PSA: Turn In Your Coins

If you're anything like me and have a coffee can or two full of change, and have a bank with one of those coin exchange machines, you really should turn that stuff in.

I went in expecting to get back, like $60. Got over $200 instead. Went right into the supercharger fund.

I keep meaning to.  Especially since if I use the one at my local supermarket for store credit (when I generally buy all my food anyway), the fee is waved (or reduced).  A lot of folks use that one as it was full when I walked past a couple of days ago.

In reply to NickD :

I use my coins as my emergency fund. Once it helped me make my mortgage payment. The bank night deposit box probably was full since all $2530.51 was in coins in their envelopes.  

Made it with 17 cents to spare. ( and no late fee) 

The coin machine at my grocery store charges 9 1/2 cents per dollar (!!!)  It amuses me to see people actually using that thing.  Heck I'd be happy to roll coins for 10 cents on the dollar.

Frenchy, do I read that correctly that your mortgage is $2,500??  Yikes

In reply to KyAllroad (Jeremy) :

Yeah, this one is at my bank. It's free to use for all non-members even. The only time it charges is if you have it direct deposit the money and you are a non-member, then it stiffs you 10%

In reply to KyAllroad (Jeremy) :

If it's a CoinStar machine, you can avoid the fee by having the money put onto a gift card instead of receiving it as cash. Other brands may do something similar, but I'm most familiar with that brand.

KyAllroad (Jeremy) said:

Frenchy, do I read that correctly that your mortgage is $2,500??  Yikes

That's not out of the ordinary at all, especially if it's less than a 30-year term.

I used Coinstar once - 12-1/2%?  Yikes 

My wife and kid get to my coin stash long before I ever get to turn it in.

I cash mine in yearly the friday before the local fair starts. It usually buys the food and games for my kids. 

I put my 1982-newer pennies and my dimes in a mason jar, and haul it over a Coinstar machine when it looks like it has at least ten dollars or so in it.  I always go for an Amazon gift receipt, so it doesn't charge me any fees.  Need to be careful, though, as not all the machines give out gift receipts, from my understanding.

The 1981-older pennies go into another jar, since their melt value is double their face value right now.  Not that I do anything with them other than let them sit in the jar.  Nickels go into another jar.  Quarters are useful enough they get spent at some point.

How do those coin machines actually do their sorting? I'm guessing it uses centrifugal force to some degree

size, it sorts them by diameter and thickness.

TD bank, which I bank at, got in trouble with their "penny arcade" machines last year. A LOT of people got stiffed by the machines

Datsun310Guy said:

I used Coinstar once - 12-1/2%?  Yikes 

You can use it and get a gift card with no penalty. I think I got a grocery gift card once. 

But many banks will do it for free. CIBC US branches should.

like to add, my mom gets all my coins. Every few months I dump a vase load of coins on her, she wraps and keeps them. Just a simple way to help her keep going.

I had been storing coins for years and years - like probably a decade - in a fairly small plastic tub. We were taking a trip to Vegas and I decided to change in the coins and gamble with that money. It came out to well over $500 and there was no way I was going to gamble that much away. I rented a C6 vette and had way more fun than throwing money at a person behind a table holding cards. We still did a little gambling but at the $2 blackjack tables. Anyway, point being, it is surprising how much those little things add up to.

I have a piggy bank full right now, haven't cashed out because I haven't needed it. I sort out the pre 1965 quarters because they have more silver content.

Duke said:

KyAllroad (Jeremy) said:

Frenchy, do I read that correctly that your mortgage is $2,500??  Yikes

That's not out of the ordinary at all, especially if it's less than a 30-year term.

I suppose I'm spoiled by local property values.  My current home is 2,000 sq ft, 1/4 acre, off street parking, 5 br/3 bath for $680 a month and no money down.  Before the divorce it was 4,000 sq ft luxury home in an exclusive neighborhood and was running me about $1,400 per month.  Around here $2,500 would get you a mansion.

/sorry for the thread jack/

KyAllroad (Jeremy) said:

The coin machine at my grocery store charges 9 1/2 cents per dollar (!!!)  It amuses me to see people actually using that thing.  Heck I'd be happy to roll coins for 10 cents on the dollar.

Frenchy, do I read that correctly that your mortgage is $2,500??  Yikes

Now add taxes and insurance.   

I remember when I was a poor E-2 and came up a little short a few days before payday. I had a Taco Bell cup that I threw my spare change into. Every morning, I bought a breakfast sammich in the cafeteria at the building where I worked. The sammiches were $1.49, so almost everyday I put $0.51 into the cup.

The same building had a branch of the on base credit union that didn't charge to sort change. I took that cup in there and went back about an hour later.

The result? $86.xx in change. And surprisingly, a 10mm socket LOL.

That bought beer and gas (you know, the essentials) for a few days until I got paid.

I took my football helmet bank full of coins to the Coinstar over Christmas, ans used tge Amazon gift card option so no fee was paid.  Now I am enjoying the new Onkyo AV receiver that I got “for free” 

If for some reason the coinstar machine you are going to use comes unplugged, and is plugged in without the network cable being plugged in, you will get to keep more of your change, sometimes all of it. 

Not sure why I know that, or what you would do with the info, but there it is. 

Should try living in a world where $2 coins are a thing..  There is a good chance that my retirement savings will come from drawers and boxes full of coins. It’s embarrassing .

one time I put $50 worth of quarters that I had pre counted into a coinstar machine, and it totaled up to something like $48.37.  Kinda made me wonder if they have any kind of standard they have to meet for accuracy.

(whistles softly)