# Are wrapped coins "legal tender"?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-wrapped-coins-legal-tender/292103>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [February 27, 2005, 2:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-wrapped-coins-legal-tender/292103 "2005-02-27T02:53:37Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![danceswithcats](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/9e8a1a/32.png) [@danceswithcats](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/danceswithcats)\
**Post date:** [February 27, 2005, 9:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-wrapped-coins-legal-tender/292103/21 "2005-02-27T21:07:01Z")

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> [@mhendo](#):
>
> Do banks still do this free of charge? I haven’t taken a big pile of change to a bank for changing for years, but i was under the impression that taking a bag full of coins to a bank now also incurs a fee or charge of some sort.

Commerce Bank provides that service free of charge also-I don’t know if they’re in MD yet. If not, they will be before too long.

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**Author:** ![Balthisar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/balthisar/32/2825_2.png) [@Balthisar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Balthisar)\
**Post date:** [February 27, 2005, 9:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-wrapped-coins-legal-tender/292103/22 "2005-02-27T21:42:41Z")

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Don’t forget that rather than take a bag of coins to the bank, you can ask for wrappers. Banks still give them out free in reasonable quantities, I think (yeah, yeah, I think). Then you should be able to at least deposit them free, right? Unless you have a crappy bank that charges for counter transactions.

Back when I was a kid, the banks had a device to count coins in the wrapper, and even tell if they were Canadian – meaning probably able to tell that they’re not slugs or other worthless stuff.

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**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\
**Post date:** [February 27, 2005, 10:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-wrapped-coins-legal-tender/292103/23 "2005-02-27T22:12:19Z")

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> [@](#):
>
> Less flexible, actually.

Hey, have you ever tried to bend a nickel? I don’t know about those vouchers, but I’d bet they’re a lot more flexible. 🙂

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**Author:** ![Excalibre](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/898d66/32.png) [@Excalibre](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Excalibre)\
**Post date:** [February 28, 2005, 1:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-wrapped-coins-legal-tender/292103/24 "2005-02-28T13:46:35Z")

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> [@mhendo](#):
>
> Would it not get even uglier if the customer took **Giles** ’s advice and just walked out of the store, leaving you with a whole bunch of groceries at your register?

No. How many sales would we lose as a result of customers in line becoming disgusted and leaving because of the wait?

I think I understand something now. Customers at grocery stores (I worked as a cashier once) simply believe that cashiers have unlimited time on their hands, and thus it’s okay to not start writing your check in careful calligraphy until the groceries are scanned, bagged, and put in your cart.

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