It’s a Two-Bit World: The Quarter Is Now King of Hard Cash

You may ask no quarter, but if you are mailing something, you will give one from today on.

Welcome to the club, postage stamp. Raising the price to 25 cents for first-class postage was bound to happen, inasmuch as so many other items and services have led the way. It has finally reached the point in California where it is 20% cheaper to make a local phone call than to mail a letter.

Forget the dime and the nickel; they are about to be declared endangered species. The cent long ago went the way of the dinosaur, as far as being good for much of anything. That leaves the lowly quarter, and if George Washington’s face now seems the most familiar among the coins in your pockets and purses, consider:

- Of the 34,000 parking meters in Los Angeles, an increasing number are taking quarters only. It is estimated that there will soon be 2,000 to 3,000 such meters.

- Many department stores have shopping bags, usually in a rack near the escalators, each available for 25 cents. So far the ride is free, though.

- In Las Vegas, the quarter has become far and away the most popular of the six coins used in slot machines.

- While it isn’t true of all coins, production of the 25-cent piece by the U. S. Mint has steadily increased.

Hamilton Dix, public information officer with the Bureau of the Mint in Washington, D. C., said by phone that although production of some coins has fluctuated, and in the case of 50-cent pieces has dwindled sharply, output of quarters has increased.

“In the fiscal year that ended Sept. 30, 1986, production of quarters totaled 1,034,000,000,” he said. “In the following federal fiscal year, the total was 1,310,300,000.”

By contrast, in those same periods, output of half-dollars decreased from 29.3 million to 800,000.

So Where Are They All Going?

And where are all those quarters going? A lot are going into machines that will accept nothing else.

At the Self-Serve, a station at the corner of Duarte Road and Rosemead Boulevard near San Gabriel, there’s a black box festively decorated with a decal showing a hot-air balloon. Leading from the box is a black hose and a nozzle. For a quarter, you get five minutes of air for your tires.

“Sometimes the problem is that people put in the coin and then start looking at their tires, not realizing that the meter already is running,” said station manager Rolando Flores. “If you keep your mind to it, you can do all four tires in the time allowed.”

Increasing numbers of service stations are installing the pay-for-air devices. Can water be far behind?

At the Unocal station at Robertson Boulevard and Airdrome Street in Rancho Park, a sign over a device proclaims: “Air & water

for your convenience.” The water is free, a worker said, but you must deposit a quarter for three minutes of air.

“The thing was the cost of supplying free air,” explained Ken Miller of the Arco station at Broadway and Pacific Avenue in Glendale. “People used to cut off our hoses and nozzles about once a week, and they cost $28 to replace. With the machine, another company provides everything, and we get a percentage of the receipts.”

And, as once was true, free maps at a service station? Are you kidding?

But enough of that.

Take a handful of quarters with you and join us in a street survey of what 25 cents will buy today:

- Dry your washed clothes for 10 minutes at most Laundromats.

- Sit in a special chair at the downtown Greyhound depot and watch 15 minutes of TV on a private black-and-white screen.

- Stay at a Motel 6 and relax your muscles as your bed vibrates for 15 minutes, courtesy of a mechanism known as Magic Fingers. “When we removed them in some of our places,” said Executive Vice President Hugh Thrasher, “we got comments from travelers asking that they be replaced.”

- Use a typewriter for 20 minutes at a local public library.

- Let your child ride a mechanical duck outside many of the J. J. Newberry Co. stores.

- Buy a giant-size bubble-gum ball from a vending machine. Dental bills are extra.

- Leave your street clothes in a locker while you work out at a gym.

- Buy a daily newspaper.

- Take the Dash shuttle bus downtown or in Westwood, or the Fairfax trolley.

- Play the jukebox at a Fatburger. “And you get three plays for two quarters,” boasted Antonio Ramirez, manager of the outlet at 3440 S. Figueroa St.

Whatever your joy in life, you darn well had better not leave the house without some two-bit pieces. In fact, in the next few months, you had better bring along quite a few if you plan to park at a downtown meter.

“We will soon have quarters-only meters downtown that will be $2 an hour,” disclosed Jerry Berman, senior parking analyst with the city. “If you want to park for two hours, you better have 16 quarters.”

