I held my hand in the air and stared at the coins that I just received from the cashier. I tried my best not to say anything and have that poker face. People behind me were waiting. I wasn't moving on. The cashier noticed and spoke up.
"Oh ma'am, I lack 25 cents. Is it okay?" She asked.
I wanted to ask, "how come there is still that question if it's okay that your change is lacking short? There is a law against that so it is no longer a question. You should give the exavt chamgr by default." But my mouth knew better not to have said so.
I smiled and said, "If it goes to you then yes, it is okay. You can consider it as a tip. But no. It goes to the department store and eventually to the owner who we both know is richer than both of us combined."
She laughed and opened the cash registry again. Of all denominations, there was no 25-cent coin.
"Ma'am, I don't have 25-cent coins. Are these okay?" She asked, referring to 10- and 5-cent coins.
"Those are monies too so yes, those are okay," I said.
She took two 10-cent and one five-cent coins and handed to me. I moved on.
Before 2016, department stores had the habit of just giving candies in exchange of the coins. Sometimes they just shrug off when they lack small amount of coins as if it is nothing and I could not do anything about it. I can only imagine how much the department stores are collecting out of nothing and at the expense of the customers. "This is one of the reasons why the rich gets richer and the poor gets poorer," I thought.
In 2016, the Republic Act No. 10909 or the “No Shortchanging Act of 2016” was put into law.
Under the R. A. 10909, all business establishments, including sari-sari stores, and government-owned and controlled corporations and government agencies performing proprietary functions, are mandated to give exact change to consumers and are prohibited from giving other forms of change like candy in lieu of monetary change.
Since the said act was implemented, I got the confidence to demand for exact change. Let the cashier have a headache on where to get the coins and let the queue wait. So be it. I now have my right to my own money.
Call me thrifty or whatever you want it but yes, I value small amount. For as long as they are legal tender, these coins will always have something of value that they can be used for, no matter how small the amount is.
When I was in Metro Manila, I used empty water bottles as coin banks for small amount of coins. I did the same thing here in the province and the first bottle was about to get full. When the jeepney fare was increased and fare to and from our place became P12.50, the 25-cent coins became very useful. The 25-vent coins were actually all spent in just a short period after the fare increase. That makes it fair on both sides of the passenger and driver instead of rounding off to P13.00. Imagine the P0.50 difference? Now our fare is P13.75. You still see the value of 25-cent coin?
Fine. So how about the much smaller value coins? Those five- or ten-cent ones?
As I said, these have values no matter how small they are. If you are that "classy" to feel shy (or ashamed) paying with those small coins, Pondo Ng Pinoy (Filipino Funds) is there to heartily accept them. Just save them in a coin bank. Make it simple with empty water bottle like I did. When the bottle is full, label it with "Pondo Ng Pinoy" and donate to any Catholic church. For those who are from other countries, I suppose there is a charitable organization in your area that will appreciate the power of aggregated small things. Those "very small" amount of coins will go a long, long way to feed the hungry or help the needy. I also mean those coins that you accidentally drop and no longer want to pick up. Please do. The coins may be negligible to you but the same can be very useful when pooled together. That is the power of aggregate!
I guess what I am only saying is, please do not waste money, or other resources, just because you have more when so many are needy.