# What do you do with loose change/coins?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-do-with-loose-change-coins/1022709
**Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
**Created:** [September 3, 2025, 12:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-do-with-loose-change-coins/1022709 "2025-09-03T12:57:02Z")
**Posts on this page:** 12
**Page:** 4
### Author:  [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)
#### Post date: [September 5, 2025, 12:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-do-with-loose-change-coins/1022709/61 "2025-09-05T12:18:08Z")
Although, as stated above, I pack coins into standard coin rolls when I get enough of them, I don’t do this with quarters. Quarters go into a plastic bag that I keep in my car. There are still plenty of parking meters that still accept quarters besides credit cards (or parking apps), and failure to feed them will get you a ticket. It’s also good for air pumps at gas stations, laundromats and video games/pinball.
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### Author:  [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)
#### Post date: [September 5, 2025, 2:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-do-with-loose-change-coins/1022709/62 "2025-09-05T14:00:00Z")
For those who roll coins …
Why? IME years ago the only thing banks did with rolled coins was tear open your homebrew rolling to dump them all in their coin sorter / counter behind the teller barrier. Going back to roughly college I can’t recall them ever simply taking my bundle of rolls at face value and handing back cash or depositing the face amount into my account.
I stopped rolling my coins when I noticed that fact; handing them a ziplock bag full of random loose change is easier for me, and for them when all they’re going to do with it is pour it into their sorter.
That’s irrelevant to me now; I don’t use or accumulate change. But evidently many Dopers still want to fiddle with their coins.
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### Author:  [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)
#### Post date: [September 5, 2025, 2:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-do-with-loose-change-coins/1022709/63 "2025-09-05T14:50:32Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#):
>
> For those who roll coins …
>
> Why? IME years ago the only thing banks did with rolled coins was tear open your homebrew rolling to dump them all in their coin sorter / counter behind the teller barrier. Going back to roughly college I can’t recall them ever simply taking my bundle of rolls at face value and handing back cash or depositing the face amount into my account.
Really? They take mine at face value all the time. And I’ve never seen a coin sorter at any branch of our bank.
There’s a coin sorter at the supermarket, but it takes a percentage of the value. I’d rather get the whole value. So I roll the coins and take them to the bank.
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### Author:  [@Mean\_Mr.Mustard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mean_Mr.Mustard)
#### Post date: [September 5, 2025, 2:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-do-with-loose-change-coins/1022709/64 "2025-09-05T14:54:17Z")
My offspring are gonna curse me when I’m gone and it’s time to clean out the clutter. I have, I’m guessing, five gallons of accumulated coinage to dispose of.
mmm
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### Author:  [@Dinsdale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dinsdale)
#### Post date: [September 5, 2025, 3:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-do-with-loose-change-coins/1022709/65 "2025-09-05T15:23:41Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#):
>
> For those who roll coins …
>
> Why?
I’ve never rolled coins, but I always assumed the banks would check to ensure the contents were coins rather than slugs.
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### Author:  [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)
#### Post date: [September 5, 2025, 3:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-do-with-loose-change-coins/1022709/66 "2025-09-05T15:37:17Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#):
>
> I’d rather get the whole value. So I roll the coins and take them to the bank.
Agree 100% about wanting face value. Have you asked your bank recently whether they’d take loose coins?
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### Author:  [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)
#### Post date: [September 5, 2025, 5:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-do-with-loose-change-coins/1022709/67 "2025-09-05T17:17:34Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#):
>
> Agree 100% about wanting face value. Have you asked your bank recently whether they’d take loose coins?
Never would have thought of it Besides, putting them in rolls is fun and lets me know how many I’ve got.
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### Author:  [@DaveUnknown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DaveUnknown)
#### Post date: [September 5, 2025, 6:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-do-with-loose-change-coins/1022709/68 "2025-09-05T18:20:54Z")
I’ve seen people that cover tables or countertops with pennies or other mixed change and pour epoxy over everything as decorative. I remember seeing someone’s VW beetle covered with pennies.
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### Author:  [@sunstone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sunstone)
#### Post date: [September 7, 2025, 1:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-do-with-loose-change-coins/1022709/69 "2025-09-07T01:50:45Z")
I give them to my wife. She will accumulate a bit of a hoard, and then sit on the bed and run her fingers through the pile, a la Scrooge McDuck. Then she puts them in rolls and takes them to the bank. I think this is a leftover from her childhood….cute and surprisingly results in a tidy sum. Gotta love her!
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### Author:  [@Dinsdale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dinsdale)
#### Post date: [September 7, 2025, 1:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-do-with-loose-change-coins/1022709/70 "2025-09-07T01:55:30Z")
> [@sunstone](#):
>
> She will accumulate a bit of a hoard, and then sit on the bed and run her fingers through the pile, a la Scrooge McDuck.
If she were truly like Scrooge McDuck, she would:
_like to dive around in my money like a porpoise! And burrow through it like a gopher! And toss it up and let it hit me on the head!_
(I love that line!)
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### Author:  [@Bookkeeper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bookkeeper)
#### Post date: [September 7, 2025, 5:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-do-with-loose-change-coins/1022709/71 "2025-09-07T05:49:04Z")
I actually have a large Ziploc bag of coins sitting on the desk in front of me at the moment. I put them up on offer on my local Freecycle for anyone who wants to take them. Why? Because they’re all foreign coins from countries I will never visit again (or never visited in the first place). The majority are pre-Euro European or pre-decimal British coins, plus a few old Caribbean island coins that look like the equivalent Canadian coins, all small value back in the day and mostly worthless now. I figure someone will take them for their kids as play money, or for a budding collector.
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### Author:  [@WildaBeast](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WildaBeast)
#### Post date: [September 10, 2025, 11:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-do-with-loose-change-coins/1022709/72 "2025-09-10T23:12:31Z")
> [@WildaBeast](#):
>
> Earlier in this thread I said that I used to use my coins in the vending machines at work. What I didn’t mention was that at some point while I was working from home during the pandemic, they got rid of the traditional vending machines and replaced them with a couple of shelves full of snacks and coolers full of some prepared food and drinks, and a self-checkout machine. Think something like the grab-n-go kiosks you might find at an airport. And I’m not sure that self-checkout machine takes cash or coins. I’ll have to check the next time I go to the break room.
To follow up on this, I just made a purchase from this machine in the break room. When you check out, it gives you two options: Pay with Market Card (I believe this is a sort a pre-paid card you can get from the vending company), or pay with credit/debit card. No cash option. But the machine does have a bill acceptor, but no coin slot or change dispenser. My best guess is that you can use cash to add value to your Market Card, in whole dollar increments only, but not to directly pay for your purchases.
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