Big Coin Wins Again

As everyone knows, the way to get people to use dollar coins would be to stop printing $1 bills. This, apparently, would save the federal government a considerable sum since coins last a long time, and $1 bills have a very brief lifespan. The question, then, is why this new presidential coin plan? Coverage of the new coins tends to start with a lot of talk about the Mint doing, thinking, or hoping this or that as if the US Mint is for some reason being run by people who don't understand coins and don't understand that the $1 coin is doomed as long as the $1 bill lives. Deeper in, though, you learn that "The coins were authorized by the 2005 Presidential Coin Act, which requires the minting of dollar coins commemorating the service of former United States presidents in the order in which they served."

In other words, it wasn't the mint's idea at all -- it came from congress. But why would congress pass a law like that? Well, I have some familiarity with this topic and my understanding is that, in essence, the idea was being pushed by mining interests hoping to sell the government some more of their metal. They hired some lobbyists, the North Dakota delegation and Ben Nighthorse Campbell put up an ultimately successful fight to secure the long-term future of the Sacagewa Dollar, and ta-da! your presidential commemorative coins will be here shortly. Similarly, it's the zinc (or something) lobby that keeps the penny in existence. Only in America.

Comments

Are you serious? I made a joke the other day about how the only reason we still have pennies is because of the all-powerful zinc lobby. It was supposed to be a joke! You know, ridiculous hyperbole? Stupid reality ruining the best jokes...

Posted by Greg | November 21, 2006 1:07 AM

Wow, you still have dollar notes? It is interesting the fact that the US has not left behind dollar notes and one cent coins. Here in Australia we abandoned 1 and 2 c coins and one and two dollar notes a decade ago (and replaced paper notes with plastic).

There is a peculiar conservatism, maybe cultural, or maybe a fact of the institutional structure of the US political system, which seems to make it hard to make such technically logical changes. I think this maye also be obvious in the half-way-house approach to the metric system, where the US decided it was a good idea, but not quite enough to really do anything about it.

Posted by Flapple | November 21, 2006 1:12 AM

I don't actually understand the thought behind the hate-teh-penny mooment. (to the extent that there is one). As long as we're dealing with dollars and cents, there will be odd values appearing in financial interactions. No? And as long as we're working with cash, we'll need a way to make the change come out odd. Yes? So... how we gon' do that without pennies?

I acknowledge in advance the possibility that I'm being dense here.

Posted by cerebrocrat | November 21, 2006 1:15 AM

"The question, then, is why this new presidential coin plan?"

It actually is going to bring the federal government an enormous amount of revenue through coins being taken out of circulation by collectors.

The state quarters earned the feds $5 billion according to the NYT.

"Well, I have some familiarity with this topic"

You have "some familiarity" with an alarming number of topics...

Posted by Petey | November 21, 2006 1:47 AM

And if the Metals Lobby were really running policy here, wouldn't they have eliminated the paper dollar long ago so they could benefit from all the new dollar coins in circulation? Or did the Paper Lobby just overpower them with K Street might?

Posted by Petey | November 21, 2006 1:51 AM

An enormous amount of revenue? $5 billion's not much when you look at the size of the federal budget.

Posted by teofilo | November 21, 2006 1:52 AM

Some other blog discussing this had a comment to the extent that a penny today costs about 1.4 cents worth of metal. The commenter then suggested that the Treasury introduces "collectors' items" to recoup its losses.

It's true that if the Treasury were serious about introducing a dollar coin, they'd retire the bill and rethink its design. Hint: it's got to feel different from a quarter.

I'm all in favor of dropping the penny. In countries with stupidly small denominations slipping out of use, it becomes customary to round to five cents at the register, OR, which I find preferable, to calculate the local taxes on the listed price and then to round up in the store computer. (I hate it when that $1.50 soda turns into $1.68 at the register and would rather just know it'll be $1.70 when I look at it on the shelf.)

Posted by Jackmormon | November 21, 2006 1:52 AM

I actually thought the Sacagawea dollar was just fine--and would have worked if the $1 was taken out of circulation. I prefer dollar coins, but habits die hard.

If they don't want to let the dollar bill die, then fine--stop pretending, redesign it to comport with the rest of our money (since it's two redesigns old now) and get on with it.

Posted by Jeff Fecke | November 21, 2006 2:04 AM

My argument against the penny is as follows. Let's say that minimum wage is $6/hour (for ease of calculation). That's $0.10 per minute, or $0.01 per six seconds. The amount of time that it takes to dig one or more pennies out of your wallet to pay for something is about six seconds. So it isn't worth anyone's time to count out pennies, which means that we'd all be better off if there were no pennies in circulation.

