Some things really boggle me about the UK. For example, those incredibly convenient machines in the US where you pour in change and get rational denominations back simply don’t exist. And I’m not saying they aren’t at supermarkets, I’m saying they simply don’t exist. I walked into my bank the other day to cash a cheque and took the opportunity to ask the teller what options I have for the mountain of change I’ve accumulated over the last 14-ish months. He gave me a stack of about 100 little plastic envelopes and told me to categorise my change by denomination and bring it in. So I did. And this sounds weird, but it was one of the most fun things I’ve done in a long time :) There’s something magical about large quantities of money, no matter how little it all adds up to.
I took all the change in to work this morning and took it to the bank in my first coffee break. Another surprise: I wasn’t supposed to just sort them by denomination, but actually count a certain number into each bag (eg, 10 pounds worth of 20p coins, 5 pounds worth of 10p coins etc.). Honestly, that’s primitive, given that toy shops sell change counters these days. More infuriatingly, the teller told me if the amount I had didn’t line up nicely with the amounts they require (ie, if I had 7 pounds worth of 20p coins instead of 10 pounds), they wouldn’t accept them. Anyway, I tried sorting some, got exasperated, yelled at the teller, and got her to do them for me. She used a weighing machine to figure out how much the change was worth, so I don’t know why she was making such a fuss in the first place.
Net result? 37 pounds and 60p. Or 35 pounds flat, after I celebrated with a caramel macchiato :)
OK… this sounds extremely ridiculous to me! Don’t banks simply have those coin counting machines? What do Britains do with their coins then?
I believe they mentioned that in Asterix in Britain, or was it Mind your language.
I watched this TV documentary about a sleazy landlord who’s famous for torturing people to get his money back. Anyway, they showed the dude picking up 1p coins in the houses he visited and at one point he turned to the camera and said that’s how you get rich. So now you know.
(On a sidenote, I’m in Dubai right now, where one of my cousins has an office machinery business, which means he sells coin counters. He says my bank – Lloyds TSB – must be cheap, because coin counters are easily available in the UK. Hmm.)
Any thougths on Mariyah Moten? Heard of her ?