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Coin washer keeps Westin St. Francis' change shiny (2010)

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101–110 of 119 posts

Re: Coin washer keeps Westin St. Francis' change shiny (2010)

#101
post #63

I visited this hotel last year and asked around after the cleaned coins. The first few staff members I asked had no idea what I was talking about - but they found me a more tenured member of staff and he told me that they don't do this any more. Which is sad, because I wanted some shiny pennies!

He probably retired and that was the end of it. A law firm near where I worked had an elderly lady who worked as an elevator operator up until a couple of years ago. Once she retired, the elevator was set to modern operation. They could have switched over long ago but kept her as the elevator operator, likely because she had been there so long and in the big scheme of things it didn't cost much. Might have been the same with the Westin St. Francis who long ago no longer really needed a coin cleaner but he was part of their connection to their past and didn't cost very much to keep around. Once he was gone though, there was little reason to get a replacement.

Re: Coin washer keeps Westin St. Francis' change shiny (2010)

#102
post #67

He might be one of the only professional money-washers left at a private business, but some of the people who rank very highly on the currency tracking site www.wheresgeorge.com are known to wash, dry, and iron hundreds to thousands of paper banknotes every day. Wattsburg Gary, one of the sites top ranked users attributes his high "hit rate" to this practice which is about as straightforward as it sounds. He runs the…

Sounds like money laundering but I guess it’s legal in his case.

Defacing US currency isn't legal.

Re: Coin washer keeps Westin St. Francis' change shiny (2010)

#103
post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Bird shot" is the size of the steal abrasive. Ridiculous to think they open up shotgun shells and pour in the projectiles.

You can buy it by the barrel. Good chance they did use real shot at some point.

I actually doubt that. Lead is a shitty abrasive.

Re: Coin washer keeps Westin St. Francis' change shiny (2010)

#104

Change doesn't make sense today. Comparing the value of a penny in 1900 it would be worth $0.31 today. Therefore we should get rid of pennies, nickles, and dimes. It is a huge waste of human time to count these small denominations out. They should round up to the nearest $0.25 https://www.in2013dollars.com/us/inflation/1900?amount=0.01

Sweden has kept up by continually getting rid of their smallest change. The last to be discontinued was the 50 "öre" coin in 2010, leaving the smallest Swedish coin valued at 10 US cents.

The last time the US deprecated a coin denomination was the half cent in 1857. Due to inflation!

Re: Coin washer keeps Westin St. Francis' change shiny (2010)

#106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes it totally doesn't make sense. The coins are worth so little now. Also making pennies adds $2m a year to our trade deficit with China.

Huh? Are pennies sourced from China?

No, they're made here as far as I know - but I strongly suspect the copper and zinc is mined in China.

Re: Coin washer keeps Westin St. Francis' change shiny (2010)

#107
post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Several countries don't have a 0.01 coin, so they have rounding when making a cash payment. Here in Denmark, where the smallest coin is 0.50kr, and a single bag of sugar is 9.95kr, I'll pay 10kr at the till. If I buy 6 bags of sugar, which is 59.70kr, then in cash I'd pay 59.50kr. When paying by card, the exact amount is paid. For the USA, a reasonable first step would be rounding to the nearest 5¢. Someone so poor t…

When I was a kid, I remember going to a small hobby store to buy a couple of bottles of paint. The bottles were $0.25 each, and I had exactly $0.50. I took my bottles to the register and was told the total was $0.51, because of sales tax. So I only purchased one bottle, and the total was $0.25. As I was leaving I realized that the tax had been wiped out, so I went back in and purchased the second bottle for $0.25 too…

I'm envious of the <2% sales tax rate.

Re: Coin washer keeps Westin St. Francis' change shiny (2010)

#108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Defacing US currency isn't legal.

Modification isn't "defacement", though.

Modification that doesn't alter the denomination or attempt to decieve is legal. A crucial difference.

Re: Coin washer keeps Westin St. Francis' change shiny (2010)

#109
post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When I was a kid, I remember going to a small hobby store to buy a couple of bottles of paint. The bottles were $0.25 each, and I had exactly $0.50. I took my bottles to the register and was told the total was $0.51, because of sales tax. So I only purchased one bottle, and the total was $0.25. As I was leaving I realized that the tax had been wiped out, so I went back in and purchased the second bottle for $0.25 too…

I'm envious of the <2% sales tax rate.

I may be misremembering the exact amounts, it was a very long time ago - closer to 4% than 2%. I believe the tax rate today is at least double what it was back then.

Re: Coin washer keeps Westin St. Francis' change shiny (2010)

#110
post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are plenty of times people who are traveling do not want a digital record of their payments for things such as alcohol or "food for two"

Why would anyone want a digital record of any of their payments? By default? EDIT: I should have clarified that I was thinking of a digital record in someone else’s possession . Having a record of your own transactions yourself could certainly be useful.

I think the point is that, in hotels, there are sometimes situations where they specifically want to got out of their way to avoid having records.
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