Like most people I have a box of spare change that is inconvenient (or embarrassing) to go out and spend.

This is a common enough practice that there are machines in UK supermarkets that will sort your loose change for you and print a voucher for the supermarket, which is nice and convenient except that that they take 8.9% commission (you could, of course, go to the bank, but the whole point of such machines is that people are in supermarkets a lot more than they are in banks, and apparently the difference is enough to make the commision worthwhile).

What’s interesting, is that also in the supermarket (in the UK at least) there are these the self service checkouts, and they have an inviting hole for coins.

…and they work just like the larger coin sorters. (Eagle eyed viewers will note that this photo was taken at a different supermarket than the one above – largely because they don’t have one of the big sorting machines at my tiny local supermarket)

So when I have a box of change to get rid of – I go in at a quiet time (this is important, because you would hold the queue up otherwise), I do my weekly shop and I empty my jingling pockets a bit at a time into the hopper. Some coins are rejected (an astonishing proportion turn out to be US currency) but the bill rachets down and anything remaining is paid on a credit card. I just think this is an elegant way to clear out your change and ease your budget a little, while avoiding the 8.9% overhead.