# Pocketful of change... **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [December 16, 2002, 5:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pocketful-of-change/143118 "2002-12-16T17:45:14Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Larry\_Mudd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f14d63/32.png) [@Larry\_Mudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Mudd)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2002, 8:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pocketful-of-change/143118/21 "2002-12-17T08:02:37Z")
Count yourself lucky! You could live in Canada and have all the inconvenience of pennies, except they’re only worth a bit more than _half_ of an american penny, which makes it twice as annoying. And our $1, $2, and, soon, our $5 denominations are big-assed ugly coins. You can start out the day with no change, go about your business, and end up with three pounds of change threatening to pull your trousers down around your ankles. I swear, when the $5 coin comes out, men are going to give up on buying wallets, realizing that medieval-style purses are more practical. ---
**Author:** ![stolatt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b5e925/32.png) [@stolatt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/stolatt)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2002, 10:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pocketful-of-change/143118/22 "2002-12-17T10:48:42Z")
Great. Now I’ve got that old ZZ Top song stuck in my head. “Just got paid today, got me a pocketful of change.” ---
**Author:** ![mhendo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mhendo/32/3159_2.png) [@mhendo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mhendo)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2002, 3:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pocketful-of-change/143118/23 "2002-12-17T15:09:53Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Larry Mudd \* > \*\*Count yourself lucky! > > You could live in Canada and have all the inconvenience of pennies, except they’re only worth a bit more than _half_ of an american penny, which makes it twice as annoying. And our $1, $2, and, soon, our $5 denominations are big-assed ugly coins. You can start out the day with no change, go about your business, and end up with three pounds of change threatening to pull your trousers down around your ankles. > > I swear, when the $5 coin comes out, men are going to give up on buying wallets, realizing that medieval-style purses are more practical. \*\* Hey, Larry, why are you so down on Loonies and Twoonies? I think that they’re great, and i would be far happier if the US also got rid of its $1 notes and replaced them permanently with coins. I didn’t realize that there was a $5 coin on the way in Canada - i know the Canadian dollar is pretty weak right now, but that still seems like a bit of overkill to me. And anyway, when you live in a fantastic city like Vancouver (my place of birth and past residence) all the worries of the world seem somehow less troublesome. ---
**Author:** ![Otto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Otto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Otto)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2002, 6:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pocketful-of-change/143118/24 "2002-12-17T18:56:25Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Rilchiam \* > \*\*In California, if you order a 99-cent sandwich, the tax brings it to $1.07. > > Someone was once going on a McD’s run where I worked at the time. I requested a Big’n’Tasty, and gave him a five-dollar-bill and a dime. > > He gave me my change: three ones and 93 cents in coins. > > I wanted to smack him. I gave him the dime for a **reason**. I was even willing to let him keep the three pennies. Gah! \*\* Why didn’t you smack him for giving you $3.93 in change instead of the $4.03 you were due? Me, I like change just fine. Never spend it. I keep my pennies in a plastic skull, my nickels in a tin Badtz maru bank, my dimes in a ceramic Badtz maru bank, my non-commemorative quarters in a Marvin Martian cup and my commemorative quarters in a purple holograph-printed Kleenex box. It gives me an unreasonable amount of joy to sort my change at the end of the day and every once in a while I count up how much I have. Oddly, almost every time I do I happen to have an even dollar amount exactly. When one or more of my receptacles fills up I empty them all into a bag and cash them in for $2 bills at the credit union and the merry process starts all over again. ---
**Author:** ![lieu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c2a13f/32.png) [@lieu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lieu)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2002, 7:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pocketful-of-change/143118/25 "2002-12-17T19:20:19Z")
They sould give you your change in extra fries, unless you’re at someplace wierd like the DMV. ---
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2002, 9:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pocketful-of-change/143118/26 "2002-12-17T21:12:27Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by stofsky \* > \*\*I love change. I never spend it, and every time I walk past my fishbowl, I toss it in. I usually have enough at the end of the month for greens fees and a couple of beers. \*\* Doesn’t your fish mind? 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Rilchiam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/2bfe46/32.png) [@Rilchiam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rilchiam)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2002, 9:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pocketful-of-change/143118/27 "2002-12-17T21:45:22Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Otto \* > \*\*Why didn’t you smack him for giving you $3.93 in change instead of the $4.03 you were due? > \*\* I **know** I was due $4.03. I asked him, “Don’t you remember that I gave you a dime as well as a five?” Of course not! So I gave back the .93 in exchange for a dollar bill. I can spare the three cents; I just didn’t want all those coins when I should have had four solid dollars, with or without the three pennies. ---
**Author:** ![matt\_mcl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7ab992/32.png) [@matt\_mcl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/matt_mcl)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2002, 4:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pocketful-of-change/143118/28 "2002-12-19T16:49:46Z")
Rilch, fwiw I NEVER made that mistake when I was a clerk. Sometimes I even prompted people (“Avez-vous un dix-cents?”) ---
**Author:** ![Dogzilla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e480ec/32.png) [@Dogzilla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dogzilla)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2002, 5:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pocketful-of-change/143118/29 "2002-12-19T17:03:35Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by javaman \* > \*\*Doesn’t your fish mind? 😃 \*\* No, I think the fish is taking kickbacks to guard the change! ---
**Author:** ![dwc1970](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a183cd/32.png) [@dwc1970](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dwc1970)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2002, 10:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pocketful-of-change/143118/30 "2002-12-19T22:39:11Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Otto \* > \*\*Me, I like change just fine. Never spend it. I keep my pennies in a plastic skull, my nickels in a tin Badtz maru bank, my dimes in a ceramic Badtz maru bank, my non-commemorative quarters in a Marvin Martian cup and my commemorative quarters in a purple holograph-printed Kleenex box. It gives me an unreasonable amount of joy to sort my change at the end of the day and every once in a while I count up how much I have. Oddly, almost every time I do I happen to have an even dollar amount exactly. When one or more of my receptacles fills up I empty them all into a bag and cash them in for $2 bills at the credit union and the merry process starts all over again. \*\* Wow, I thought I was the only one who enjoyed collecting change instead of spending it. My system is somewhat like yours, although I don’t separate it as I go. I empty my change into a small bowl and count it at the end of each month and then keep a record of each month’s savings in an Excel spreadsheet so I at least know how much I have saved up. After doing this I transfer the change to a giant Coca-Cola bottle-shaped bank (about 2 1/2 feet tall) that I’ve had for ten years now. I’ve filled it to the top three times so far and it’s past the halfway point for its fourth filling. Each time it reaches capacity I empty the whole thing out on the table, sort it, count it, roll it and cash it in at several banks around town (I’d hate to go into just one bank and unload 3+ years of saved-up change on them). At the rate at which I save change it works out to be enough so that by the time the bottle is full I am due for a computer upgrade and have about the right amount saved up to buy one. This is how I have bought my last two systems. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pocketful-of-change/143118.md?page=1)