Coin toss upsets car wash owner

Coin toss upsets car wash owner: Bank assures public it was a mistake
By Dan Hilborn, Burnaby NOW assistant editor
Published Feb. 9, 2003

The manager of one of Burnaby's best known landmarks was shaking his head last week after his local bank refused to let him deposit a new 50-cent Canadian coin.
"I couldn't believe it," said Ted Larose, manager of the 51-year- old Oasis Car Wash on Kingsway. "A coin is a coin is a coin. I thought this was Canada."
The coin in question was the specially designed 2002 commemorative edition of the half dollar, minted for the Queen's Jubilee celebrations. Unlike other Canadian coins, all the coins minted for the jubilee year have only a portrait of Queen Elizabeth on one side and all the writing, including the date, on the other side.
The coin was rejected on Jan. 15 by a teller at the HSBC branch at the corner of Kingsway and Royal Oak as Larose was making the nightly deposit of cash from the car wash operations.
According to Larose, the teller initially said that HSBC did not accept 50-cent coins as a matter of policy. But Larose asked her to check, so the teller went behind the counter and returned a few minutes later with the same response - they would not deposit the coin. The rest of the deposit was accepted.
"Why wouldn't they accept it?" asked the incredulous Larose. "I don't care if they don't have a drawer to put it in, or not. I think the mint should be made aware that the coins they are making for our country are not being accepting in our country.
"This is a most unusual thing. It blew me away."
But Ernest Yee, senior director of public affairs for HSBC Canada, said it appears the teller and whoever she spoke to behind the counter made a simple mistake.
"We accept all Canadian coins, and we apologize to the customer if one of our employees made a mistake regarding the new 50-cent coin," Yee said Thursday afternoon. "Of course we accept the 50- cent coins, and we do apologize to the customer."
Yee also said he had "no idea" how the teller came to believe the coin had to be rejected as a matter of policy.
Larose said Oasis has been using the HSBC branch ever since it opened. Oasis operates one of the few automated conveyor belt- driven car washes in the city.