# "This Coupon is worth 1/20 of 1 cent." Does anyone actually redeem coupons for cash? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [November 21, 2008, 2:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-coupon-is-worth-1-20-of-1-cent-does-anyone-actually-redeem-coupons-for-cash/473817 "2008-11-21T14:01:21Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![shallora](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f9ae1b/32.png) [@shallora](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/shallora)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2008, 2:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-coupon-is-worth-1-20-of-1-cent-does-anyone-actually-redeem-coupons-for-cash/473817/1 "2008-11-21T14:01:21Z")
I got a coupon in the mail from retailer X the other day. “Special 20% off all purchases of $200 or more by Dec. 31” See reverse side for details. So I actually read the details on back. And at the end it said: “This coupon is redeemable for 1/20 of 1 cent.” So if I gathered 20 coupons together, I could exchange it for a penny? So if I gathered 2000 coupons . . . a dollar? Does anyone actually redeem coupons for the cash value? Why do they even print this information, what is its purpose? ---
**Author:** ![Klif](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/f08c70/32.png) [@Klif](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Klif)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2008, 2:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-coupon-is-worth-1-20-of-1-cent-does-anyone-actually-redeem-coupons-for-cash/473817/2 "2008-11-21T14:37:16Z")
[http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/296/why-do-grocery-store-coupons-say-cash-value-1-20-of-a-cent](http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/296/why-do-grocery-store-coupons-say-cash-value-1-20-of-a-cent) ---
**Author:** ![Chez\_Guevara](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/aeb1de/32.png) [@Chez\_Guevara](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chez_Guevara)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2008, 2:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-coupon-is-worth-1-20-of-1-cent-does-anyone-actually-redeem-coupons-for-cash/473817/3 "2008-11-21T14:38:23Z")
> [@](#): > > Why do they even print this information, what is its purpose? Cecil Adams explains this in [a short column from 1978](http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/296/why-do-grocery-store-coupons-say-cash-value-1-20-of-a-cent). > [@](#): > > Does anyone actually redeem coupons for the cash value? [Comments on that column](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=429562). Please note the second link is given despite a merciless exposé of my mathematical inadequacies appearing therein. ---
**Author:** ![friedo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8edcca/32.png) [@friedo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/friedo)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2008, 3:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-coupon-is-worth-1-20-of-1-cent-does-anyone-actually-redeem-coupons-for-cash/473817/4 "2008-11-21T15:17:20Z")
I had a friend in high school got a kick out of attempting Outrageous Stunts just to see how The Man would react. Once he stuck a mailing label and a few stamps on a Nintendo cartridge to see if it would get delivered (it did!) Anyway, one time we were walking home from school and he found a big pile of coupons in the parking lot of the local grocery store. He decided to pull one of his famous stunts and walked into the store with 20 of them and went to one of the cashiers. “I’d like to redeem these twenty coupons for the cash value!” he declared. The cashier said “Okay,” took the coupons, counted them, and handed him a penny. Needless to say, he was rather disappointed. ---
**Author:** ![BrandonR](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/779978/32.png) [@BrandonR](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrandonR)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2008, 8:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-coupon-is-worth-1-20-of-1-cent-does-anyone-actually-redeem-coupons-for-cash/473817/5 "2008-11-21T20:22:26Z")
> [@friedo](#): > > I had a friend in high school got a kick out of attempting Outrageous Stunts just to see how The Man would react. Once he stuck a mailing label and a few stamps on a Nintendo cartridge to see if it would get delivered (it did!) Your friend would love [these experiences then](http://www.directcreative.com/postal-experiments.html). ---
**Author:** ![Markxxx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5daacb/32.png) [@Markxxx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Markxxx)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2008, 3:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-coupon-is-worth-1-20-of-1-cent-does-anyone-actually-redeem-coupons-for-cash/473817/6 "2008-11-22T03:02:10Z")
I always thought you had to redeem the coupons from the manufacturer not the store. So if you had a Stove Top Stuffing coupon with 1/20th of a cent, I thought you’d have to get 20 such coupons and then mail it to whoever makes Stove Top ---
**Author:** ![engineer\_comp\_geek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/engineer_comp_geek/32/504_2.png) [@engineer\_comp\_geek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/engineer_comp_geek)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2020, 12:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-coupon-is-worth-1-20-of-1-cent-does-anyone-actually-redeem-coupons-for-cash/473817/9 "2020-09-26T12:09:22Z")