When is a fiver not a fiver? When its a £5 coin

Bobblehat

I used to collect these UK £5 coins when they were offer for a fiver (some were!) and kept them in their original packing. Because of various stories about acceptance similar to above, I decided to sell those that were fetching around £6 to £8 and "exchange" those that were only fetching £5 on auction sites. This was about 6/7 years ago and my local PO were the only place I could find that accepted them as deposits to an account (any high-street bank account). Despite being in the original packaging, my Banks did not want to know.

The situation may have changed now, but it might be worth trying the PO for those coins that are not fetching more than their face value, and try your luck on the free classified ads websites for those that are fetching appreciably more than their face value. As mentioned above, do your homework first in case you were given some rarer versions.

Wheres_My_Cashback

oldagetraveller1 said:

https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/uknews/man-arrested-for-using-c2-a3100-coin-awarded-c2-a35000-in-damages-by-police/ar-AAPZo55

Mr Chamberlain is well known in the West country for using £100 coins as payment for fuel at various filling stations (usually supermarkets). He self films all his interactions (see You Tube) with staff/police when attempting to use the coins and usually runs into problems, but ends up paying with the coin. Knowledge of the law helps even if most police officers aren't aware of the laws they uphold !
I believe he also purchases them at less than face value to use at face value. Some would say it's morally wrong, some would say its very clever thinking.

JezR

I remember a few years back that the Post Office local to my mother misinterpreted the official.policy to accept £5 coins for products and started giving them out in change

Bobblehat

JezR said:

I remember a few years back that the Post Office local to my mother misinterpreted the official.policy to accept £5 coins for products and started giving them out in change

I wondered what they did with the ones I deposited with them ..... now I know.