Other expensive locations are in and around UCLA and in and around the USC campus.

“Within a few months, 25 cents an hour (including meters taking nickels, dimes and quarters) will be the cheapest rate in town,” Berman said. “Of course, bear in mind that in terms of 1967 dollars, 25 cents is worth 7 1/2 cents.”

Bargain in Echo Park

You say you’ve got pennies and you want to park? Better head for Echo Park, where, according to Berman, the last such meters remain in the city. He said there are no such meters at all on streets but a few remain on a couple of lots--and are being phased out. Fitting that an echo of parking should be in Echo Park.

According to Stephen Allen of the Las Vegas News Bureau, there are 45,902 slot machines on the Strip and downtown. Here is the breakdown of coins they take:

$1--9,277

50 cents--472

25 cents--22,821

10 cents--514

5 cents--10,942

1 cent--184.

And, beware, an increasing number of machines are requiring the depositing of more than 25 cents--but payable only in increments of quarters (no other coins accepted).

- At the Coin-Op Car Wash, Ocean Park Boulevard and Main Street in Santa Monica, there are car vacuums at the entrance. The instructions: “Insert 4 quarters for 4 minutes.”

- Many restaurants dispense, for two quarters, “Starscroll--Your Monthly Horoscope.” Rolled inside a small tube is advice for your star sign for every day of one month.

- Although crossing the Vincent Thomas Bridge still is technically 25 cents, the span has like so many other toll bridges switched for efficiency to paying double in one direction, nothing in the other.

“The 50 cents is payable westbound, heading from Terminal Island to San Pedro,” explained toll lieutenant Bill Schulze. Thus, if you go to Terminal Island and never return, you get a free ride (assuming you don’t have to fill your tires upon arrival).

- Stamp machines, found in hotel lobbies, drug stores, etc., take two quarters and give you back one 25-cent Jack London stamp and two 5-cent Pearl Buck stamps.

Perhaps surprisingly, if you walk into a supermarket with just a quarter, there is precious little you will walk out with, unless they let you take a bite out of a peach. At the Ralphs stores last week, kiwis were 25 cents apiece.

A single egg, however, still costs less, quite a bargain when you consider it’s a whole day’s work for a chicken.

Forget what once was the almighty dollar. Now it’s the almighty quarter.

Quarters by the Ton

Although a local phone call is 20 cents, inside the secret Southern California location where Pacific Telephone counts what it reaps daily from its coin telephones, public communications chief John H. Adair revealed:

“On an average day, we count 8 tons on quarters, 3 tons of dimes and 1 3/4 tons of nickels.”

As a convenience, the phones will accept quarters; but they don’t give change.

Neither do panhandlers. Indeed, nowadays no self-respecting panhandler would accept less than a quarter.

And would you hazard the wrath of a waitress or waiter by leaving less than that on the counter of a coffee shop?

Or allowing the tooth fairy to stop by with less for your child?

How many parents nowadays give an allowance of less than a quarter?

A youthful source disclosed that, at swap meets, baseball cards sometimes can be found for 25 cents.

Outside the entrance of many Osco Drugs is a Water Depot, to which a customer may bring his or her own container, deposit a quarter and get a one-gallon refill of either drinking or purified water.

Inside most drugstores are photocopying machines, usually requiring the inserting of 25 cents per copy.

A Finger Test for Fitness

Near the exits of many cafes are two machines. One, proclaiming “Take the Fitness Test,” requires the user to deposit a quarter, position his middle finger in a slot, and wait. In due time, a digital display discloses the person’s heart rate.

The other machine, known as the Stressalyzer, again requires the user to deposit a quarter, but this time position both the forefinger and middle finger. One of three lights shows, supposedly, whether the person’s stress level is low, normal or high.

No two-bit story would be complete without mention of arcade video games. Sandy Bettelman, an executive with C. A. Robinson & Co., a major distributor of them, said that although some of the more elaborate ones now have gone to 50 cents, most still take a quarter, and their popularity is resurging to what it had been earlier in the decade.

And some of the convenience stores have on the premises--would you believe it?--the old-type pinball machines. Three balls for 25 cents.

A quarter for your thoughts.