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Copper coins

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robbelg
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Copper coins

#165363

Postby robbelg » September 9th, 2018, 6:33 pm

Are they any use at all?

On the VERY rare occasions that I end up with some they go straight to the nearest charity box.

On Friday I somehow acquired 2 2p coins, there wasn't a charity box handy so I decided to conduct an experiment.

I placed them on top of a wall ( about 4ft 6 high) by the side of a moderately busy pavement.

48 hours later they were still there. Hundreds of people must have seen them but no-one has bothered to pick them up, you don't even have to bend down.

Or possibly people are very unobservant.


Rob

swill453
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Re: Copper coins

#165364

Postby swill453 » September 9th, 2018, 6:36 pm

Always put them in any charity tin at the till, can't be bothered with them.

Have been known to bin them.

Scott.

gryffron
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Re: Copper coins

#165371

Postby gryffron » September 9th, 2018, 7:20 pm

No, no use at all. Neither are 5p s.

I hardly ever use cash. Used to keep silver for parking. But even that is an online app these days. Pub now takes CC. Just taxis left as a use for cash. No uber here.

Gryff

AleisterCrowley
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Re: Copper coins

#165377

Postby AleisterCrowley » September 9th, 2018, 7:46 pm

I dump my 'shrapnel' in a bag, and take it to the Coinstar machine at Sainsbury's. They do take a cut , but it saves the hassle of bagging up and paying in at the bank, or remembering to feed into self service checkouts

vrdiver
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Re: Copper coins

#165379

Postby vrdiver » September 9th, 2018, 7:55 pm

Mrs VRD and I both pick up any coins we see on the pavement (I was going to say "coppers", but that could have been misconstrued!).

We have a hospice charity box on the kitchen windowsill - will take about £20 in small change (sometimes we spot a £1 coin - which helps raise the value).

It's not a lot, but it could be the difference between a cup of tea, or a cup of tea and a biscuit...

VRD

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Re: Copper coins

#165433

Postby wheypat » September 10th, 2018, 8:04 am

I have an old sweetie jar at the side of my bed - throw all the coins in at the end of the day. In the run up to Christmas I empty it in a coinstar type machine (one in the bank - zero commission) and bank it. Usually it's £400-£500. The jar is also a handy supply of cash if I'm ever looking for a few pounds (such as the kids pocket money).

It's a rabbit I got into from my parents who did the same.

AleisterCrowley
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Re: Copper coins

#165439

Postby AleisterCrowley » September 10th, 2018, 8:56 am

rabbit ?!

marronier
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Re: Copper coins

#165441

Postby marronier » September 10th, 2018, 9:02 am

Did you know that 2p has a pro rata purchasing power half that of the farthing had in 1959 ,when that coin was withdrawn ?

Lootman
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Re: Copper coins

#165452

Postby Lootman » September 10th, 2018, 11:21 am

marronier wrote:Did you know that 2p has a pro rata purchasing power half that of the farthing had in 1959 ,when that coin was withdrawn ?

No doubt, but what are those farthings worth now as a numismatic collectible?

Go back further in time and copper coins actually had copper in them, giving them intrinsic value. I have some old silver florins and half crowns that were made partly of silver.

AleisterCrowley
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Re: Copper coins

#165459

Postby AleisterCrowley » September 10th, 2018, 12:03 pm

Pre-1947 'silver' were 50% silver, and pre 1920 were >90% silver.
I remember may dad and me cashing in a lot of 'scrap' silver coins when there was a silver price spike in the 1980s

bungeejumper
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Re: Copper coins

#165473

Postby bungeejumper » September 10th, 2018, 1:07 pm

AleisterCrowley wrote:I dump my 'shrapnel' in a bag, and take it to the Coinstar machine at Sainsbury's. They do take a cut , but it saves the hassle of bagging up and paying in at the bank, or remembering to feed into self service checkouts

Ditto, anything smaller than a 20p coin goes into a piggy bank thing on my shelf, and once a year I take it to the Coinstar machine. You also get the option of donating the total sum (less Coinstar's cut) to charity - you get a choice of different causes to support. And it seems to solve the problem neatly.

If only the same could be said for the half kilo of euro coin shrapnel that I seem to have acquired. (Anything less than 20 cents, basically.) Unfortunately the French don't seem to have taken to the idea of coin collecting boxes, so I'm always at a loss as to what to do with them. I know that some UK charities will take them, but it's a bit of a faff and I never seem to get round to it. :(

Which makes me feel doubly guilty about my indolence. Which is doubly stupid, because I don't need to be. Grrrr.

BJ

Slarti
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Re: Copper coins

#165504

Postby Slarti » September 10th, 2018, 3:41 pm

Yes, they make the small shopkeepers happy that you can give them a handful of change when they are running out on a Saturday.

I've even had them say, not to worry that I am 10p or 15p short of the price, as long as they get my shrapnel.

Habit of a lifetime to try and give the correct money, or the change part of a bill so that they don't have to give me their change.

Slarti

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Re: Copper coins

#165527

Postby Gengulphus » September 10th, 2018, 5:11 pm

I regularly separate out the 1ps/2ps/5ps out of the change I receive, stick them in a back pocket (that I only use for that purpose) and whenever I buy something using a self-service till and the bill is small, stick them into the machine first. No harder than using a Coinstar machine, nobody takes a cut, and I use self-service tills often enough that it's rare for much to accumulate.

