Normally, I do not make it a practice to post stories that are sent to me but I think I can relate to what this correspondent wrote. Reader Troy Brown wrote:

Remember the Taco Bell $2 bill story? Well today I was reliving it at Wendy’s with a few Kennedy Half Dollars! After a day of searching for 40% & 90% silver halves I took a few to the gas station then a few more to get some lunch. When I tried to pay for lunch at the local Wendy’s with a few half dollars the casher told me that she didn’t know if they could accept the coins. She then went to the other casher who took the halves to the manager. After a few minutes (and after the food was made sitting in front of me) I was told that they could not accept the money. I asked why and the cashier said because her manager said she couldn’t. With the line growing longer I asked, “so with all the starving people in the world you would rather throw away this food and not take the money?” She replied, “it’s not me, it’s my boss”. They then told me, “take the money to the bank and come back”. Really, you want me to spend my money here? I ended up at KFC where they took the money.

Troy wrote that he called Wendy’s corporate offices who said that they will look into the situation.

Today I went to a Subway sandwich shop near where I am working. When I went to pay for my “Five Dollar Foot-Long” I handed the cashier a five dollar bill and a 2010 Native American $1 coin to cover the sales tax. The cashier looked at the coin and I asked if there was a problem. She said that she cannot take foreign money. I showed her where it said “United States of America” and “$1” on the reverse. She was so afraid of taking the coin that I switched my payment to a $20 bill to pay for my lunch. I will not be calling Subway’s corporate offices. I am not sure Jared is interested!

As part of the Presidential $1 Coin Act of 2005 (Pub. Law 109-145 [pdf]) told the US Mint to research how the one-dollar coins could gain more acceptance and for the US Mint to launch an education campaign along with the new coins. Not only is it clear that the education process failed, but the research lead to same conclusion everyone else has made using reason: if you want the one-dollar coin to be more accepted, stop printing the one-dollar Federal Reserve Note. This is why I wish I could take members of congress out to lunch in the real world so they could see the failures of their actions first hand.

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