__________ is/are overrated.

[hbelkins]

Roundabouts.

[XamotCGC]

Roundabouts.

I second that.

[kkt]

The Canadian quarter is slightly smaller and slightly lighter than its American counterpart and the machines can apparently tell the difference.

Yep.  Back in the Bretton Woods monetary era (1945-early 1970s) the Canadian and US dollar were at par, and silver coins contained the same amount of silver.  But U.S. coin silver was 90.0% silver and 10% alloy, while Canadian coin silver was sterling silver, 92.5% silver and 7.5% alloy, so the Canadian coins were slightly smaller and lighter.  Both countries continued their traditional sizes even after both of them eliminated silver in the circulating coinage.

[Rothman]

Roundabouts.

I second that.

Wrong.

[bulldog1979]

I'm showing my age, but I remember when a few Canadian coins would be accepted happily by retailers as far south as Seattle.  Banks and ultimately the Federal Reserve would accept a small number of them at par.  That easygoing arrangement ended about the late 1980s or early 1990s and now it's strictly US coins.

Same in Michigan, I recall getting rid of my Canadian coins at 7/11 and Burger King during the 80s.

It seemed like Canadian coins of .25 or less in most stores and occasionally in vending machines have always  been accepted "South of the border" since their penny, nickel, dime and quarter coins are almost carbon copy equivalents of our coins.  I still see a few Canadian coins from time to time, those less often as I now live in Colorado.

It seems that more Canadian retailers will accept US paper currency (with various exchange rates) than the other way around.  When I lived around northern Ohio (Cleveland and Toledo), I never remember seeing a business that would openly accept Canadian Loonies or higher.

I worked for a certain large American big box retailer for a decade. In the first store where I worked, we accepted Canadian currency. (We're just 150 miles from the border.) We even had a special button on the register keyboard that would do the conversion for us, and it calculated the change in American dollars. The caveat was that we could only accept Canadian bills, not coins, because of a limitation from our bank.

Most American vending machines don't take Canadian quarters. The Canadian quarter is slightly smaller and slightly lighter than its American counterpart and the machines can apparently tell the difference. Canadian vending machines, of course, will often happily accept American coins.

The Coinstar machines at the supermarket will usually accept Canadian pennies but not other Canadian coins.

I recall in 1989 the McDonald's in Calais, Maine, had double-wide cash register drawers so they could accept both countries' currency. You received change in whichever currency you used to pay. (For all the younger forum members, take note that in 1989 McDonald's, and most other fast food places, did not accept credit cards, and debit cards as a form of payment–as opposed to purely for ATM access–didn't generally exist.)

Our coin counter in the Accounting Office could tell the difference in coin types. It worked by passing a small electrical current through each coin. The resistance value of each domination of coin is different. (Part of the reason the current US dollar coins tarnish so readily is that they had to find an alloy with the same resistance value and relative weight as the Susan B. Anthony coins, and the one they found likes to tarnish.) The counter would reject silver coinage and reject many Canadian coins as they have a slightly different resistance value compared to their American counterparts.  Counting pennies was always a bit weird because of the change from pure copper to copper-zinc in the 1980s.

[7/8]

I rarely get change nowadays since I usually don't use cash, but in my experience growing up in the 2000's, American coins were pretty common in our change and Canadian retailers wouldn't care if you used them. On the other hand, I can remember at least once trying to use a Canadian coin (quarter or less) in the US and being told that they won't accept it. As a kid it seemed ridiculous because to me they were basically interchangeable, but in hindsight and I can understand that Canadian currency is worth a bit less and probably less common further from the border.

[JayhawkCO]

Growing up in Minnesota, we got Canadian coins in change all the time. I looked at getting a Canadian penny about the same as getting a hay penny.

[abefroman329]

I get the convenience of paying with another country's form of currency (mainly thanks to traveling around Europe before the Euro existed), but the exchange rate must be pretty exorbitant for it to be worth it to the business.

[formulanone]

Roundabouts.

I second that.

Wrong.

Pretty sure he yielded, though.

[kphoger]

Roundabouts.

I second that.

