If nothing else, this is very interesting (any thoughts on point appreciated).

As a lot of people do, I have a jar in which I save coins. In this case, I limited it to $5.00 coins.

At the end of a little over a year, I have a sizable amount and wanted to cash them in at my bank (MultiVa). I incorrectly thought they would have a coin counting machine. They don't.

So I asked an officer how I can make a deposit of my coins. I was told I had to count them myself and bring them in and tell how much I came up with. Then, the bank could count them, presumable by hand.

I asked about what if the bank and myself came up with different amounts. Got no answer there.

Then I cam up with the idea of weighing a few coins to find the weight and figuring it out by weight. Guess what? the weight varied by one-gram on many coins.

I'm wondering how a place such as Walmart does it. Maybe they have a coin counter and I could ask a favor?

And finally, if anyone has any snarky responses, please send them in PM or in the Octagon, I just through this was interesting and it's for real.

Thanks.

Let us know how it works out when you ask Walmart to count your coins for you as a favor. Walmarts everywhere are big on doing favors for customers.
Also, I am sure there are other people who would like to get their coins counted too. They would appreciate knowing Walmart will do it.

Walmart and the local banks count the coins by hand and tape specific amounts together. Once in a while you will see coins rolled in paper cylinders but they come from Guadalajara banks. Count your coins and tape them together; then go to the bank and they will count them again but they want them taped together. This will be a second-world country when the banking entities get it together with coin machines in each branch and actually have paper for businesses change every day of the week.

if nothing else, I'd hire our housekeepers 15 y.o daughter or her 12 y.o sister and pay them by the hour or give them a percentage. Kids are more than willing to work and there are precious few jobs for them. We send 'our' girls to buy our milk, fruit etc., pay traffic tickets, fill prescriptions, post office, etc. and last year they were able to buy their own folklorico dance costumes. It really is a win/win deal.

Take them to OXXO they weight them. But I think you have to purchase with them.

Well I remember way back when the Earth was still cooling and I was a child, you couldn't walk into a Canadian bank with a few hundred coins or even a few dozen and ask the tellers to count them. You had to roll them up in the special brown money-roll papers, probably the kind of thing that Gamina mentioned. The bank would supply the papers for free. Somewhat more recently but still years ago, I saw clear plastic money rolls. The count-and-tape plan sounds like a good alternative if you can't access the paper rolls.

I've seen bill-counting machines but I didn't even know there were coin-counting machines. Wow, the things I still don't know after all these years .....

oncesubtle wrote:if nothing else, I'd hire our housekeepers 15 y.o daughter or her 12 y.o sister and pay them by the hour or give them a percentage. Kids are more than willing to work and there are precious few jobs for them. We send 'our' girls to buy our milk, fruit etc., pay traffic tickets, fill prescriptions, post office, etc. and last year they were able to buy their own folklorico dance costumes. It really is a win/win deal.

Great idea!!!!

I wonder if the casino has a coin counter.

Sorry Pogo most casinos these days are electronic with no cash.

Zedinmexico wrote:Sorry Pogo most casinos these days are electronic with no cash.

Meaning you use a credit card in the machines?!? Holy crap!

oncesubtle wrote:if nothing else, I'd hire our housekeepers 15 y.o daughter or her 12 y.o sister and pay them by the hour or give them a percentage. Kids are more than willing to work and there are precious few jobs for them. We send 'our' girls to buy our milk, fruit etc., pay traffic tickets, fill prescriptions, post office, etc. and last year they were able to buy their own folklorico dance costumes. It really is a win/win deal.

Win/win for sure!

Several years ago, when my friend and to-go guy Antonio's son was little more than a baby, i bought a rubber cowie bank (like a piggy bank, but a cow) at the Joco tianguis. For all these years, i've put in the coins under five pesos that i get in change and when Cowie bank is full, i give it to Antonio for Pedrito. He takes it home and returns it to me (washed and clean!), always with one coin left in it.

In the beginning, Pedrito liked to chew on the bank and throw it around, but now he's in kindergarten and learning to count so it's become an educational tool as well. His parents have set aside all the money for his use (although i suspect during difficult times when Antonio is short on work they use the money for food for the family and then "pay it back" when times are good).

It's totally painless for me to get rid of all those small coins, but they definitely add up after a while. The five peso coins i also throw in sometimes but mainly keep on me or in the car to use as tips for baggers and the folks who wash my windows at Pemex, etc.

Now how Pedrito's folks exchange the small coins for bigger coins or bills, i don't know, but they apparently do. Do yourself a favor, Clueless, and distribute yours throughout the year instead of saving them all up in a jar. Then you won't have to fret about how to trade them in. Oncesubtle is right. It's a win/win deal.

I asked at Walmart. They take all their coins and bag them (sealed) and they are picked up by armored can and any counting is done in an akkeged secured facility, etc.

So I ended u counting them and took them to my bank. THEN, I was told they do have a counting (but not sorting) machine and the reason they want me to count first is that I won't be in the room when the $$ goes through the machine and if there is a (major?) difference, they want to know my count.

Anyway, my count was 99.99% right other than I accidently put in a Cuban coin and it was kicked. So I gave a $10 coin and it was all good.

A smart azz like me uses my amassed coins to donate to charities and let them figure it out.

I get a piggy bank from Love in Action where I stash my change. 3 Kings day, the kids get to smash the banks & ALL the money goes to field trips for the kids or special treats. I hope this slide show works.

http://play.smilebox.com/SpreadMoreHappy/4e444d324f5441784e546b3d0d0a

I save my small coins in a literal "red cross" and when it's full I give it to Charlie and he gives me a new one. He says CR has volunteers who count the coins. A painless way to donate.

One gram is a very minute amount of weight. They probably differed this amount depending on if some of the coins were new and dirt free, or you had several old coins that had collected one gram of dirt or residue on them. That's the best I can come up with. any other ideas ? !!

I wuld use the money to buy beer

I'm sure he has already been told many, many times about the kids by now. Time to just take the business elsewhere. He'll figure it out soon enough......