Dinner for Two and a bottle of Wine for 5 cents

It's one of those titles that sounds too good to be true and that's certainly what I thought when I saw the title in this month's Ponsonby News. Chapel Bistro & Bar in Ponsonby are offering the following: an entree platter, any two main meals off their menu, and a bottle of wine in exchange for a single 2004 five cent coin per pair of diners. The offer is available until November 1st. From their point of view its good publicity - I'd never hear of them before - and they may make some of the money back if the collector's phase holds for the coins. Certainly the initial rush of hugely inflated sales seems to have gone and while some are still asking for as much as $2000 for the soon to be retired coins, they don't seem to have struggled any higher than $70 recently on TradeMe. Chapel is on the pricey side and the meal is easily worth $100; so even if you've already handed all your change over to the bank for new coins, it's still worth possibly buying one of the old coins (for a stupid amount of money considering they used to sit around in pockets, ash trays and old tins) and spending the rest of the money you've save on cocktails.