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Buying Rolls (Or Other Inexpensive Bulk Lots) Of Coins While Traveling

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New Member

United States
3 Posts
 Posted 03/04/2020  4:19 pm Show Profile   Bookmark this topic Add bsammon to your friends list Get a Link to this Message Number of Subscribers
So... I'm going on a cruise in a few months, and I was wondering about picking up rolls of cheap coins while overseas. I'm specifically thinking I'd like to spend less than $1/roll. At that price, I'm expecting to get well-circulated common coins with a face value equivalent to 1cent each at current exchange rates.
Also, withdrawn-from-circulation currency is also of interest (it'd have to be recent to be cheap, I imagine)

My specific interest is to replace the cardboard/plastic money tokens in some board games I own with interesting foreign currency. And maybe give some rolls to gamer friends as souvenirs.

Anyone here have experience buying large(-ish) quantities of cheap coins while traveling? Can you get them at banks where you're not an accountholder? Do ForEx counters/stores do coins?

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kanga's Avatar
United States
5825 Posts
 Posted 03/04/2020  4:25 pm  Show Profile   Bookmark this reply Add kanga to your friends list Get a Link to this Reply

Quote:
... common coins with a face value equivalent to 1cent ...

They may not exist anymore, at least not in circulation.
Most (all?) countries have taken them out of circulation.
No buying power.
I don't think 1 and 2 cent euro coins exist in circulation.
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United States
20753 Posts
 Posted 03/04/2020  4:34 pm  Show Profile   Bookmark this reply Add just carl to your friends list Get a Link to this Reply

I see bags of foreign coins for sale all the time. And they are cheap. I think they sell them by the pound.
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NumisRob's Avatar
United Kingdom
17922 Posts
 Posted 03/04/2020  6:53 pm  Show Profile   Check NumisRob's eBay Listings Bookmark this reply Add NumisRob to your friends list Get a Link to this Reply

Quote:
I don't think 1 and 2 cent euro coins exist in circulation.

They don't circulate in Finland, and the Dutch and Irish don't like them, but they are still widely used in Spain, Portugal, France, Belgium, Austria, Slovakia and Germany.

It helps to have an account with the same bank - I got some rolls of low value coins in Spain from the Banco de Santander. I have an account with them in the UK.

If you're going to the UK, you can get 1p and 2p coins pretty easily. If you go to any British seaside resort, you'll find penny arcades with machines that can change almost any amount of money into 2p coins. But we don't roll our coins here, we distribute them in small plastic bags.

I have sometimes got quantities of low value coins at face value from banks where I haven't had an account, but it's hit and miss. In Gibraltar recently, a nice bank clerk let me change an English £5 note into a mixture of local coins, but she said that only local account holders could get bags of coins.
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ShareBear's Avatar
Canada
499 Posts
 Posted 03/04/2020  7:16 pm  Show Profile   Bookmark this reply Add ShareBear to your friends list Get a Link to this Reply
It depends on where you are traveling. In Colombia I was able to get coins from the smaller currency exchange in the city. Basically she had a small bucket of small change and I told her that I wanted one of each coin.
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Pertinax's Avatar
United Kingdom
2133 Posts
 Posted 03/04/2020  7:42 pm  Show Profile   Bookmark this reply Add Pertinax to your friends list Get a Link to this Reply
Admittedly, I haven't been abroad for several years and I'm not going while CoVid-19 is raging but I've never experienced any problems in getting low denomination coins and I've not been an account-holder at any foreign bank.

Generally, banks won't issue coins that aren't in circulation.
Don't go at busy times and be prepared to wait.

Shops may be happy to give you change in the coins you want.

I told a German bank that I wanted to use their coins in a board game - they were furious and told me to get out.

Check export regulations, some countries forbid the departure of tourists holding local currency.
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United States
3 Posts
 Posted 03/04/2020  11:06 pm  Show Profile   Bookmark this reply Add bsammon to your friends list Get a Link to this Reply
Thanks for the informative responses. Some thoughts:

The denomination desired would of course depend on the country -- for example, in Jamaica, I'd go for dollar coins -- with the exchange-rate(/inflation) they're penny-equivalents.

Also, I'm not ruling out nickel-equivalent -- some of my games have two denominations of plastic coins.

Video/penny arcades is an interesting idea (and with that I'd add casinos - if they have penny(-equivalent) slots) that I hadn't thought of -- thanks for that. While I would hesitate to impose on a store-clerk for large quantities (often registers only have one or two rolls per denomination), I'm okay with raiding a change machine.

Also:

Quote:
I see bags of foreign coins for sale all the time. And they are cheap. I think they sell them by the pound.


Do you mean online, or in-person?
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jbuck's Avatar
United States
188213 Posts
 Posted 03/05/2020  2:55 pm  Show Profile   Bookmark this reply Add jbuck to your friends list Get a Link to this Reply
to the Community!

Your post was moved to the appropriate forum for the proper attention.
New Member
United States
3 Posts
 Posted 03/05/2020  3:12 pm  Show Profile   Bookmark this reply Add bsammon to your friends list Get a Link to this Reply
Uh... okay... not really about roll hunting per se. I'm not trying to find valuable/unusual coins. But I've already gotten some useful answers, so I don't mind if you move it.
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ijn1944's Avatar
United States
19147 Posts
 Posted 03/05/2020  3:25 pm  Show Profile   Bookmark this reply Add ijn1944 to your friends list Get a Link to this Reply
Aside from food poisoning and CoVid-19 issues aboard ship, I imagine you're aware of occasionally sketchy 'deals' (scams) to be had for travelers in the ports the ship will put into.
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jbuck's Avatar
United States
188213 Posts
 Posted 03/05/2020  3:31 pm  Show Profile   Bookmark this reply Add jbuck to your friends list Get a Link to this Reply

Quote:
Uh... okay... not really about roll hunting per se. I'm not trying to find valuable/unusual coins. But I've already gotten some useful answers, so I don't mind if you move it.
No problem. I will move it back to the main forum with a title tweak to broaden the appeal.
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NumisRob's Avatar
United Kingdom
17922 Posts
 Posted 03/05/2020  7:02 pm  Show Profile   Check NumisRob's eBay Listings Bookmark this reply Add NumisRob to your friends list Get a Link to this Reply
bsammon - If you don't have an account with the bank, I would recommend that you go to a branch of the country's national bank, the one that issues the coins. In the past I've got quantities of low value coins from the national banks in Peru, Paraguay and France. I had my best bargain in Paraguay in 1990 when I got a bag of 100 1-guarani coins for face value - about 10 US cents (for the whole bag) at the time! In the Eurozone, you might be given coins from any of the participating countries. In France (including overseas departments like Guadeloupe and Martinique) there are branches of the Banque de France in all main cities, and whilst they look quite forbidding with iron gates and push-button entry systems, I've found the staff very obliging, and, when I've gone in wearing shorts and a T-shirt, they've never asked why I want 100 5-centime coins! National banks are also handy for getting rid of obsolete banknotes and coins that you don't want to keep (if they are still exchangeable).
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