I grew up in the 90s and aughts. These containers were frequently around cash registers in convenience stores and perhaps other small businesses. I don’t remember them being so consistently branded, but my experience then would have been limited to going into a handful of stores in the same locale. Of course, Canada ditched pennies (1 cent pieces) from cash transactions just over 10 years ago (we now round for cash transactions).

A penny felt like a meaningful amount of money to me as a child. More than anything, when I look back at them, these little containers stimulated my understanding of karma and perhaps theory of mind (e.g., mentalizing a future customer helping themself to an available penny and how they’d feel as a result). Looking back, I think that’s pretty neat.

I don’t know why, but these things popped into my head as I was doing the dishes. I was assured that, thankfully, there’s a Lemmy community for this :D

  • Bonesince1997@lemmy.worldEnglish
    51·
    3 months ago

    If you bring home your change and dump it in a jar 4-5 years later you’ll make small bank. Still, your efforts to help are commendable and logical.

    • Tar_Alcaran@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
      5·
      3 months ago

      If you bring home your change and dump it in a jar 4-5 years later you’ll make small bank.

      I think I’ve done maybe 10 cash transactions in that timeframe, not enough to make even the tiniest of bank.

    • Pronell@lemmy.worldEnglish
      3·
      3 months ago

      Yeah, I do keep a change jar still. It’s only for those take a penny type things that I leave them.

    • AwkwardLookMonkeyPuppet@lemmy.worldEnglish
      2·
      3 months ago

      I used to roll all my extra change and save it for something fun, but I barely use cash any more, so it’s not worth the effort now. Although, I’ve been starting to use cash again, because I am sick and fucking tired of literally every single POS terminal begging for tips, often with preset bullshit like 30-40%. Fuck yoooouuuu!

      • Bonesince1997@lemmy.worldEnglish
        2·
        3 months ago

        Nice. I was using coinstar before. If you cash out to say an Amazon gift card instead of straight cash there was no fee! Worth it then.

        Yeah, the tipping is ridiculous these days.

        • AwkwardLookMonkeyPuppet@lemmy.worldEnglish
          2·
          3 months ago

          I bought a little machine that you’d dump the coins into the top, then spin a little handle, and it would sort them. Then I’d just roll them, and take them to the bank for cash when I wanted to do something fun. I still have $50 in rolled coins in my closet from years ago. Too bad it has probably lost 40% of its value in the last few years. LOL