That didnt work either, here is what the browser says when It prompts to accept the cookie:

---
This page wishes to set the cookie
wintermarket_members_user="%24user"
---
And its the same thing with the password =\

I noticed in the 'cookie setting example' that you linked to, it escaped out the hash like so:

$the_cookie = cookie(-name=>'animals',
     -value=>\%zoo,
     -expires=>'+1h');
[download]

Could this have anything to do with it?

Here is my code:

my ($usr,$pw);
if ($ENV{'HTTP_COOKIE'}) { # from cookie
    $usr = $wm->cookie('wintermarket_members_user');      
    $pw = $wm->cookie('wintermarket_members_pass');   
} else { # from form
    $usr = $wm->param('usr');
    $pw = $wm->param('pw');
}
&set_cookie($usr,$pw,$wm);

#... in set_cookie sub
my $cookie_usr = $input->cookie(-name=>'wintermarket_members_user',
                                        -value=>$usr,
                                         -expires=>'+1h');
my $cookie_pw = $input->cookie(-name=>'wintermarket_members_pass',
                                       -value=>$pw,
                                        -expires=>'+1h');
print $input->header(-cookie=>[$cookie_usr,$cookie_pw]);
[download]

But thanks for the help dingus :)
^jasper