Handling Spare Change

I have been getting some messages about my "Money for Metals" series of posts lately. The feedback has been pretty great and there has been plenty of interest but one common question pops up:

"What should I do with all of these coins?"

Great question everyone! The obvious answer would be to go to your local bank and get coin rolls. You can then deposit the rolled coins at your bank. Easy as that! Well, not exactly that easy! You have to sort the coins, count them, maybe recount them, roll them, etc. Take pennies for example, there are 50 pennies in each roll, so that is lots of work for 50 cents. Plus you will usually have left over coins if you do not have enough for an entire roll.

So what are your options?

1. First, and best in my opinion, some banks now have coin sorting machines in their branches. You just dump your coins in and they are sorted, counted and you can deposit it all right into your account in a few minutes. Only problem is, these machines are rare so it might not be an option depending on your city and bank.
2. So we have seen the best, now time for the worst! At many places, like grocery stores, you will see coin machines but be careful. Most of these charge a fee (usually 4-8% of your money) for sorting and counting the coins. So if you had $100 worth of coins, the machine would take $4-$8 from you! I think this is pure robbery and would avoid these if at all possible.
3. So what do you do if you don't have a bank with a free coin sorter and you don't want to roll your coins or pay to use a coin sorter? One option, popping up and many malls, is a mall coin sorter. They have machine that will count and sort your coins for free and give you your payment in a mall gift certificate/gift card. So if you regularly shop at the mall and would spend money there anyways you could use their coin sorter and then use the gift card. The money you would normally have spent at the mall can then be invested in metals! Just make sure you don't buy unnecessary things at the mall, only things you would have bought anyways.

Hopefully these tips help. Just make sure to always check the terms, conditions and fees of any sorter you use before you use it!

Money for Metals - Tip #2

I have been getting some great feedback on my first Money for Metals tip, about returning cans and bottles, so it is now time for another tip! This tip actually comes from one of my good friends who has been doing it for years. What he does is collect lost coins off the ground. I know it sounds simple, but I have seen him in action and he usually gets $15-$20 a month (almost enough for an ounce of silver).

The beauty of this is that he doesn't go out of him way to do this and simply finds the coins when going about his day-to-day life. So for no investment (money or time) he gets free money that other people have dropped and most people walk right by!

I asked him if he had any tips for my readers and he gave these three secrets:

1. Look down! - most importantly you have to be looking at the ground to spot the coins!
2. Don't be afraid! - Don't be shy, pick up that coin! It may just be a penny, but every penny counts.
3. Some places are better! - parking lots are gold mines! When people take out their keys or get out of their car they often accidentally drop coins. Also, people are usually in such a hurry they don't bother picking them up. On the other hand, downtown in large cities is usually bad because there are homeless people who look for coins and will likely beat you to the coins.

So here is my plan - I am going to try this out. I will write some updates to the blog when I get to various milestones ($1, $5, $10, $20, etc) so you can see how long it takes me. Let me know if you do this and how it works for you!