The Coinstar experiment

I've been piling up change for the last ten years without cashing it in. I've even been sorting as I saved, and when I took inventory recently I had several freezer bags full of pennies, a mason jar of dimes, two jars of nickels and a few more jars of pennies. It was too much. It was time to cash out.

The last time I cashed out a bulk of change I brought it into a Lake Tahoe casino and pretended that I won it on slots. Made for some nice starting money at the Black Jack tables. But now that all slot machines are "coinless," nobody cashes in coins at casinos anymore. Coinstar was my only option.

I went full incognito, in case I ran into someone I knew as I cashed in my piggy bank.

Hat, glasses? Check.

I walked into the Mountain View Nob Hill market where I had seen a Coinstar machine before. I approached the machine and pressed the green start button. I was then instructed to dump my coins into the machine. I had to shake them a bit to enter the machine and be sorted. But soon enough the machine accounted for one beer cup of nickels and another of dimes. I couldn't bring my whole coin collection in one trip without making myself look more awkward than I already felt. This will require a few trips.

Being too cheap to give Coinstar their 8.9% commission for a cash redemption, I selected a full redemption via an Amazon.com gift certificate.

Coinstar calculated my deposit at $115.24, consisting of 4 quarters, 933 dimes, 410 nickels and 44 pennies. (I swear I didn't have more than ten pennies in that batch. I think Coinstar misrepresented some of my dimes. What am I gonna do...?)

I have another batch of coins readied for trip two; a cup of nickles and a cup of pennies. I estimate the take at $25.

I hope no one recognizes me at a Coinstar veteran. Otherwise I might have to use my proceeds to buy an metal detector and head out to the beach.