Quarter-a-gallon gas special makes cents

By Julie French for the Mail Tribune

April 05, 2008

ASHLAND — 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 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 Ashland 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 silver quarters.

"Right now, this is a better deal than the coin shops," he said.