On the shores of Lake Erie it is not unusual to get a Canadian dime or quarter in change. No one pays any attention to it, they just spent it was though it were USA coins. Are there any other places two bordering countries do this?
Well, certainly other places near the US/Canada border.
And you could say that it’s even more true for European countries.
We get them in Michigan. Only time I notice is when I cash my change in, because I seldom use change. Then I just leave the next to the machine.
Since the Euro, but what about when the currency was unique. The coins would have to be similar in size and appearance and presumably value.
I suspect the reason that people in Ohio accept Canadian coins is that they’re not examining the coins closely. I’ve had Canadian quarters in my pile of change and only noticed when I tried to use them in something like a coin-operated washing machine at a laundromat. (And there’s nothing unique about Ohio that people use Canadian coins in cash transactions; I’m sure the same thing happens elsewhere in the United States.)
I once had a summer job (in Canada) where our boss had a bunch of spare change and he said that we could keep it if we were willing to roll the change and bring it to the bank. We noticed that there were a lot of U.S. pennies in the change and we made a whole roll of American pennies. The cashier at the bank looked at us like we were nuts when we asked to convert it from USD to CAD, though.
I worked at a large computer company in Minnesota, and many employees visited Canada on a regular basis, plus we regularly got an odd 10 cent or 25 cent Canadian coin in change.
These Canadian coins weren’t being accepted by our vending machines, which was causing lots of frustration by employees. To keep the peace, the machines were reset to accept both US and Canadian coins. The exchange cost was a cheap price to pay for the company.
I grew up in Wisconsin, and worked in my parents’ hardware store as a teenager. Canadian coins weren’t super-common, but you’d certainly see them show up in change reasonably often; even though Wisconsin is fairly close to Canada (as the crow flies), it doesn’t share a land border with Canada, or have any border crossings.
As a child, our family often took summer vacations from Minnesota up to the North Shore and on into Canada. All the businesses on either side of the border would take both Canadian and American money for purchases.
Though I noticed that in Canada, many stores near the border had signs near the cash register saying that “Today’s exchange rate was $1 American = 97¢ Canadian”. Going back, stores in America had similar signs. But somehow, the exchange rate had changed – now on the American side, the Canadian money was worth less. Even on the same day, the exchange rate had shifted; always a few cents more, always in the stores’ favor.
Oh well, I guess it’s their ‘fee’ for having to deal with 2 currencies.
It’s a fairly large and aqueous border but the 5, 10, and 20 cent Australian and New Zealand coins have essentially identical sizes and values consequently are easily mistaken and will work in vending machines etc, though of course not legal tender in the non-issuing country.
Further the NZD $1 coins and AUD $2 coins are often mistaken, as is the other “pair” of the NZD $2 and AUD $1.
NZ shrunk those coins about 20 years ago, so I think it’s now a one-way thing where old NZ coins work in Australia (but not in their home country).
Obliged. 
Man, this is precisely why more people should read The Dope.
A correction as to empirical facts in less than 2 minutes. 
Irish coins used to be the same size and weight as English ones, and turned up in change occasionally, much to our annoyance.
Now that they’ve gone to the euro, that doesn’t happen any more.
Speaking as one who worked cash-only retail in Canada in the 1990s (Ontario Beer Stores), American currency was a bit of a pain. Oh, we’d accept it, and our bank would accept it, but reconciling at the end of the day was a bit of a pain.
You’re right though; it was a fee for having to deal with American currency. We had a sign posted that US$1.00 = CAD$1.10, despite the fact that US$1.00 was actually CAD$1.17. If we were called on it, as we sometimes were by American customers, we’d simply explain that the difference was a fee we charged for having to deal with foreign currency, and if the customer wanted to avoid the fee, he or she could use Canadian currency.
Then, when I gave change in Canadian currency for proffered US greenbacks, it set up a whole 'nother exchange. “Change in Canadian? What the hell am I going to do with this?” Umm … you’re in Canada, pal. Spend it, or change it back to American at a bank, if you must. Regardless, nobody here gives change in American.
Yes, in border zones they might take your money— say you walk across the border from the Eurozone into Switzerland, for example, and have Euros— but you may not get an advantageous exchange rate. Then again, nobody is forcing you to pay cash or not to use a cash machine.
By accident I tried using Danish Krone in Sweden, where they use the Swedish Krona, after crossing the Øresund Bridge. The Swedes didn’t accept the Krone, to my embarrassment.
When my wife went to Ireland in the 1970s they generally accepted UK pounds for Irish punts on a one-to-one basis; Eire uses the Euro now, so that doesn’t work any more.
Many tourist shops in Switzerland will accept Euro bills, but not Euro coins. And they will give change in Swiss Francs. Some of those same shops have taken USD in the past as well, but that’s not as common.
The last time we were in Canada, we never handled any cash.
I was in Toronto several years ago, happily paying for things with plastic, until dinner one evening at a very yummy Chinese restaurant where the card reader was broken. I only had American cash, so I had to leave my family there while I ran across the street to an ATM. Spike and Squeaky were eight and six at the time and were very impressed with the Canadian money.
Judging from what limited experience I have with exchanging foreign currency here in the US after a trip abroad, they don’t exchange coins, only bills. Not even at the Cleveland airport exchange shops.
Last time i was leaving Canada, i was on the airport and i changed money for some other tourist. I forget the details, but i had cash on my pocket, and was happy to do it.