3 ms·
Why?
by nofunsir 2y ago
Why?
- neilv 2y agoIt costs them money. Also, for years there was a problem with people who'd sift through quarters for rare 1964-and-earlier ones that had silver content, and then return most of the quarters to a bank. And some people would do this in high volume, using coin-sorting machinery, and traveling around the region, to hit many banks. So, a bank branch would lose money on providing the coins and/or lose even more on taking back all the non-silver ones. After my condo building's laundry room vendor recently swapped out the card readers for some dodgy IoT app thing, I've started using quarters again, and finding quarters at all is difficult. Most store customer service counters and checkouts have a rule against trading quarters at all, though one did offer to trade up to $2 worth (like for parking meter). All the laundromats that still use quarters have threatening signs on their quarters changers, that it's only for customers. My bank branch limits to 4 rolls per customer (after verifying that you have an account there), and you can often sense that the counter person enjoys the transaction even less than some of the other money-losing services they provide.
- WalterBright 2y agoIt's been a very very long time since I've seen a silver quarter in circulation.
- neilv 2y agoThere were enough to make searching worthwhile. Then people switched to half-dollars. I assume the supply is cleaned out now, though. I did get a silver quarter in circulation maybe a decade ago, in change at a pop-up farmer's market stand. I recognized it immediately: it's a whiter, more satiny look.
- wpm 2y agoTheir sound is also subtly different that you can pick up if you pay attention. I used to swap silver quarters out of the till when I worked a cash register and I could tell without even looking that someone was about to hand me a silver quarter or dime.
- forgetfreeman 2y agoWhen was the last time you changed a $5 bill at a carwash?
- WalterBright 2y agoI have a jar of quarters from throwing my change in it. No silver quarters, ever. And yah, I can spot a silver one immediately. The color and feel is different, and the edge of course is the dead giveaway.
- forgetfreeman 2y agoI don't know what to tell you, the last 3 times I've changed a five at the car wash there's been at least 2 high silver count quarters in the pile, with a peak of 5.
- WalterBright 2y agoYou must be a lucky man!
- neilv 2y agoCould be some elderly person in the area passed away, and a spouse/heir found all these hand-rolled quarters they'd saved in a desk drawer for decades, and didn't know they were saved because they were silver.