Dollar Coins

[washnvac]

I am with Sequoia---$1 high security tokens are the way to go. I have used $1 tokens since 2002. I even dispense $1 tokens as change in my 7 auto cashiers. I have plenty of clear signage stating such. There is really no customer issues.

PLUS!!!- I have never been strung and have never been broken in to. Then there is that real bonus---I replenish 10,000 tokens a year between my four locations. Tokens cost me $.19 each. That is an $8100 profit to spend on other items.

But, ofcourse, this just my opinion.

 

[JIMT]

You have got to learn never believe anything that a banker tells you.

I made that mistake.
JIMT

 

[cantbreak80]

As an early adopter of the $1coin, I could write a book…(ok, maybe just a couple of paragraphs)…about the trials and tribulation associated with the conversion. Keep in mind that I began in 1999, dispensing Susan B Anthonys and quarters, followed by SBAs only. I had to deal with multi-coin acceptor infancy and electronics reliability, coin availability, and the big unseen enemy…the price increase component.

When the Sac$1 was introduced in 2000, nearly all of my “customer issues” were resolved. Thank you, “Golden Dollar”.

I’ve dealt with the sleepless nights, the hand-wringing, the self-doubt and the confused/angry customers. I’ve also learned a few things like:
• Good multi-coin acceptors are invaluable…buy the best you can afford. (I like the Micro-coin)
• Laurel Metal Products electronic drop shelf vendors are 1000x more reliable than the older mechanical versions
• Electronic coin acceptors in vacuums are not all that difficult to install
• Big signs with few words work best. “Changer Dispenses $1 Coins Only!” and “Deposit $1 Coins or Quarters”
• A ScanCoin303 or similar off-sorting coin counter is a worthy and reliable tool.
• An accommodating banker is worthy of a long term relationship
• A spreadsheet-based cash report makes money counting, changer balancing, bank deposits and accounting data a relatively simple task
• Car washers seem to have an unending stock of quarters…after nearly 12 years of $1coin only changers, quarters still account for over 22% of my cash receipts!
• While unconfirmed by reliable methods, I believe my customers spend more money and are happier with their car washing results. My observations find fewer customers rushing to beat the clock. Maybe larger denomination coins work like casino chips on the psyche? Maybe 20 quarters seems expensive when deposited into the meter…. vs. five $1coins? Maybe I’m just justifying?
• Many surrounding businesses now offer $1 coins as change for purchases…specifically, my favorites…the coffee shop, the ice cream stand and the liquor store. We must be sharing the same customers???

I’ve also noticed that more and more coin/cash devices accept $1 coins. In my area this includes the transit system, the self serve lanes at the supermarkets and big box stores, snack and soda machines, and of course, the USPS. And no business has ever refused to accept a $1coin for payment.

I’d love to hear of the demise of the $1 note. I’d wager Pat Crowe is spitting coffee all over his keyboard now…even after all these years

 

[rzeavy]

Washnvac
If you had to replenish your tokens, it means that your customers spent real money for tokens which some of them will "walk off"
You look at it, as if you made money on this exchange but your customers think (correctly) that they lost real money at your car wash, since they spent X dollars on tokens and use less then that at your car wash.
Ask yourself a simple question, as a customer, would you want to leave the car wash with extra coins in your pocket, or with extra tokens?
The answer is obvious.
All this is based on you having a car wash without break ins and stringing, as you mentioned.

 

[washnvac]

rzeavy:

Yes the answer is obvious---I have three high volume washes, and one better than average volume, no break-ins, no stringings, all validator maintenance paid for by walk away tokens and then some, no issues going to the bank to get $1 coins or quarters, or any other denomination.

I came to this game to make money; not worry about being robbed or strung, or going to the bank for $1 coins. That is the perspective I wish to view this conversation from.

 

[I.B. Washincars]

Isn't it great that we can actually discuss dollar coins without insults and arguments. Thanks Bill, for the upgrade that made it all possible.

 

[Randy]

It is refreshing Pat that no one is insulting anyone else or arguing about Dollar coins.

I have a customer who had me convert his car wash over to 100% Tokens, no quarters on site, none accepted or dispensed. I figured it would be the end of the line for them. Just the opposite, they are doing better than most in this poor economy.

 

[I.B. Washincars]

That being said, just because they didn't go under doesn't mean it was a good idea. I will never believe that not accepting quarters is a good idea...just don't make sense.

 

[Randy]

I was rather surprised on how well they are doing with not accepting Quarters. It does make much sense to me either. They are talking now about switching over the other car washes in there chain to Tokens only. The other day when I was talking them they said the walk off or loss rate of tokens was higher than expected.

 

[Sequoia]

Emotions

I guess one difference between "token adopters" and "token resisters" is the notion that token walk-off is an unseemly or dishonest aspect of the business. I don't agree.

