The International Yippie Currency Exchange
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The International Yippie Currency Exchange
Just wanted to help to shed some light on one of the great things from Abbie Hoffman's book. The Yippie International Currency Exchange is still alive and well. Here's a little bit of info that I tried just today 6 October 06. I went to my local coin dealer and took a U.S. quarter with me to use as a sizing guide. Well I spent about $2.00 to buy 24 coins that looked about the same size as the U.S. quarter. I then took these back to my office and tried them in the vending machines at work to see if they would work or not. Well I always say, "If it looks like a quarter, it will spend like a quarter!" Well I'll be God-Damned, it worked just like the original stuff said it would. So here's one way to triple your money in a hurry. Go to your local coin dealer and check and see if they have assorted foreign coins. If so buy them and remember, "If it looks like a quarter, it will spend like a quarter." Not all work well but those from Panama, Jamaica, New Zealand and Canada worked wonderfully in the place of U.S. quarters. But the others will work well in hand to hand transactions with the agents of corpgov at places like Walmart, Target and other overstocked corpgov greed monsters. So for those of us of the New Resistance, "Power to the People, and Down with the Greedy Corporate Monsters!" Long live The Yippie International Currency Exchange!
It is a little harder now because of the Euro and the terrible exchange rate of the dollar. However, South American coins should still be a good exchange, and a lot of Asian currencies have low exchange rates, so you could try that too.
Grifter Tricks
Further information on this Yippie International Currency Exchange. Here's a wonderful little trick that I worked out that will turn $4.00 U.S. into $10 U.S. What you do is this. Go to a local coin shop and buy about 40 quarter sized coins. (Here near where I am you can buy foreign coins for about $0.08 U.S. a piece.) The next thing to do is to get a rolling paper for a roll of quarters. Then the first coin in should be a U.S. quarter and then you fill the tube with the foreign quarter sized coins until you have put 38 of these in. You then put a final U.S. quarter on the end of the roll and close the end tightly. This now creates a situation where you have a $10 quarter roll made of foreign quarters and you've used $0.50 of genuine money to create this. Then take this to one of the Corpgov agents like Wal-mart or any other large store. When the line is busy go up with about a $1.00 item and purchase it. Then you'll receive the $9.00 change from giving the cashier the quarter roll. Usually they won't even crack the roll open to give you change back. Plus to insure they don't it's always a good idea to carry a few small coins to cover the taxes on your purchase. And if you should by some unfortunate chance get your roll cracked open and the cashier questions you the simple answer is to play shocked and swear that you had just given somebody else a $10 bill in exchange for the quarter roll and you got scammed. Usually this will work. I've tried passing the foreign coins as quarters in smaller amounts and it has worked 100% of the time when I've claimed that I got them back as change from someone. If you're really ballsy and want to fuck the bastards good you might try giving this quarter roll over to a bank or a casino in order to get the full money back. Most small town banks or those within Wal-Marts, etc., will not check the rool before giving you the full amount. And least with most Corpgov agent retailers you're dealing with teenagers who usually don't give a damn or you're dealing with those people who aren't the sharpest tool in the shed if you know what I mean. Just another way to stick it to the man plus it's quite fun. I hope you enjoy this as much as I have.
Sources
Just a little further info for you all who might be wondering where to get the coins that I've mentioned above. The best source that I've found is your local coin dealer shop. However if you don't have a coin dealer in your area then E-Bay has a section where you can find bags of several pounds of these coins being sold for just a few dollars a piece. I have tried this gig personally and know that the quarter roll gambit above works wonderfully and that it has returned for me a 200% or more profit in just a few days.
Many vending machines will give you a different coin than the one you put in when you press the coin return button. I've only used this property to search for coins of interest, not for any scam, but I'd estimate you can feed a couple hundred coins through before you start to get back the ones you put in. Older machines seem not to recycle coins and will sometimes eat your money or reject all coins once their change supply is depleted. Using this technique to exchange foreign coins would require a very close match to the target coin, but it's also much less risky than walking into a store and hoping they don't catch on and call the cops.