Posted by Joel W | November 21, 2006 2:09 AM

I am still waiting for the 9/10 cent coin to come out so I can properly pay pay for gasoline.

Posted by zAmboni | November 21, 2006 2:09 AM

An enormous amount of revenue? $5 billion's not much when you look at the size of the federal budget.

Of course, when you're hemorrhaging money like the Federal government is and you are desperately looking for ways to avoid raising revenue through taxes every little bit helps.

Posted by josephdietrich | November 21, 2006 2:14 AM

Also, re: the penny. Wouldn't dropping the penny just be, in effect, a mandate for consumer businesses to squeeze an extra cent out of each sale?

Right now prices often sit at $0.09 values ($49.99, $1.89, etc.). If the penny is taken out of circulation, something tells me that prices are going to be rounded up. They sure as hell aren't going to drop by $0.04 This might not sound like much, but for chains like Wal-Mart and McDonalds we are probably talking hundreds of millions of dollars.

Posted by josephdietrich | November 21, 2006 2:26 AM

Will people worldwide want to collect faces of dead American presidents? Why not a coin with deceased recording star faces? John Lennon? Bob Marley? Keith Richards?

Posted by ferd | November 21, 2006 2:53 AM

When Argentina was pegged to the dollar an Argentine centavo was worth exactly as much as a US penny, though with slightly higher buying power.

Vendors rounded .03 up, and .02 down. In two years in Argentina I found one centavo coin and saved it as a novelty.

A friend told me that when he worked at McDonalds in downtown Santiago de Chile the Americans were the only ones that got fussy about getting exact change. So there may be a cultural element there.

Posted by Saam Barrager | November 21, 2006 2:58 AM

If the penny is taken out of circulation, something tells me that prices are going to be rounded up.

Probably not, for two reasons. One, large numbers of transactions are not done for cash; these can remain priced exactly as before with no effect on anything. Second, to the extent we're talking about single-item cash transactions, retailers always want to hit just under the whole-dollar amount to create the illusion that you are paying less. They wouldn't go from $1.99 up to $2; they'd much rather go to $1.95.

Anyway, since the rounding happens only at the tail end (i.e. after all items purchased are totalled together and taxes applied) there is little incentive to change the prices at all. After all, if you buy 10 $1.99 items, your pre-tax total is $19.90 anyway, not requiring pennies.

Posted by jimBOB | November 21, 2006 3:22 AM

People 50 years ago would find it quite bizarre that today we are using paper ones to pay for sandwich and a drink for lunch. Then you could fill up your car, buy a shirt or go to a movie with a few coins. Now you need several paper ones just to buy coffee. The dollar bill should be abolished.

"$5 billion's not much when you look at the size of the federal budget."

It's a lot when it's almost pure waste (even compared to most pork barrel spending). I'd just as soon pay for people to dig holes and fill them in again than buy millions of short-lived bills a year. At least the former doesn't use up trees and ink. Look at what's paid for job training, Pell grants, TANF, NCLB or the EPA sometime. $5 billion may be a drop in the bucket in the defense budget or compared to entitlements, but it would make a significant difference in any of those programs.

Posted by Jeremiah J. | November 21, 2006 3:44 AM

If the penny is taken out of circulation, something tells me that prices are going to be rounded up. They sure as hell aren't going to drop by $0.04

That's moot because of sales tax: you don't pay the sticker price in 45 or so states.

The Dutch did something similar to Argentina in the period after the 1 and 2 cent coins ('bronze') were phased out, rounding final transactions to the nearest 5-cent interval. Sadly, that went begging (along with the lovely, lovely Dutch paper money) when the Euro arrived.

There's nothing other than sentimental reasons to keep the dollar bill. American coinage is regarded as a nuisance: you get your change, perhaps dig out the quarters for parking and laundry, then dump the rest in a jar. In most developed countries, you pay for your newspaper and coffee with the coins in your pocket, and opening your wallet is for big purchases.

Posted by pseudonymous in nc | November 21, 2006 7:26 AM

Matt, I'm dubious. It would seem if you're correct we'd be having coins made of some sort of hardened tobacco/epoxy/plastic blend, right? There would be a corn based dime, too.

Posted by steve duncan | November 21, 2006 7:50 AM

steve,
no doubt the hemp coin will lose out.