I have many customers who visit the changer, insert a $20, and buy 20 tokens. They then wash their vehicle, put the unused tokens in their change holder, and drive away. Next visit-- they don't need to go back to the changer. As my business has grown, more and more customers are out there with tokens in their vehicles. I have no evidence to cite, but I would guess the "walk off" is largely coins still in the area and in the hands of customers, as opposed to being permanently gone. I love it when a vehicle pulls up, and I quickly hear "4 clicks" on the coin acceptor. This was someone with tokens on them at their time of arrival at the car wash, and there are many of them.

Of course, some tokens do go out of town, get lost, disappear, or whatever. But when a customer buys a quantity of tokens and chooses not to use them all at their same visit, I don't lose sleep over it. If they didn't like it, they would get back in the car and drive away. But they don't-- my business has grown significantly since converting to dispense tokens. It's just that simple.

btw, there should be no shortage of $1 coins. There was a news story out today that the U.S. Mint has $400 million of these coins that they can't get into circulation because there is not the demand for them.

 

[Waxman]

Quarters and $1 tokens has worked best for me from a revenue standpoint as well as a customer satisfaction standpoint. I feel the customer, at least in my market, assumes an SS carwash takes quarters. I lost sales when folks would have only quarters to use and I was not right there to notice and get some tokens.

 

[U Wash]

Here are some of my experiences on the answers provided to the dollar coin question.
1. There is an e-mail circulating that falsely claims the mint eliminated the In God We Trust motto on the dollar coin. For several years it was on the edge of the coin. Current Presidential dollar coins has it on the front. The e-mail was originated by the credit card companies. They want the dollar coin to fail.

2. I program my self serve bays to give a bonus for the dollar coin. I have the coin acceptor credit a $1.25 for that coin. So the customer saves 25 cents on a $2 wash or he gets more time if he puts in two dollar coins instead of 8 quarters.

3. We dispense dollar coins for $5 bills, 3 golds and 4 quarters. For $10 bills we give, 7 gold dollar coins and 12 quarters. We continue giving quarters for a $1 bill.
I am surprised how many customers say they use our self serve because of the bonus for the dollar coin.

4. When obtaining dollar coins. Boxes shipped out of the Federal Reserve will be mixed with Susan B. Anthony. So they have to be seperated out and taken back to the bank.
Try to make sure your bank is ordering in boxes of the new Presidential series of dollar coins. Then you have no seperation problems. They will all be gold.

5. I have not tried the purchasing program directly from the mint. However, I recently was notified that the mint no longer accepts credit cards payment for these orders. To many people were purchasing the coins and then returning them to the bank so they could get alot of mileage points on their credit cards. Some idiots have to ruin it for the rest of us who want to distribute them.

6. Dispensing dollar coins is great. It helps the country and cut cost for the government compared to printing dollar bills. It would be nice to eliminate the dollar bill but I don't see that happening. It is not that big of deal to seperate the coins from quarters. You can get a mechanical sorter.
I originally opened with tokens that we made worth 50 cents. Customers hated them because they were stuck with the extras, especially if they were not locals. Plus all the electronic coin acceptors takes in any token the same size of your token. I was getting obscene tokens with naked breast and rear ends printed on them. Then those would cyle through and be dispensed to customers. I eliminated them in 2 years.

7. Eventually you will hear criticism of the dollar coin from "Pat The Idiot" who has shot off his big mouth to our industry in his opposition to the dollar coin. He is just a crack pot that spends his time promoting himself. Pay no attention if you see anything written from him.

 

[Bubbles Galore]

I went dollar coins several years ago after an exorbitant amount of hand wringing. The single best decision I have ever made.

 

[U Wash]

You Mean "Pat The Idiot"

As an early adopter of the $1coin, I could write a book…(ok, maybe just a couple of paragraphs)…about the trials and tribulation associated with the conversion. Keep in mind that I began in 1999, dispensing Susan B Anthonys and quarters, followed by SBAs only. I had to deal with multi-coin acceptor infancy and electronics reliability, coin availability, and the big unseen enemy…the price increase component.

When the Sac$1 was introduced in 2000, nearly all of my “customer issues” were resolved. Thank you, “Golden Dollar”.

I’ve dealt with the sleepless nights, the hand-wringing, the self-doubt and the confused/angry customers. I’ve also learned a few things like:
• Good multi-coin acceptors are invaluable…buy the best you can afford. (I like the Micro-coin)
• Laurel Metal Products electronic drop shelf vendors are 1000x more reliable than the older mechanical versions
• Electronic coin acceptors in vacuums are not all that difficult to install
• Big signs with few words work best. “Changer Dispenses $1 Coins Only!” and “Deposit $1 Coins or Quarters”
• A ScanCoin303 or similar off-sorting coin counter is a worthy and reliable tool.
• An accommodating banker is worthy of a long term relationship
• A spreadsheet-based cash report makes money counting, changer balancing, bank deposits and accounting data a relatively simple task
• Car washers seem to have an unending stock of quarters…after nearly 12 years of $1coin only changers, quarters still account for over 22% of my cash receipts!
• While unconfirmed by reliable methods, I believe my customers spend more money and are happier with their car washing results. My observations find fewer customers rushing to beat the clock. Maybe larger denomination coins work like casino chips on the psyche? Maybe 20 quarters seems expensive when deposited into the meter…. vs. five $1coins? Maybe I’m just justifying?
• Many surrounding businesses now offer $1 coins as change for purchases…specifically, my favorites…the coffee shop, the ice cream stand and the liquor store. We must be sharing the same customers???

