I Scream You Scam

Someone’s Running a Deplorable Silver-Coins-for-Ice-Cream Promotion

Ice cream has no meaningful melt value.
Ice cream has no meaningful melt value. Photo: imgur via Reddit

It’s once again that time of year for frozen atrocities and sadness by the cup and cone. Case in point: Reddit user thesneak155 posted a photo of a lovely, hand-drawn sign put up by a local business advertising a deal where sweet-toothed customers can exchange a pre-1965 quarter for an ice-cream cone. Great. This sounds good until you realize that pre-1965 quarters are actually 90 percent silver and have a current melt value of approximately $4.29 a pop. Let’s hope that soft-serve comes with sprinkles and gratis butterscotch.

What’s more is that several Redditors make the case that silver quarters are routinely sold for a minimum of $4.50 each on eBay, and others point out that any coin in decent shape or better is worth more than its melt price because of its potential value to collectors. So just the possibility that some hapless kid might plunder the family collection and end up exchanging a $400 coin for a cheapo cone worth $2 makes this a thoroughly sketchy deal. If it were some swanky fro-yo with foraged sea buckthorn sauce or a Fernet-Branca ice-cream sandwich, well, that might be another story. But probably not.

I think a local business is screwing some people [Reddit via Consumerist]
Related: So Cold: 23 Awful Moments in Ice-Cream-Man History

Someone’s Running a Deplorable Silver-Coins-for-Ice-Cream Promotion