I wrote yesterday about the difficulty of finding things one can buy with a single quarter. The story was related to Monday’s issuance of the Oklahoma quarter, part of the U.S. Mint’s long-running program to highlight each of the 50 states through coinage.
Part of my research for the story involved using a couple of inflation calculators to compare the value of a quarter today and in the past. These things are actually kind of fun. Here’s a graphic that didn’t make the paper showing how much it would cost today to buy 25 cents worth of goods in the past. The timeline at the bottom of the graph runs from 1913 to 2005.
I bought two rolls of shiny new Oklahoma quarters during lunch on Monday, and those were the quarters that appeared in a photo on the front page of The Oklahoman today. But at the end of the day, I had a couple of pounds of quarters rattling around in my pocket. My kids only needed a few, so I started handing out the rest (and I sold a few to folks who wanted more than one).
So far, I’ve handed out about $5 worth of quarters and it’s fun to observe people’s initial reaction to the coin. In general, even people who didn’t vote for the scissortail flycatcher and Indian Blanket artwork find the coin to be attractive. The most critical comments I’ve heard are that the coin isn’t “Okie” enough.
In the past two days, I’ve handed quarters to colleagues in the newsroom and my wife and four kids. I even slipped one to Boone Pickens after completing an interview.
So, to amend my earlier story, handing out quarters is the best value I’ve found for the new coins.
Don Mecoy
Business Writer
January 30th, 2008 at 1:57 pm
Hey, I liked the ‘quarter’ story. Too bad you had to give a quarter to Boone Pickens. He and his money are cheating many loyal OSU fans out of their season tickets because the prices are too high and now they want us to give them a donation on top of the season ticket price to ensure w’ell get out seats. Guess what, I’ve had that seat for over twenty years and I’m giving it up. A 6 and 6 season and a bigger newer stadium are not the time to to raise ticket prices. OSU can’t fill the stadium now, do you honestly think raising prices will fill it up. Next time you see Mr. Pickens, tell him if he wants to donate his money for OSU athletics, give it, but don’t force me into giving more to pay for his vision of OSU. This time ‘if you build it they will come . . . ‘ is not going to happen. I’m sure when I watch an OSU game on TV, there will be lots of empty seats and when OSU plays OU, there will be more red than orange. Thanks for the rant!