mikelincs

No guide at all seeing as how over the last few years governments have upped the duty by well over the rate of inflation.

Souvy

In the early 1980s I was a student in France. There were Germans on my course. We had a nice little arrangement. At that time, the 5p coin was exactly the same size and weight as a DM, except that the DM was worth 25p.

Anyone going back home on holiday would return with bags of 5p coins, that were sold on to the Germans at double their face value. The Germans would then plunder German vending machines, particularly for ciggies.

We had a similar scam with French telephone boxes. In those days there were different slots for different coins. With a bit of imagination (folded paper, actually) you could bypass the weight trigger and get a 2p coin into another slot (can't remember if it was 5 francs or 10 francs). Calls home were cheap.

caretaker

In the 70's we'd tear a strip off the cover of the phone book, slide it down the quarter slot, then drop a penny in the nickel slot while pulling the paper out; voila, dialtone! This when calls cost 10 cents. The instructions were in Steal This Book by Abbie Hoffman.

Souvy

Glad to know I'm not the only crook on here.

caretaker

All that's behind me now.

Steve_

Canadian banks will accept small amounts of US coins, I'm not sure if it's a formal agreement but they don't care and I've seen it mentioned in terms of service. So no problem using US coins in Canadian vending machines, assuming the machine will take it.

MarkG

Why is it that prices always rise by 'more than the rate of inflation'?

Souvy

Until now

orly

Depends on the product/service surely?

I'd imagine most people pay less for their internet connection than they did 5 years ago for example

Novocastrian

Not if they were living elsewhere than Canada 5 years ago.

mikelincs

It's been the policy of the last few governments to raise the duty on cigarettes, cigars and tobacco by considerably more than the rate of inflation to try and encourage people to stop smoking, it's a health issue, in the same way they have banned smoking in enclosed public places, in fact the only places you can now smoke is in the street, in a private house and in a car, and the car might well soon get a ban as well, if there are children in the car at least.