Interesting Itemization

I paid for an item at the self checkout at Home Depot tonight. After getting home, I glanced at the receipt before discarding it. And I noticed something odd: there were four tender lines listed, like this:

Sales Tax 0.34
Total 4.55
Cash 1.55
Cash 1.00
Cash 1.00
Cash 1.00

Seems that each dollar coin I deposited forced the computer to add a new cash line. This is particularly strange to me because the receipt is printed at the end of the transaction, not during the transaction.

Sarcasm and Eggs

I thought I had all the ingredients I needed for cookies, but having just returned from a vacation, realized that I didn't have a staple food -- eggs -- in the fridge. Fortunately there's a small grocery store just down the road, and they were open for another 30 minutes. I usually pay with my credit card for groceries, but I knew this would be a small transaction. Grabbing my keys and a few Good Ones, I headed out the door.

The eggs were more expensive than at the supermarket, but at $1.99, it was a perfect purchase amount for paying in coin. Plunking down two shiny golden discs garnered a moment of hesitation from the cashier. Then she offed an, "Oh, smooth." I couldn't quite tell if it was sarcasm, thinking I was "getting rid" of the dollar coins, or maybe it was a genuine response to the collected manner, suave stagger, and coin confidence that I exude.

But she didn't give me my penny in change, so I'll assume it was the former.


Tender: $2,
Response: Sarcasm?
ACI: 0.4

Post Office

Ok, I could have used a fiver and two Good Ones, but I happened to have enough with me to pay in all coin. Response from post officers each time I use Good Ones has never been very irksome, so I opted to push it a bit this time.

After handing over my handful of clean, shiny, easy-to-count coins, the post officer let out a sigh: "God, I hope you're almost out of these things!"


I assume she was talking about the quarters.


Tender: $7.75, 7 Good Ones, 3 quarters
Response: Disdainful acceptance
ACI: 0.6

$2 Coins

Checking out at the craft store, just buying some black dye for a project. The total was small, so I paid the whole thing in coins. Upon receiving the good ones, the (young) cashier asked curiously, "What are these, two dollars each?" She wasn't annoyed; actually she was very cheerful. But also n00bish.

Tender: Two good ones, a quarter, a nickel
Response: Bubbly bewilderment
ACI: 0.0

Insert No Bills

Hungry for Pop Tarts, I approached the lone vending machine at the train station. It was a modern, high-end one (I could tell by the blue LEDs) and naturally I was planning on paying with Good Ones. However, I did not realize it would be my only choice: flashing on the display was "insert no bills". Perhaps the machine was full of Bad Ones, or maybe the machine detected that its bill reader was busted. Regardless, it was a good day to be carrying Good Ones.

"Coins... Finally!"

I was hosting a Canadian CouchSurfer last night, and we went to a restaurant for dinner. He was paying with a card, so I handed him cash for my part of the bill... and naturally, my cash included some Good Ones. His response? "Coins... finally!" After spending five days in the US, he was so glad to have dollar coins again, as is common in Canada. "People here," he lamented, "cling to paper dollars like they're worth something."

Tender: a tenner and 4 Good Ones
Response: Joy!
ACI: -0.3

Golf

Paying for golf would ideally be a credit card payment situation, if it weren't for their 1991-era dial-up authorization. So cash it is. And this time I had sufficient coinage to do the transaction the correct way.

Upon slapping down three Good Ones at the register, the white-haired, wizened woman exclaimed, "I don't even know what these are!" I then distracted her with a Big-Head Jackson to complete the sale.

Tender: $20, 3 Good Ones, 4 quarters
Response: Wonderment
ACI: 0.2

Haircut Tipping

If there's one place where I expected problems paying with Good Ones, it's tipping. I tipped a bathroom attendant last week, but that wasn't a big deal, since he took tips in a container which was full of coins anyway. It's a different matter altogether if you are required to hand someone a tip.

And so it was at Supercuts. I'd paid for the haircut with a credit card, and handed over two Good Ones as a tip. No sooner had I turned to leave than I heard two coins being plunked into the cash drawer and exchanged for Bad Ones.

Tender: $2
Response: Nonverbal disapproval
ACI: 0.8

Slick

I walked to the post office today, intent on paying the postage on my Norway-bound envelope in all coins. As I handed over five Good Ones, the Post Officer exclaimed, "Oh, think you're slick, getting rid of them by giving them to me now!" I replied that dollar coins aren't so bad, and she eased up a little, noting, "Well, they sure are shiny."

People like the shiny. Shiny accounts for a 0.4 point reduction in ACI.

