only knows where the prostitutes carry their money too.. eeewww.... and coins dont even go there, washed out from sewage etc.. doogie doo and urine on the grounds, but metal can be chemically cleaned...

Sweden is going total plastic and doing way with currency. ohhh the ramifications even digital currency is causing now... maybe the barter system of usable goods coming back in small places? you trade legal advice for a case of tuna in the inflated future? Orwellian days ahead?

extreme yea... but todays atmosphere is extreme too.

so do we get card detectors? hutn those lololol count me out...

an idea.. make a sim card that works a detector. sell a unit thats basically a power plant, and have removable sim cards the for the applications you want. maybe change coils.

i see the day a waterproof cell phone with viable metal detector capabilities just go to the app and attache the cable to the phone on the shaft and coil. it calls you up and says We have a winner on a good target... ahhh dreaming... nightmares! back to work......

More like less money laundering.
 
.... Orwellian days ahead? .........

dixie-digger, enjoyed your write-up ! Had to blink and squint a few times though :blink:

No, there's no Orwellian days ahead. Just the days where we'll add more creative ways to cash in our clad w/o effort of cleaning or rolling ! :laughing:

And if we ever DO enter in to a "cash-less" society, I predict that the coins-of-yesteryear will not cease to have value. They'll still be redeemable (albeit at whatever inflation rate discount they have). An example of that is this micro-example:

The city of New York did away with the subway token system decades back. Used to have some sort of token operated vending machine and fare-system. But then it all went the way of disposable paper cards with magnetic strips. Ie.: you paid in a certain amount of $$, and got a card in return. That you can feed into the machine at the various entry points, until your credit is used up.

So the token coins were going to be worthless. HOWEVER, the city recognized that people might have paid for the prior tokens and thus have some still that they had rightfully paid for. So they announced a period-of-time in which, if you had the tokens (which PREVIOUSLY could not be redeemed for cash) could be submitted for cash reimburse.

So ... humorously ... some md'rs who had hundreds (or thousands) of those subway tokens saved up (which are useless unless you intend to ride the subway), all of the sudden found themselves with tokens worth a buck each, or whatever. So they went and cashed out BUCKETS of them.

I wonder if that's what'll eventually happen to our clad ? :laughing:
 
dixie-digger, enjoyed your write-up ! Had to blink and squint a few times though :blink:

No, there's no Orwellian days ahead. Just the days where we'll add more creative ways to cash in our clad w/o effort of cleaning or rolling ! :laughing:

And if we ever DO enter in to a "cash-less" society, I predict that the coins-of-yesteryear will not cease to have value. They'll still be redeemable (albeit at whatever inflation rate discount they have). An example of that is this micro-example:

The city of New York did away with the subway token system decades back. Used to have some sort of token operated vending machine and fare-system. But then it all went the way of disposable paper cards with magnetic strips. Ie.: you paid in a certain amount of $$, and got a card in return. That you can feed into the machine at the various entry points, until your credit is used up.

So the token coins were going to be worthless. HOWEVER, the city recognized that people might have paid for the prior tokens and thus have some still that they had rightfully paid for. So they announced a period-of-time in which, if you had the tokens (which PREVIOUSLY could not be redeemed for cash) could be submitted for cash reimburse.

So ... humorously ... some md'rs who had hundreds (or thousands) of those subway tokens saved up (which are useless unless you intend to ride the subway), all of the sudden found themselves with tokens worth a buck each, or whatever. So they went and cashed out BUCKETS of them.

I wonder if that's what'll eventually happen to our clad ? :laughing:
Tom - those bus tickets are still in use here. $5 for a full day including transfers. Sometimes where I park at the beach , I may walk 3 or 4 miles one way. Then , because I'm too tired to detect or walk back , I catch the bus right back to my car. Cost me $2.
 
The self serve car wash near me takes unbelievably toasted quarters. I mean paper thin and the ones that have the core eaten back from the edge. The quarters that the coinstar won't take go in the free car wash pile.

A good story, Tom!
 
Tom....
I lost a giant bucket of dirty coins in the lobby of the post office out there.

Perhaps you could find it for me?

Ps nice story
 
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