DIY Inflation
Just an addition on money when one is in a tight spot. If one has access to a color copier or a scanner that will copy in color then one has access to a quick way of counterfeiting a dollar bill that might be passed in a vending machine. Don't try this with other money as the security features will allow the vending machine to tell a counterfeit from a real thing. But I've done some checking and desktop counterfeiting will work in almost all cases of money but all U.S. bills except for G.W. have security measures to prevent copying as the original work has suggested. But $1 bills lack any security features aside from the paper they are printed on. Look at the type of paper your dollar bills are on and then try to match that paper up with something similar at the office supply store. Then use that paper to copy the front and back of dollar bills to and you should end up with a crisp new dollar bill that will pass in most vending and change machines. Just remember that counterfeiting is a Federal Offense and will bring you lots of trouble if you're caught. And you will get caught -- all color printers/copiers sold since the very early 90's have a "watermarking" feature -- they print a grid of faint yellow dots, nearly invisible to the naked eye, over all their printouts. This grid contains information such as the printer's serial number, batch number, etc -- allowing the FBI to track a counterfeit bill down to the very machine it was made from. At the very least, make sure you purchase your printer (and the paper) in a retail store a good distance from your home, and pay cash! More importantly with watermarking the feds will know every bill and document printed comes from one printer and not waste their time trying to run down multiple counterfeiting rings.
Trying automated in store coin counters with foreign coins
We bet it would work and would give you a credit slip, but how much you wanna bet the machine has a camera that takes a few frames of still pictures or video every time it is used like at the ATM machine? Look at the machine for pinholes or windows (maybe black plastic to us, but IR transparent so it will take an infrared black and white shot) or cameras nearby watching the machine.
Original The International Yippie Currency Exchange
Every time you drop a coin into a slot, you are losing money needlessly. There is at least one foreign coin that is the same size or close enough that will do the trick for less than a penny. The following are some of the foreign currencies that will get you that Coke, call or subway ride.
Quarter Size Coins
- URUGUAYAN 10 CENTISIMO PIECE
- works in many soda and candy machines, older telephones (3 slot types), toll machines, laundromats, parking meters, stamp machines, and restroom novelty machines. Works also in some electric cancerette machines but not most mechanical machines.
- DANISH 5 ORE PIECE
- works in 3 slot telephones, toll machines, laundromats, automats, some stamp machines, most novelty machines, and the Boston Subway. Does not work in soda or cancerette machines.
- PERUVIAN 20 CENTAVO PIECES
- works in new (one slot) telephone and some electric cancerette machines, but does not work as many places in the Uruguay, Danish and Peruvian coins.
- ICELANDIC 5 AURAN PIECE
- most effective quarter in the world, even works in change machines. Unfortunately, this coin is practically impossible to get outside of Iceland and even there, it is becoming difficult since the government is attempting to remove it from circulation.
Dime Size Coins
- MALAYSIAN PENNY
- generally works in all dime slots, including old and new telephones, candy machines, soda machines, electric machines, stamp machines, parking meters, photocopy machines, and pay toilets. Does not work in some newer stamp dispensers, and some mechanical cancerette machines.
- TRINIDAD PENNY
- generally works the same as Malaysian Penny.
New York Subway Tokens
- DANISH 25 ORE PIECE
- works in 95% of all subway turnstiles. A very safe coin to use since it will not jam the turnstile. It is 5/l000th of an inch bigger than a token.
- PORTUGUESE 50 CENTAVO PIECE
- the average Portuguese Centavo Piece is 2/1000th of an inch smaller than a token.
- JAMAICAN HALF PENNY, BAHAMA PENNY and AUSTRALIAN SCHILLING
- these coins are 12/l000th to 15/1000th of an inch smaller than token. They work in about 80% of all turnstiles. We have also had good success with FRENCH l FRANC PIECE (WWII issue), SPANISH l0 CENTAVO PIECE NICARAGUAN 25 CENTAVO PIECE.
All of the coins listed have a currency value of a few cents, with most less than one penny. Foreign coins work more regularly than slugs and are non-magnetic, hence cannot be detected by "slug detector machines." Also unlike slugs, although they are illegal to use in machines, they are perfectly legal to possess and exchange.
Large coin dealers and currency exchanges are generally uptight about handling cheap foreign coins in quantity since they don't make much profit and are subject to certain pressures in selling coins that are the same size as Amerikan coins or tokens.
People planning trips to European or South American countries should bring back rolls of coins as souvenirs or for use in "coin jewelry."
If you do not plan to travel, a small coin store which is cool about selling to the public is located on the Lower East Side at 191 East Third Street, New York City. When their phone works, the number is 475-9897.
Washers are the most popular types of slugs. You can go to any hardware store and match them up with various coins. Sometimes you might have to put a small piece of scotch tape over one side of the hole to make it more effective. Each washer is identified by its material and number, i.e. No. 14 brass washer with scotch tape on one side is a perfect dime. When you get the ones you want, you can buy thousands for next to nothing (especially at industrial supply stores) and pass them out to our friends.
Xerox copies of both sides of a dollar bill, carefully glued together, work in most machines that give you change for a dollar. Excuse us, there is a knock at the door. . .Fancy that! It's the Treasury Department. Wonder what they want?
