You can't spend one-third of a $10 bill. However, you can spend one-half of a $10 bill if that half includes half the face of Alexander Hamilton (the dead guy on it).
How do I know this this random fact, you might be tempted to ask? I know this because ATMs are out to get me.
Last week, I used the U.S. Bank ATM on campus to pull cash for my trip to Washington D.C. Knowing I would need real money to pay for things like taxis, metro fare cards, and Dr Pepper, I asked the machine for $70.
It hummed and thumped and tick-tick-ticked as it counted what I naively thought was my money. Then, it spit out three pristine, brand new, never spent twenties, and one-third of a new, pristine ten dollar bill.
One-third - as in slightly less than one half. Clearly, this was some grave mistake on the part of the ATM, right? Wrong. When I called to let U.S. Bank know of the issue, they explained - after several minutes on hold while they discussed the issue and how to fix it - that, as it was my bank [as in my bank back home in sweet, sunny Texas] that would need to get the $10 back for me, I would have to deal with them.
I was mad, but I called my bank too.
After about an hour of hold music interspersed with re-explanation of the situation and the e-mail of one piece of paperwork, I was done.
Just kidding. The form had to be filled out and signed, then faxed to them (thanks to the marvelous folks at Student Services, it didn't take too long).
The hard copy. with a copy of my ATM receipt, but not the offending bill, needed to be mailed as well.
Long story short, I will eventually be getting $10 credited to my account, but I'm now wondering, if one can spend one-half a $10, can one spend it twice? I'm going to assume there's a rule that prevents that from being legal, thought I've yet to research it. (I'll work on that this week.)
Sometimes the truth is just too complicated to make up.
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