I wanted to share my experience with an option for disposing of leftover currency and coins. It is appropriately named Leftover Currency and operates from the UK. The website provides further information on their services but basically you can either mail coins or do what I did and drop them at an office near Oxford Circus in central London. The office is really just an agent who takes the envelope and forwards it to the company. It is one of the only places I know that will accept coins (most forex offices only take paper money) as well as outdated currency and old coins (i.e. French Francs, German DM, etc.) There is no transaction fee and you can have the money direct deposited to your bank account or paypal account. I have no affiliation with Leftover Currency but enthusiastically endorse.

Of course there is a catch - the exchange rates are not wonderful. So you would not want to exchange large amounts of currency as you could probably get a better rate from a bank or even a forex option. Also if you are outside the UK be advised that the proceeds from the transaction are paid in UK currency so you may incur additional forex conversion fees from paypal or your bank.

By way of example here are the amounts I exchanged and the rates:

• 0.24 US Dollars, current coins: £ 0.15 GBP
• 40 Canadian Dollars, current banknotes: £ 18.60 GBP
• 3 Canadian Dollars, current coins: £ 0.99 GBP
• 362 Chinese Yuan, current banknotes: £ 34.53 GBP
• 300 Czech Koruna, current banknotes: £ 8.08 GBP
• 53 Czech Koruna, current coins: £ 1.04 GBP
• 1.05 Deutsche Marks, obsolete coins: £ 0.27 GBP
• 20 Euro, current banknotes: £ 16.32 GBP
• 0.88 Euro, current coins: £ 0.63 GBP
• 18 French Francs, obsolete coins: £ 0.06 GBP
• 500 Greek Drachma, obsolete banknotes: £ 0.09 GBP
• 370 Hong Kong Dollars, current banknotes: £ 28.33 GBP
• 12 Hong Kong Dollars, current coins: £ 0.61 GBP
• 1.10 Irish Pounds, obsolete coins: £ 0.80 GBP
• 70 Israeli New Shekels, current banknotes: £ 11.59 GBP
• 15.50 Israeli New Shekels, current coins: £ 1.79 GBP
• 570 Japanese Yen, current coins: £ 2.18 GBP
• 9.50 Kuwaiti Dinars, out-of-circulation banknotes: £ 14.77 GBP
• 200 Polish Zlotys, current banknotes: £ 31.34 GBP
• 5.80 Polish Zlotys, current coins: £ 0.72 GBP
• 0.07 British Pounds, current coins: £ 0.06 GBP
• 240 Russian Rubles, current banknotes: £ 2.14 GBP
• 55 Spanish Pesetas, obsolete coins: £ 0.17 GBP
• 1,420 Thai Baht, current banknotes: £ 26.06 GBP
• 20 Thai Baht, current coins: £ 0.23 GBP
• 258 Ukrainian Hryven, current banknotes: £ 4.50 GBP
• 1.25 Barbados Dollars, current coins: £ 0.23 GBP
• 0.09 British Pounds, out-of-circulation coins: £ 0.07 GBP

Some of these were coins that my grandparents gave me many years ago! But many were coins and currency left over from business trips that were not feasible to reconvert due to absurd transaction fees. Accidentally included some current Euros as well.