Coin accumulation

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I get this problem with coins, which seems to be very Aspie of me.

If I go and buy something, the time constraints and social pressure make it difficult for me to keep calm and count out the exact amount, so I usually just give them a banknote and they give me change. So I end up with tons of coins.

My method of getting rid of them is unusual too. I hate going to the bank (they rarely do what I ask), and the only other outlets for the coins seem to charge a commission. So I tested out the supermarket's self-checkout machines, and discovered that they will accept well over the legal number of coins in one go, so I spent them that way, shedding about £1's worth of copper every visit until they were nearly all gone.

Now all I have to do is avoid letting the coins build up again. Best thing is to pay by card whenever possible, and if I end up with over £1's worth of coins, just spend 'em in the supermarket machine.

Anybody else have a problem accumulating coins?

I hate this too. I don't know whether it's part of AS though. I don't like coppers or any small change. I like everything to be even and rounded. I found the self-service machines handy for getting rid of them too!

We do have a jar though that we put any leftover small change into and save it up, then my husband takes it to the bank when there's loads of it. xD

I always let them accumulate for quite a while, I store them in a separate jar whenever I feel my wallet gets too full. I always leave some coins in my wallet just in case they ask if I have a certain coin, which is then easy to find since I only have a few coins.

Whenever the jar gets crowded enough, I take out all the coins, I stack them and sort them by value. Then when I go to the store, I try to guess how much whatever I need will cost, and I take the matching number of coins plus a few extra. But those coins are usually the same value too. I'll end up with a bit change in return, but I get rid of most coins that way.

The only occasion where I do search my wallet for the matching amount of coins is when there's no line behind me, hence little or no time pressure. I usually make a prepared joke about it as well then, I guess to make me feel comfortable enough to spend some time searching my wallet.

I'm sure it's not diagnostic - there must be lots of people who can't count up the right coins in time, in today's hurried world. And there must be number-loving Aspies out there who can do the sums very easily. But I notice a lot of AS-related things about it in my case. There's multi-tasking difficulty (maintaining appearance of sanity in front of checkout staff while loading goods into bags and calculating coin numbers), sensitivity to being rushed, executive function difficulties (not seeing the result of bad cash management until there's millions of coins, procrastination in dealing with it), fear of authority figures (bank clerks - well they often act like they're authority figures don't they?), difficulty getting help, crafty, homespun and rather technical solution to problem (experiment 1: to determine the maximum value of copper coins that a checkout machine will accept.........experiment 2: to see whether payment can be made as part cash, part card......calculatiing forecast date on which all coins would be spent, calibrating kitchen scale to weigh value of coins, researching legal tender amounts).


Good idea to wait till the amount of cash is worth frustration of dealing with bank staff.......though I suspect I'd fail to get them to co-operate.


I'd never be able to guess the total cost of my shopping. It would be good if they had a bar-code reader on the trolley that displayed the running total. And I hear some shops have calculators on the trolleys, so that would probably work. Using my own calculator would require too many hands.

I didn't want to get sucked into counting all my coins, especially the copper which seems like such a waste of life. In the end I just weighed out a rough £1 in copper every time I was going to the supermarket. What I plan to do from now on is to wait until I've got what looks like over £1 in coins, and just chuck the lot into the machine. I'll get change but it will never be more than 99p. And I'll never have to count any coins at all, apart from a quick glance to see if it's obviously over £1 or not.

Back in the day, bus conductors used to have coin-holders - little spring-loaded tubes, one for each denomination - and they looked very efficient as a way of rapidly dealing out coins. I was interested in getting a set, but the only ones I can find are too big. I'm sure market traders must still use these things.


When we first went decimal, some old people were so confused that they took to handing over their wallets and purses straight to the cashiers.

I always forget to get the exact amount ready while I'm queueing.

I stand in the queue, bored & daydreaming, then, when I eventually get to the counter, I haven't sorted my money out. I do this every time & I always think to myself "next time I must be ready".

I hate holding things up whilst I rifle through my wallet, trying to winkle-out the exact amount. So I just give them a note or a £2 coin or something, resulting in me accumilating lots of change.

This is how I keep breaking wallet's, through overloading them with coins!

Yes it's weird how difficult it can be to remember to do a thing at a particular juncture.

I have a jar that I put them in when I have change, and when it starts getting heavy, I just go to a Coinstar or something to get them turned into cash

I just give my change to anyone who wants coffee.

I wish I had this problem.

I used to do that, don't know why I stopped.

Why is it that the little old ladies standing in front of me at the checkout pay their grocery bills using coppers, carefully counted out and placed on the counter... one... at... a... time... while... the... queue... gets... longer... and... longer...

Last edited by TallyMan on 07 Aug 2012, 12:37 pm, edited 1 time in total.

I patoligically ensure that I spent my change at every possible turn in order to prevent it from accumulating. I recall my mothers purse weighed like 20lbs. She used to make me carry it when I was a kid and then I would hel pher to clean it out and there was always $10-$50 worth of change in that thing. Basically wasted money. So I spend change whenever I can so I don't accumulate it.

Hmmm..........~9% commission:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coinstar#K ... _operation
Sounds expensive but I seriously considered chucking them all away.......might have helped ease general inflation, as it's the reverse of quantitative easing (forgery), and it would have been so simple.
And I see Coinstar are trying a new method with zero commission if you tie the cash to a list of stores, which is similar to my supermarket machine method.


Giving it away was an option, but it would need a good handful of UK copper to buy one coffee, and I think the legal tender limit is only 20p in 1's and 20p in 2's, which might not be enough. Silver is legal tender in much larger amounts, so that's not been such a problem.

I tend to do this. I also just get rid of change at the self-scan checkouts, because even if I haven't got enough change to pay for my stuff, I can pay for the rest with card still, which is good.

I usually get rid of it on bus fares as well, but I only keep the coins over 20p in my wallet. Everything else goes in my copper jar for a rainy day up the Coinstar

Usually here, we have a quarter as the largest tendered but guys don't carry metal change ( I think). Ladies of course have that in their purse, but a wallet isn't conducive for metal bulk.

I have a giant plastic Miller beer bottle with a slot on the top and drop in the change here at the end of day, ( but sometimes it ends up clanging in the washer ) and at years end I run it to the bank; that is I take my beer bottle and set it up at the teller's counter -- usually 200-250 dollars worth.



But I share your angst with quickly moving in time with this.

wow, I probably have close to $200 in change alone. most of it's sorted but I haven't bothered to do anything with it.