DownTheRappitHole

Try Banana Republic

sfo

You can find places such as gold/silver coin stores at least here in Canada that will buy them by weight, so if you store them up you might get a few dollars for them. I recently sold two bags and got about $30.00

neuron

If you save up your coins and roll them --

roll a few Cdn coins into my coin rolls. A couple in each roll and they will be gone soon!

As for loonies and toonies, well, you can always donate them in those airport coin thingamabobbies!

Ancien Maestro

I wonder how serious this thread has become.. I mean, when we are talking about change, its almost like analyzing amounts less than a dollar and worried about it.

Seriously, give the change to some kids who think its a novelty.

emma69

I have to say, in Toronto it is very common to get US coins in with your change, pennies, quarters, nickel, dimes - I even have a dollar US coin instead of a loonie. Cashiers here don't bat an eyelid at receiving them, and customers don't at getting them either. Banks accept them at par when you take coins in, and coin counting machines accept them too.

That said, I almost always have coins in my travel drawer - right now, there are US, English, Euro and Australian coins in reasonable amounts, and odds in other currencies. I find it useful to have some (some years ago, I remember needing a luggage cart, and the machine only took coins, which, fortunately, I had. Whilst I know most tend to take credit cards these days, I am sure there are some that want a coin). Making a phone call at the airport is another reason I try to make sure I have some coins, just in case.

kebosabi

Most banks across the world, not just the US, do not accept foreign coins for exchange. This is why if you have lots of foreign coins leftover, it’s better to convert them to bills so it can be exchanged back home if you need to.

This is one of the reasons why the US dollar bill will never be replaced with the US dollar coin; banks overseas would rather have travelers from all over the world using $1 bills instead of carrying the Sacagawea dollar coin. Otherwise, the only bills foriegn banks and currency exchangers would carry would be the next lowest denomination; the five dollar bill which makes it a lot more cumbersome to exchange.

djs

I think this is the best suggestion yet.

emma69

Cumbersome? There are several major currencies that have their lowest notes a lot higher than the $1 bill (or even the $5 given exchange rates). You just use the notes, whatever they happen to be, and use coins within your own country - I don't travel to the US with loonies and toonies to exchange or 1euro coins, or pound coins, I exchange paper notes from whatever currency to the required one. Banks overseas wouldn't have to deal with any dollar coins, just like US banks don't have to deal with pounds, loonie or euro coins.

peachfront

I skimmed the thread rather quickly, so maybe I didn't see it, but for those of us who keep the foreign coins, can anyone suggest a way to display them? Right now, I have them in a big ornamental box, not just Canadian coins and euros and the usual suspects, but even a coin from Madagascar, which was not easy to get -- the coins are worth so little that no one uses them or at least that was the case during my visit. So this box is just like a treasure box of random coins, which does not show off the special coins very well, although it's fine for the typical foreign coins that one accumulates. Also, is there a nice way to make a display to give the foreign coins as a gift? Someone said to give them to a child, well, I know someone who might like to make a gift for his nephew from the foreign coins, but not just in a dish of coins. Some way to show them off...I used to have one of those books with plastic pages to put doubloons and coins but, honestly, the doubloons and coins would just fall out, and that's why I got annoyed, threw away the book, and dumped all the coins in the box. If this is a wrong place to ask the question, I don't mind if someone Private Mails me their suggestion.

SirJman

You need these coin flips before putting them in the plastic pages
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_OzONNsjzto...oin-holder.jpg

CarolynUK

If you fly on British Airways - put the coins in one of their Change For Good envelopes - it all goes to charity - and saves you the headache of lots of small foreign coins!

emma69

Depending on how old the child is, they may prefer the coins to play with, rather than displayed? I know I did as a kid.

kebosabi

Keeping the $1 bill so foreign exchangers abroad can stock them does help a lot when traveling to places third world countries like Laos.

Many of the people there accept foreign currencies like the Euro or the US Dollar but only in bills; not coins. Henceforth, the smallest denomination Europeans can use are 5 Euro notes whereas Americans can pay for their goods with a smaller denominations; the George Washington US Dollar bill.

Likewise, an American can easily go to an Laotian currency exchange and exchange 8000 Laotian Kips for a single US Dollar, whereas Europeans need 66000 Laotian Kips to exchange for a five Euro note because they don't stock on 1 EUR coins.

And the other way around, the Laotian currency exchange will not accept 1 or 2 EUR coins to exchange, but they will gladly accept 1 USD bills. Hence, if both the European and American tourist have 9 EUR and 9 USD respectively, the max that the European can exchange is 5 EUR into 66000 LAK, whereas the American can exchange the full 9 USD into 72000 LAK.

djs

Better yet, why can't the rest of the World just get with the program and adopt the USD, and implement our measurement system? This would make life a whole lot simpler for us Americans.

kebosabi

We could outsource the production of USD to North Korea then; they make fake USD bills way better than the US Mint!