Too many coins, not enough time...

May 23, 2007 6:00 AM

I have lots of coins. And no young relatives. I need the coins sorting.

When I was a child, my grandmother had a coin sorter. More specifically, it was a row of 7 clear plastic tubes, of varying sizes, which were graded. They were upright, fixed to a base, with a lid of correctly sized slots on the top. You had to sort the coins into the correct slots yourself, but it showed you exactly how much of each coin you had.

I want one of these to help me manage my money. However, I *do not* want an electric one. I'm happy to sort the money out myself, but it's important that it shows how much of each coin I have. I also don't want to use one of those Coinstar machines. It's my money, I don't want to have to pay to get it back.

Where can I buy one of these sorters from? I don't mind international shipping, but it needs to be UK currency (GBP). I've looked online, but I can only find the electric versions. Not really practical for me, because I don't work in a bank. :D

posted by Solomon to grab bag (18 comments total)

This is similar to what the tubes looked like.
posted by Solomon at 6:01 AM on May 23, 2007

There's one here for £9.99 which isn't electric, and seems to fall somewhere between a set of tubes and an electric sorter.
posted by mendel at 6:15 AM on May 23, 2007

If you go into any high street bank they will generally be happy to give you a wad of their clear plastic money bags. There are specific standard amounts of change that go into each bag, so if you're happy to count the money yourself then just put the money straight into a bag in the specified units, that way you'll know exactly how much you've got plus then you can just take it to the bank and exchange it for notes directly. Most banks are usually happy to do this, certainly one you have an account with will. (I do this myself every so often). The standard units are

£1 of 1p
£1 of 2p
£5 of 5p
£5 of 10p
£10 of 20p (Check)
£10 of 50p (Check)
£20 of £1
posted by biffa at 6:17 AM on May 23, 2007

At least in the US, coinstar will give you your dollar value in coins in gift certificates to various online mercants (like amazon). If you shop at any of these, this might be the best solution for you.
posted by jefftang at 6:37 AM on May 23, 2007

They specifically said they don't want Coinstar. Stop suggesting it.

Curious what you have against the electric ones, though. They're mostly very small, cheap and just take batteries - they're not some kind of plug-in power-hungry monsters.

I've seen quite a lot of this kind of stuff at Woolworths.
posted by reklaw at 6:51 AM on May 23, 2007

Also, this Yahoo! category (blast from the past there) looks like it might be useful to you.
posted by reklaw at 6:55 AM on May 23, 2007

Check any toy store. I can't count the number of such non-electric 'savings' banks I had as a child. You may have to try a 'less mainstream' toy store like the Discovery Channel Store at your local mall, or something like Noodle Kadoodle (which may not even be in business anymore)

If you want something more grown-up, consider Staples (the office supply store) with their Coin Tray
posted by Wild_Eep at 7:12 AM on May 23, 2007

They said they didn't want Coinstar beacuse you pay, and that IS true, if you want cash, you have to pay 7% or so to get the cash back.

BUT, if you go for a gift certificate, you don't pay any percentage. For instance, i redeemed $32 dollars in coins for a $32 Amazon.com gift certificate.

That's worth suggesting cause you don't lose any money.
posted by jare2003 at 7:25 AM on May 23, 2007

Obviously may not apply as I'm in US...but my bank (Chase) will run it through their coin counter for free. I don't have to pay them a dime (unlike the justly reviled Coinstar machines). Just did it last weekend. Those coins add up! ($192(!!)). I'd check with whomever you bank.

Unless of course, you want the thrill of counting it yourself. (Don't laugh! I know some who do.)
posted by Wink Ricketts at 7:52 AM on May 23, 2007

I work at a small, family owned bank, and we exchange coin for dollars at no charge (It doesn't cost us anything to run change through a counter). I know many banks do this, some only if you're a customer. Coinstar is a rip-off, you're smart not to fall for that scam. Call up some banks and see what they can do for you.
posted by buriednexttoyou at 8:56 AM on May 23, 2007

Commerce Bank will also count your coins for free, in a Coinstar-like machine.
posted by sjuhawk31 at 9:44 AM on May 23, 2007

I'm not too sure that I understand why you don't want an electric one...
I've looked online, but I can only find the electric versions. Not really practical for me, because I don't work in a bank

What's working in a bank got to do with anything? You can get a small, household coin sorter (like this one from Argos) - small, compact, battery-powered (or mains), drop coins in at the top, it whizzes them around testing their conductivity, and drops them into the relevant chute. £20.

