What to do with boxes of coins, euros and obsolete currencies

As usual there isn’t one size fits all answer that applies to the whole of Europe. Speaking for the Netherlands, you would not so much insult but most definitely very much annoy someone if you would tip them with 1 or 2 cent coins. No one uses them here, stores etc don’t accept them. So it would be a completely useless tip.
I however found out last year that they did accept these small coins in Greece.

If I remember correctly, most international airports have a charity / donation box somewhere around to discard loose change prior to leaving the country. Any chance of getting rid of the small denomination coins that way? I'm sure that any charity in a country that uses those coins would gladly accept the small change.

What a great idea Justsweet! We fly into Amsterdam and out of Paris CDG. Can anyone confirm there are charity boxes at those airports?

If you have DM bills, you can exchange them for € at the Bundesbank.
Good luck with the British money. I had a lot of it and the money exchange took some of it and refused the rest. Not sure why GB changes their money and makes the old bills invalid. Doesn't seem very nice.

With the small € coins, they have change counters in some grocery stores here in Germany, and you can dump it in and get a voucher to use in the store or you can exchange it for a bill. Go ahead and mix it with some larger coins for housekeeping tips. Put it on your pillow every day.

Similar to the Bundesbank, I believe the Bank of England will exchange old sterling notes
for current ones. Some banks may also.

There is also a service that will take your obsolete currency and cut you a check (so to speak)
in the currency you desire:

leftovercurrency.com

Their exchange rates are not great, but it's better than putting a shoebox of useless coins in
the closet. I've taken coins to their office in London and it's worked fine, but, their website
says they will reimburse for postage (no idea how that works).

I’ve exchanged outdated bills at the Bank of England twice now and it was quite easy both times. I’ve also exchanged outdated Kroner at a bank in Norway. Take the time to look up the process for exchanging. It takes only a few moments.

I do it know about charity boxes at airports but on all of our international flights, the attendants make a plea for a cause that takes any currency. Maybe check with your carrier, I presume Delta out of MSP?
.

Not sure why GB changes their money and makes the old bills invalid. Doesn't seem very nice

It was changed primarily for security reasons to add extra security features. but also to change from paper to polymer, which also gave added durability of the bills/notes.

Australia did the same a number of years earlier- changing to polymer- mainly due to counterfeiting, and many other countries have done the same.

Counterfeiting, especially if you are innocently given a false bill, is "not very nice".

It is not done to confuse the tourist.

Even the US $5, $10 and $20 bills have been re-issued to bring them up to date- and I have been caught that way, and had to check that I can still spend the old style bills. I don't believe that was done to be "not very nice" to tourists.

I saw the charity boxes in the Gatwick airport & at Schiphol in June.

Find a coin collecting club and see if it would like any of them. Pre Euro coins, while useless, could make nice additions to a beginner’s collection.

Most old coins, unless they are mint or a special date are of little value; maybe a $1 or $2. Coin dealers probably wouldn’t offer you anything for them. Most dealers only deal in slabbed/graded coins anymore. If there are any silver coins, you can sell them for their silver content. For the others, you may as well throw them in the trash.

Due to parents who were world travelers, and to having lived abroad for four years, I have at least TWO shoeboxes full of worthless foreign coins. Our grandchildren (9 and 5) absolutely love playing with these coins, so we keep all this "treasure" in a drawer in the living room. If your grandchildren are older than ours, maybe just keep the coins for great-grandchildren?

My other idea is to give them to someone who does mosaics --- our next door neighbor is a mosaic artist and has done things like cover a bowling ball with coins and put it out in our shared garden.

Even the US $5, $10 and $20 bills have been re-issued to bring them up to date- and I have been caught that way, and had to check that I can still spend the old style bills.

Right. The difference though is that with redesign or reissues of US currency, the "old" bills remain legal tender, remain in circulation, and are accepted by business -- older and newer bills circulate together. The BoE does withdraw the legal tender status of notes and the tourists that get caught out are the ones that do not understand this difference and hang onto old notes thinking "they'll always be good".

Personally with small or outdated coins, I just wouldn't bother. So called "take a penny, leave a penny" dish or local charity jars are not a common thing in the parts of Europe I've been to, so beyond the occasional charity jar at an airport there's just no way to dump the small stuff. I certainly liked the how coins were handled in the Netherlands and wouldn't mind seeing the cent going away here.

I'd spread the coins out to the grand kids. it may spark an interest, whether in collecting or in travel. As a kid I ended up with lots of coins from dad and his shipmates from various deployments. My brother still has them.

@Donna - The OP is referring to obsolete coins like Marks, Francs, Lira, Pesetas, etc., With the introduction of the Euro, countries changed currency. The old coins are essentially useless. They are worthless. Donating them just means somebody else has to throw them out.

I believe in Spain the last opportunity to exchange any old Peseta coins and currency was 2021 or 2022.

If someone is interested in Europe-old currency give it to them. A family friend gave me some shilling bills and Deutschmarks. Worthless but pretty cool to look at.

Otherwise, you can always take it with and put it in the donation envelope that the airlines pass out.

I would check about British bills and coins. Some have been taken out of circulation.

During the evening of my last day I take all the small coins out with me & find a musician that is performing and give them all to her/him.

I donated my small Euro coins at the Lisbon airport last year.

A decorator friend of mine redid someone's home and made a small wall in a nook beside the stairs a coin wall. She painted it this fabulous dark blue, then glued(I guess) the coins on the walls so that it completed covered it from floor to ceiling. It was gorgeous!

Heather, the Deutsch Marks are not worthless. You can exchange the for € at the Bundesbank. One of the places where I volunteer ran an event for a month, where people could donate all of their old DM. Not sure how they did with it, but everyone seems to have some.

Most grocery stores have small collection boxes for various charities, so you can drop your change there, or of course musicians.

If you have a lot of coins and bills, see if your local kindergarten would want them so they could play store, restaurant, etc. with them.

I've kept only little of that sort of thing, ie, DM bills, a few 10 DM bills (the best looking of the DM bills) and a 20 DM bill.

The 1 DM coin: I have are a few of those plus the 50 Pfenning piece. The only other pre-Euro coins I have are a couple of French Franc coins, precious souvenirs along with DM bills and coins.

No commie money from my day trips to East Berlin in 1987 and '89 which I got rid of by giving literally away any left overs from the daily mandatory exchange amount before crossing back to West Berlin at Bahnhof Friedrichstrasse. The commie Czech money from staying in Prague in 1973 was all spent by the time I took the train out of Prague.