Look under #401.
<<By Ellen Wulfhorst
NEW YORK, June 22 (Reuters) - New York City is sitting on a pile of money that it just can't get rid of.
The Department of Transportation has collected 17,500 pounds (7,955 kg) of foreign coins that were illegally deposited in the city's parking meters.
But so far, there have no takers for the heap of money -- which the city has been trying to sell for $1 a pound, department spokesman David Billig said on Monday.
The hoard consists of well over a million coins, from 62 different countries, collected from the meters over the past four years, he said.
To discourage the practice of using foreign coins as slugs, the transport department would not reveal exactly where the coins were from. Most don't work and simply jam the meters, Billig said.
The city has been advertising the coins in the official journal used to publish bids and contracts.
"The way we have to look at this is they're collecting dust and worth nothing," Billig said.
Cashing in the coins for U.S. currency is not an option. Not only would separating the coins be a daunting task, but most banks will accept only bills for conversion, he said.
"Imagine us walking in there with (all those) loose coins," Billig said. "They're very happy to turn us away."
Considering each coin was used in the place of a quarter, the money represents a loss to the city of more than $250,000, about one day's takings from New York's parking meters.
The transportation department will likely continue to advertise for a buyer, but donating the pile might be a possibility, Billig said.
"If someone wanted to buy them and melt them down, they could make something out of them, or somebody could make holes in them and make costume jewelry," he said. "Or they could be a very good math tool for schoolchildren."
The use of foreign coins as slugs had declined as mechanical parking meters have been replaced in some neighborhoods with more high-tech electronic meters, he said.>> |
