Columnist Susan Snyder: New bills haunted by rejection

Sunday, Aug. 6, 2000 | 9:12 a.m.

Susan Snyder's column appears Sundays and Tuesdays. Reach her at snyder@lasvegassun.com or 259-4082.

Pass the chips, please.

The computer chips. And we can't have just one. Clark County Aviation Department officials need 26 of them for McCarran International Airport's parking lot change machines. The old software won't recognize the new $5 and $10 bills.

People who entered the short-term parking garage in the past few weeks found signs taped to the structure's machines saying the new bills don't work.

"We are waiting for the chips to arrive," Hilarie Grey, aviation department spokeswoman, said earlier this week.

And the chips are in the mail, according to Tom Kozlik, vice president of Rowe International. Rowe is the Michigan company that builds the change machines and writes the software that runs them.

When new currency designs were announced federal officials sent prototypes to the half-dozen change machine makers across the country, Kozlik said. Each company writes its own software upgrades.

Kozlik says Rowe, the nation's largest change machine maker, was right on schedule with its work. It was all set to send out the new software but hit a wrinkle when the new money hit the streets May 24.

"The bills being circulated were different than the prototypes they gave us," Kozlik said.

Close enough for government work but not for change machines. The difference was very subtle on bills that already have a number of new anti-counterfeit peculiarities like microprinting and threads that glow under ultraviolet light.

"It was only noticeable to the electronic detectors," Kozlik said.

Bet it was noticeable, though, to the poor sap who already was late for the plane he was meeting and the only thing he had to feed the meters was a brand-new $5 bill. (As if those elevators with the air circulation of a shoe box aren't frustrating enough.)

In all fairness, this is not McCarran's fault. And Kozlik said his company had no way of making the new change until they had copies of the real bills.

"Until you see the bill, you can't change the software," he said.

So the new software was about as useful as a sock puppet without the fix. Rowe workers refigured it and released the new computer chips July 27. McCarran and other places with Rowe machines should be up and running soon, Kozlik said.

Oh, yes, there are other places. Kozlik says Rowe change machines likely are found throughout the valley's video arcades, car washes and casinos. Nothing is sacred.

"I was at the post office over the weekend, and it wouldn't take my bill, either," Grey said.

Luckily the problem is only with $5 and $10 denominations. Just imagine what it would be like if the same hoo-ha erupted over a new $1 bill in a town where many people earn half their income in tips. Thankfully, Kozlik says the congressional act creating the new gold dollar coins prevents introduction of a new design for the paper dollar -- at least through this year.

After that, no promises.

"We're told the (U.S.) Bureau of Engraving is going to consider changing again in the next three to five years," Kozlik said.

Pass the chips, please -- the casino kind this time. We may need them.