I still find 10ps and above pretty useful, e.g. for paying for bus tickets - bus drivers are like small shopkeepers in liking to be paid with exact change. That may change with the rise of card-only payment, and of course it does depend on whether one's lifestyle includes much bus travel!

With regard to foreign 'shrapnel', I've pretty much given up travelling abroad - I used to a fair amount, but I've more-or-less 'burnt out' on it, especially as going through airports has become less and less pleasant over the years... So it's a problem I've hardly faced in recent years - it basically only happens when a foreign coin is very similar to a UK coin in size, weight and colour and has been handed to me in change without me noticing. That's rare enough for the very occasional foreign coins to be hardly any problem at all, even after accumulating for many years.

But when I did travel abroad, there were collection boxes in airport arrival areas specifically for the purpose of giving any leftover foreign money to charity. No idea whether there still are, but it might be worth looking out to see whether they still exist if one does have the problem!

Gengulphus

melonfool
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Re: Copper coins

#165548

Postby melonfool » September 10th, 2018, 7:06 pm

Airports do still ave coin collecting boxes, usually in departures.

But, just put foreign coins in UK charity boxes, they will be able to bank them when they get enough.

I just keep all money in my purse and spend it when I need to spend some money. Doesn't matter what the denominations are.

Mel

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Re: Copper coins

#165550

Postby swill453 » September 10th, 2018, 7:14 pm

I do make a point of being as familiar as possible with foreign coins when abroad, and try to use the small change* when spending, so it doesn't build up.

Nothing makes me cringe more than a Brit abroad holding out a handful of change and getting the shop assistant to help themselves from it. Basically acting like a toddler.

* - as per the thread subject, I draw the line at tiny stuff like 1 and 2 euro cent coins, I ditch them ASAP one way or another.

Scott.

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Re: Copper coins

#165570

Postby Clitheroekid » September 10th, 2018, 9:27 pm

Many years ago someone gave me a one gallon whisky bottle (sadly empty) and I used it to throw loose change in.

In the old days coins such as 5p's and 10p's were larger, but even so a full bottle would usually come out at more than £150. It was a nice surprise every couple of years, though a laborious exercise to bag it all up and bank it.

About 3 years ago the bottle became full, but I had neither the time nor the inclination to count it all. It was too heavy to carry, and I don't think I was even aware of coin counting machines.

So it just stood on the bedroom floor, waiting to be emptied.

One night I came in from a night out and in the course of getting undressed to go to bed I kicked off one of my shoes - which headed straight for the bottle!

I can only assume it must have been under some stress anyway, as it virtually exploded :shock: I was left with a massive pile of coins, but now interspersed with often tiny fragments of glass.

I realised it was an impossible task to try and sort it out, so ever since I've used it to fund my Saturday edition of the Daily Telegraph (which is virtually the only paper I actually buy nowadays, and one of the main reasons is for the weekly TV supplement, which I still find much easier to look at than screen versions). Extracting a couple of quid once a week has meant that the process of separating out the shards of glass is manageable. Also, as I've reached nearer the centre of the pile the amount of glass has gradually diminished, and is now almost zero.

The Saturday edition of the DT used to be £2, but went up a while ago to £2.20, so as the pile is now diminished to just a few pounds I reckon there must have been about £300 in it.

scotia
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Re: Copper coins

#165583

Postby scotia » September 10th, 2018, 11:17 pm

When my son was in his late teens, and still staying with us (more than 20 years ago) he found that loose change spoiled the contours of his tight jeans, so he threw it into a bucket in his bedroom. When he moved out, we cashed in. I now use his bedroom as a workroom, but it doubles as a bunkroom for my son's daughters when they visit. I wonder if there will be any coins when they become teenagers.

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Re: Copper coins

#165631

Postby Lootman » September 11th, 2018, 10:02 am

An annoying import from the US is the "tip jar" placed on the counter of coffee shops and other takeaway places, often accompanied by a corny sign saying something like "God knows when you tip and when you don't".

Perfect for odd low value coins. A few will make a nice, clangy sound when you drop them in, as if you are tipping well when, in reality, the tip is insultingly but undetectably small.

I almost feel guilty.

UncleEbenezer
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Re: Copper coins

#165642

Postby UncleEbenezer » September 11th, 2018, 10:50 am

I have a pile on the desk at home, where I empty my pockets after I've been out.

I draw on the pile for specific occasions. Best for coppers: small, very local shopping, like a pint of milk or bag of onions[1] from the co-op. Or a bus fare on a familiar route when I know exactly how much it is. And (OK, not the coppers) to pay the gardener or window-cleaner. And sometimes (depending on mood/etc) if I'm going into town and anticipate cash spend like a coffee or meal-deal.

[1] Specifically onions because the Co-op's are inexplicably much better than what I can find in bigger shops like Sainsburys or Lidl.

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Re: Copper coins

#166891

Postby macbrains » September 17th, 2018, 11:32 am

I always save any £2 coins that I get in change - actually this doesn't happen that often, I usually get £1 ones, for some reason. Anyway, the £2 coins are building up nicely for a treat at Christmas :D


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