Last Monday I intended to buy two stored-value cards for us to use on the buses. Usually I buy them from an attendant at the downtown transit center. The booth was closed and so I used the vending machine instead.
I had just come from an ATM and had only twenties. I knew that the vending machine gave change or, I assumed, let you make multiple orders on one cash insertion.
I stuck in a twenty and ordered a ten-dollar card. Instead of waiting for another order or spitting out a ten-dollar bill, the machine started clanking. Oh, no! I'm going to get back a whole roll of quarters! When I opened the door to take out my change, all those supposed quarters were golden. The machine gave change in one-dollar coins.
I thought of dumping them back into the machine to order the second card, but I needed smaller change and was enamored of these new coins. So I stuck in another twenty. I left the transit center leaning to one side with a pocket full of coins.
I gave ten to my wife when I got home and used ten during the week. It was fun to see a clerk look quizzically at the coins. I always explained what they were and where I got them; the clerks always accepted them without further question.
I think I'll ask for them at the bank from now on instead of bills. It is certainly easier to reach into my pocket and pull out the largest coins rather than pull out my billfold first. I know that I appreciated that ease in Canada with the one- and two-dollar coins and in Japan with one-hundred- and five-hundred-yen coins.
