Kiosk paid in whole dollars and I got a TITO for change. But I was able to take said TITO to the cashier to get the rest of my change. At Tortoise Rock and Agua Caliente yesterday, I was paid at the kiosks in dollars and coins, so apparently no shortage in California yet. I also heard of some casinos that refused to pay the penny amount of winnings - if you "won" say, $120.40, you lost the 40¢ cashing out. Not a popular option!

Way back in 1974, there was, for some reason, a dire shortage of pennies in lower New York state. Banks were offering an extra nickel or even a dime if you brought in a roll of fifty pennies! I happened to have a bunch of pennies at home and made out well. (Of course, thinking back, it probably cost me tons more to trek to the bank with all those coins and walk or drive home with fifty-five cents in "silver." The situation resolved itself within a couple of months - the Mint or whoever makes coins worked overtime to stamp out a Gajillion new pennies and then everyone was happy.

The shortage was blamed on Boris Badenov types, snapping up the old copper pennies to melt them down for bullion value. When new pennies were made of zinc covered with copper foil (sorry, true believers, that's what they are now) - the melt value dropped to zero and we went back . . . to not wanting pennies.