Posted by theCoach | November 21, 2006 8:10 AM

"An enormous amount of revenue? $5 billion's not much when you look at the size of the federal budget."

As Everett Dirksen never said, a billion here, a billion there, pretty soon, you're talking real money.

Posted by Petey | November 21, 2006 9:00 AM

Private interests could easily lead the way in weaning America off of the penny. I don't know why Wal*Mart doesn't get some deal together with a charity -- the cashier offers to let you donate your pennies to the store's charity, and they put a big sign at the door pointing out how many thousands of dollars have already been donated through that store. It saves the store money by saving the cashier from counting out pennies, but the store doesn't get to keep the pennies so people will be more likely to do it.

Posted by neil | November 21, 2006 9:05 AM

$5 billion's not much when you look at the size of the federal budget.

Well, yes and no, $5 billion is a lot.

On the other hand, I don't quite understand why Petey seems to believe I'm perpetually involved in lying and making things up about the US congress. Perhaps I should rephrase in reporter-ese -- "according to a lead staffer on the issue for a senior Senate Democrat, lobbyists for mining interests, rather than the US Mint, were the main driving force behind the presidential coin bill."

Posted by Matthew Yglesias | November 21, 2006 9:06 AM

Don't worry. According to my religious friends Nancy Pelosi will have us all barcoded. We can just run our personal finances through accounts linked to these barcodes. No more cash at all!

Now, on to one-world-government.

Posted by Njorl | November 21, 2006 9:21 AM

I say we get rid of the nickel as well. That way we can truncate prices at one place past the decimal. No rounding to argue about.

Posted by DanMD | November 21, 2006 9:26 AM

"On the other hand, I don't quite understand why Petey seems to believe I'm perpetually involved in lying and making things up about the US congress."

I very rarely suspect you of lying, (once that I can think of), and greatly equivocate about my suspicion when I do.

But if I were to opine on 5 topics a day, I'd get my fair share wrong. You do too. And for whatever reason, I seem far more likely of late to comment when you get something wrong than when you get something right.

(I thought your recent piece on the post-'68 nomination system vs the smoke filled room system was wrong in about 17 different meaningful ways, for example, but came across it too late to jump in with lengthy commentary.)

The crit is a feature, not a bug. Consider it free error-checking.

Posted by Petey | November 21, 2006 9:35 AM

No, let's not stop printing dollar bills. I hate dollar coins, regardless of shape or color. Actually, I hate all coins; so I use credit cards whenever possible.

I admit, I do need quarters for parking meters and toll roads; but I already have enough of them for the next five years.

Posted by Gary Sugar | November 21, 2006 9:43 AM

But if I were to opine on 5 topics a day, I'd get my fair share wrong.

Oh yeah, that's the necessary condition.

Posted by SomeCallMeTim | November 21, 2006 9:59 AM

In the eurozone, they hardly ever use pennies. They still exist, I believe, and prices in stores are still to the individual penny, but everything's rounded to the nearest 5¢ at the cash register if you pay cash.

It's also a pleasure to use the 1 and 2 euro coins - to have coinage that's actually worth something.

So let's get rid of the penny and the $1 bill (which would open up two cash-register drawer slots), and replace them with $1 and $2 coins.

Posted by RT | November 21, 2006 10:10 AM

> On the other hand, I don't quite understand
> why Petey seems to believe I'm perpetually
> involved in lying

It is hard to tell if Petey is a paid Radical counter-blogger or just a confused Wittman Democrat with too much time on his hands. What is the concensus here?

Cranky

Posted by Cranky Observer | November 21, 2006 10:10 AM

"It is hard to tell if Petey is a paid Radical counter-blogger or just a confused Wittman Democrat with too much time on his hands."

Paid by whom? I'll be happy to cash any checks you send me, Cranky, tho I won't promise you any influence over my blog commentary.

Petey is a smart lefty interested in creating an enduring left-center electoral majority in America as the best means to actually achieve lefty policy aims.

Posted by Petey | November 21, 2006 10:17 AM

Yglesias was right to detect a scam, he just fingered the wrong malefactors. This bill is a back-door effort to get Ronald Reagan on the dollar coin.

According to Wikipedia: "If these Presidents or former Presidents are still alive, they will not be honored on the $1 coin. No former President will be depicted on a coin within two years of his death. The timing of the honoring of currently-living Presidents could vary, depending on which of them are still alive when the time comes.

Once the program has terminated, continuation of the series for non-honored Presidents (who have died and were not included in this series) will require another act of Congress (31 USC 5112(n)(8))."

