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Coin exchangers pray for miracle
18.05.12
MAYBE people are just
praying for an upturn in their financial fortunes
but it's been revealed that countless miraculous
medals are being fished out of coin exchange
machines across Ireland each year.
Superleague Ireland Ltd which operates the Coin
Exchange network throughout the country including
Inishowen, says a myriad ‘unusual’ items are
regularly found along with the 2c, 5c, 10c, 20c and
other euro coinage. |
"We find all sorts of
things in our machines. We've had any amount of
miraculous medals, hair clips and car wash tokens.
None of them work of course and they don't help the
mechanics,” said managing director, Brendan Murphy.
"All sorts of things end up in people's storage jars
at home and we do find some funny metal objects.”
Coin exchange machines have sprung up in outlets
across Ireland in the last number of years as people
raid their coin jars, piggy banks and sofas for
extra cash.
However, Dublin-based Superleague Ireland Ltd, who
are among the leading operators, say the machines
are not necessarily recession-led. |
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The operators of Coin Exchange are
finding "any number" of miraculous medals in their
machines across Ireland. |
"Recession or no
recession, people always have a certain amount of
coin at home that they want to dispose of. They find
our machines in their local store and it's a
convenience for them," he added.
Coin Exchange charges customers 12.5% per
transaction, however, the company declined to
divulge the operation’s turnover citing it as
"commercially sensitive". While the machine hoppers
are designed to expel foreign currencies including
Sterling, US cent, disused Franc and the perhaps
soon-to-be-reused Drachma, it may retain other metal
items including paper clips and safety pins.
As for what he does with his annual haul of
miraculous medals, Mr Murphy referred to the
religious origins of forename. "I'm a saint, so I
sell them," he joked. |
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