Can I just say I love the new Coin Star machines?
I like to save my coins each day. Pretty much everybody I know unloads their pockets full of quarters, dimes, nickels, pennies, and chewing gum wrappers every day and puts them somewhere. A few people put them on a dresser somewhere, and then reload their pockets every day when they get dressed (including yesterday's gum wrappers).
Not me.
I've never really liked anything in my pockets. I don't like keys, or a billfold or a money clip or anything else in my pockets. Whenever I start collecting about 87 cents in change in my pockets, I feel like it's weighing me down and putting a rash on my leg the size of Nebraska (and about the same color as the University of Nebraska Cornhuskers).
There will be a time in the future where we will have all our information, including money and credit cards, built into a chip in our skin. Some people say this will be the mark of the beast. I don't believe it comes from the devil. I say any technology that helps get stuff out of my pockets is sent from the good Lord.
Plus, I've always been a coin collector. Not as in collecting old and rare coins. Instead I collect coins that are left over from purchases. For instance I collected 37 cents again today after I gave $6 to the clerk at my favorite coffee shop for a skinny cinnamon dolce latte. Those coins collect in my pocket for usually less than 12 hours. As soon as I get home I fish all of those coins out and put them away. I also frequently get in my underwear as soon as I get home, so call before you come by.
I don't like to lose my change, however. I want it to work for me sort of like simple interest without all the ... you know ... interest.
I put my change in a nice crystal bowl (I think the bowl costs about $700) until the bowl gets full. I just leave it there and let it build up. The only time I might reach in to grab a fistful of quarters is if I'm going to play Big Buck Hunter - Safari or if I need three gallons of gas for my car and I'm still three days short of pay day.
So the bowl sits there at the back of my dresser and collects stuff from my pockets: wrappers, notes, paper clips, buttons, pictures of myself, but mostly just change.
After a couple of months, the bowl is overflowing with change and I take it to my nearest Coin Star machine.
That hasn't always been the case.
There was a time when it wasn't quite that easy. I used to have to go to the bank, get those paper coin rollers, come home, count out 40 quarters, put one finger in the bottom of the coin roller, and start shoving quarters in there. Then I did the same thing with dimes, nickels, pennies, and chewing gum wrappers.
Just kidding. Back then I threw the pennies away.
Then after the money was all rolled up nice and neat, you had to drive back to the bank and "sell" the coins back to the moneychangers. You couldn't put them in the drive-through bank because the weight would cause money to spew forth all over the bank lobby hitting bank workers, customers and small children about the head and face. You always had to wait until the bank was open (from 9:45 to 10 a.m. and 3: 23 to 3:25 p.m.).
Needless to say it was a pain in the tuchis.
Now the pain is gone. Now I can transfer my 47 pounds of change to a small baggie, forklift it into my car and drive it to the Coin Star machine. I press a couple of buttons on the front of the machine and before you know it, I have cash money in my hand.
It's basically like going to a casino, sticking in a baggie full of your hard-earned money and coming out a winner every time. It's found money.
What a concept?
I don't know the name of the man (or woman, but I doubt it since women don't usually care about coins) who invented the Coin Star machine, but he (or she, but unlikely) is a genius. I would put him (or her ... again with doubts) right up there with Albert Einstein, Alexander Graham Bell and James A. Dewar (the inventor of Twinkies, in case you didn't know).
So, today I salute you, Mr. I Invented The Coin Star Machine Guy. You have made my life easier and much more enjoyable. I love you and your invention.
Now, what to do with this $44.03 burning a hole in my pocket. How much do Twinkies cost?
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