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How to exchange mixed foreign coins

- Published on 4th January 2017

mixed foreign coins

If you have recently done some cleaning or tidying up, chances are you’ve cleared out some old drawers. There’s a good chance you’ve stumbled upon some long forgotten coins and travel money leftovers. Eager to find out what your old leftover currency is worth? Here’s how to exchange mixed foreign coins to cash, quick and easy.

Mixed foreign coins in your drawers

Did you find foreign coins in your drawers? Many of us have a so-called ‘travel drawer’, filled with old travel documents, postcards, maybe some pictures and old holiday money.

Were the foreign coins neatly packed in little bank bags? Sorted by currency, with a label attached to them? No, probably not (unless you or someone in your household is very organised). This is where the fun starts: sorting out your old foreign travel money. Let’s get started!

If you do the sorting yourself

Start with clearing some space on a table or desk. Make sure you have enough light. Go through these steps to sort your mixed foreign currency:

  1. Separate coins and banknotes
  2. First for banknotes, then for coins: Arrange them in piles per country. If you’re unsure what country a coin or banknote belongs to, a quick search on any search engine will help. Simply use a piece of text you find on the coin/banknote as your search term.
  3. For each country: Arrange them in piles per denomination (value). For example, put all the 25c, 10c, 5c, 1c in separate groups. Then make piles of 10 coins each.
  4. If needed, do a bit of research on the subunit of the currency. For example, the subunit of the American Dollar is the cent. 100 cents equal 1 dollar. Therefore, 25 cents equal a quarter of a dollar.
  5. For each country: Write down the amount of coins/banknotes per denomination (value).

jar of foreign coinsjar of coinsHaving sorted the mixed currency, let’s find out the exchange value. Follow the three steps described here, to start adding items to your online wallet. That way you see exactly how much cash you will receive when you exchange your leftover currency.

If you want us to take care of the sorting

We can take care of identifying and sorting your mixed currency. That way you win time. We know our currency: we are able to spot valuable coins and banknotes in the blink of an eye. We know which items still have face value and which ones are collectables.

To find out more, visit our page about exchanging unsorted currency.

Author

Mario Van Poppel

Mario Van Poppel is the founder and director of Leftover Currency. What started as a hobby, collecting world banknotes, evolved into a fulltime job, running a successful online bureau de change. Mario is still a collector of pre-Euro banknotes and a member of the IBNS.