What was that Famous Story about a Man making a Fake Coin out of Ice in order to Buy Heat for his room? I believe it was set in England.

A Man Lived in a room that had a Coin Operated Heater. He Would Put a Shilling in the Machine, turn the handle and the heater would run for a few Hours... So... Since he Often Did Not Have Money... He made a coin shaped mold on the windowsill outdoors and filled it with water... When it Froze, he put the coin shaped ice into the machine and "bought" heat for a few hours... Then the Fake Coin melted removing all evidence of the Crime... 

If you remember the name of this Famous Old Time Tale please Leave a Comment or email me at gregvan [at] yahoo [dot] com.

https://www.tribstar.com/features/historical-treasure-coin-operated-gas-meter-an-early-form-of-fuel-conservation/article_b578dd13-c11b-5541-bcd1-abac2a8b536c.html

When walking down “Main Street” at the new Vigo County History Center, you will pass the Wabash Theater, Meis Department Store and a general store. Next you will notice a set of wrought iron stairs from Terre Haute Gas Company. The beauty you see sitting on the stairs is a gas meter, made by American Meter Company and “established” in 1834 in New York City. The company made its presence in New York, Chicago and Philadelphia. This particular model seems to have been manufactured in Philly.

What makes this piece very interesting to us, is that it was coin-operated. Much like a jukebox or slot machine, you paid as you played.

https://forum.heatinghelp.com/discussion/179766/coin-operated-gas-meters

SG Said: 

I stayed for a week in a furnished London flat in 1995. It had a wall mounted combi gas boiler for DHW and central heat.

One morning we had no heat or hot water and could not light the boiler. My traveling companion was steaming and wanted to call the rental agent. I said “Wait a sec, let me check something”.

The gas meter, behind an access panel in the kitchen, had a mag stripe card slot. The LCD display read “£0.0”.

There was a new card sitting on top of the meter. I stuck it in, heard a click and the display read “£50.0”. Presto! Back in business.

Saved by the habit of reading old English novels. That’s where I found out about coin operated gas meters. Since the temperature there almost never drops below freezing, they don’t have to worry about frozen pipes.

SOG Said:

I actually used to have one on display in my office at the gas company. One of the interesting things about those meters they typically worked with nickels. So for those clever folks who wanted to steal gas they made them selves little trays the shape of nickels filled them with water and froze them. They then used the frozen nickel shaped fake coins to get the meters to work. The old timers would know the customers were stealing gas because instead of finding coins in the meter they found "WATER".