How can someone spend $5-$10 of a foreign currency

[#1 Cowboys Fan]

My wife was cleaning out some of her dad's old coins/bills (not rare), and came up with less than $10 of money from Canada, and Barbados (she thinks).

I guess US banks now charge a minimum of $7+ to convert---so that's no good.

One of the bank tellers thought that Tim Horton's will take the Canadian for payment-----that'd solve that (if it is true).

But, how can someone spend $10 in Barbados (or any country's) currency in the US?

Pat

 

[tombanjo]

Many airports have a donation box where you can donate foreign currency to a good cause, for travelers who are returning from somewhere with what you have, an amount so small it is not worth trying to convert back to US dollars. I really can't see anywhere where you can spend a small amount of currency like that. If you really need to get US dollars back, you might try selling on eBay and get a few dollars out of it.

 

[bnoble]

Sounds like a good reason to plan a trip to Canada!

 

[Passepartout]

Short of donating to a charity as one departs a country, there probably exists no practical way to spend down old leftover currency- especially coins. And then there are the 'orphaned' currencies. Those abandoned by their own country. The Italian Lira, the Spanish Pesetas The Drachmas and Deutche Marks and Francs and Coronas and Guilders who knows what all that have been replaced with new E.U. Euros. Even in China, old currency gets replaced with new RNMBs that don't exchange after a time.

I keep a stash of old and orphaned currency in a jar. Occasionally I have dumped it out to see some of the places we've traveled- most, never to return to. I suppose some teacher might make this an educational project, but to what end? The money has no value and some of the countries don't exist. Young people would only learn to spend as you go or lose any value it once had. Is that a message to pass on?

Meanwhile I keep a small stash of 'seed money' in Euros and Mexican Pesos in the hopes of going back soon enough to need a coffee in an airport or maybe a Uber to a resort once again.

Jim

 

[am1]

Tim Hortons does accept Cdn money (in Canada).

 

[pittle]

Because we go to Mexico a lot, we always bring home enough for a meal or two and taxi fare to the resort next time.

I have a few Euros, English currency, Swiss francs, some old Mexican pesos, When our neighbor kids needed to do reports on other countries, since they knew I traveled quite a bit, I was able to share currency so they could take it to school as part of their report.

 

[CanuckTravlr]

We keep a few denominations (mostly coins) of currencies for countries where we are likely to return, such as GBP or EUR. We also never convert any US currency back, we just keep it for our next trip. Otherwise we normally just use up what we have by buying trinkets, food or snack items before we leave the country.

I have always made it a practice to keep a few souvenir coins from any country I have visited. I now have a nice collection of many defunct or demonetized coins, particularly the pre-Euro currencies, including some DDR East German marks from my visit to East Berlin through Checkpoint Charlie. Their original nominal values don't amount to much, but they are interesting historical artifacts and do bring back memories of past trips.

 

[#1 Cowboys Fan]

Tim Hortons does accept Cdn money (in Canada).

But do they accept it at US locations?

 

[CanuckTravlr]

But do they accept it at US locations?

Highly unlikely. They have no better method of depositing or converting them to USD at their local bank, than any other US business. It's not like they send the daily proceeds back to Canada for processing!!

On the other hand, we have sometimes been able to use CAD at locations in the Buffalo area, when we didn't want to break a larger US bill. But they are used to Canadians being there. I would certainly not normally do that, nor expect them to accept CAD, any more than I would expect Canadian locations to accept USD (other than at a very unfavourable exchange rate, if at all).

P.S. - And I am not aware of any bank, anywhere in the world, that accepts foreign coins. IME, they will only convert foreign bills. And US banks generally are much less comfortable and experienced in handling foreign currency than Canadian or European banks. There are some exceptions in larger cities or in border towns.

 

[VacationForever]

My bank will convert notes regardless of amount with no fee. Some airport currency exchange booths do take coins.

 

[am1]

But do they accept it at US locations?

I thought I answered that. No they will not. Maybe as tips. Some may not be impressed.

 

[DeniseM]

When I cleaned out my Aunt's home, we took all her coins to a coin shop and sold them there - if the coins are old or rare, a coin shop may have interest in foreign currency.

 

[x3 skier]

I have some old WWII German currency I framed. Makes a nice conversation piece.

My granddaughter took it to school as part of a History project.

Cheers