What to do with my accumulation of coins in France?

September 2, 2008 11:44 AM

Dear French Mefites: what do you do with all your pocket change? I'm about to move from Paris to London and I really don't want to leave the roughly 25 Euros in 1, 2 and 5 centime denominations to the next tenants.

25 Euros could mean a pre-move pizza or two! What do you French folks do when your piggy banks overflow? I've been told that rolling change doesn't really happen here but I also haven't seen any of those nifty coin sorting machines. Any ideas? Thanks for any help.

posted by la grande chaleur to Work & Money (12 answers total)

Buy a pizza in france (or something else you need worth $25) with the change?
posted by RustyBrooks at 11:47 AM on September 2, 2008

Best answer: When I lived in france, I accumulated over 100 Euros in change. Before I left, I gave handfuls away to people asking for money on the street. Not exactly pizza, but it was good to give that much away to someone who needed it. Carry it around for a few days in your bag. When you see the person who should have it, you'll know.
posted by milarepa at 11:52 AM on September 2, 2008 [1 favorite]

Airports usually have a box where you can donate it to charity.
posted by dhoe at 11:59 AM on September 2, 2008 [1 favorite]

Do SNCF machines take coins? Buy yourself a ticket out to a cool village somewhere for lunch.
posted by mdonley at 12:00 PM on September 2, 2008

I like milarepa's suggestion! Give.
posted by meso at 12:02 PM on September 2, 2008

I'm not in France, but on a previous move I posted an ad with several things for sale, and included the coins in that list with approximate value, but with a price below that value since I was more interested in not moving the weight. One couple came to buy my guitar and asked about the coins, apparently they use them for poker nights at home. Coins gone, and a few extra bucks in my pocket. Now, there's local machines in the supermarket that you dump a load of coins into and it gives you a receipt to take to the cash.
posted by hungrysquirrels at 12:20 PM on September 2, 2008

Response by poster: Wonderful answers from everyone - thanks for the input. I shouldn't be so selfish with the pizza idea...I think it's the imminent return to student life talking.
posted by la grande chaleur at 12:28 PM on September 2, 2008

if you don't want to give it away, a lot of London big stores (Oxford St for example) accept euros
posted by matteo at 12:34 PM on September 2, 2008

Not French, but here's an idea my friend encourages.
posted by Fuzzy Skinner at 12:37 PM on September 2, 2008

I give it to those people outside Paddington. They're called "homeless people".
posted by Zambrano at 12:59 PM on September 2, 2008

I don't know if this works in France, but it does in the UK (for pennies, not centimes). Can't you just take it to a bank and ask them to change it to €25 in notes? That's what I did when the guy who rented my room before me left behind his change in a jar, £10 for me, thank you very much.

If you still have it when you get here, you could always give it to charity.
posted by Helga-woo at 2:58 PM on September 2, 2008

I'm not French but I do go to France quite often. My general approach to change is that I put a little in my wallet at a time when my wallet is not too full, and spend it that way. I always keep the euros I bring back from France (or anywhere in the Euro zone) as I know I'll be going back to somewhere that uses the euro before too long.

I guess I'm not very charitable.
posted by altolinguistic at 4:04 AM on September 3, 2008