Comments on: If it doesn't make dollars, it don't make cents

If it doesn't make dollars, it don't make cents

boost ventilator — Sat, 22 Nov 2003 12:48:55 -0800

Behold the answer to the Canadian Change conspiracy.

By: kozad

kozad — Sat, 22 Nov 2003 12:58:42 -0800

I dunno, I've never gotten Canadian change from a brothel.

By: Salmonberry

Salmonberry — Sat, 22 Nov 2003 12:58:55 -0800

No need to take the $2,000 to Ottawa, they won't listen. I'll listen, though. Yes. Send me the $2,000 in Canadian change. I'll take care of it.

By: Dasein

Dasein — Sat, 22 Nov 2003 13:25:28 -0800

Once we've accumulated $2000.00 in Canadian "money," we'll dispatch a delegation to the Canadian capital Great! I'm from Toronto. I'll see you there.

By: majick

majick — Sat, 22 Nov 2003 13:28:39 -0800

Back when I was a kid, it was pretty common to have a few random canadian coins in the pocket, even if one wasn't going to or returning from Canadia. Just about everybody seemed to accept the coins as though they were real money and it wasn't uncommon to get one of those funny-looking pennies or dimes back in small purchases. Somewhere along the line that practice ended, and since then I've been handed a grand total of perhaps two or three canadian cents out of various transactions. Of course, modern man no longer accepts all that coin with Queen Hetch Hetchy or whoever on it, so you just have to throw them away.

By: freakystyley

freakystyley — Sat, 22 Nov 2003 13:35:44 -0800

He he... pretty funny. I'm Canadian and I'm somewhat miffed about getting US change. The stores here have no problem taking it US change, but it's not worth anymore than Canadian change.

By: djfiander

djfiander — Sat, 22 Nov 2003 13:38:33 -0800

Of course, when I was a kid, the Canadian dollar was worth more than the US dollar, so it made sense to accept Canadian money at face value.

By: spilon

spilon — Sat, 22 Nov 2003 13:39:15 -0800

I like Canada. Can't we all just get along?

By: t r a c y

t r a c y — Sat, 22 Nov 2003 13:46:21 -0800

I like Canada. Can't we all just get along? NO! no, no, no, no, no, no, NO! (sorry, just quoting my fave canadian comedian) anyway, that site is almost funny, but not quite. try harder!

By: Razzle Bathbone

Razzle Bathbone — Sat, 22 Nov 2003 14:04:12 -0800

We are bringing you guys down, one parking meter at a time.

By: trharlan

trharlan — Sat, 22 Nov 2003 14:41:27 -0800

Total to date:$17.31 Heh.

By: Chanther

Chanther — Sat, 22 Nov 2003 16:06:58 -0800

We're supposed to mail the money to Cambridge. Isn't that, like, almost Canada?

By: Smart Dalek

Smart Dalek — Sat, 22 Nov 2003 19:38:18 -0800

Welcome to the United States. To ensure the stability of our economy, we ask that all loonies be turned over to the nearest Customs Agent.

By: jalexei

jalexei — Sat, 22 Nov 2003 20:02:05 -0800

I don't get nearly as many Canadian coins as I used to - which is sad since I figured out the quarters work in Boston buses.

By: sycophant

sycophant — Sat, 22 Nov 2003 20:39:45 -0800

Last time I was in the US, I discovered that a New Zealand 10c coin (at the time worth about US$0.05) was almost exactly the same size and weight as a quarter, and accepted in most vending machines as such. Coke and candy has never been so cheap! :)

By: piper28

piper28 — Sat, 22 Nov 2003 21:10:08 -0800

It's not the pennies, nickels, dimes and quarters from canada that are the real menace. It's those obnoxious loonies and the two dollar coins that are the spawn of satan. On top of the fact that you can't pass one of those anywhere in the US, they've also infected this country with the idiotic concept that a coin in that high of a denomination is no big deal, and may be a good idea. Such dangerous thoughts must be stamped out immediately. Coins fall out of pockets when you sit down. When it's a few pennies and nickels, it's no big deal. However, dollars represent real money, and there's nothing more obnoxious than sitting down and discovering that several dollars worth of coins have fallen out of your pockets, lost forever into whatever you were sitting on. Death to the evil canadian coins.

By: faceonmars

faceonmars — Sat, 22 Nov 2003 23:35:25 -0800

That's what change purses are for. The reason only old people use change purses is that coins used to represent real money. Back in the old days, when we used to get change in REAL! SILVER! DOLLARS!, a dollar was real money. But today? It took three dollars just to buy my latte. Dollars haven't been real money for years.

By: nelleish

nelleish — Sun, 23 Nov 2003 01:23:42 -0800

I don't see what the big deal is, none of our money is really backed by anything anymore is it? Money is only worth something because we all agree that its worth x amount, as in this peice of clothy-paper is worth 20 units of currency and as long as you and I both agree on it, we can conduct business. You'll give me a pair of pants in exchange for that piece of paper and you can go get a book for that same piece of paper and so on and so forth. If we all just ignore the fact that its technically Canadian money, and agree to assign x amount of cents to silver coins of particular diameters (which we do automatically after years of training on both sides of the border) then I can call a coin 25 cents and so can you and it just keeps going round and round. (I should also say I work in a Maine tourist town where we get plenty of Canadian change going back and forth across the counter without much concern because we're just so used to it.)

By: spazzm

spazzm — Sun, 23 Nov 2003 03:51:54 -0800

"If we all just ignore the fact that its technically Canadian money, and agree to assign x amount of cents to silver coins of particular diameters [...] then I can call a coin 25 cents and so can you and it just keeps going round and round." Great idea! I hear the europeans are working on something similar...

By: Civil_Disobedient

Civil_Disobedient — Sun, 23 Nov 2003 10:07:16 -0800

I once went to a bank in Vancouver to exchange my US dollars for CAN. The teller ran out of Candian pennies while counting out the change, reached into another drawer, and substituted American pennies. I just couldn't believe this would happen in a bank.

By: nelleish

nelleish — Sun, 23 Nov 2003 10:32:42 -0800

spazzm- the way the exchange rate is creeping up (and I notice because it's that exchange rate that lets me afford university) it might end up not mattering all that much whose face in on the money anyway. But right now, as long as we don't freak out over a few cents of the "wrong" money here and there, nobody really gets hurt. You pass along your foreign change to someone else, and eventually these guys will end up with it!

By: DrJohnEvans

DrJohnEvans — Sun, 23 Nov 2003 12:06:15 -0800

I really had no idea that Canadian change had infiltrated American society so successfully; I'd thought it was only the other way 'round. ERII and whoever that is on the US penny (George? Elvis? they all look the same) regularly get into fistfights in my pocket. And I'm thoroughly in favour of high-denomination coinage. This way my change pile is able to sustain my lifestyle much more frequently; otherwise I'd think those dollars were real money and fritter them away on something silly like tuition.

By: Civil_Disobedient

Civil_Disobedient — Sun, 23 Nov 2003 15:59:52 -0800

And I'm thoroughly in favour of high-denomination coinage. No, no, no! High-value coins just beg to be lost down drains or from shallow pockets after a night of drunken excess. Not that I have experience in this matter (god-damned British pounds... a fucking dime-sized coin gets dropped and it's "See-ya!" to a buck-fifty...)

By: philfromhavelock

philfromhavelock — Sun, 23 Nov 2003 22:04:46 -0800

>It's those obnoxious loonies and the two dollar coins... My friend loved the loonies because he could drop two or three coins onto the bar and ask in his best John Falstaff voice, A half-tankard of ale, my good man.