Best thing to do with huge bottle of 1 and 2p coins? 10 November 2022 at 4:23PM in Savings & investments 65 replies 9.8K views

annabanana82

frugalmacdugal said:

Hi,

don't just walk into a bank with the bottle to use a coin counter and expect coins to flow out of it, the neck will get clogged up and need a poke now and again with a screwdriver or something.

Don't expect to get £100s from it.

Will we start a 'Guess the amount?'

My guess £68.72.

I have a similar sounding bottle filled with 20p's. It's almost full and currently has around £500 so my guess is £103.18

frugalmacdugal

annabanana82 said:

frugalmacdugal said:

Hi,

don't just walk into a bank with the bottle to use a coin counter and expect coins to flow out of it, the neck will get clogged up and need a poke now and again with a screwdriver or something.

Don't expect to get £100s from it.

Will we start a 'Guess the amount?'

My guess £68.72.

I have a similar sounding bottle filled with 20p's. It's almost full and currently has around £500 so my guess is £103.18

Hi,

that sounds good, be ready for Christmas.

1s and 2s don't really amount to much, but throwing in 5s and 20s fairly bumps it up, some bottles'll take 10s aswell.

Albermarle

frugalmacdugal said:

annabanana82 said:

frugalmacdugal said:

Hi,

don't just walk into a bank with the bottle to use a coin counter and expect coins to flow out of it, the neck will get clogged up and need a poke now and again with a screwdriver or something.

Don't expect to get £100s from it.

Will we start a 'Guess the amount?'

My guess £68.72.

I have a similar sounding bottle filled with 20p's. It's almost full and currently has around £500 so my guess is £103.18

Hi,

that sounds good, be ready for Christmas.

1s and 2s don't really amount to much, but throwing in 5s and 20s fairly bumps it up, some bottles'll take 10s aswell.

As this is a Savings forum, I am obliged to point out, that cash savings with no interest are currently being decimated by inflation 

frugalmacdugal

Albermarle said:

frugalmacdugal said:

annabanana82 said:

frugalmacdugal said:

Hi,

don't just walk into a bank with the bottle to use a coin counter and expect coins to flow out of it, the neck will get clogged up and need a poke now and again with a screwdriver or something.

Don't expect to get £100s from it.

Will we start a 'Guess the amount?'

My guess £68.72.

I have a similar sounding bottle filled with 20p's. It's almost full and currently has around £500 so my guess is £103.18

Hi,

that sounds good, be ready for Christmas.

1s and 2s don't really amount to much, but throwing in 5s and 20s fairly bumps it up, some bottles'll take 10s aswell.

As this is a Savings forum, I am obliged to point out, that cash savings with no interest are currently being decimated by inflation 

Hi,

maybe the 'interest' came from seeing the 'giant' bottle fill up.

adindas

happybagger said:

If you have a local shop you use like a newsagent, c-store, or a post office, just ask them. When I worked in my local shop we were always running short of coins (except pound coins) so would always change them for our customers as long as they were bagged up, ie full £1 bags of coppers. Saved ordering change in from the bank.

 it almost takes two people to move it".
It takes the OP ages with numerous visit to drain all of the coins. It is probably not even worthy to count it evey time you buy items.

Ocelot

Could use coinstar at a supermarket (they take a percentage though).

Wheres_My_Cashback

AFAIK HSBC or Virgin used to be the only two banks with automated coin sorters where you could deposit direct to an account.

adindas

Spender£ said:

My nan has a giant old whisky bottle full to the top with 1 and 2p coins which is so heavy it almost takes two people to move it, we have told her the banks hardly accept these much now and it would take ages to deposit it in an account.
Does anybody have any ideas of how to get it in an account as i don't like those coin counting machines because they take a fee however i heard Metro used to have a free coin counting machine if you banked with them.

Indeed, most (if not all) Metro Banks in London have coin counting machine called "Magic Money Machines". But you will need to bank with Metro Bank to use them.
In the past, a few years ago some of HSBC branches also have coin counting Machines, do not know now, but I believe it is still available.

Brie

Our local NatWest bank has a coin counter at the ATM.  I don't know what limit it has but I expect there is one to keep someone dumping a huge quantity all in one go.  I believe it is just for the use of NatWest RBS accounts so someone would need one of those accounts.  

But if you can get coin bags and don't fancy counting do the weighing trick as someone has suggested as that's what the banks do too.  Post office will take a small number of bags but they must be full.  Any other bank I've tried will take partial bags and will correct any that are a couple of penny over/under.

elsien

Bridlington1 said:

Ebe_Scrooge said:

Most (all?) banks will have coin-counting machines - but only for use by the staff, not usually the public.  Check with the bank first, but usually they'll accept coins if you bank with them.  Sort them out so you've a bag of 1p's, a bag of 2p's etc. and take them to the bank.  They can just weigh them and know how much is in there.  Actually, you may not even need to separate them, depending on whether the bank has a coin-sorter or just a weighing scale.

Like I say, phone up to check beforehand, but usually your own bank will accept them.

Quite a few banks have limits to the number of bags of coins you can deposit each day (usually 5 or 6 I've found) so I would avoid the hassle of bagging the coins up if I were you. Just find a bank with a coin counting machine and pour the whole lot into it.

No, do it a bit at a time. If you pour the whole lot in and overload the machine It has a hissy fit, spits all the coins back out again and then closes down  leaving you to scoop all the coins back into a bag and take them home again.
My NatWest branch you can only use the coin machines for paying in if you have an account there. So the OP need to check with their own and their Nan’s bank to see what facilities they have. Then potentially take them in over a few sessions.