Gas price flashback: 25 cents a gallon By Julie French
Ashland Daily Tidings - April 4, 2008
The cheapest gallon of gas in town is going for 25 cents
with a catch.
Gary Mallicoat, the owner of the Exit 14 Shell station off
of Interstate 5, is offering one gallon of gas in exchange
for quarters dated 1964 or before. He is also accepting dimes,
half dollars and dollar coins.
He ran the same special as the owner of the Major Quality
Discount gas station in Ashland in 1976, when gas prices jumped
higher than $1 for the first time during the oil embargo.
He still has the original Daily Tidings news clipping from
that first promotion.
"It was sitting on the wall, and I said, 'Gosh, we ought
to do that again,'" he said.
In the two weeks he has been running the deal, Mallicoat
has collected $40 in quarters.
"Right now, this is a better deal than the coin shops,"
he said.
The value of pre-1965 silver coins is hovering around $3,
according to Mike Drager, owner of Ashland Money and Metals.