Let’s say I’ve come into posession of tens of thousands of Outer Slombovian doubloons, worth a couple hundred bucks in the foreign exchange market. No bank in Springfield will touch them, and the exchange places at the airports only deal in bills.
Can I send them via UPS to the Royal Bank of Outer Slombovia and get a check back in the mail? Is there some other means of getting rid of them? Or am I stuck with them until my next vacation to Outer Slombovia?
You could:
(1) Sell them on eBay, or some other Internet site where coins are bought and sold.
(2) Take them to a coin dealer, and see how much the dealer offers you for them.
(3) Find where the local Outer Slombovian community hangs out, and ask if anyone there wants to buy them from you.
(4) Find the nearest Outer Slombovian embassy or consulate, and ask them to exchange the coins for you.
(5) Mix them in with your regular pocket change and hope the cashier at the mini-mart doesn’t look to closely. That seems to be why I have a large jar of Canadian and Mexican coins on my desk.
Check with your bank. Most large banks are capable of counting and exchanging foreign coins for US funds.
Whether or not they will do so willingly, whether or not your local teller even knows about their bank’s foreign exchange, and whether or not they’ll charge you a stiff price for the service will depend on your bank.
We got a notice from our business bank (a large and old bank) that they would no longer accept Canadian money in deposits. We’re in Montana, which shares a 545-mile border with Canada. If I can’t talk them into taking Canadian money, I doubt they’d go for any other foreign currency.
At least they’re worth more than Elbonian doubloons.
Google ‘foreign coin guide’. I couldn’t find a comprehensive price guide, but they have such things in book form. A lot of the first page hits will at least help you identify the coins. then you can search the forums and find a couple to join.
I know that it’s illegal in America (and the U.K.) to destroy U.S. currency, but are there such restrictions on foreign currency? Because they might be worth more as scrap metal.
Absolutely untrue. Find me a bank in the US that takes “foreign” coins. Ain’t such a beast.
I get pounds and pounds of foreign in the coin business. Most is obsolete, not exchangeable, even in the country of origin.
Some examples of “foreign” coins and their currentvalues in US terms.
Swiss. Daay-umm! The Swiss franc is 0.995 of a US dollar today. All Swiss coins are still exchangeable, just not at a bank in the US. Many international airports have currency exchanges, and will probably take them, but the rate will vary. If you get about 70 cents US for a Swiss franc, I’d say you’re doing good.
British pounds and smaller. British pound today is about $1.55 US Quite a recovery lately.
If you could get about $1.20 US/pound, you’d be a champ. They probably don’t want coins smaller than 20p.
If you have Mexican coins/paper dated before 1998–sorry Charlie, you lose. Worthless.
Most European countries which have moved to the Euro in the last 12 years have obsolete coins which aren’t redeemable, with some exceptions. Example–German. You can still redeem Deutsch Mark coins and bills, but only at a central bank in Germany. Don’t try passing them off to a shopkeeper there. You may even need to have a commercial account at the bank in Germany to deposit them into. Obsolete Deutsch Mark coins were worth about 55 cents US today. If you get about 40 cents US, you’re doing well.
I agree with samclem: I’ve never heard of a U.S. bank that would take foreign coins. Maybe Canadian coins if you were right near the border. Paper bills are another story.
Generally that’s because coins are heavy, at least in bulk, and so cost a lot to transport in relation to their monetary value.
I’ve sold some foreign coins on eBay, but most of it was silver. I still have quite a bit of foreign silver, as well, but there is not much of a market for it. Non-precious metal coins can still sell, and I sold a lot of African coins some years ago, but you won’t get much for them unless they are scarce.
Wells Fargo does. Here’s a link to their Foreign Currency Exchange website. And Wells Fargo is in lots of places in the US.
It talks mostly about selling you foreign currencies, but they will buy them back from you, too. I have personally done that at the main Wells Fargo office. (I tried at a Wells Fargo neighborhood branch office, and they said they didn’t do that, I had to go to the main office.)
