Remember the days you could take your piggy bank full of coins to the local savings institution and have them counted out for crisp bills or deposit. Sometimes those coins could add up to hundreds of dollars – with annual amounts rivaling cash rewards from cash back credit cards.
Fortunately, those days aren’t entirely gone.
We have identified a handful of banks still offering this service, although there may be a small fee.
In that case, we also show you other ways to convert your coins for free.
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Which Banks Have Coin Counters?
Chase, Bank of America, Citibank, Capital One, PNC Bank, TD Bank, BB&T and other major national banks no longer provide coin-counting machines to customers or to non-customers.
The reason:
The big banks claim that these machines cost more to maintain than the value that is delivered to customers.
The financial institutions that are most likely to operate coin-counting machines for the public are local community banks and credit unions (often known for providing better personal customer service).
Additionally, you might need to be a customer in order to use these machines.
Otherwise, expect to pay a small fee for using the service as a non-customer.
What Banks Have Free Coin Counting Machines
| Bank | Customers | Non-customers |
|---|---|---|
| JBT | Free | 5% fee |
| Manasquan Bank | Free | - |
| Home State Bank | Free | 10% fee |
| First County Bank | Free | - |
| Shelby Savings Bank | Free | - |
| TCF National Bank | Free | 8.9% fee |
| Cape Bank | Free | Free |
| Hancock County Savings Bank | Free | - |
| Republic Bank (NJ/PA) | Free | Free |
| People's United Bank | Free | 8% fee (to increase to 11%) |
| American Eagle Federal Credit Union | Free | Free |
| Westerra Credit Union | Free | - |
| Chase | No Counters | |
| Citibank | No Counters | |
| Bank of America | No Counters | |
| Capital One | No Counters | |
| TD Bank | No Counters | |
| PNC Bank | No Counters | |
| BB&T | No Counters |
Banks Accept Coins Deposits in Coin Wrappers
After reaching out to all the banks, we found that every single one of them will provide coin wrappers for free, regardless of whether or not you are a customer.
Coin wrappers are paper wrappers that come color-coded for different coin denominations.
Each wrapper is used to roll 40 to 50 coins in denominations of 25 cents or less. Wrappers do exist for 50-cent and one-dollar coins.
Be sure to check your quarters to see if they were made in 1964 or earlier. Prior to 1965, U.S. quarters were made of 90 percent silver, which makes them worth significantly more than the $0.25 value.
If you’ve got a lot of coins, it could be a time-consuming task to stuff them into the wrappers.
Once you’ve rolled the coins, just bring them to the bank for deposit or exchange. For customers of the bank, it is free.
For non-customers, it’s not as simple — read below:
Exchange Coins For Free At Banks
Although every bank will give out free coin wrappers, not every bank will accept your rolled coins if you are a non-customer.
Chase Bank happens to have rather generous policies for non-customers, who can exchange up to $200 in coins as long as they’re in coin wrappers.
If you’ve got more than $200 in coins, there’s a simple trick: just visit multiple Chase branches.
Did you know? It costs more than a penny to produce a penny. In 2018, it cost $0.0206 to produce one $0.01 coin, according to an annual report by the U.S. Mint. The high cost of penny production has led many people to advocate phasing out the coin denomination.
While Chase will happily accept your coins, other banks I contacted will not.
Most of them have a policy of not converting coins to bills for non-customers.
In actuality, however, tellers would perform the coin exchange if the coins were wrapped and for a small amount between $10 to $20.
Again, you can use the same trick here by going to multiple bank branches.
If you have hundreds of dollars in coins, be prepared to make trips to many different banks.
Otherwise, your other option would be to just open an account with a bank that has a coin counting machine — not exactly the best option I must say.
Coin-Counting Alternatives With Coinstar & Other Stores
Coinstar is a company that offers kiosks for counting coins. You can turn the coins into cash, electronic gift codes, or charitable donations.
Coinstar kiosks can be found most often in major U.S. supermarkets.
Coinstar charges a fee of 11.9% if you want the coins converted to bills. If you just want cash from your coins, banks are the cheaper option.
But, as mentioned above, if you convert those coins into branded gift cards through Coinstar, it is completely free (see other ways to avoid Coinstar’s fee).
How it works
- You can bring your coins without having to have them sorted or wrapped. They simply have to be free of dirt, debris, and other obstructions that could block the machine from accepting the coins.
- Select the exchange option that you prefer.
- For cash, you’ll get a paper voucher that you bring to the cashier. For the electronic gift code, it will be printed on your receipt. For donations, you’ll receive a receipt of your donation for tax purposes.
Gift Cards & Participating Charities Through Coinstar
| Branded eGift cards | Participating charities |
|---|---|
| Amazon | American Red Cross |
| Applebee’s | Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals |
| Apple iTunes | Feeding America |
| Best Buy | The Humane Society of the United States |
| GameStop | Leukemia & Lymphona Society |
| The Home Depot | UNICEF |
| Starbucks | World Wildlife Foundation |
| Southwest | |
| Steam |
The best cash out option to avoid losing a significant of money to fees is the electronic gift code or charitable donations.
| Coin exchange option | Fee | How it works |
|---|---|---|
| Cash voucher | 10.9% | Turn in the cash voucher to a cashier |
| eGift Card | None | Gift code is printed on the receipt |
| Charitable donation | None | Donation is automatically made -- with a receipt for tax purposes |
Stores with Coin Counter Machines
Rather than going to the bank, you might run into a coin-counting machine at one of the places to visit the most: a grocery store or supermarket.
With cash transactions happening all the time, it makes sense that these machines are readily available at these stores.
Note: Every single store, even if it’s under the same chain, may not have a machine. If you’re thinking about making the trip, we suggest calling the store first.
| Stores |
|---|
| Wal-Mart |
| Winn Dixie |
| Food 4 Less |
| Vons |
| Ralphs |
| ShopRite |
| The Food Emporium |
| Safeway |
| Acme |
| Kroger |
| Jewel |
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Simon Zhen is a research analyst for MyBankTracker. He is an expert on consumer banking products, bank innovations, and financial technology.
Simon has contributed and/or been quoted in major publications and outlets including Consumer Reports, American Banker, Yahoo Finance, U.S. News – World Report, The Huffington Post, Business Insider, Lifehacker, and AOL.com.
