Give And Take

There is an expression for when an unwanted guessed or object keeps appearing in your life which states that the person is "like a bad penny". Since this is an old saying I can only assume that back in the day it was very unlucky to have dirty money. Even though most people ditch pennies as quickly as they can these days, this saying has lasted through the years and is still used. Well, I have found a flaw in that particular phrase - it's really hard to get rid of a useless coin in the first place. Something can't keep reappearing in your life if it never goes away in the first place.

The other day I was using the self-checkout at the grocery store and got my change, including a extremely dirty quarter. I'm talking can't-even-see-George's-head dirty. As near as I can tell it was dipped in oil, rolled in dirt and then sat in mud for a while. Seriously, at first glance I thought it was foreign currency. (It was unsightly, is the point I'm driving at.) A couple days later I was back at the same grocery store and since I had just transferred everything from one pair of pants to the other, for once I had change on me. That was when I went to pay using the quarter, only to have the machine spit it back at me. This happens all the time, of course. Who hasn't tried to pay at some vending machine, only to have it refuse to take one of your coins? It's very frustrating. But multiply that frustration by ten when the machine that refuses to take that money is the very same machine that gave the to you originally.

Paper money can be taken out of circulation after it has been corrupted to a certain standard. Once it becomes too faded, torn, or wrinkled the money is destroyed. That makes sense because otherwise anyone could show up with a crumpled up wad of green paper and claim it used to be a hundred dollar bill. Apparently, no one is that worried about the same thing happening with coins, which I get. Why worry about counterfeit pennies? The time and money it would cost to manufacture them would probably cost more than a batch would be worth. As such it appears they can just hang around until the end of time. This wouldn't be an issue if they still worked, but machines today appear to be extra sensitive to the various ridges and edges that they won't take coins that are too far along. If you try to pay with them at the store the cashier starts to examine it closely, as though they are the last line of defense against counterfeiters. Having someone wearing a pastel vest question the validity of your money is somehow extra insulting. So the question is what to do with these coins no one wants.

There has to be some kind of law of human decency which states you can't give out anything you wouldn't take in return. I wouldn't care it this was a penny, because then I would just leave it in the 'Take a Penny, Leave a Penny' dish at the gas station (even though I am way onto the give side of that equation). But quarters are harder to simply discard because they are way more useful in things like parking meters (you know, when the machine actually takes them). I guess I could try and clean this thing off, but that seems like a lot of work for twenty-five cents. I know one thing for sure - George Washington would be pissed about this.