Wrong.

Pretty sure he yielded, though.

He was forced to.  Geometry.

[Scott5114]

I get the convenience of paying with another country's form of currency (mainly thanks to traveling around Europe before the Euro existed), but the exchange rate must be pretty exorbitant for it to be worth it to the business.

And there's the matter of if the bank will even accept them or not. None of the banks used by the businesses in Oklahoma I've worked for would. Usually if Canadian change was noticed, one of the cashiers would buy it (there was a guy who liked to collect it) or it would be handed out to a customer as expeditiously as possible so that you didn't get stuck with it, like a game of Old Maid or something.

[LilianaUwU]

Growing up in Minnesota, we got Canadian coins in change all the time. I looked at getting a Canadian penny about the same as getting a hay penny.

The opposite happens here in Québec: around 1 in 10 coins I've gotten as change (back before I used a debit card, that is) were American coins.

[kphoger]

Vanilla extract is overrated.
Almond extract is the bomb diggity.

[CtrlAltDel]

Lunar eclipses. The moon is slightly redder than usual. That doesn't excite me all that much.

[hbelkins]

Lunar eclipses. The moon is slightly redder than usual. That doesn't excite me all that much.

Neal DeGrasse Tyson has joined the chat.

[Max Rockatansky]

Lunar eclipses. The moon is slightly redder than usual. That doesn't excite me all that much.

Neal DeGrasse Tyson has joined the chat.

My wife and I went outside to look at it for maybe 30 seconds.

[TheHighwayMan3561]

Lunar eclipses. The moon is slightly redder than usual. That doesn't excite me all that much.

Neal DeGrasse Tyson has joined the chat.

My wife and I went outside to look at it for maybe 30 seconds.

They're much more common than solar eclipses, which probably dulls the enthusiasm too.

[Max Rockatansky]

Lunar eclipses. The moon is slightly redder than usual. That doesn't excite me all that much.

Neal DeGrasse Tyson has joined the chat.

My wife and I went outside to look at it for maybe 30 seconds.

They're much more common than solar eclipses, which probably dulls the enthusiasm too.

That I actually did bother to stop for during my trip to the UP in 2017.

[CtrlAltDel]

Lunar eclipses. The moon is slightly redder than usual. That doesn't excite me all that much.

Neal DeGrasse Tyson has joined the chat.

My wife and I went outside to look at it for maybe 30 seconds.

They're much more common than solar eclipses, which probably dulls the enthusiasm too.

That I actually did bother to stop for during my trip to the UP in 2017.

I drove about 175 miles to see totality for that one. It's definitely a much more memorable experience.

[Rothman]

Lunar eclipses. The moon is slightly redder than usual. That doesn't excite me all that much.

I still like them.  At least here, the contrast between the bright full moon and the deep red blood moon is very, very stark and it's fun to see Earth's shadow cross the Moon.

That said, I have a friend who said, without seeing the eclipse, "I don't understand the hype about the solar eclipse.  What's so great about darkness?"  After seeing it myself, I emphasized with him that he had no clue whatsoever about what he was talking. 

[CtrlAltDel]

Lunar eclipses. The moon is slightly redder than usual. That doesn't excite me all that much.

I still like them.  At least here, the contrast between the bright full moon and the deep red blood moon is very, very stark and it's fun to see Earth's shadow cross the Moon.

This is, I think, the first discussion we've had where I've been the curmudgeon. It's a bit disconcerting. 

[kphoger]

Well, yeah.  By posting in this thread–not just replying to someone else's post–you basically have to put on the curmudgeon hat.

[kkt]

Lunar eclipses. The moon is slightly redder than usual. That doesn't excite me all that much.

Neal DeGrasse Tyson has joined the chat.

My wife and I went outside to look at it for maybe 30 seconds.

It was cloudy here so I didn't even go outside.  But I've seen seen total eclipses of the moon before, so a partial one just isn't that exciting.

[kphoger]

My wife and I went outside, saw that the moon was behind some trees, and went back in.  Whoopee.

[Scott5114]

Arby's curly fries.

Actually, curly fries in general.