Get it? Reagan is the most recent dead president, so they will be minting Reagan coins when the program expires (unless something tragic happens to Bill Clinton in the meantime). Then the mint will continuing stamping the Reagan coins, and eventually the vast preponderance of coins in circulation will be Reagan dollars.

It seems pretty obvious to me.

Posted by JohnL | November 21, 2006 10:26 AM

There would be a corn based dime, too.

Have you tasted a dime recently? I think you'll be pleasantly suprised.

Posted by MattT | November 21, 2006 10:27 AM

I like dollar bills. I don't want to jingle like Santa's sleigh as I walk down the street.

Posted by Steve | November 21, 2006 10:28 AM

"Oh yeah, that's the necessary condition."

It really is. Let me write a blog about Democratic internal politics, mass electoral politics, the NBA, and cinema, and I'll get very few wrong, since that's all in my area of expertise. But if I were to try to write a blog like Kevin Drum's, where I was trying to react to a wide range of topics that just popped up in the news, I'd get a huge amount of them wrong.

(Tangentially, I find Drum remarkable in how few posts he gets wrong. He may not hit many home runs, but he's got an extraordinary on-base percentage.)

Posted by Petey | November 21, 2006 10:29 AM

I'm trying very hard to come up with a way that JOhnL is wrong about making Reagan the de facto face on the dollar bill, and coming up blank.

I'm not saying that it's certain that this was the motivator for this concept - not at all. But I believe 100% that a Republican staffer thought of this when the idea was first being bandied about, and that this was sotto voce put around the Red side of the Hill.

Does Bush 41 have 8 years left in him?

Posted by JRoth | November 21, 2006 10:37 AM

The coin issue is soon going to be moot for most transactions no? In Finland, for over 5 years, they have been paying for vending machines from their cell phones. Cash is actually going to be a thing of the past for the most part. Without cash, the underground economy gets hit really hard too. Our underground economy, not just drugs, prostitution, and gambling, but things like scalped tickets, yard sales, etc will be hit hard. You likely will still be able to use checks, but cash is an anachronism. It's wasteful in the end. How much actual money is lost through fire, clothes being washed, damage, robbery.

How many stores would be held up if there was no cash? The elimination of cash would be a great thing for society.

Posted by trifecta | November 21, 2006 10:39 AM

From what I have read, one of the reasons that the penny still exists is for state income tax purposes. States and localities have myriad sales tax rates, and all of those pennies add up.

Posted by raj | November 21, 2006 10:46 AM

RT: That's a benefit of the VAT. Try doing that in California where they've got state, county and city sales taxes. When the tax is 7.75% on one block and 8.25% on another, it's not so easy...

Posted by neil | November 21, 2006 10:53 AM

Hey, the Presidential coin-dollars thing is a GOOD IDEA.

We should use dollar coins, but we don't. Why? Because they're not familiar to the public.

This President thing will raise the profile of dollar coins, inspire public interest, and help get people used to carrying & using dollar coins.

Or at least, it could happen. Enough reason to pass the law & try it.

Posted by Anderson | November 21, 2006 10:56 AM

"only in America"

To be fair, in Canada we still have pennies. Though we did get rid of our one and two dollar bills a while ago.

Posted by graeme blake | November 21, 2006 10:57 AM

> The coin issue is soon going to be moot for
> most transactions no? In Finland, for over 5
> years, they have been paying for vending machines
> from their cell phones. Cash is actually going
> to be a thing of the past for the most part.

It is still a cultural issue, though. My understanding that the Germans still use cash extensively and are not interesting in giving it up, even more so than USisans. I don't see US cash going away for at least 2 generations if ever.

As far as the Canadian $1 and $2 coins: isn't that how you ended up with the "Queen with a bear behind"?

Cranky

Posted by Cranky Observer | November 21, 2006 11:24 AM

At least this dollar coin won't be almost identical to a quarter. The size is still similar but the color is different. It would be far better if the size were somewhat larger.

Those busy brain surgeons at the mint might get around to making our bills harder to counterfeit and withdrawing the old ones from circulation. We are two or three decades behind most nations on that.

Posted by K | November 21, 2006 12:49 PM

Re: Reagan is the most recent dead president, so they will be minting Reagan coins when the program expires (unless something tragic happens to Bill Clinton in the meantime). Then the mint will continuing stamping the Reagan coins, and eventually the vast preponderance of coins in circulation will be Reagan dollars.