Tender: $5.64
Response: Playful regret
ACI: 4.6 0.4

Toll Booth

The unsuspecting toll booth worker thought it was an ordinary night. Low traffic, little communication, lots of limp dollar bills. Then at 3:30am, I rolled up. I dropped a Good One in to her hand, and gave it a quick tap, to let her know that it should be carefully inspected. Her eyes widened as the florescent lights of the toll booth lit up AJ's shining face. She was clearly dazzled. The weight of 8.1g of maganese-brass-clad copper in her hand. Old Hickory staring her in the face. The coin itself instilled with the accomplishments of the seventh president: elimination of the natoinal debt, surviving an assassination attempt, and generally being a badass.

Best night of her life? I think so.

Tender:1 Good One
Response: Dazzled.
ACI: Zip

Starting off with a clank

Traded in some folding greenies for my share of the latest batch of Good Ones this morning. Spent my first of Phase 2 in the vending machine just now.

Tender:1 Good One
Response: Resounding clank as it landed in the empty dollar coin bin
ACI: 0.0 from the soulless machine

Soul Dog

Lunch at Soul Dog (a really good hot-dog place in Poughkeepsie, if you're not familiar).

• beef dog with Soul Sauce, red onion and kraut
• chicken sausage with chipotle sauce and caramelized onion
• order of Soul Fries
• Fizzy Lizzy tangerine soda (which I didn't like)

Total: $12 even.
Tender: A 20 and 2 Good Ones, plus a Good One in the tip jar.
Cashier reaction: Confusion ... enlightenment.
ACI: 0.1 had to point out that they were dollars.

However, on Sean's purchase before mine, she really missed it and was asking him for more money.

Spreading the word, educating the masses.

I'm also down to 8 Good Ones.

Dollar Coin Circulates Blazingly Fast at Chinese Restaurant

Chicken with string bean and a Dr. Pepper.

Total: $7
Tender: A five and 2 Good Ones
Cashier Response: Didn't even blink
Anti-Coin Ire: 0.0

After paying, a friend of mine received one of my dollar coins as change. He then exchanged it for a Bad One (the mad fool!) with another friend, who then turned around and found Sean wanting to exchange it once more. This works out to a rate of about 100 transactions per hour for that one dollar coin. Unfortunately, only the first two were legit; the rest were propelled by like/dislike for the dollar coin.

Paying at Soul Dog restaurant

A cookie, a can of cel-ray soda, and the sausage special.

Total: $7
Tender: 2 Good Ones and a twenty
Cashier Response: "These are considered dollars, right?"
Anti-Coin Ire: 0.1

Paying at the Golf Course

Total: $14
Tender: A tenner and 4 Good Ones
Response: "Are you sure you want to get rid of these?"
Anti-Coin Ire: 0.0

The woman collecting the green fees was older, and the coins were particularly brilliant (new from the roll). I have found in general that older people seem to be more interested in new US coinage. My grandfather sent me a Sacagawea when they first came out. My great-grandfather put some of his retirement cash into coin proof sets. And when I worked in the movie industry, our elderly usher would come to my register daily to swap a few Bad Ones for the new state quarters. Is it that older people like the feeling of real hard currency? Perhaps it brings back memories of the past, when coins made up a larger percentage of pocket money. Or maybe, like crows, they're attracted to shiny things.

Making noise and busting birds

4 rounds of trap shooting at the aforementioned local club.
Total: $12
Tender: A tenner and 2 Good Ones
Response: "You going to pay me with those Euros?"
ACI: 0.2

Paying at the Pharmacy

Total: 16.99
Tender: sawbuck, fiver, and 2 Good Ones
Cashier Response: Confusion, sad face
Anti-Coin Ire: 0.3

Take me out to the ball game

11 inning marathon baseball game at the local minor league team stadium. Which the home team finally won!

3 Good Ones for cotton candy, response: "Cool, I love these!"
2 Good Ones for a carnival game, response: "Wow, these are shiny!" (Though these were proxied through my 5 year old)

Total: 5 Good Ones.
Anti-Coin Ire: 0.0.
Won in the game: 1 set of team postcards.

What are those?

At a local club meeting, where there is the common 50/50 raffle, purchased 2 tickets with 2 Good Ones. Response: "What are those? That's not even real money!". Accepted anyway.

Tender: 2 Good Ones
Anti-Coin ire: 0.7
Total won in raffle: $0.00

No drama yet

So far things have been pretty uneventful for me. A few Good Ones accepted at the vending machine with no protest, one at the toll booth since I forgot my EZpass on the motorsickle, and one at the cafeteria without a blink.
I'm getting used to the additional baggage in my pocket. I don't typically like a bunch of change in my pockets, but the Good Ones don't seem so bad for some reason.
I do notice that I'm much more jingly lately.