What to do with Your Coins? (4 valid ideas included)

Not sure what to do with your coins? Read on my suggestions on what are the things you can do with your accumulated loose change.

This idea for this post came from my parents’ accumulated coins.

In 2011, due to the news about The Third Series of Malaysian Coins, my parents handed a huge bag of coins to my brother. And they asked my brother to exchange them for cash!

Because they worried the existing one might not be accepted after the new third series Malaysian coins which were made available in circulation in early 2012.

To our surprise, that bag of loose change comes out to be a few hundred ringgits! 

What to do with your coins?

How about you? Do you also have a lot of loose change accumulated for years? Perhaps it’s time to take them out and do something about it.

Here are a few suggestions on what to do with your small change:

1. Deposit to a savings account

I thought I can just walk into a bank and exchange my loose change for banknotes. But, it’s not that simple.

Firstly, I need to have a savings account with the bank. Secondly, I will need to leave the coins with the bank officer. They will only calculate them when they are free and direct deposit to my bank account.

Some bank officers will call to inform the amount before making the deposit to the bank account. But some banks didn’t practise that. In my case, they took 3 working days before bank-in to my bank account. And the officer didn’t call me.

I am not sure how much actually is the total amount as I didn’t count it before handed the small change over to the bank officer.

I guess I just have to trust them.

2. Exchange with business operators

There are quite a number of business operators who will need coins in their daily operations. Among them are supermarkets, grocery shops, school canteen operators, night traders and other small business owners.

In other words, any business that accepts cash payment will need these loose changes.

Just make sure you count and calculate them before exchange for cash.

3. As a gift for your kids

I am sure your kids will be super happy when you top-up their piggy bank with your loose change. This is also what my hubby practised. Whenever he has some loose change, he’ll drop the coins in my son’s piggy bank. Or, he’ll pass them to my son and tell him to put them into his piggy bank.

Or perhaps, give to your kids during special occasions such as during birthdays or festive celebrations.

4. Use them when you do your shopping

Undoubtedly, you will make the life of the cashier much easier if you give them loose change every time you go shopping.

I meant if the total price on the cash register is RM40.95, the cashier will be happy if you handed her RM50.95. This makes her job easier and the transaction will be faster too.

To make it more convenient, keep them in a small purse so that you can easily get access to them.

After some time, you will realize that you are short of loose change for your shopping.

Final thoughts

Even though coins are just a small amount of money, they are still valuable. And they are still needed in our day to day purchases.

If you have accumulated a lot of loose change in your piggy bank and are not sure what to do with your small change, do consider the options above. Don’t just keep the coins. Put them back into the economic circulation.

Lastly, do you have other suggestions on things to do with your coins? Feel free to leave your comment below.