Given the timeline involved, it is quite likely that Gerald Ford or George HW Bush will be the most recently deceased president when the program ends (tens years from now I believe), hence we shall have lots of Bush or Ford dollar coins being minted. Of course if the coins donlt catch on (and with bills still being printed they won't) it won't matter because there will be few if any new coins printed once the program ends.

Posted by JonF | November 21, 2006 1:04 PM

I do not understand people's fascination with the idea that we "should" be using $1 coins. Coins are inconveniant, heavy, noisy, and slow to use in transactions, particularly when combined with bills. What is the upside to $1 coins? We save a little bit of tax money? Come on, does anyone really think that this is a major source of waste in the US?

I'd actually be prepared to bet that if you looked at the amount of time wasted in dealing with $1 coins, it would more than offset any government savings due to the longer lifespan of coins.

I'd be all for ditching the penny, though.

Posted by Michael Sullivan | November 21, 2006 1:11 PM

Size matters greatly. I've always thought that the biggest problem with the dollar coins they've come out with is that they are too close in size to the quarter. This is not true in most other currencies. When putting a hand in pocket, if the dollar coin is significantly bigger, it makes it much easier to detect and use.

Posted by Peter Schmitz | November 21, 2006 1:16 PM

>Given the timeline involved, it is quite likely that Gerald Ford
>or George HW Bush will be the most recently deceased president >when the program ends (tens years from now I believe), hence we >shall have lots of Bush or Ford dollar coins being minted.

Do Democrats never die? Carter is at least as likely to die in 8 years as Bush Sr. is. (It would be fitting for Ford or Carter to be on a dollar coin, because it was their era's inflation which made it necessary in the first place.)

Posted by rvman | November 21, 2006 2:15 PM

The state quarters earned the feds $5 billion according to the NYT

This is simply not credible. There are about 300 million people in the US. If all 300 million chose to take out of circulation one quarter for each state, that would be $3.75 billion. Do even one in ten of your acquaintances collect coins?

Posted by Hamilton Lovecraft | November 21, 2006 2:42 PM

It's just so hard to put those dollar coins in a stripper's g-string.

Posted by pete in austin | November 21, 2006 2:54 PM

As a Canadian now living in the US I have found a cultural difference. In Canada just about every place that takes cash has a "take a penny give a penny" tray and most people there avoid accumulating pennies by giving them away or taking one or two as needed. Here in the US a lot of people seem to think want the exact change. Coins for $1 and $2 have saved a reasonable amount in Canada and make using vending machine easier because you only need one or two coins.

Posted by Displaced Canuck | November 21, 2006 3:49 PM

That $5 billion is total profit(seignorage) - 30 billion quarters produced from 1999-2006 * ($0.25 each - $0.08 production cost) = $5 billion. They would have made most of it whether the quarter was the 'state' quarter or the old design.

Posted by rvman | November 21, 2006 3:52 PM

Frankly pete in austine, I think it's rude to put anything less than a five in a stripper's g-string.

Posted by Greg | November 21, 2006 6:11 PM

What kind of strip clubs are you going to, Greg?

They'll tear the $1 bills from my cold, dead hands, mouth and lap.

Posted by too many steves | November 21, 2006 6:16 PM

In the eurozone, they hardly ever use pennies. They still exist, I believe, and prices in stores are still to the individual penny, but everything's rounded to the nearest 5¢ at the cash register if you pay cash.

This in not true, at least not in every place in the eurozone. I have often paid (with pennies) exact change in Germany. Many other Germans also do this, to the occasional annoyance of some in the long lines here. My experience in Austria is similar -- paying the exact price is still the norm. Perhaps it has to do with Germanic insistence on precision (although that is in my experience largely a false stereotype).

As for the other arguments re: sales tax -- even if we consider sales tax, when we come to uneven values I've yet to be convinced that the values won't be rounded up, not down. There is a huge complacency on the part of the public towards this, because people will think individually "oh, it's only a few pennies." But the fact of the matter is, for big retail chains that deal with cash exclusively rounding up would add a lot to their net income. By not having coins or other markers representing the base value of money in day-to-day cash transactions -- and here we are talking about the penny -- then we are essentially allowing retailers the ability to take in more income without actually having to do much of anything themselves.

FWIW, the denominations are:

Coins: 1 cent, 2 cent, 5 cents, 20 cents, 50 cents, 1 euro, 2 euros
Bills: 5 euros, 10 euros, 20 euros, 50 euros, 100 euros, 500 euros.

Personally, I think coins are a pain in the ass, and like bills better. I like cards best of all, but in their current form they are not as useful as they could be.

