When America's coin shortage trickled down to Giant Wash Coin Laundry, chief executive Daryl Johnson plastered his stores with signs urging customers to bring in loose quarters [$US0.25 coins] and reprogrammed the change machines at his Minneapolis-area chain to take only smaller bills. At one point, Johnson crossed state lines to head to Omaha on a critical mission to acquire $US8000 ($10,920) worth of quarter dollars from another laundromat owner who had coins to spare. "I was like, 'I'll take them!' " Johnson said. "It was about 10 hours round trip. I went and bought all of his quarters and wrote him a cheque." (full story)