Collect Pocket Change… You’d be Surprised at How Much You Can Collect!

pocket-changeSeeing as though most people (I assume) tend to use credit and debit cards for most purchases these days, cash tends to be far less “valuable” to have on-hand and, oh boy, let’s not consider keeping loose change around… talk about useless these days. In reality, nothing could be further from the truth.

In recent weeks–since our dryer broke–I found a new use for my change: to feed the local laundromat dryer! Until then I tended to just collect change whenever I used my cash and if I did anything with it I usually gave it to my kids so they could occasionally purchase treats at the store. Since they’re still young their eyes tend to “light up” when given such a gift. Fast forward a few more years and they’ll question me why it’s not twenty dollar bills. 😉

Before that my mother-in-law always wound up requisitioning my pocket change for the homeless or whatever she did with it. That’s fine. At least it went somewhere useful instead of the plastic cup I collect it in.

The question is, what else can loose change actually be useful for?

Well, for starters, you might consider stockpiling your nickels as they’re apparently more valuable than the face value and perhaps even more so for barter during SHTF.

You could, of course, save it up and years later do something positive with it like buy some useful preps, a new knife, adding to your food storage, or dare I say… start a college fund, buy a bond, or invest in the stock market… yikes!

Granted, there are more fun ways to use it from buying movie tickets or snacks at the movies to actually keeping track of how much you save and when you hit a certain amount (such as $60 dollars) go out to lunch or dinner. Maybe make it a treat time and take the family out for ice cream or yogurt or they prefer.

If your kids are young enough you might even be able to use it as bribery money (to do useful chores, of course) or other incentives such as to wash the car, clean the kitchen, bathe the dog, re-shingle the roof, or whatever works for you.

Of course, if you’d prefer to have dollar bills in your hand you can always take it to your bank or one of those change machines and for a price you can convert that “useless” change into likely even more useless dollar bills. 😉

The moral of the story is to NOT discount how useful loose pocket change can be and if you’re patient enough you can actually do something positive with it no matter what you choose that to be.

What about you? For what reasons have you kept and used pocket change?


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Comments

16 responses to “Collect Pocket Change… You’d be Surprised at How Much You Can Collect!”

  1. Lisa G.

    I once heard a story on our local news, about twelve years ago, a man in his sixties had saved pennies for about 40 years- he had, I believe it was six 55 gallon metal drums in his garage full of them. He decided to roll them and enlisted his grandchildren to help. It took them weeks- but he had $87,000.00 At that time a fairly decent modest new home could be had for that price around here. If I remember rightly- that is what they did with it. Yet,I have known people who will not “stoop” to pick up a penny.

  2. I should have posted this earlier, but coinflation.com has all the info I listed above! Metals content and value of all years US coinage, and Canadian too.

  3. NICKELS are currently worth about 5¢ but Copper Pennies are worth around 2¢ and have been as high as 3¢! The Nickels were up around 8¢ in 2008 when China was buying up all the scrap metals and building supplies for the Olympics, etc. The point is that Nickels and Copper Cents will be worth more than face value if the U$D crashes. I have over 40# of copper cents, a few $ face value of nickels, (I had to change them in for an emergency) and some Silver as well. Even Quarters and Dimes will retain the metals value when (not IF) the U$D crashes, but metals value in a dime is under a copper penny at the moment! It will remain that way. A quarter is worth less than a nickel! It will remain that way also. SO stack Nickels and Copper Pennies, it is a “nearly free” prepping method!

    1. Good into to know, thank you!

  4. Donna Brown

    As a waitress, my change always gets put in my change purse, and after laundry day the rest goes in a large jug. At the end of the year, it’s usually used for Christmas and helping with bills or anything else needed. Most years I end up with $500 – $700 and it really comes in handy during the slow time of the season.

  5. Wendy

    Working in retail, I am still astounded how often people don’t have any money on them, and are reliant on plastic for even the smallest transactions. I have also seen what happens when “the system” goes down, especially when people are out of town. I always try to have some money at all times, and when traveling enough for a tank of gas and an emergency meal or two. If nothing else, I can throw coins at the zombies when they attack!

  6. junipers

    My husband never spends his change. He dumps a pile of it on my desk, and after checking the dates of each coin, each pile of coins are places into different jars. At the end of the year, we take it to our bank and turn it into cash. That money is used for “emergency supplies”. I love to go to the Good Will, Flea Markets, or to garage sales to hunt for treasures. It’s fun and it’s rewarding. (We keep all of our nickels)My twin sister always saves her dollar bills. She uses that for her Christmas shopping.

  7. junipers

    What a great family tradition! It sounds like a lot of fun! Sounds like a “treasure hunt”!

  8. Ryan Chamberlin

    I’ve found in disasters, there is a lot of down time, and kids get antsy. To distract them I carry a deck of cards. But I could probably keep them engaged even longer if I had loose change to give them to bet with.
    Great Post!

  9. Dan

    We accumulate a couple of hundred dollars in change 2-3 times a year. We take it to the bank to convert it to dollars and they don’t charge us. Since I never go anywhere and never spend money all that change comes from my wife’s purse. She empties it once a week. The last batch purchased us our HiPoint 955TS for the wife. She loves it. With the Red Dot we put on it she is accurate to 100 yards. (4 inch groupings at center) It was our Christmas present to ourselves.

    1. “Pocket Change Carbine” 😀
      I LOVE IT!!!

  10. My husband and son both empty their pockets of change when they get home and don’t pick it back up sooo I walk around the house every day “money picking”! It’s fun like an Easter egg hunt! lol I put it all in a large leather pouch in my purse. My son who is 14 is always embarred when I pay for something for him with change but I’ve found that cashiers really appreciate the change as they’re always running out. They always thank me and my son is always surprised at how much I actually have gathered. 😀

  11. You sound like you had a wonderful set of grandparents sir. How ingenious of them. This is totally cool. I’ve never thought of this.

    1. They’re my in-laws, not my grandparents. And, yes, it is a neat idea and one that she’s been doing for years.

  12. i started doing this last year. So far I have saved enough change to buy reloading supplies off gunbroker, buy a glock model 22, several magazines for my hand guns and pay for part of a trip I recently took. You are right I bet a person can average at least 20 dollars a week in change. Throw in the wife’s change she gets and it does add up quickly, plus if SHTF occurs got some money saved back.

  13. I ALWAYS save all my change! I have for years. I only “use” it when necessary.

    When we were little kids, my paternal grandparents would crack open English Walnuts, remove the meats, put in a coin, and glue the shell back together with a string loop sticking out. They’d hang that on the Christmas tree and us kids would just LOVE to get them on Christmas day and crack them open to get the coin out.

    Later, I passed on the tradition and did it for MY kids when they were little.

    I miss the “simple” times. Kids these days would be very disappointed to get a little “coin” for Christmas!

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