I’ve also noticed that more and more coin/cash devices accept $1 coins. In my area this includes the transit system, the self serve lanes at the supermarkets and big box stores, snack and soda machines, and of course, the USPS. And no business has ever refused to accept a $1coin for payment.

I’d love to hear of the demise of the $1 note. I’d wager Pat Crowe is spitting coffee all over his keyboard now…even after all these years

My nickname for him is "Pat The Idiot". He is nothing more than a self promoter who spent years with his foot in Oprah Winfry's mouth.

 

[Earl Weiss]

Here are some of my experiences on the answers provided to the dollar coin question.

1. There is an e-mail circulating that falsely claims the mint eliminated the In God We Trust motto on the dollar coin. For several years it was on the edge of the coin. Current Presidential dollar coins has it on the front. The e-mail was originated by the credit card companies. They want the dollar coin to fail.

.

What is your source for the statement that: "The e-mail was originated by the credit card companies. They want the dollar coin to fail." vis a vis;
1. That the credit card companies want the coin to fail.
2. That the credit card comapnies originated the e-mail?

It is hard to fathom that they would care and easte there time with a clearly erroneous e-mail.

 

[Earl Weiss]

7. Eventually you will hear criticism of the dollar coin from "Pat The Idiot" who has shot off his big mouth to our industry in his opposition to the dollar coin. He is just a crack pot that spends his time promoting himself. Pay no attention if you see anything written from him.

I am not opposed to the dollar coin but I am also not a fan of eliminating dollar bills in favor of the coin. If that putsme in the crackpot division, so be it.

I much prefer bill acceptors to coin acceptors and like the fact that they can take 1's, 5's, 10's and 20's. I also prefer 5 singles in my wallet to 5 dollar coins in my pocket.

 

[I.B. Washincars]

My name is Pat, so pay no mind to what I say.

 

[mjwalsh]

Not all Pats are bad nor are all Mikes bad!

My name is Pat, so pay no mind to what I say.

IB Washin ---- See my headline of this response --- Some specific Pats we really need to pay attention to!!! The ones who harper on non issues or who try to twist the best information available ---- not so much!

When I started that recent dollar coins important poll I thought it would be OK to not eliminate the dollar bill. After the dialog & seeing first hand the deliberate unavailability made by some banks "charging for the coins but not for bills" & requiring preordering when that is not the case with "quarters" --- I see that is the only way. We have 12 newer style most still under warranty bill acceptors --- both Mars & Coinco --- but we can still see the value of eliminating the one dollar bills.

I am not sure anybody can prove the forces at work discouraging the dollar coins & if it is exclusively credit card related but --- the net effect is that the "systemic" distribution problems (regardless of account status) are still happening as revealed in my recent calling & running around to all the local banks because our regular supplier & myself just happened to run out. The unplanned scavenger hunt was not fun & the callousness of some of the "out of touch" government people when I contacted them was not fun either. It is a lack of "good stewardship" from my perspective.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_external_debt

I notice the per capita debt for Canadians is by far less than us Americans & even in the context of the GDP --- do you think that has something to do with a pattern of decisions made by us Americans? I know Canadians also do a quite a bit helping against the worst tyrants of the world --- so I don't think the lack of military is what is causing it.

I do not agree with all of the tax policies in Canada but this dollar bill elimination is really not any "in reality" tax or inconvenience to anyone. Since we get people visiting from Canada more often than some areas I have made it a point to ask a sampling of them --- they all seem to say they would much prefer the dollar & 2 dollar coin than the alternative of making up the difference in increased taxes or increasing their per capita deficit. 5.5 billion dollars of savings should not be taken too lightly. That is what should tip the scale!

mike walsh king koin of bismarck

 

[Reds]

"I am not opposed to the dollar coin but I am also not a fan of eliminating dollar bills in favor of the coin. If that putsme in the crackpot division, so be it.

I much prefer bill acceptors to coin acceptors and like the fact that they can take 1's, 5's, 10's and 20's. I also prefer 5 singles in my wallet to 5 dollar coins in my pocket."

I'm with Earl. Also, I own a vacation home in Canada and spend every other weekend there. All Canadians do not favor coins over bills. This comes down to a matter of personal preference.

 

[Earl Weiss]

Note that the $5.5 billion in savings is over 30 years. Thats roughly $180 million a year