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This site is a little project that lets me make fun of some things and sense of others. I use it to think a little more relationally without resorting to doing actual math.Subscribe
This site is a little project that lets me make fun of some things and sense of others. I use it to think a little more relationally without resorting to doing actual math.
Not if you shove the coin in hard enough and hit the machine for long enough.
These were still compatible last I checked. The only problems I know of were when we tried making a thinner quarter in the early 2000s, and our machines rejected them too (switched back shortly after).
I’ve used Canadian quarters in a few machines here in the States. I’ve had a couple get rejected, but most older machines don’t really care so long as the object you’ve got is relatively round and vaguely quarter-sized/shaped.
we have an ongoing problem with a rogue canadian quarter in the laundry-money jar… I find it every time I try to start a load, but when it gets spit out I inevitably throw it back into the jar without thinking. blame canada.
Actually, she’d declare “no crisps for you!” Chips are of course fries, in Queen’s English.
Actually, modern US vending machines have electronic coin mechanisms that have a dip switch that can be set to accept or reject Canadian coins. How that switch is set is up to each vending company. The closer a machine is to the Canadian border, the more likely it will accept Canadian coins.
Have to watch the change when you get coins back near the border; sometimes a Canadian Quarter slips into the mix. I call that “getting cannucked”.
The older parking meters used to accept Canadian coinage, so there used to be the Discount Parking option, but no more.
My Canadian coinage builds up in a jar, unused. Interestingly, I was in Canada a number of years ago, and noticed that the person I was visiting had a similar jar, full of American coins.
Having grown up in Ohio and lived (for the last twenty-five years) in Michigan, I have taken for granted that a Canadian quarter or nickel or dime was worth the same as their respective American counterparts (although indeed machines would rarely take them). So, I have often been surprised when traveling outside of these states, that these coins weren’t acceptable tender.
For electrical machines, it’s probably just a matter of finding quarters with the right magnetic properties…which would be a product of their size, shape, and makeup.
Of course, in practical terms, that means quarters of the right vintage and nationality.
I’ve found it increasingly awkward acquiring quarters, now that I use my debit card for everything. Thoughts?
@Chezjake — Canadian Quarters are everywhere in Michigan. Machines almost never take them.
@Patrick — IN Kentucky I was told if I wanted to spend a Canadian quarter, I had to go to Canadia (sic).
In New York (even NYC, hundreds of miles from the border), nobody even looks twice at Canadian coins, although I doubt you could pass a Loonie or Toonie!
Canadian quarters are relatively common in Texas, so I expect the accursed coinage can be found anywhere Stateside short of Hawaii.
For what it’s worth, I’ve not met a vending machine here that won’t take them.
You can use them that far away from the border but I don’t know of a single vending machine that will take them.
I found that the French franc is also of very similar size and weight – got one in a roll of quarters from the bank no less! The laundry machine rejected it, which is how I found it. This was after France switched over to the Euro, and had stopped accepting francs for exchange, too.
@TBerculosis: I know that I’ve used two or three Canuck coins at vending machines in the past year and have never had a problem with them.
I was shocked when I moved from Montana near the Canadian border about Canadian money. No one in Arizona would accept it. We had tons of change that was worthless. In northern Montana it was used as often as American money was.
I haven’t tried this in awhile, but at the school where I did my undergraduate education we had a sizable Canadian population. The vending machines on campus did accept Canadian coinage (of all types, including Loonies and Twonies(sp?)), but discounted them to about $0.75C to each $1US. This was back when the exchange rate was about at that level, so it wasn’t terrifically unfair to anyone, but the price seemed to be hardcoded into the machine (that is, it didn’t directly track the exchange rate via software).
*edit* $0.75US to each $1.00C *edit*
Old NZ 10c. Makes for a pretty good exchange rate.
I live in Michigan and pretty much everyone here uses small Canadian coins regularly. As long as you don’t use all Canadian, most people don’t care. However, vending machines here are set to not accept Canadian change. Away from the border, things seem different. In Colorado, where my in-laws live, we have found that humans won’t take the Canadian money, but machines will. Once I was in Florida and handed the clerk a Canadian dime as part of my payment and he was so freaked out I thought he was going to call the police on me. I hadn’t even noticed.
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@ Robinn:
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| *
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| @
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* = how far north you live
@ = non-acceptance of canadian change
dang… didn’t work… i had the @ all the way to the right. oops.
Another Michigander here, I too have noticed that machines won’t take the Canadian change but people will. Kind of annoying sometimes when standing in front of a pop machine with $C 0.25 and $1.00…just a quarter short according to the machine..just take my Canadian quarter dammit.
For the record, I can’t use your fat U.S. quarters for my laundry, either. (And my U.S. coins also go unused into a jar)
IT’S LIKE BACKWARDSLAND! ;-)
- RG>