Have you noticed how willing people are, when they are desperate to complete enough quarters to dry a load of laundry, to accept less than 100 Cents to the Dollar? It seems there is no reason more compelling to need quarters than doing laundry. Pay phones take nickels and dimes as well as quarters; so do parking meters. Toll booths take everything but pennies. But to do laundry in most places outside the home in the United States, you need quarters to operate the washers and dryers. And laundry is one of those things that most people do when they really, really need to. And when that time comes, it seems to be a law of nature, that we will often need more quarters than the number we have in front of us. And the most poignant quarter of all is when we only have three. That's when we start whirling around opening drawers, emptying purses, diving between pieces of furniture. Rooms get turned upside down, pockets get turned inside out, all in the pursuit of the revered 25 cent coin.

Save Quarters, Save the World

I keep thinking that people would have a lot more time for philanthropic acts if they didn't have to deal with the time-consuming frustration of searching for quarters for laundry.

Many thanks to Livelonger for proposing this Hubpage.

New Topics in the Days to Follow:

• Quarters for World Peace

• You Gotta Have Clean

• Quarters, the Gift of Love

For some reason, the need for quarters for laundry makes good comedy. It has desperation and leads people to put their hands where they never thought they'd go. If you had one more load to dry and three quarters for laundry, you might reach into the coy pond of a nearby eatery or even...

And consider this: You and a friend can go halfsies!

Some people attest that dollar changer machines came to the earth via UFO's for the purpose of entertaining alternate life forms with human gestures of frustration.

Quarters for Condo Commandos

Become known as "The Quarter Lady" (The Quarter Man doesn't work quite so well) and have neighbors doing your bidding.

Neighborhood Quarter Coops

Same as above.

Quarters For Charity (Three Quarters to the Dollar)

You can go door to door with this one.

A. If you have an account there: No problem. Go to the teller with your dollar bills or coins properly rolled and ask to buy quarters.

B. If you don't have an account there. Be very, very nice and maybe, maybe, they will do you the favor.

Keep the Change

Click edit above to add content to this empty capsule.

When you go through a toll booth and you don't have a transponder, consider breaking dollars instead of being one of those nice people who hands over their quarters. Why should you? Breaking dollars saves jobs for toll booth collectors, in general the nicest group of people I have ever encountered!

I'm often even happier to find a quarter than to eat authentic, New York Pizza (often, not always). Let's just say that were Armageddon to occur, quarters could be the only way to do laundry. There is no other coin operated machine that requires quarters exclusively . Quarters could acquire (actually have) an intrinsic value far greater than twenty five cents. In a Mad Max kind of world, I can imagine a brisk trade in quarters that could send their prices skyrocketing.

Be very, very polite, downright humble. If you're stopping a person on the street, approach gently, don't be scary. It you're bothering the counter guy at the corner deli, remember, he's heard it all before. Try to tell a slightly amusing story about how you're down to your last clean towel and your family is about to arrive from far, far away and you'll be mortified if you can't greet them with a stack of fresh, clean terry washcloths. Tell the person you'll name one of your children after him. Offer to do all your shopping there... and of course, be very thankful if your wish is granted. Bow your head as you say thank you, thank you, thank you, walking out backwards. Wave thank you again, each time you pass by.

Most people need a place to keep coins. Isn't it smartest to have a big pig for pennies, a medium pig for nickels, a small pig for dimes, and a great big Mason jar for quarters? Then you don't have to conduct a porcine shakedown every time you need to wash your undies.

If people cringe or shrink back as you approach, try singing on a corner. A little sign that says "Quarters for Laundry, Please" can help convey your message.

One easy way to amass a fortune in quarters is to make many seventy five cent purchases throughout the day.

Employers might consider an incentive program of charging seventy five cents flat for all vending machine purchases and all quarters for change.

The bathroom sink.

The shower.

The dishwasher.

Irrigating the garden.

It's against the law in the U.S. to take coins out of a fountain. The reason being that once a coin gets tossed into a fountain, it becomes the property of the fountain's owner. Have a shred of dignity, please!