I got the same item from one of the gadget type shops (iwoot? firebox? gadgetshop?) but can't find them in stock anywhere, so I just searched for "science museum" coin sorter as I happened to be able to go and check what it's called :)
I'm sure that there are other ones out there, somewhere...
posted by Chunder at 11:22 AM on May 23, 2007

My bank also has a no-fee Coinstar-style machine. It's a lot faster than mucking about with coin rolls -- so much so that I've seen the cashiers at the bank emptying penny rolls into the machine!
posted by vorfeed at 12:25 PM on May 23, 2007

I don't know if this translates across the ocean, but I had this case occur to me: I dutifully sorted and did up all my extraneous change in paper wrappers, took it to my bank, which informed me they took loose change only to insure that the coin count was correct and that it was all US currency! Not only are they able to simply dump loose change into their machine and count it up, they insist upon it! So you might want to make a quick call to your bank first (this was a metro area branch of a huge, major US bank).
posted by nanojath at 12:34 PM on May 23, 2007

There exist (but I don't know where to find!) crazy simple coin sorters with "the tubes," in proper order and with properly sized holes to sort the change through gravity alone.

You drop a coin in the slot, and it falls through the correct hole, and so on.

An electric model would be much easier, as you could just dump a bunch of coins in it and it would sort it out, rather than having to drop them in one at a time..
posted by wierdo at 1:27 PM on May 23, 2007

I don't want an electric one because once this big pile of coins has gone (it's been building up for what seems like forever), I'll be keeping on top of things. I'll only have a few coins in my pocket at the end of the day, which I can quickly sort myself. Seems kinda wasteful to buy something and then not get the worth out of it. Yes, I'm the kind of person who buys a tshirt and then wears it until it falls off his back. :D

Thanks for all the suggestions so far.
posted by Solomon at 1:41 PM on May 23, 2007

If you want something to help you wrap up sorted coins into measured rolls for bringing to the bank, a large office supply store will have several solutions for that. My favorite is the graduated tube with funnel on top - rake coins into funnel until tube is full, slide empty wrapper in, slide measured roll of coins out & fold wrapper ends.

But if it's the sorting, why not go by size? This might be hard/impossible with non-round currency, or if there are two denominations that are the same size coin.
US currency version:
Find 4 trays/plates/?? that stack, or something else stiff enough to support a few handfuls of mixed coins and do magic on it until they do stack and contain the coins.
I did this as a kid using cigar boxes and a pencil and a razor blade, after being told that I could have cash for half of what I managed to sort and roll from a 10-gallon container of mixed coins.

By tracing coins and cutting manually, or using a hole saw that is the same diameter of each coin denomination, cut one tray each of
Quarters, largest, on top
Nickels, next, 2nd down
Pennies, 2nd-smallest
Dimes, smallest coin, does not need holes in the bottom of its tray - it is the solid bottom for your stack.

Stack trays. Put mixed coins in top tray. Shake in circular motions, causing coins to pass back and forth over holes. All coins smaller than the largest hole will fall through to the next tray. Continue shaking, coins will continue to sort themselves out by size until all the largest coins are in your top tray, smallest in bottom tray.

Roll now-sorted coins and take to bank.

Profit!


[When I get home each day, I empty all my pockets into a big dish. Later I pluck out my keys, wallet etc and leave the coins. Every few months I roll up the change in the dish.
I have only been able to do my laundry at laundromats for the last 15 years. I have never ever turned in a bill for laundry change. Rolls of Dimes pay for wash, Quarters for dry, nickels for soap, and the pennies buy me a soda while I wait.

On the other hand, I never get to say "Oh, I've got that much money between the cushions of my sofa!".]
posted by bartleby at 5:11 PM on May 23, 2007

>I did this as a kid using cigar boxes and a pencil and a razor blade

Brilliant!
posted by philfromhavelock at 8:53 PM on May 23, 2007