Pocket Change

[Ivan the Butcher]

I have always treated my pocket change as a resource. I left home and got married in 1978, so these various systems of using resources started before that.

The first one is not really a necessity anymore: Don't leave the house without coins for two calls from the payphone. For me that was 2 dimes and later 2 quarters.

Next would be: "Not one dime!" A church my wife and I went that had a "Building Fund" that was supported by the congregation donating all the dimes they got in their change. I already had a different use for those dimes, but I kept track of them and put a $5 bill in the building fund every time I had a full roll. While it never built a whole new building, it paid for a couple of new additions.

I believe in keeping basic/needed supplies in my personal truck. Among other things is an old lunch box from my kids with about 25 kinds of ammo (from 22LR to 45-70) along with 5 sizes of batteries AND one roll ($10) of quarters. This is a godsend sometimes. That roll and its replacements have bought gas when I was out, food when I was hungry and birthday gifts when I forgot!

WE moved into our first farm in 1984, at that time I started keeping all pennies in a big jar! I can tell you from experience that a gallon of pennies is $60 (give or take 50 cents). In 2004, we went on our first Caribbean Cruise. All my pennies were not enough to pay the $810 basic fee. The did pay for two round trip airfares, all my souvenirs, and everything we bought at shops and tips while on shore!

In 1979, I joined the OGCA. Every other month they had a gun show in Columbus, Ohio. I used gathered aluminum cans and saved nickel, dimes, and quarters as the source of "Pocket Money" for small purchases and snacks (about $40)

Currently, I'm retired and my incoming coins are far mor limited. My mom is in a Nursing home and likes to play Bingo on Thursday afternoon. It costs 50 cents a game. About every other month she runs out of "Bingo Money." I give her a roll of quarters that I just happen have "Laying Around!" Never has so much happiness cost so little!

So, I am used to breaking a one, five, or ten dollar bill for every small purchase. Some Sundays, I get home from church with a tennis ball sized pile of change in my pocket. I smile knowing it will go to good use!

Ivan

 

[wundudnee]

Gun show money

 

[mckenney99]

When I worked the road, I never carried a wallet. I did carry one of those little oblong rubber squeeze change containers with $2.50 (10 dimes & 6 quarters) in my trouser pocket (tactically didn't want loose change rattling around in my pocket in case I needed to sneak up on a situation). I also carried my Department ID card, Miranda Card, a supply of my business cards & usually only about $10-$20 in bills in a business card holder. The change came in handy because when I joined the Patrol, cell phones were not in common use & occasionally I had to stop and make a phone call from a pay phone. I also occasionally picked up a drink from a vending machine when patrolling through the Rest Areas on my line assignment.
For the past 45+ years I've dropped all pennies, nickels and excess quarters (more than 6, I still carry my $2.50 in change container) into plastic jugs. I have no idea how much change I've accumulated but I haven't gotten desperate enough yet to dip into it, except to refill my pocket change container.

 

[NYlakesider]

Not to be a naysayer here but I do not like carrying change. As most of my transactions are by CC its easy to accomplish.

About the only change I saved was quarters, Kept a little box of them! It came in handy when I made my trips to the car shows at Carlisle Pennsylvanian. All the rest rooms and porti potties were kept very clean and sanitary by the attendants. From what I understood they worked only for tips. Every time I went to the rest areas I would throw in a few quarters into the tip container.

 

[olfart]

Up until about 1985 I dropped all my pocket change into a ceramic piggy bank. I went through the coins occasionally to see how many silver coins, wheat cents, etc. I had, and there were quite a few. Then my wife's niece came to visit on her 16th birthday, and my wife gave her the piggy bank. I gave up on trying to collect coins. Still not happy about losing all those.

 

[duke2002]

My mom is the queen of change hording. Shes still old school cash or check. About every 2 years i go through her change. Its a day long process. Ususlly find some old change. Wheat pennies etc. I think she may be why they got rid of the penny lol! She still has a pile of them. Im thinking im going to trade for them put them away for my kids. Im was the guy looking at the share a penny deal at the gas station. I collected coins since i was 8. Still collecting.

 

[Mike LaNier]

I have always saved my 'change' as I hate having coins in my pocket...had about five gallons worth saved when our house burned in 2020, and the plastic containers full of change turned into a messy pile of melted plastic and metal. Discouraging!

 

[30-30remchester]

Born poor and married the same, we saved change. We would put all change in a big bowl. When full, we would count the change and put away in old ammo cans. The pennies we would put in a 5-gallon bucket and write on the bucket the amount. A 5-gallon bucket will hold exactly $300 worth of pennies. After filling one bucket and half a second bucket, I sold them to a coin collector. When the pocket change shortage arrived a few years back, we took the ammo cans to the bank and cashed them in. Total was slightly over $3,300.

Congratulations to the op for being prepared for the unknown. I thought I was the only one. Every vehicle I have can be slept in, laying down, with everything needed to survive for 3 says. From extra money, food, water, coats, blankets, copied, drivers' licenses, passport and concealed permit. Plus, a hundred more things. I can get in any vehicle and disappear should my wife find out about my girlfriends.

