I’ve seen coin-changing machines at airports here in the UK which take euros, Swiss francs, US coins (I think) and maybe one or two others. I doubt you’d find them in the US, though, as there’s not such close proximity to lots of foreign currencies.
I would also be surprised with this.
Bank of America is not a small bank by any definition and their branches in Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas do not exchange foreign coins – only paper banknotes. My guess is that even the major banks don’t see any profit in handling loose change – they’re heavy and a hassle to ship around the country to a consolidation center for counting and auditing. Paper currencies are easier to manage with higher nominal values in relation to the overhead of conversion.
I ended up donating all of my foreign coins to UNICEF.
I’m even more skeptical of this claim than I am the one that banks will take the coins. Embassies and consulates are busy enough with diplomatic and consular work; what makes you think they’ll change money for people (and probably non-citizens at that) who walk in off the street?
One thing they may do is take payment in their native currency for consular services (visa application fees, etc.). So if you have enough coins to pay for a visa, and were planning on getting one anyway, I suppose you could spend them at the consulate, though I’d call or check their website first to see if they take cash in their native currency. Many consulates will accept payment only in local currency, and many won’t accept cash.
That website says they take foreign currency, but it doesn’t say they take foreign coins. It could be, in fact it almost certainly is the case, that they only take foreign paper bills.
I’m in Switzerland and have US coins. Can I destroy them ? 
I won’t destroy bills though.
It took some digging, but it turns out that Wells Fargo will buy foreign coins, but only Canadian coins and only at the international teller window in Helena , Montana. No idea why they won’t take CDN coins at their Alaska locations, or any of the other locations such as Washington State or even northern Minnesota.
And, as Desert Nomad noted, some of their banking stores apparently handle limited amounts of foreign coin as an unofficial convenience to their particular customer base - I suspect most of the foreign coins coming into the Reno locations are from casinos, and the Reno office(s) may have set up a currency exchange operated out of a cigar box in someone’s desk drawer.
P.S. No need to. They are self-destroying, i.e. their value against the Swiss frank is evaporating.
My local branch didn’t mention that, but it’s not surprising, since Helena is 5 hours away by car.
I thought of another possibility besides coin dealers (which usually look for rare coins, not current circulations): in this age of internet, just cut out the bank as middleman. Put up an ad on craigslist or facebook or whatsit called, looking for somebody in your neighborhood going to Slobvenia in the near future. Offer to sell him your left-over stash for the current official exchange rate (see Yahoo finances or similar), which is better for you both then the bank one with the fees.
Or, if you go to the consulate, don’t talk to the employees, but to the people waiting in line for a visa: that means they will visit the country soon, and might need coins.
To the OP…maybe find out when flights are going to the country of your foreign coins and see if anyone in line for check-in would be interested in purchasing them.
We had a vacation this summer where we went to England, Serbia and Turkey. None of the above use the Euro. I went to a major bank here in Toronto and could only get UK Pounds of what I wanted. I had to go to a FX office to get the Turkish Lira. They had no idea about Serbian Dinar. We had to get the Dinar in Serbia.
When we left Serbia the FX offices at the airports were only interested in the higher denomination bills and wouldn’t exchange the smaller bills, much less the change.
Part of the problem is that the FX bureaus want to put the foreign currency back into their float to pass out when a customer requests that currency. It’s unlikely that people going on vacation will ask for £157.35, usually £500 in £20’s.
The banks or FX bureaus would rather not send it back to the country of origin. If the bank doesn’t get many requests for different currencies, then they won’t stock it or take it in.
I’d actually wondered about a business model where a booth is set up at an airport to take in all of the local currency (small bills and change included) and put a credit on a credit card (letting the CC company worry about the exchange rate) and charge a flat fee for the convenience.
BTW, if going to UK:[ul]
[li]don’t get £50 notes…we used them at Morrisons grocery store for a £42 bill and had to wait for manager approval.[/li][li]make sure your notes are Bank of England when you come back, Bank of Scotland notes have worse exchange rate.[/li][li]check your old notes to make sure they are legal tender. Old ones may be exchanged, but it can be a pain to do so.[/li][/ul]
[quote=“cantara, post:30, topic:554557”]
[li]make sure your notes are Bank of England when you come back, Bank of Scotland notes have worse exchange rate.[/li][/QUOTE]
Really? You ought to complain about that. A pound sterling is a pound sterling, and giving a worse rate on Scottish banknotes smacks of scammery.
[quote=“Colophon, post:31, topic:554557”]
Yeah, that’s what I thought. It doesn’t make a big difference, just sort of annoying when they start processing separate transactions when you try to take it back.
http://www.rbcroyalbank.com/rates/cashrates.html
Buy Sell
Great Britain Pound (GBP) 1.5703 1.6787
Scotland Scottish Pound (SCO) 1.5636 1.6758
Apparently the difference is that the bank here has to deal with different banks in UK to set the exchange rate. There may also be some reluctance in England to accept BoS notes.
What, only notes from the Bank of Scotland? What about notes from the other two Scottish banks issuing notes?