I went down to the bank
One day
I met a fine teller
And what did she say
“She stopped when I flashed my roll
I told her she could have all of my dough
She turned around and with a frown
She said this ain’t no circus
And I don’t need a clown
Your cash ain’t nothin’ but trash
Your cash ain’t nothin’ but trash
Your cash ain’t nothin’ but trash
And there ain’t no need in your hangin’ around”
Thanks for the lyrics, Steve Miller Band.
Thanks for the pennies, Adam, but no thanks. The bank won’t take them.
According to the Government Accounting Office, the government lost between $8 and $9 million in 1994 after considering the cost of both minting pennies (a small profit) and distributing them to commercial banks (a loss). According to me, Adam lost between $4 and $5 by leaving hundreds of pennies in his room, either unrolled or rolled in amounts not precisely equal to $.50. I lost $.10 in the parking meter and about 10 minutes driving the pennies to the bank to try (unsuccessfully) to exchange them for real money. Everyone loses!
Would somebody please remind me why we have this coin, if banks don’t take them?
I took Adam’s plastic bag full of pennies to Margot and told her, “Sweetie, here’s a bag full of, I’d guess about five dollars worth of, pennies, and Adam says you can have the money. There’s even a choice about how you can have it. Either you can roll it into rolls of fifty pennies each and I’ll take it to the bank for you and bring you back about $5 in bills and bigger change — or I can take it to the machine at the supermarket for you and bring you back some money — but it will only be about $4.50 instead of $5.00.” And Margot said, “Well… how do you roll money?” So I took out a roll to show her and couldn’t even get it started. She watched me struggle with it for about half a minute and then decided, “Look, Mom, just take it to the machine at the supermarket.” And I must admit that I couldn’t disagree with this decision.
I also have to say that (when you ignore the fact that it’s a rip-off) the machine at the supermarket is a lot of fun.
So… Adam wins (giving is good, right?); Margot wins (she’s richer); I win (I had fun); and Coinstar wins!