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Comment by osteele | Hacker News Reader

Many U.S. retail establishments near* the Canadian border treat Canadian quarters as equivalent to U.S. quarters—accepting them at a 25¢ value, including them as change if they got into the till.

The US:CAD rate is only 4:5, not the 1:6 BTH:BCH ratio at the time of the article. Perhaps more importantly, one can only use Canadian coins this way in person, and therefore probably at very low volume. None the less, it’s interesting to see the parallel.

* And not that near, either. I’ve seen this in Massachusetts. I never saw this growing up in North Carolina, or when I moved to California, though.

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Living in a border state, I always hated getting a Canadian quarter as change when I was younger. Plenty of vending machines and arcade games rejected them, so I was left with a useless coin.

Conversely, I always hated getting an American quarter, for the same reason!

I'd like to think of how this arbitrage might go down.

You try to buy an iPad in the US using 2000 Canadian quarters, thinking you will return it later to get 500 USD. Instead, they just tell you to 'fuck off' when you try to make the initial purchase.

I think if you try to buy anything with that many quarters they’d push you away.

Yeah this happens all the time in Western NY. I remember growing up hating getting Canadian quarters because they wouldn't work in U.S. vending machines.

Not sure if this is still the case, but when I was a kid I loved getting the occasional Canadian quarter because it would respond to my magnets (where as US coins wouldn't).

So what Canadian quarters lack in currency value, they make up for in entertainment value.

I used to love Canadian quarters because they kept their steel/silver color all the way around, unlike the hideous copper-sandwich US coins. Was disappointed to learn as a kid that the Canadian coins were worth about 20% less than the American ones!

Just a couple years ago they were worth 10% more. Then oil tanked.

They're plated steel now, but they used to be five-nines nickel when we originally left coin silver behind.

I always thought about this, too!

There's a massive amount of Canadian currency in circulation in the US, and everyone just treats them the same as American currency and doesn't bat an eye. I mean, nobody is going to accept a Loonie or a Toonie, but all other denominations are fair game. The only vocal annoyance anyone has ever expressed to me was about vending machines not taking them. I accepted them when I worked the til because everyone just seemed to be ok with it.

I always wondered if there was a legitimate scam possible here.

> everyone just treats them the same as American currency and doesn't bat an eye

you mean they accept them at par?

Yes, but I've basically only seen this with pennies and quarters, because they are physically very similar to their US equivalents. I don't think anyone would accept a Canadian $20 in exchange for US$20. (I also doubt that they'd accept more than a few at a time.)

Yep. Not paper currency, just coins. They look similar and are in the same denominations (25 cents, 10 cents, 5 cents, 1 cent). You'll get them as change and and you can spend them again.

Canada got rid of the 1 cent piece though so there are likely more Canadian pennies in circulation in the US than in Canada.

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