Change

04.21.2006

The other day I decided it was time to cash in on the change that I take out of my pockets at the end of the day. At some point in the past I read a little article about doing that and how you inadvertently save enough money for it to be at least a little substantial. At the end of the day 50¢ doesn't seem like much, well, if you're older than 3, but if you save up 50¢ each day for a year you end up with almost $200. For the last couple of years I've been throwing my change in old Steak-Out cups or little boxes. At times I've had to raid said containers for parking meter money or the occasional Coke machine run.

But the pennies always grow.

It's the pennies I was ready to get rid of. For those not aware, Coinstar sets up coin-counting kiosks to count your change, then print a voucher which you cash in (usually at the supermarket the kiosk is in). For this they deduct 8.9%, but that's the cost of convenience for not having to roll however much change you're cashing in. I had b een putting off taking my pennies to one of these kiosks because I really thought 8.9% was a little steep.

Before long I came across the Coinstar partnership with Amazon. If, instead of cashing in your change you instead opt for an Amazon gift certificate/credit, the 8.9% processing fee is waived. Hey, this means it's pretty much free! And I always want stuff from Amazon. Suddenly my change that has been laying around for years can turn into cold, hard internet merchandise. I'm all over this!

I load up a shoebox with (mostly) pennies and make my way to the Coinstar kiosk in Athens. I fill that sucker up and let it count my fortune. The geek in me liked the running display of what all I had put in. My 32oz cup and random little boxes of change yielded the following:

Pennies	3448
Nickels	19
Dimes	76
Quarters	19
Dollars	1
Grand Total	$48.78

I wasn't sure where all those nickels came from, much less a dollar, but now I had $48 Amazon credit, and 3500 fewer coins to keep track of. I then went home, entered the appropriate code in my Amazon account, and then had my promised gift certificate/credit. I think my credit stayed there almost 3 days before I used it.

Coin counting technology and the interweb. Gotta love that marriage!

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