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Only semi-related, I must have $200 in loose change collected over the years (and years). What the hell to do with them?

Turns out I can take them to coinstar at the local Krogers and turn them into cash but they will take a chunk of the change that I am too miserly to part with.

OR, wow, I can turn them into an Amazon gift card! I mean, I can turn them into Home Depot cards (and many other cards), but I live in an apartment.

So that's awesome and I test it with $20 in quarters, AND, AND, AND,

Machine almost instantly jams.

No one uses the coinstar except for the most part as trash can so when the manager rips the machine apart we find safety pins, and buttons, and all sorts of crap.

Oh well.

Hey, the coinstar.com tells me Walmart has a machine too. Let's check that out and and and -- the walmart machines don't allow conversion to Amazon money. My guess is that Amazon is Walmarts biggest enemy.

Oh well. I now have about $180 of loose change.



Most banks will convert change for free for account holders. Local banks and credit unions often won't even ask if one has an account.


Yea but you have to roll them up yourself in those paper sleeves.

To quote George Costanza while rolling coins: "You want me to roll six thousand of these?! What, should I quit my job?!"


No way, they have awesome fast coin counting machines at banks. You dump it in and it counts in real-time, like 15 seconds and you're done.


What bank?


My local Chase branch does free coin counting as well as other banks that are actually all Chase banks now.

It never made sense to me that a bank would want you to bring in rolled coins. How could they trust the contents?


They must weigh them or something. When I rolled my own change once I was short 1 cent in a dollar penny roll and they sent me snail mail about it.


Wells Fargo has done this for me, at least three different locations.


My back definitely doesn't do this, I wish it did. Consider yourself lucky!


I'm fairly sure I saw a Coinstar machine at a small casino in Vegas, and it worked fine for me (but it took a hefty commission). I'd guess the Coinstar machines at casinos are used more often than the ones in supermarkets, so they're probably a better bet. (Pun semi-intended.)


Do you not have self-service checkouts at supermarkets? They usually have a counting drop like coinstar but you just pay for your groceries so no extra charge.


Every self-service checkout I've used had a slot which takes one coin at a time. Coinstar machines let you fill a bin with a couple fistfuls of coins and count them in a minute.


Well, as I said, some self service checkouts do that as well. Coinstar probably doesnt like that though.




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