Lately, I’ve been thinking about starting my own business. I like the idea of working for myself, and lately the idea of a carwash has been popping into my head, and with that, my nostalgia for an era that I caught the tail end of: House Quarters.
These were the often, red-painted quarters you’d occasionally find in your change. A relic of a time gone by.
Back when things still ran on physical currency, and people went out and about into the world, a lot of vending machines, pool tables, car washes, and other businesses ran on change. In the case of vending machines or pool tables, these were often leased from a parent company, while people owned car washes.
The house quarter was painted red, so that if a machine needed to be primed for a game of pool, money for a vending machine that ate your quarter, or a carwash bay that needed to be hosed down, the owner would know to exclude the red quarters from their accounting.
At least, that’s how I recall it. Here’s some pictures. They came via the link below, who took them from captain-unusual-youtube.