Posted by josephdietrich | November 22, 2006 4:31 AM

In the UK it would be highly unusual not to receive your full change, right down to the pennies. (I know they are worth a little bit more than yours, but still v little.)

On the issue of notes, don't get me started on the daftness of having all your notes the same size and colour... Is there a single good reason for the US to stick to this policy???

Posted by JP | November 22, 2006 7:15 AM

"This is simply not credible. There are about 300 million people in the US. If all 300 million chose to take out of circulation one quarter for each state, that would be $3.75 billion. Do even one in ten of your acquaintances collect coins?"

I don't think this is an accurate representation of the distribution of collecting. It's not about every American taking one quarter out of circulation. It's about one out of 500 Americans taking rolls of quarters out of circulation.

Posted by Petey | November 22, 2006 8:31 AM

"On the issue of notes, don't get me started on the daftness of having all your notes the same size and colour... Is there a single good reason for the US to stick to this policy???"

Green & grey money seems more "real" than multicolor money.

Posted by Petey | November 22, 2006 8:33 AM

Given the timeline involved, it is quite likely that Gerald Ford or George HW Bush will be the most recently deceased president when the program ends (tens years from now I believe), hence we shall have lots of Bush or Ford dollar coins being minted.

The Presidents aren't being minted in the order that they died, they are being minted in the order that they served, provided they are dead two years prior to minting. So if Ford or Carter passes in the next ~6 years, they will be minted prior to Reagan. Bush and Clinton would come after.

In any case, it's not at all obvious they'd keep minting the coins after the program ends with the last President. Do we think quarters are going to be printed with Hawaii's symbols on the back until we add a 51st state?

Posted by right | November 22, 2006 9:28 AM

even if we consider sales tax, when we come to uneven values I've yet to be convinced that the values won't be rounded up, not down.

This can be controlled by law. Realize, with sales tax, even today stores have to round the tax. If I go to a convenience store and buy a bag of drinks and a coke, let's say it costs $3.47. Sales tax where I'm from is 7%, which means the total is $3.7129. Nobody ever thinks about it, but that cost is always rounded to the nearest penny, so in this case $3.71. It would be no different without the penny, except rounding would be to the nearest nickel.

Posted by right | November 22, 2006 9:33 AM

Is there a single good reason for the US to stick to this policy???

Monopoly.

Posted by Al | November 22, 2006 9:54 AM

Re:In Canada just about every place that takes cash has a "take a penny give a penny" tray and most people there avoid accumulating pennies by giving them away or taking one or two as needed.

Have you never run across this in the US? It's quite common here too. (As a rule I tend to leave behind my change if it's just pennies -- four cents or less. I take my change if coins other than pennies are included; but then I roll my change once a month and deposit in the bank-- about $50 a month).

Posted by JonF | November 23, 2006 9:46 AM

Um, so what lobby is keeping *dollar bills* printed? Any other country would have dropped dollar bills in favor of dollar coins long ago. (And started making two-dollar coins, too.) It's a lot cheaper to circulate coins than bills for low-value, high-circulation denominations. So what lobby is keeping dollar bills going? It's not the metals lobbies....

Posted by Nathanael Nerode | November 24, 2006 6:34 PM

does this work

Posted by bogus | December 6, 2006 2:40 AM

I once knew of a cashier,
who had run a money scam,
and made quite alot of money.

No one was hurt,
and no real loss incurred by anyone.
They said they ran it like this:
When giving change to customers,
if it's change where they get 3 quarters back,
and some odd other change,
just give customer 2 quarters back instead of 3.

Then you must keep track of it,
in order to know how much you need
to take from the register at night.

Here's how you keep track:
for every quarter you dont give someone,
you put a penny in the extra change slot
that is inside your register.
Or if you dont have one, put it in with the bills.

when you get 10 pennies,
replace the pennies with a dime.
then at end of night,
count and multiply by .25 and there ya go.
Then at the end of the night,
she would sneak the total of the extra cash
in her long sleeve,
and the plan is that if cashier was seen doing that,
just say you traded your own personal small bills
for bigger ones, and hey you can count it cause
it's all there and it will be!

This person used to make an extra $30 a day
doing this.
Something like one out of 5 customers they did this to.
Sure they occasionally got the smart customer
that noticed,
but then cashier just acted dumb and say oops,
and remember to not do it to them again.

This person hasnt done this for years and years,
but I thought it was very clever.

Anyone heard of a better one,
where no one gets hurt?

Posted by bogus | December 6, 2006 2:56 AM