A wishing well in England recently switched to contactless payments. So, you can’t toss coins in anymore. And pardon the pun . . . but it’s not going well.
It’s part of an old Roman bath house in Bath, England that’s 2,000 years old. Back then, it was a cold water pool people could jump in after a hot bath.
But for years, tourists had been tossing coins in for good luck. And it brought in a lot of money for the charity that runs the bath house. But that changed when they closed during the pandemic, and switched to contactless payments in 2022.
You can still make a wish or a donation for good luck. But you have to drop your coin in a box, or use a credit card to donate, which obviously doesn’t have the same appeal.
Donations have plummeted. They fell from $133,000 a year to under $14,000 after the change. It’s looking like they’ll bring in even less this year.
Officials say they didn’t make the change just to be jerks. The tradition of tossing coins was damaging the bath structure. And the process of retrieving and cleaning the coins wasn’t cheap. So that’s why they did it.
Some people think it’s overkill though, including a group called the Payment Choice Alliance that advocates for keeping cash as an option.
Quote, “A child making a wish with a contactless card does not have the same magical appeal.” They added that, “The march towards a cashless society needs to stop. What’s next? The Tooth Fairy going cashless?”
(Here’s a photo of it before the coin ban, and here’s the sign they put up about contactless payments.)
