# Where does change go? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [September 8, 2009, 4:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-does-change-go/509249 "2009-09-08T04:48:10Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 16\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Serenata67](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/serenata67/32/10646_2.png) [@Serenata67](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Serenata67)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2009, 12:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-does-change-go/509249/41 "2009-09-09T12:53:59Z")
> [@jackdavinci](#): > > Wow this surprises me. I would think getting change would be one of the benefits of having a larger account (meaning the bank would have more money to loan out for interest). > > As for the OP, stores get change from the bank, and consumers either put effort into spending the change, roll it themselves and deposit it, or put it in a coin machine (my bank has a free coin machine). By larger, I mean they have a store front and what not. The lady with the Avon business and her measly little account doesn’t really _need_ change, and if she happens to need a few fives or singles, usually that same lady has a personal account, too, so we don’t necessarily charge her. Now when McFastFood needs a box of pennies, a box of quarters and $300 in singles, that we’re going to charge for. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2009, 1:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-does-change-go/509249/42 "2009-09-09T13:22:03Z")
> [@jackdavinci](#): > > …or put it in a coin machine (my bank has a free coin machine). When I lived in Nashua, N.H. 20-some years ago, my bank did, too, but I’ve never seen one in a bank since. Wish they all had 'em. It’d be so much easier than rolling the coins into those paper rolls. ---
**Author:** ![MadTheSwine](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9fc29f/32.png) [@MadTheSwine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MadTheSwine)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2009, 3:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-does-change-go/509249/43 "2009-09-09T15:00:45Z")
> [@Khadaji](#): > > I had a big plastic bank shaped like a pepsi bottle where I was putting mine. I just cashed it in a few weeks ago. It had a 122 lbs of coins in it and likely I had been saving for well over a decade. I picked up pennies off the poolhall floor for 3 years and put them in a jar.Had just over 50 bucks when I cashed em in. ---
**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:** [September 9, 2009, 6:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-does-change-go/509249/44 "2009-09-09T18:46:05Z")
> [@](#): > > If you go the e-certificate route, are there any expenses? Activation fee for the card? Monthly service fee for inactive cards? No way to add to the card so you end up losing the last $5? > > Or is it really that straightforward–put in $300 worth of coins, get to spend $300 at a retailer? If you’re worried about that last few bucks, just put in an order larger than the amount the machine credited you for, and pay the remainder with a credit card or however you usually pay for things. I’ve never had any difficulty bringing an Amazon order up above any given dollar amount. ---
**Author:** ![Pushkin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ee59a6/32.png) [@Pushkin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pushkin)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2009, 6:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-does-change-go/509249/45 "2009-09-09T18:53:26Z")
> [@Lynn\_Bodoni](#): > > Coinstars and similar coin counting machines are common in supermarkets. I believe that they’ll give full value for your change if you take a credit for someplace like Amazon. My husband owns a little battery powered coin sorter that will automatically fill coin wrappers with the correct amount of change for each roll. He puts a lot of his change in that machine, and I’ll put some change in it. When we have enough rolls to make a trip to the credit union worthwhile, or if we’re going to the credit union anyway, we’ll deposit the rolled coins. I’ve never seen any of those types of machines in the UK. I just grab some bags from the bank that are marked with a certain amount of change in different types of coins ([like so](http://www.polypostalpackaging.co.uk/uploads/images/Captive%20Flap%20Printed%20No%20Mixed%20Coin%20Bags.JPG)). Once I’ve at least five filled, it’s off to the bank 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![festiva76](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8e8cbc/32.png) [@festiva76](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/festiva76)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2009, 7:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-does-change-go/509249/46 "2009-09-09T19:38:35Z")
When I was in college, I decided it would be neat to save only pennies in a jar, just to see how many I could save. I had a glass cider jug, and started saving away. About a year later, I was moving the heavy jug from my dresser top, and the bottom of the jug tapped the bedpost. The bottom fell out, and 3,700 pennies and glass hit the floor. A little over $37 in pennies alone. It was a bitch to clean up, and I cashed them in the next day. I have yet to repeat that stunt. ---
**Author:** ![Shot\_From\_Guns](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ccd318/32.png) [@Shot\_From\_Guns](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shot_From_Guns)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2009, 7:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-does-change-go/509249/47 "2009-09-09T19:49:19Z")
I avoid cash as much as possible. When I do use cash, I try to get as large of denominations back as possible, assuming I don’t have exact change (i.e., overpay to get back a quarter instead of smaller change, a five instead of singles, etc.). It’s probably a holdover from the days when I had jobs that required me to work a register. ---
