The E-Sylum:  Volume 10, Number 31, August 5, 2007, Article 18

NEW YORK TO SELL ANOTHER BATCH OF REJECTED PARKING METER COINS

According to news reports, "The city of New York is selling
500 pounds of foreign coins that found their way into its
parking meters this year.

"'We have pretty much every denomination from every continent,'
said Anthony Alfano, the city's deputy chief of meter collections.
The most common coins are Greek drachmas, he said, which are
no longer in circulation.

"The Department of Transportation, which makes about $90 million
from parking meters annually, has collected bids for the 227
kilograms of foreign coins and planned to announce the best
offer Monday.

"About a decade ago, the agency decided to sell the foreign
coins it had collected because it was impractical to exchange
them for U.S. currency. In previous years, selling the coins
has netted between $2 and $4 a pound."

To read the complete article, see:
Complete Article

[Dick Johnson comments on the article, and how it also
turned up in a Chinese publication. -Editor]

Dick Johnson writes: "For sale!  Five hundred pounds of
foreign coins collected from New York City parking meters.
Think that's not news? It happens every year. True.

"What is news is that that this news article ran in the Xinhua,
China newspaper. You see, the Chinese want to buy our coins
whether they were struck here in America or elsewhere. They
want the metal. Months ago they had two freighters anchored
in the Delaware Bay prior to the Treasury order of no coin
melting ready to buy all the cents returned to the Philadelphia
Mint.

"Five hundred pounds won't fill much of that cargo hold in the
two Chinese freighters if they are still there. They want the
big haul. They want to buy all our Lincoln cents when the
government recalls all the cents because they are worth more
than one cent."

This article is in English:
Complete Article

  Wayne Homren, Editor

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