Rolled Coins. What Do I Do With Them?

Last modified on July 13th, 2008

I’m a change gatherer. I don’t really know how it happens, but I always end up at home each evening with tons of change in my pockets. I have two piggy banks on the go at any one time, and both of them fill up rather quickly.

My niece and nephew love coming over because there are always coins lying around my apartment, and it’s a fun game to find them. Despite my best efforts, I usually end up with change on counters and less frequently in my bed. One time I was taking a shower in the morning and heard a few “clangs”, only to look down and see a few pennies fall off my body — apparently I had slept with them and they got stuck to my body during the night. I rule.

Since I was running out of room to store my change, I decided I would simply cash them in. Only problem is the coin sorter I used to use at Safeway is no longer there. I did a quick Google and realized the only one left in the city (that I could find) was at the Burrard IGA downtown. Unfortunately, according to some forum posts, it recently went the way of the dodo as well.

Not knowing what else to do, I went down to Staples and spent $30 on a change sorter. I spent about 90 minutes the other night going through two piggy banks, and ended up with close to $300 in rolled coins. The things is, I really don’t know what to do with the rolls now.

In the old days you’d take them to a bank and they’d give you cash in return. Usually they want your account number so that if you’re short in any rolls they’ll simply take the difference out of your account. Unfortunately, I do all my banking online nowadays with PC Financial, and I don’t have access to any physical tellers.

So I’m pretty much stumped right now. I’ve been told sometimes you can take them to casinos and pretend like you won them on slots, but I’m not sure which casinos in the area still use coins. Anyone have any great ideas for what I should do?

11 responses to “Rolled Coins. What Do I Do With Them?”

  1. John says:

    You should have paid for your iPhone with them!

  2. Ianiv says:

    Did you ask a friend with access to a teller to cash them or you? 🙂

  3. dale says:

    mail them to me. I’ll find use for them : )

  4. Donna says:

    Use them for groceries next time. This will go over well. Make sure it’s a really busy day.

  5. bz says:

    casino cage. as long as you “say” you’re going to play with ’em, they’ll change em. tried it at the river rock last year and used the change for my son’s education fund. heading down again this week.

  6. Rob says:

    Isn’t PC a division of CIBC? You might try calling a CIBC branch and see if they’ll take the deposit.

    There are a handful of grocery stores with machines that let you dump your coins and give you cash (less some percentage), or coupons… but off the top of my head I can’t remember where I saw one.

  7. Duane Storey says:

    There used to be lots in grocery stores, but most have been pulled in Vancouver.

  8. I agree with Rob – go to a CIBC branch. I’m with PCF as well, and I *think* I’ve done that in the past, taken rolled coins to a CIBC branch I mean.

  9. P.S. Stop using cash! 🙂

  10. Rosie says:

    I think you can get a bank to exchange the coins into cash for you.

  11. ryan bradley says:

    There is now a machine at 1st and commercial at the SuperValu. Make sure your there between 0830 and 5 as they shut down the machine in the evening.

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