What to do with extra 1 pound coins?

I'd go the Craigslist route. Sell them for £1=$1. You'll find a taker quickly, think of how many people post threads about wanting currency in advance on these forums.

You live in Seattle, so there should be no shortage of people going to London (filling a few direct flights per day). It would not occur to me to shop for cash on Craig's List, but someone might. Or someone in your office or church or neighborhood? It's typical for coins not to be exchanged outside the country, but you could also enquire with this kiosk at Sea-Tac.

You could also donate them on your next trip to the UK, even if that's not until after October. I know I've seen places in various airports to donate leftover currency, including coins and bills that are no longer legal tender.

I don't think you have to have an account at a post office. Just go to the counter and exchange them.

I would donate them at one of the museums next time I go to London.
The many free museums in London all have donation boxes by the front door;
The Victoria and Albert
The Museum of London
The British Museum

Someone said to donate them at the airport next time you go.
I wouldn't do that, unless you are very familiar with the charity featured as the beneficiary of the donation.

London museums need your donations.
And so does Westminster Abbey. The yearly cost of keeping that place in shape is astronomical.
(If you go to their website and click around you can turn up their yearly expense report.)

Every time we leave London, we donate the coins to a museum on the evening before we leave.

For those coins that are no longer legal tender, if the post office in England won't exchange them for you, sell them in London at a coin shop. There is an excellent coin shop directly across the street from the British Museum. You could take the coins in there and see what he will give you for them in paper money. No matter how out of date (for general use) the coins are, there's a coin collector somewhere that wants them for their collection.

I have 16 of these left over from last fall. Will I really be unable to change them for new one-pound coins on my next visit, some time later than October? Even at a bank?

Divide them up and give them to your young nieces nephews grandkids.. friends kids as souveniers/ collections. Thats what I do for my American change, Mexican Pesos Thai Baht, Hong Kong Dollars... etc. They love it and you're not talking about big $ here.

Banks have in general undertaken to accept them only as deposits to accounts after 15 October. There may be exceptions in practice but they probably don't want to advertise them so as to get people to deposit them quickly.

When the silver coins were changed in 1816 you only had two weeks to do it in. Maybe fewer people had stashes of them back then ...

To Rebecca: This is from the Royal Mint's blog today which got me thinking about what to do with my coins:

"For a period after the round pound loses its legal tender status on 15 October 2017, you will still be able to deposit them into your bank or Post Office account"

Doesn't sound like you can exchange them for current currency over the counter.

Hi:

Thanks for all of your responses. I like Rebecca's suggestion to donate it to museums. Most likely on my next trip I will visit (again) the Imperial War Museum, (again) the British Museum, and (again) the National Gallery. Each will get one third of the coins.

In case anyone is interested, here is the link to the Royal Mint's blog about the new 1 pound coin which arrived in my mail box today. It really is beautiful coin, and as the blog says, some of them are dated 2016 the year they were first produced even though they didn't go into circulation until today:

http://blog.royalmint.com/new-1-pound-coin/

Of the twelve facts listed in the blog, numbers 5, 6, and 7 sound very interesting. I wonder if the high security anti-counterfeit feature will ever be made public. Back in the 1950s I read a book about the US Secret Service which had a photograph of a counterfeit nickle. The text said that making fake 5 cent coins probably didn't generate much profit to the criminals. I just wonder how widespread counterfeiting of the 1 pound coin was.

Geor(ge)

3% is a typical number quoted as fake. They used to be often quite crude and not pass anything above a quick glance but in the last few years there have been some much better ones around as well.

Geor(ge), I stand corrected. Thanks for the correction.
Husband and I mailed a package at the Post Office in Stratford-Upon-Avon last spring, and exchanged several US dollars for pounds at the same time. The woman at the P.O. window did exchange a small amount of US cash for pounds for us.
Thanks for the link.--I think that might be a rule, but maybe it is not strictly enforced?

If you fly Virgin Atlantic you can donate spare change to Richard Branson's children's charity.

They still have their full value.

After I moved a couple of years ago, I found British notes that were over 20 years old and no longer in circulation.

The next time I was in London, It took the notes with me. No bank would exchange them because I didn't have an account. I was told to go down to the Bank of England.

I did and they exchanged my old notes for new ones. No problem. They would probably do the same with coins but check with them first.

Notes are completely different from coins. Notes issued by the Bank of England are a promise of money (as printed on them) which is honoured for all notes issued by the Bank back to its formation in the 17th century and they deal directly with the general public. Coins are money issued by the Royal Mint and they do not deal directly with the public. Once demonitised they are in effect worthless, and are only accepted at face value through banks by special arrangement with the Mint.