Can I assume you live in a major metropolitan location in California? If so, you might be right. Notice that you say that the average W-F location won’t take coins. I’m always willing to be proven wrong, but I’ll be no Wells Fargo bank location outside of a major(SF, LA, NY, etc) location will take coins.
Your link to their foreign exchange website is nice, but says nothing about their policy with regards to foreign coins. Again, other than a very limited number of central Wells Fargo banks in very major Metro locations in the US, I’ll wager you’re out of luck.
Now, with regards to paper currency, it’s quite a bit easier.
Somewhat irrelevant story: I live in the suburbs of Los Angeles. About 20 years ago, I had some traveller’s checks in Swiss Franks. I went to every large bank in my town (e.g. Bank of America) and found no one that would cash them for me. I waited until next time I was in Switzerland to use them.
You can donate them to charity.
The one in Reno, Nevada does (for a few currencies: EUR, JPY, CAD, GBP etc). Certainly not a major population center.
Do they take coins? That would be the essential question. Banknotes I have no problem with.
Um, that’s worded misleadingly. All EU countries that switched to the Euro had a period of several years during which you could exchange the old legal coins and bills to Euros, at banks. Originally the central banks would also sometimes take foreign EU coins. Then the first grace period ran out, and you had to go to the Central Bank, because the normal banks were no longer required to exchange old coins. They also stopped taking foreing bills/ coins.
Now - almost a decade later - some countries have stopped exchange (assuming that enough time has passed to find all the lost coins under the couch, and the hidden treasure under the mattress). Other countries, like Germany, have unlimited exchange at the Central Bank. There is also a tigher control there, because of the forgeries (pre-Euro, the DM was so stable that it was favoured as inofficial currency in many Balkan countries, which lead to about 100 Millio. DM counterfeit).
Except for the many special occasions at the Wiesn, Frühlingsfest, Auer Dult when they have Nostalgia days and the merchants accept 2 DM = 1 Euros. Many charity drives also do that, set up a big box in a shopping mall and collect DMs. It’s surprising how many people still have coins lying around…
No, last time I went to the Central Bank branch, they just exchanged cash for cash to me.
Well, no. The exchange rate DM to Euro is fixed and that’s what you will get at the Central bank. The rate Euro to US dollar is fluctuating, though, and any bank will charge you a hidden or open fee (mostly hidden) for exchanging currencies that results in a lower rate.
Plus, if you don’t come yourself to the Central bank, you have to pay a fee to the person doing the job for you.
Oh, and if you have the time, check with a coin collectors guide before turning them in - some that are rare might be worth more than their face value!
To the OP: the charities that put up collection boxes for foreign currency at the airport turn the boxes over to professionals who sort them, bag them and then exchange them (for a fee, but with the thousands of coins, it’s still worth something and better than letting the coins leave lying around). So if you happened to have a Very Large Amount of foreign coins, I would try to contact those companies for help and accepting a fee in return.
Here in Germany, banks never accept (or give out - they round when selling) foreing coins, it’s only bills (which can be a bother when you want coins for machines at arrival in the foreing country!)
The only place I see foreign coins and obsolete ones are the coin collectors at the Auer Dult which have grab boxes of “take x coins for 1 Euro” sort.
The Money Changers in Kuala Lumpur were quite happy to take Australian coins for exchange, but generally my travelling experience has been that banks aren’t interested in foreign “small change”.
I remember a bit of a brouhaha in New Zealand back when the UK started introducing £1 coins, because at the time banks in NZ were just not interested in foreign coins pretty much full stop.
The problem was, a £1 coin was worth about NZD$3 at the time and it was pointed out that anyone visiting the UK and coming back with the coins (as lots of people were) was liable to end up with useful amounts of money ($20+) that they couldn’t do anything with. It was quite a big deal (locally at least) when the BNZ in central Christchurch started accepting £1 coins at the Bureau de Change, as I recall.