• WolfLink
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      10 months ago

      These aren’t rare in the sense that everybody has one they keep as a collectible. If I went down to 7/11 and tried to buy something with it they’d give me a funny look.

      • PwnTra1n@lemmy.world
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        10 months ago

        no they wouldnt. its money. i work at a gas station we get these all the time

        • Transporter Room 3@startrek.website
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          10 months ago

          I have a friend who works at a bank, and when he was a teller there was a guy who would come in every friday and exchange 500 in dollar coins of varying types, the little brass colored ones here, the silver looking ones, and also 50 cent pieces.

          They didn’t carry that much at any time because nobody really brings them in so they had to start special ordering them for this one guy. Every week.

          No idea what he uses them for, but either he’s got a shitload of them, or he makes it hail at strip clubs.

          • surewhynotlem@lemmy.world
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            10 months ago

            No idea what he uses them for,

            Let’s say you want to buy a computer. You could, like a boring person, go to Best Buy and purchase a computer for 800 bucks on a credit card. Or you could dress up like a pirate with 800 gold doubloons in a sack, and slam that shit on the counter during checkout.

          • TheOneAndOnly@lemm.ee
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            10 months ago

            Likely owns a vending machine business. They’re easier to return than a handful of quarters if someone uses a 5 dollar bill to buy something for a buck and change.

            • swab148@startrek.website
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              10 months ago

              I’d put money on it being one of those “Twice the Ice” vending machines, all of my dollar coins come from either that or the ticket thing at the train station.

          • PM_Your_Nudes_Please@lemmy.world
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            10 months ago

            My guess is that he runs something that needs to give automated change. Vending machines, car washes, arcades, etc… Basically, if someone puts a $20 into the car wash but only wants a $10 wash, it’s easy to just dispense ten $1 coins as change.

            Coin handlers are mechanically very easy. Coins don’t vary in size and shape, so it’s easy to automatically detect which coins have been inserted, dispense change, and reject coins that don’t match. Paper money sorters are much more complicated, and more prone to failure.

          • HakFoo@lemmy.sdf.org
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            10 months ago

            50 cent coins contained silver for a few years longer than dimes and quarters. So you have a slightly better chance of finding a silver coin worth a few dollars in a roll of halves. It’s free gambling for numismatists.

            Source: I ask for the occasional roll of halves.

            • Transporter Room 3@startrek.website
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              10 months ago

              My grandfather used to do this with nickels, dimes, quarters, and dollar pieces. When he passed I got the “random coins” that were literally all years prior to the change in materials.

              No idea how much it’s all worth but it’s in the back of a closet somewhere.

              I guess this didn’t occur to me because the guy also got the regular brass ones, which don’t have any value above face value to my knowledge. They didn’t contain actual gold at any point.

              I would have thought people would have collected/sold the silver ones out of circulation by now.

        • brian@programming.dev
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          10 months ago

          fwiw I’ve personally had cashiers refuse to accept them since they didn’t think they were real. not sure how common that is tho, especially now

        • dan1101@lemm.ee
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          10 months ago

          I don’t know,.clerks have called the cops over $2 paper bills.

      • BakerBagel@midwest.social
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        10 months ago

        The vending machine at my job gives change in dollar coins, and the Ohio turnpike does the same. They are fairly common, just people dont like to handle change is all.

        • Spiralvortexisalie@lemmy.world
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          10 months ago

          I recall in NYC for a while, dollar coins were known as metrocard change from when they first started installing the Metrocard Vending Machines.

    • JimVanDeventer@lemmy.worldOP
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      10 months ago

      Thank you; I didn’t know that. You do have a rather big country and I still sort of wonder if it is universally recognized. Again, just going by never having seen them in movies. Maybe United Statesians aren’t just fictional characters in movies. We’ll never know.

      • PwnTra1n@lemmy.world
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        10 months ago

        yeah we still mostly use dollar bills but we do have dollar coins and have had dollar coins in circulation for a long while predating these versions even.

        • JimVanDeventer@lemmy.worldOP
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          10 months ago

          It’s so cool to me. I wonder if I am the only one not from US who finds this a bit mind blowing. What other secrets are you keeping?

          • NOT_RICK@lemmy.world
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            10 months ago

            We also have a two dollar bill that is rarely seen. So rare in fact that I’ve read stories of cashiers calling the cops on someone because they don’t even realize it’s legal tender.

            • yngmnwntr
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              10 months ago

              In Portland Oregon (most strip clubs per capita in the country) it is traditional to use $2 bills instead of singles. It is extremely common to see two dollar bills in Oregon, I would bet a majority of two’s in circulation stay in the PNW.

            • ABCDE@lemmy.world
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              10 months ago

              Here in Cambodia we have a dual currency system: you can pay in dollars or riel and get your change in a mixture of currencies.

              The $2 note is seen in businesses, especially money changing ones (from dollar to riel or vice versa), on display as a good luck sign.