I have a stash of Euro coins that I've collected from various people, trading, etc. I'm bringing them along and want to change them into banknotes when I arrive. Do Italian banks have certain hoops to jump through for this? ie, can I just walk in off the street, do I have to have an account, must the coins be rolled or will they be accepted loose as they are now.. (luckily it isn't a big flour bag full of pennies, but a Ziploc bag full of 0.20 Eurocoins and up..)
thanks!
Posted by
San Francisco Bay Area (USA)
15180 posts
Most shops will gladly change them for you and you don't need to wait in line at a bank.
Posted by
Tresana, Highlands Ranch, CO, USA
23270 posts
What is wrong with just spending the coins? See if a merchant will exchange a hand full - not a whole bag. In the US I take a hand of change to a merchant when buying something else and exchange for several dollars. Generally they welcome the change. This doesn't sound like a major problem.
Posted by
Lakewood, Colorado
19092 posts
I'm with Frank; just spend them. How many euro, total, is the stash?
Posted by
Colorado Mountains, USA
7363 posts
DK - so do you have a gallon or quart bag of coins? As noted earlier, it probably shouldn't be too hard to spend them a bit at a time at shops, or leaving rounding-up-the-bill tips. I wonder if a decent-sized bank with a coin counting machine would happily amuse a foreign visitor who'd amassed more than a handful of coins by tossing them in the machine and converting the total to bills? I mean, you probably don't have € 300 in coins, right?
I wonder if you've gathered enough coins to have a representative collection with all the assorted reverse designs from the participating countries?
Posted by
Basel, Switzerland
8889 posts
Just spend them by giving the correct money for Gellato and other small purchases.
Coins are useful as they are needed for ticket machines etc.
Cyn, It wouldn’t be a "gallon or quart bag of coins", it would be a one litre bag!
Posted by
OP
St. Albert, Canada
73 posts
128 Euros and counting.. I'm good with keeping an amount for pocket change, you never know when it's better to have coins on hand.. Actually it's all part of me finding a way to save money for the trip's cost - I will be adding more as September comes along, such as if I find deals online where I can buy them at better rate than exchange value and save money that way, or trading my Canadian coins to other collectors, or people just donate their leftover change to me... I'll have a little too much pocket change, so to speak.
Posted by
New York, NY, USA
11294 posts
Euro coins are very handy at machines. I don't remember this issue in Italy, but in France, there are ticket machines that take coins or chip-and-pin credit cards, but no bills or swipe cards. Famously, this includes CDG airport - those with lots of coins can buy tickets into town without waiting in long lines.
Posted by
Forest Grove, OR
11328 posts
Banks here require the coin be rolled, and they will give you the ridiculous little plastic tubes (that are not quite big enough to work correctly) for each denomination, but AFAIK, you have to have an account with them and make a deposit, at least that is what our bank, BNL, does. Maybe a store would be more likely to trade them for Euro notes, as Roberto suggests. I've never tried that.
Posted by
Firenze, Italy
1530 posts
Bank do not really like to deal with cash, they like even less to deal with coins. Some banks, but not all, may change coins (sometimes at a fee), but this is mostly a service to shopkeepers with an account. The only bank legally required to change coins is Banca d'Italia, the state bank and a joint issuer of euros, that has a window in every provincial town. I cannot comment on the feasibility of this service because I actually used them only to convert liras into euros at the time of the currency switch.
Posted by
Tampa, FL, USA
1054 posts
I try to spend my coins when I get them and not have too many around to bring back home for my next trip.