It's crazy in Ohio

CINCINNATI, Ohio - An Ohio man who says he doesn't trust paper money has delivered enough coins to cover half the price of a brand new pickup truck. Employees at a dealership in the Cincinnati suburb of Springdale say 70-year-old James Jones plunked down 16 coffee cans full of coins Tuesday for a new Chevrolet Silverado. Salesman David Crisswell says employees spent 90 minutes counting the collection of dimes, quarters, half-dollars and dollar coins, which covered half the $16,000 price of the pickup. Jones and his wife Betty wrote a check for the other half of the cost.
He doesn't trust paper money but he expects the car dealer to trust his paper check? I guess this shows how desperate Chevy dealers are to sell those worthless Silverado's. Try taking that crap into a Toyota dealership and buying a Prius with coffee cans full of coins. Your ass is out the door to the nearest bank.

I'm guessing that the bank wouldn't take his change and let the car dealer take a check for the entire amount. Sure they would. He "doesn't believe in paper money?" What year is this? You people in Ohio is crazy, yo.

Meanwhile, I made another of my frequent trips to the local grocery store. My mind wandered as I watched the cashier (I'll call her a cashier, even though she really isn't) roll the items across that glass screen and listen for the beep before rolling the next item across the screen. It doesn't take a skill other than hearing to do the job nowadays, but they don't make that much money either. I had some sympathy, since she was wearing a badge that said, "IN TRAINING TO SERVE YOU BETTER" which gave me an added amount of patience as she counted my change. You go girl.

When I was a kid (when dinosaurs roamed the earth) cashiers had to read the price tag (what's a price tag?) and punch buttons on a cash register (hence the name cashier) and apply either "taxable" or "non-taxable" to items based on their designation. There was a time when shoppers (me) had to separate the taxable from the non-taxable items on the conveyor so that the cashier (there's that term again) could pick them out easily - because she (usually a she) was making minimum wage ($1.75 an hour) and didn't want the hassle of separating your toilet paper from your chicken parts. That's how it was.

So, the guy who doesn't trust paper money would have fit right in back in 1968 when people of that generation lived through a crisis called The Great Depression (when great didn't mean good) and felt that their mattress was the best saving device.

I have a jar full of change (which I call the Giant Jar of Change) and I'll use it for something less than a car, but before I do, I'll take it to the local bank (next to the local grocery store) and have it counted (free) and deposit it in my checking account (also free). That's just how I roll.

Call me strange (go ahead) but I'd feel guilty asking employees to sit and count change for an hour and a half to indulge my ridiculous belief system that includes paper money and the value of time.

I'd think that a truck was worth at least that much. By the story, I'd assume he doesn't carry paper cash. He should try paying for the gasoline with a jar of change and see how far that gets him.