**Author:** ![malibu400](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/848f3c/32.png) [@malibu400](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/malibu400)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2009, 9:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-does-change-go/509249/48 "2009-09-09T21:06:35Z")
I hardly ever have more than $2 in change with me. I’m one of those people who give give exact change to cashiers so at the end of a day of shopping i’m penny free without actually throwing out my pennies. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2009, 12:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-does-change-go/509249/49 "2009-09-10T00:51:33Z")
Can larger retailers with commercial accounts simply send the change to the bank for full credit? ---
**Author:** ![jabiru](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/bbce88/32.png) [@jabiru](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jabiru)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2009, 2:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-does-change-go/509249/50 "2009-09-10T02:09:23Z")
Made round to go 'round. I try to tender the exact amount. If something costs $10.45 and I have only a fifty and some coins, I’ll give $50.45, giving me two nice, light twenties in return. ---
**Author:** ![drachillix](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/48db29/32.png) [@drachillix](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drachillix)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2009, 2:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-does-change-go/509249/51 "2009-09-10T02:11:37Z")
> [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](#): > > Can larger retailers with commercial accounts simply send the change to the bank for full credit? When the amusement park I worked for did it, we had to pack it all in cloth bank bags with a specific coin count in each bag and seals on the bags. If we tried to deposit rolled coins there was some kind of fee like 1% or so. We handled enough coinage that it was worth our while to accumulate coins and bag them up this way. We had sorting machines that you could dump loose coins in and it sorted them and counted them into the bags and would stop whenever a bag hit its desired quantity. Pull off the bag, seal it, replace it, restart machine. Its crazy going to the bank with a wagonload of $17,000 in coins. ---
**Author:** ![Zoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/a4c791/32.png) [@Zoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zoe)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2009, 5:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-does-change-go/509249/52 "2009-09-10T05:37:43Z")
I took the nickels, dimes, and quarters that I had saved for a few years and blew them all on an April evening’s dinner cruise down the Seine with my then sixteen year old granddaughter. ---
**Author:** ![gazpacho](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/6f9a4e/32.png) [@gazpacho](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gazpacho)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2009, 5:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-does-change-go/509249/53 "2009-09-10T05:47:07Z")
This is a real and pressing problem in Argentina right now. There is not enough change. People spend a fair amount of time and money getting the correct change for public transit. > **[Change We Can’t Believe In](https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2009/06/08/change-we-cant-believe-in)** > > THE FINANCIAL PAGE about the coin shortage in Argentina. The Buenos Aires coin shortage is the most peculiar economic crisis in recent memory. For well … ---
**Author:** ![david\_42](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/cc9497/32.png) [@david\_42](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/david_42)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2009, 1:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-does-change-go/509249/54 "2009-09-13T13:21:29Z")
I pay cash for most purchases (most purchases being under $20), so I just carry the change and use it. I rarely have over $2 in coins. My father used to let coins pile up and we’d roll them just before Xmas. ---
**Author:** ![Khadaji](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Khadaji](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Khadaji)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2009, 2:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-does-change-go/509249/55 "2009-09-13T14:29:58Z")
> [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](#): > > Can larger retailers with commercial accounts simply send the change to the bank for full credit? When I worked as a parking attendant (OMG, nearly 30 years ago?), we would collect coins twice a week and take them to the bank and use their coin counter. We would just take them in and dump them into the machine. No doubt this was a courtesy and they did not have to allow it, so it is probably dependent on your relationship with the bank. ---
**Author:** ![Serenata67](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/serenata67/32/10646_2.png) [@Serenata67](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Serenata67)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2009, 12:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-does-change-go/509249/56 "2009-09-14T12:41:53Z")
> [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](#): > > Can larger retailers with commercial accounts simply send the change to the bank for full credit? At the branch I work at, none of our customers accumulate change like that. They’re always buying it. Occasionally, we get a business customer with $5 in loose change in their deposit or something… we’ll run that for free, no problem. We need the money to make the deposit! [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-does-change-go/509249.md?page=2)