Why the Coin Counting Home Page?

Why the coin counting home page?

All forms of money appeal to me, especially pocket change. Stories and pictures displayed on old and new, foreign and U.S. coins offer a variety that our paper currency has yet to offer. And I don't possess more than two or three denominations of currency, ever.

Thus, when I first encountered supermarket coin counting machines, they drew me in with their simplicity, convenience and technology. Counting coins at 600 per minute is an impressive feat and getting quick cash from stranded pocket change was appealing. But my repulsion by the almost ten percent counting fee kept me from using the machines, especially since by then, I had a wonderful alternative. My bank.

Commerce Bank is one of the best banks I have ever dealt with. While most banks maintain bankers hours, Commerce adds hours, including Sunday hours. As other banks begin to charge you for teller transactions, Commerce makes sure that there are not only tellers but also banking representatives available if you are interested in adding new services and options. And instead of charging for coin counting, Commerce adds a free, self-service coin counting machine to every branch. Apparently, customer service pays, as indicated by their more than doubled share price over the past two years and robust branch additions.

Free versus almost ten percent? Who would ever use a supermarket machine and lose so much of their own money when they could go to their bank? Wouldn't the loss of so much money outweigh the slight added convenience of a supermarket machine? Maybe people didn't know there were alternatives? Were there alternatives besides those offered by my bank?

Thus began my quest to offer others alternatives to the supermarket coin counting machines. As I write this, I have recorded information on approximately 1000 banks which offer cheap or free coin counting, although I believe that the number may be much higher.

What do I hope to accomplish? I would like inform individuals, especially ones with minimal money to spare, of cheap and free coin counting alternatives to help them preserve their hard earned wealth. I also hope to do my part to push banks and other businesses and organizations toward offering customer service by selective adoption of technology as opposed to cutting service offerings or adding fees.

I do not know what will be next for this site, whether I will add services, try to break even or make money from the site, or let it go fallow. But I hope I have helped a few people save money on counting their coins and created a more competitive market for our hard earned money.