 

[diyj98]

When I was in high school we still had payphones around. I remember a girl in one of my classes saying her mother told her to put a quarter between her knees when she went on a date. If that quarter ever fell out, she was to run to a payphone and use it to call her mother to come get her.

 

[raljr1]

I have always thrown my change in a wooden "cigar type" box when the box fills, I roll the coins and put them in a larger cardboard box eventually I take them to the bank for folding money.. Takes longer nowadays, but I still do it. When I was working in Mexico, if my son asked for cash, i would direct him to the cardboard box to get two rolls of quarters...we would gripe, but I'd remind him that it is money, and that's what you asked for.

 

[375hh1973]

I will probably take heat for this but I own zero coins.

Very very seldomly use cash for anything.

I think I used cash less than a dozen times in 2025. Any coins gotten get left in the little tray by the cash register.

Have cash stashed in all vehicles and my wallet for emergencies- card readers down etc....

Run everything thru the Delta Airlines AMEX and pay it off every month.

 

[The Last Standing Knight]

I carry a supply of pocket change in a canvas pouch on my belt made from a WWII pouch designed for holding BAR parts. Carrying them loose in a pocket is highly "problematic" in my line of work. Usually eight quarters, five nickels, five dimes, and ten pennies. The rest goes into the piggy bank and every two years, I sit down, roll them up and cash them in at the bank.

IMHO Legal tender is just that. I do not trust apps, debit, or credit cards. If the business doesn't take cash or check, I take my biz elsewhere.

I had someone explain to me that one day we would be a cashless society with an implant on our wrists that could be scanned and we wouldn't need debit cards and so on. He wasn't being a smart aleck or sarcastic, either.

I'm going to leave it there.

 

[Golddollar]

I bought my dinner and left a tip for the bartenders tonight with Golden Dollars and half dollars I carried in the Crown Royal bag in my jeans pocket.

 

[AManWearingAHat]

Not one to carry change, have a can by the front door I toss it in. So much is electronic now I'm lucky to fill it once a year.

 

[TX-Dennis]

I currently have a two gallon vintage pickle jar full of mixed change. Probably (from prior experience of cashing it in) $800 or so.

I keep hearing stories about 2005 nickels worth a couple of thousand each. Maybe I need to find time to go through it before cashing it in this time around?

Nah, what are the chances?

 

[zeke]

Most my regular purchases are cash, with gas and online being main exceptions. I always carry change, which keeps me from accumulating too much change.

 

[TXBryan]

I carry a dollar, plus, of change almost all the time. If you don't like change the best way to avoid collecting it is to use it. I carry three quarters, two dimes, a nickel, and four pennies. I like to use cash when I can and it freaks cashiers out to get exact change! Kinda fun. But it's the best way not to carry "fresh" change back to the larder. I, nevertheless, end up with some and it goes in a temporary holding jar.

Every couple months I take a plastic cat treat container to the bank and am usually surprised by how much they credit my checking account.

I think it's a generational thing as well. My son, who is going to be 20 this summer, disdains change, saves it but has no intention of ever doing anything with it. I would clean out his pickup once a month and get handfuls of change. It used to end up in my jar but now that he's at school I really don't know what he does with it. One would like to think his occasional student-related poverty would force a re-think.

Bryan

 

[OutAtTheEdge]

At the end of every day, I empty my pockets on top of my dresser, with all change going into one of the covered wooden bowls I keep there. With one small exception. We do our grocery shopping at a store that uses shopping carts that require a quarter to unlock. In cold weather, I always keep a couple quarters in my jacket pockets, and in warmer months, they go in my pants pockets.

 

[URIT]

Change seems to be a thing of the past for me. For the last couple of years, most of my purchases are with a debit or credit card, and rarely a check or cash. I do have a baggie of coins I keep forgetting to bring with me to feed the change machine to convert to store credit. Maybe I'll remember the baggie after this posting. Maybe?

 

[Golddollar]

I have a carrier and a dedicated Crown Royal bag of change in the Batmobiles for parking meters.

 

[MTC(SS)Ret]

Since the price of silver is so high these days I went through my change jar hoping to get rich. No such luck but I did find a 1930 "S" Buffalo nickel and a 1927 "S" wheat penny. Combined worth maybe $10.

 

[Ivan the Butcher]

Golddollar lives in the hilly but not mountainous part of PA. I've been to lunch with him and the waitresses around there love his Gold Dollars!

I have a couple of waitresses that keep them for their kids. However, most of the girls need those few dollars as pay a lot more than a keepsake for the kids.

Ivan

 

[Golddollar]

Golddollar lives in the hilly but not mountainous part of PA. I've been to lunch with him and the waitresses around there love his Gold Dollars!

I have a couple of waitresses that keep them for their kids. However, most of the girls need those few dollars as pay a lot more than a keepsake for the kids.

Ivan

Agreed. That's why I make sure the servers get a nice stack of Golden Dollars for tips. One waitress told me that the Tooth Fairy leaves Golden Dollars and she had just run out of them. She was glad I gave her a bunch.

 

[steelslaver]

I throw my change in a can and on occasion roll up the quarters and dimes. I save nickles separately and have a lot of pennies.