Spending "Funny" money. How many of you do it?

I live on Coronado island in San Diego and they only allow garage sales on thursdays. Don't know why though.

 

Log in or Sign up to hide this ad.

Spent them if you've got them

For the last 3 years I've been getting and spending the Sacagawea/Native American $1 coins. The most appreciative recipients are waiters and anyone who gets a tip. I've found that convienience stores (7-11, gas station stores etc.) have told me that they won't use them as change because too many people question them, slowing down their intake of cash. They just return them to the bank.

Last week I was in Anna Maria Island, Florida and passed these out (spent) the NA 2011 $s, and all seemed pleased to get a new coin. Most east coast people who order these coins from the mint, free shipping, get a P mint mark. I hope some of the people who got my coins appreciate the D mint marks.

I'll be going to Mexico this summer but I think I won't try and spend them there. I can see that it'll be way too much confusion to bother with. Maybe I'll just leave them as tips, and explain that they are real U.S. dollars.

 

Funniest I heard was a guy paying for a meal in the mall with 3 two dollar bills. The cashier called the manager over, and the manager told the man, "either you pay up, or I am calling the security", when asked why, the manager replied, "oh, you know what you are trying to do". The customer laughed and told the manager to call security. When security arrived, they asked what was wrong, and the manager explained, "this guy was trying to pay in TWO dollar bills!". The guard looked at him, and said, "any good dates?"

I guess there are collectors everywhere!

Myself, I don't spend them, but I always take crummy old roman coins with me and salt historical sites with them. So.......if you ever here that the Romans settled Jamestown, or were at the battle of Gettysburg, take that news with a grain of salt.

 

No good reactions today as most people payed with exact change so I wasn't able to give much out, although I was rather surprised that somebody actually PAYED for something with a Washington Dollar coin. Nice to be on the receiving end for a change. I have yet to get a dollar coin in my change yet and I've been tossing them out into circulation for 4 years now.

 

I spend presidential or native american (sacagawea) coins everywhere I make small purchases. Recently, it has become difficult to find these at banks...however, I love reactions I get from people. The most popular response is, "Wow! these are shiny!"

 

I like to spend the Ikes and halves as well. I have spent a lot of the gold dollar coins as well when I got a box from the direct ship program. Sometimes I don't get any reaction at all, most of the time people like them though. I have left a lot as tips

 

Tried to spend a 2 dollar bill today and got accused of passing off fake money. Got it straightened out though after the person examined it closely and...smelled it

 

LOL, insert dirty joke here....

 

Even more fun is when I owe my wife some money I try and give her $2 bills and Ikes so that she has to spend them. She doesn't find it as amusing as I... but I get double enjoyment

 

I rolled a ton of my in-laws' change for them and traded their pennies for halves. They kept asking if I was sure that I wanted to make the trade. I had to force the money into their hands. It was so funny.

 

Went bowling tonight, paid for everything with ikes :devil:. It was quite entertaining, BUT they actually had a spot in the register for them

 

This story is from another forum "I had just finished my workday in Sausalito, and was ready for a cup of coffee and a relaxing walk before the commute home. I walked into the coffee shop, ordered an americano, and tried to pay with 4 Half Dollars. I don't know where the owner was from but he had a strong accent, and was clearly not native born. He looked at the coins and proclaimed that they were no longer any good, and he wouldn't accept them. I pointed out that I didn't have any other money with me, and that american money is always good once it's made and that he could ask anyone in the whole place what they were and if they were any good. He still refused to accept them, so I was going to have to give up on my coffee. When I told him I wouldn't be able to pay with anything else, and that he could just dump the coffee out, he got really angry and started yelling at me to take my coffee and leave.

Well, since weasling a free cup of coffee was the farthest thing from my goal, I decided that I'd just toss the 4 coins in his tip jar, so that maybe later he could look into it and figure out what they were. To my shock and amusement, he snatched the jar off the counter and wouldn't even let me put them in there. He kept telling me he didn't want them, and to take them away.

Wow, I mean I didn't even know what to say at this point...This guy was very adamant that he wanted nothing at all to do with these coins. On my way out the door, I decided to just toss them in the bucket that the band had for their tips...there were four players, I'm sure they appreciated the extra 2 bucks."

 

To anybody that cares, I just launched a new site to document my use of "funny" money primarily dollar coins. I'd be glad to hear input.
http://dollarcoinexperiment.blogspot.com/

 

Dollars or Pesos

My first experience with tipping in Mexico with Native American dollars, was when I tried to tip a taxi driver and he backed away from me as if I was trying to give him some disease. He said," I cannot accept american coins". I told him that this was a real United Stated New Dollar and it is good as paper one. He wanted nothing to do with me and turned around and drove off without another word. Others took them reluctantly, tending not to believe me when I told them it was good money. I even showed the reverse where there's a $1 sign, the universal symbol for American dollars. It's too much trouble to deal with these guys in Mexico. I'll start again when I get back to the USA.

 

Go a little further south to Peru or Ecuador and people will gladly take them . American dollar coins are heavily used down there.

 

This thread is inspiring. For some reason I never thought to actually use my semi-worthless coins instead of giving them away. Dooooin' it.

 

Yes, you can melt silver, but not cents or nickels.