Stupid Guest Tricks

WEDFan wrote:After I stood there with a blank look on my face, it dawned on me that the whole taking Canadian coins thing was probably only common near the border. I had just grown up with it so it never occurred to me that it wasn't universal. :p:

When I went to Canada I gathered up all the Canadian change in my parents house and took it with me!

WEDFan wrote:the whole taking Canadian coins thing was probably only common near the border. I had just grown up with it so it never occurred to me that it wasn't universal. :p:

As a high school student, when working a number of retail position in northern Ontario we had to deal with this all the time. We could not give exchange on US coins, as the bank would not give us exchange on them. So they just continued to circulate. if a customer wanted US coin in his change (because he was heading home) we would oblige.
When my wife managed a retail operation in the 90s it was actually policy to let staff buy the US coin from the till at par. It made end of day paperwork much simpler. We would always fly to Miami with ten pounds of US quarters in our carrying. We never had any trouble selling the coins to the bartenders at airport bars in the Miami airport. When the exchange rate was 35% this was a great saving for us, for little work. And it helped the store out, as the bank service charges on even rolled foreign coins ate up all the exchange, and resulted in extra paperwork.

But some people just could not fathom that we would not pay exchange on their 0.40 for a can of pop.

delsdad wrote:But some people just could not fathom that we would not pay exchange on their 0.40 for a can of pop.

Some folks here like to pay 8% to take their coins to the grocery store and drop them in a Coinstar machine for cash. Dad had me rolling coins as a kid and to this day if I have a lot I roll them myself. Of course I'm always broke from my Disney trips so I have no coin to roll!

Occaisonally, I'll find a foreign coin somewhere, like the street or the laundromat. A couple months ago I found a 1965 Frech 1/2 franc coin. I looked it up online, and not only did Wikipedia give a detailed history of the coin, it also informed me that: 1.) as of Feb. 2002, it can no longer be exchanged, and 2.) they gave the current rate for this type of coin in euros, and at current exchange rates it's worth eleven cents. I also found a site that identifies and sells foreign coins, and there was a vendor who had a couple of these 1/2 franc coins, selling them for ten cents each.

I also have some tokens. One is a Toronto Transit Authority bus token. Anyone know how much that's worth?

Canadian Money always reminded me of Monoply money. I had going clubbing because you would buy a drink with a bill and get coins back. Not being used to coins the drunker I got the more coins I would have in my pocket. The plus side was when I thought I was out of money I would go home and find 20 loonies in my pocket the next morning.

Im heading up to Hongcouver and Whistler in week to do a little partying and skiing. I can't wait to get the heck away from WDW for a couple weeks.

felinefan wrote:
I also have some tokens. One is a Toronto Transit Authority bus token. Anyone know how much that's worth?

It depends. If it is a new token, silver with a gold centre, its worth about 3.25 I think (it just went up). if it is all silver I am afraid it is now worthless. they replaced those with the 2 color ones a couple years ago, due to counterfitting. Thye could be exchanged up till about a year ago. My dad got stuck with about 20 of the old ones because he didn't move fast enough to swap them.

NemoRanger wrote:Canadian Money always reminded me of Monoply money. ...

One of my favorite lines on this topic came some years ago when I was touring up north with a singing group. We had only been in Canada a few days when one of the guys picked up a bill he'd dropped and said, quite innocently, "Is this a Canadian dollar or a real one?" :p:

BRWombat wrote:One of my favorite lines on this topic came some years ago when I was touring up north with a singing group. We had only been in Canada a few days when one of the guys picked up a bill he'd dropped and said, quite innocently, "Is this a Canadian dollar or a real one?" :p:

The number of times I heard "what am I supposed to do with this monopoly money / funny money ?" or "can I get my change in REAL money ?"

People don't seem to understand that in only a few countries outside of the US is the greenback considered legal tender. Merchants and businesses who will accept foreign currency do it only as a convenience to customers. Or to screw them on the exchange rate!

I can't wait for the nonsense that will be stirred up In the fall when our new polymer bills start to enter circulation! They will even have a clear see through section, not unlike the Australian currency. http://www.bankofcanada.ca/banknotes/

delsdad wrote:
I can't wait for the nonsense that will be stirred up In the fall when our new polymer bills start to enter circulation! They will even have a clear see through section, not unlike the Australian currency.

They are in circulation now. The hotel I work at does currency exchange as a convenience to the guests. (and allows guests to pay their bills in any of the currencies that we exchange, without having to go through the exchange process). One of my cast members got payment in Canadian $ the other day, and it was the new-style bill as pictured above.

delsdad wrote:It depends. If it is a new token, silver with a gold centre, its worth about 3.25 I think (it just went up). if it is all silver I am afraid it is now worthless. they replaced those with the 2 color ones a couple years ago, due to counterfitting. Thye could be exchanged up till about a year ago. My dad got stuck with about 20 of the old ones because he didn't move fast enough to swap them.

Nope, all silver. Oh, well, not like I was planning to go up there with it to use it.... I just collect them because they're interesting. Anybody want some Chuck E. Cheese tokens? :D: