Im an accidental Numismatic. Over the course of +3 years, ive been collecting all the 1,2 and 5 Cent coins that have crossed my path. What do you do with these coins? Finnland, The Netherlands and Belgium all have abolished their public use (while they are still legal tender, they arent given out as change) – or so wikipedia has led me to believe. Ive never really had any use for them aside from maybe using the 5 cent coins in on of the BVG Machines in the Tram or giving my change to one of the MOZ Sellers on the S-Bahn. So what else to do than dump them dutifully into an empty liquorice tin?
So fast forward 3 years and the liquorice tin had reached max capacity. Out of curiosity I decided to dump all the change into a ziplock bag and weigh it. 4 Kilos worth of 1,2 and 5 Cent coins. Thats a lot of useless money lying around. But how much? Using the help of wikipedia to determine how much a 1,2 and 5 cent coin weigh, I deducted that
4 Kilos of 1 cent coins would be worth €17,39
4 Kilos of 2 cent coins would be worth €26,14
4 Kilos of 5 cent coins would be worth €51,02
Sweet! So I could expect to net at least €17 if I somehow managed to cash this money in.
But can you just take all this cash and dump it at the bank and exchange your change for paper money?
Now depending on which Bank you belong to youve got the following options
Postbank, Deutsche Bank (anything aside from the Sparkassen):
If youre a customer of one of these Banks youve just pulled the short straw. You will need sort, count and wrap up these coins before they will exchange your coppers into paper money. Though shit. On the upside the banks will give you the paper rolls for free.
Commerzbank:
If you are a lucky Commerzbank Customer, its Branches all have a machine where you can pay in your Notes AND Change. I do wonder that the limit of change it accepts is!
H/T to Ksenya and @inzuam !
Sparkasse:
Each Sparkasse seems to handle it differently. Some will take your change and count it for you and give you paper money in return. Other Sparkassen take your coinage, seal it up and send it away and then transfer the money onto your Bank Account. And yet others will deal with your change like the aforementioned Banks and force you to sort, count and roll up your change.
To be quite frank
But wait! Theres another option!
The Bundesbank
You can just straight roll up to the Bundesbank – the mother of all German (and European) Banks -with your bag of change, unsorted and uncounted, and they will do it all for you free of charge. The only snag here is that the Bundesbank is open to the Public from Monday to Friday, 8am to 1pm.
Sitting on 4 Kilos worth of change was motivation enough for me head over to the Bundesbank on a Monday morning. Beats sitting at home sorting through filthy change. Sadly though my wife thought it to be a good idea to dump every random coin she had lying around into the can. Some coins were easier to filter out – others were not.
Like with any good German Institution you get to draw a number and wait the minute you step foot into the Bundesbank. So you sit there and wait and watch people hobble up the staircase – each with a distinctive limp. It took me a few minutes to figure out why, until it dawned upon me that they were all limping due to the excessive coinage that they were carying with them. After getting called up, you get invited into a small both with about 15 Security cameras and some bulletproof glass. You get to dump all your change into a tupaware box and slide it through a security chamber. After dissapearing into the background with the box of change, the friendly bank man returns with some new hard currency.
So what did I end up getting for my 4 Kilos worth of change?
A grand whopping total of €33.12
So heres to the next 3 years of collecting coins.
18 Comments
Leave a Reply
This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.
Fantastic post. I was wondering exactly the same and you saved me quite some research time. Thanks!
Thanks! Was starting to get really annoyed with all that change sitting around – and was even more annoyed when the wife had stuffed the pot with every type of coin she could find lol
I had exact the same thing and we went to Postbank and starting rolling all the money up. On a Saturday. You should’ve seen my boyfriends’ face, haha! If only we knew we could’ve brought it to the Bundesbank… Great story, thanks for sharing!
always glad to be of service!
The Sparkasse at Alexanderplatz used to have a sorting machine where you could dump your change and stand by while it got sorted (by moving the coins so they would fall through differently sized holes). I loved the sound that produced — closest I ever got to being Dagobert Duck.:)
I think the Commerzbank has similar machines as well – might have to investigate that
I am so down to try this, but the link is broken. After poking around, I can’t find any more information. Any chance you’ve done this again and know they’re still doing it or can point me to the correct page? Thanks!
just saw your comment – somehow it got marked as spam? I fixed the link (it was merely a link to their address in Berlin). As far as I know they still do it, its a standard service that they offer. Opening times are Monday to Friday, 8am to 1pm, just go up the stairs and pick a number
If you are not Client of any of the Banks is still possible to exchange them?
If you arent a customer of a local bank, theyll charge you a a fee, and youll need to sort them as well (though some banks like the Volksbank and Raiffeisenbanken might take unsorted change). The Bundesbank will take your change for free and unsorted.
I work at a Coin Shop, in the USA, I have 2000DM , 1-2-5 DM coins, if I take them to a bank in Berlin, will they exchange them into Euro’s.
Yes for sure! But you need to go to a Bundesbank (the state bank) – they are the only ones who will still exchange the D-Mark for Euros (both bills and coins). The exchange rate is also fixed, 1 euro to 1,95 DM
Hello all I was wondering could some 1 help me here I would like to know the value of euro coins from putting them on a weighing scales for incents
5 kilos ….of 1 cent coins..
5 kilos. …oF 2 cent coins
5 kilos…..of 5 cents coins
5 kilos….of 10 cents coins
5 kilos….of 50 cents coins
5 kilos….of 1 euro coins
5 kilos. ..of 2 euro coins
I would be very grateful if any 1 could help …thank u ..gerry
Hey Gerard,
Here you go:
5 kilos ….of 1 cent coins: €21,73
5 kilos. …oF 2 cent coins: €32,68
5 kilos…..of 5 cents coins: €63,75
5 kilos….of 10 cents coins: €121,90
5 kilos….of 20 cents coins: €174,20
5 kilos….of 50 cents coins: €320,50
5 kilos. ..of 1 euro coins: €666
5 kilos. ..of 2 euro coins: €1,176
*these should be accurate, but theres no 100% guarantee
Lovely news. I have a big bag of those coins here in Spain. I can take them to Caixa but I have to tell them how much I have. So judging by your info on weights, I will have to sort them into 1, 2 and 5 céntimo coins before weighing them.
Pingback:How to get rid of your loose coins in Germany – Germany Advisors
Also some stores have checkouts where you can dump your coins. Those I am aware of are Kaufland, Bauhaus and Poco. At Kaufland and Bauhaus it is at self-checkout, at Poco it is with a physical cashier. Not all branches have it though, you might want to check online before.
Hi there,
I am aware that English-speaking expats in Germany tend to have these jars of coins. Do you guys open your wallets whenever you come home from shopping to take those coins out and put them into a jar? Why? They are money and the purpose of money is to go shopping. Actually, the polite thing to do at a German supermarket checkout is to pay exact cash, so they won’t have to keep going for more coins.