Coins

Can I recommend your local Credit Union? No fees involved in lodgements.
You have to have the changes sorted into bank bags, read below
for my method.

I have a savings tin I put any spare change into when I come home from
work and empty my pockets.

Because I empty this tin every few months, and hopefully will be for several years
to come, I have bought a counting frame. It is a Helix CE2020:

http://helix.co.uk/product.php/617/218/ce2020---coin-counter-tray---note-holder--euro-

Every few months, I pop on the telly and empty the tin onto the coffee table.
I count up the €2, €1, 50c, 20c and 10c into the frame and bag up as I go along.
The trays are also removeable, so you can divide the work between several people,
and have a nice chat and cup of tea while you count.

The counting tray is very handy, you can use it if you run a small business
like a stall or an event in a pub, or are helping out at a charity event, like a car-boot
sale or summer fête (that's a lovely word)

Playing shop with my niece is also fun and she can get an appreciation for real money
management.

I don't count up the 5c, 2c and 1c coins, this is too time consuming
and usually adds up to a small amount compared to the quick work
you can do with the high value coins.

I put these back in the savings tin, and leave them to build up. After a while,
I do a regular count of high value coins into bank bags, and I take all the "coppers"
to the CoinStar machine in Tesco. You pay a comission, 9% I think, but it's an
acceptable cost compared to the work and time you'd have to invest to sort the low
value, high volume coins. I tried to count these using my frame,
but it took ages to get enough to fill a bag. I would not like to have to count coppers
without a frame, it would be even more annoying. They build up fast and can take up
a lot of space where they can easily get knocked over or mixed up.

Whatever method you use, get a good strong fabric bag to put the sorted
bags into for transportation to the Credit Union or Bank. A shopping bag,
even a heavy, posh one from M&S could give way under the strain of your loot.

If you find any unusual coins in your stash, and want to know more, drop by the
Collectibles & Antiques forum for a chat.

Happy counting

leinster_fan wrote: »

Best method I've found for counting the 1c, 2c & 5c coins is to weigh them.

You count out €1 or whatever is supposed to go in a bag, and then weigh them on a digital kitchen scales.
Then you can very quickly weigh out that amount for each bag.

Very quick, and no commission to pay to anyone!

I tried that, it didn't work for me. Digitial kitchen scales are not accurate enough
to differentiate between the tiny increases in weight involved in copper coins.
It took me ages to realize this. To see what I'm on about, get a few 50c coins,
and weight them one after the other. You should see differences
in their weight because the scale is not calibrated to measure such small amounts.

Or maybe you have an accurate scientific or financial digital scale? If so, fair play,
I was using a good Salter brand digital scale, and could not get accurate measurements.

Anyway, bank bagging copper coins is very time consuming, I just pour the whole
lot into a coin counter and pay the comission.

Become a Dublin Gaelic Football supporter and throw them at the heads of visiting culchie goalkeepers while standing on the Hill.

I save all coins under 50c in a big bottle, and count them every few months. I usually get about €30 or €40 out of it. I usually lodge/ exchange it in AIB. Haven't tried BOI since the stupid changes to when they will accept it or not. Seriously, they are a bank with stipulations about when you can lodge money?! F*cking ridiculous!

On a side note, counting all the coins can be so therapeutic. I love sorting through them. Although it's shocking how dirty your hands get after touching the coins. Reminds you of all the dirty [EMAIL="b@stards"]b@stards[/EMAIL] who have handled them before you!

Count them all, stack them and then pretend you are Scrooge McDuck.