Geor(ge) you could post them to me. I'm sure I could do SOMEthing with them...... 😂 thanks

The last time I was in London, my mom had old currency. A bank won't exchange unless you have an account. She exchanged at a Post Office without an account and just over the counter. Took 5 minutes of waiting in line. There should be no problem if you want to exchange them for the new coins.

Having said that, the donation to a museum is a great idea I hadn't considered before. Easier than carrying coins back to North America and then back to London.

Many strategies to spend your last pound. But having some left over FX my normal experience. Left over currency (coins or paper) is my optimistic hope of visiting again. And if not, left over FX is a cost of travel, much in the same way the ATM and/or credit card mark-ups are a cost of travel.

If you attend a church service or Evensong while you are there, you could donate your coins when the collection plate is passed. Even if you are not a believer in any religion, it can be an interesting experience to attend a service in a small very old and historic church in London.

There are many such churches in the City of London, such as All Hallows By The Tower. If you visit All Hallows By The Tower during weekdays when they are not having a service, there is a box for donations. After a look around their lovely sanctuary, do go downstairs into their basement (the crypt) to see the section of a Roman townhouse mosaic floor, a small piece of a Roman road, and a Saxon altar.

Churches do charitable work such as feeding and housing the poor and homeless, so you would be contributing toward that. A most worthy cause.

I have no good ideas of what to do with your extra coins, but I would echo Rebecca's comment about lovely All Hallows-by-the-Tower Church. The church was founded on that site nearly 400 years before the Tower of London was built. We stumbled in there quite by accident as we were dodging rain drops after exiting the Tower of London. We found All Hallows-by-the-Tower Church to be one of the most enjoyable sites we visited in London.

Hi Geor,
I am also in the Seattle area (Kent/Issaquah) and will be traveling to London in August. I could purchase them off you or donate them for you. Not too worried about weight as these could go in carry on.

LMK Mike

Maybe I'm missing a step here, but what's the point of donating these coins on your next (after October) trip if they'll be worthless? How does that help any charity or church?

Does anyone think I'd have any luck taking my 16 pound coins to my bank (Chase) and seeing if they'll just give me dollars for them? That might be another option for you, Geor. Or we could meet up with this guy in Issaquah and do a deal. ;-)

Hard to believe George Soros got filthy rich on this exchange game....

The charity will have a UK bank account that will possibly still accept them in at face value.

No money changers in the US deal with foreign coins. None. Don't even bother taking them to a bank in the US.

That said, you might be able to sell some after October to a coin collector shop if they are in better than average condition.

Otherwise, you might find someone willing to buy them from you at face value (or a little less) if they are planning a trip to the UK soon. Look for a local travel club like the ones mentioned in that section of the forums here.

lol I will buy any pound coins at $1 per for my trip to London in August in the Seattle area.

I make it into the big city every once in awhile and we could meet up. Not sure about getting down to Olympia, but we have all summer.
Looks like you can send me a private message on this forum by clicking on my name. We can trade contact info then if you want.

Oh yay, there is a New Yorker in this thread. Can tell definely tell not from the NW.
Anyways, the whopping $6.50 I would make on 25 coins would probably equal the gas from Kent to Seattle and back. I was just offering that as a favor considering he cannot return them before Oct. $1/1 pound is what was suggested in the first post.

He did have "lol" in the message.

I'm sure everyone here would happily pay 1 USD per GBP right now if they had the opportunity and were going to be able to use them before they lose their value.

Sigh, sorry about the NY comment. Anyways, it is roughly 20 miles from my house to downtown Seattle. In normal traffic 30-45 min each way. That is the equivalent of Manhattan to JFK. Olympia is even farther and we do not have transit option that other cities have.

Time/gas is money. If someone wanted to deliver a commodity to my front door (UK coins, pizza, etc) then I would pay full price (cost plus tip). If I am to drive to a meeting location, on my own time, then that has a cost. Unfortunately I do not have a money changing kiosk in a central location so I do have to travel to meet at an agreed upon location. If I purchase a new item off Craigslist, and I have to drive 20 miles to pick it up, then I definitely am not paying full price. It is up to the seller to decide if they want to facilitate the sale by offering the buyer a discount for the convenience provided. Obviously if there was a way to cash out the coins at full value with no cost/effort to do so, then i encourage the OP to do that. I was just trying to be helpful at a value that worked for myself and the OP.

Unicef collects foreign coins on the airplane and they are processed in bulk by a charity. You can read about it on the internet.
If you are not going to be on a plane to be able to do this...
here is link with more info.

Unicef coin collection