Tonight I just cleaned my room and while doing this I found some money. I counted it and I found out that there are a lot of coins from 25 different countries.
I know that normally banks don't exchange foreign currencies in coins, but is there a way so that I can still get some money for my foreign coins?
Unless it is a significant amount, changing coins isn't worth it. The amounts are small and most banks and foreign exchanges won't accept coins generally.
My solution is to collect the left over foreign coins until I fly on an airline that participates in the Change for Good program and then donate them. British Airways and Virgin also have their own programs. It is a great concept as a small amount of foreign coins isn't very valuable to you, but when compounded across thousands of passengers a year, it can make a real difference.
If you don't want to wait until your next flight to donate, many charity shops (at least in the UK) accept foreign coins.
Every international airport I've visited has something like this:
(This one was in Schiphol yesterday, but I've seen them everywhere.)
It doesn't matter what country the coins are from or what country you're in. They'll sort them out and spend them to make the world better. Just gather up what you have and drop them off next time you see one.
If you really want to change them, your best bets is to change the currency with people who go to the currency's country, either tourists or residents.
Usually, I just keep the coins around and give them to friends when they go to somewhere I happen to have some coins from.
Other than that? Just keep them as souvenirs, give them away, go visit the same country again?
Also, I noticed that coins sometimes can be exchanged at airports/borders, as long as it is part of a reasonable sum of money.
If you happen to visit a school show, where students show their hobbies, you will find that world coins are quite popular as a collection topic. You could perhaps give it a some collector.
Donate it to church auction. Some coins which form a set of a country, may be interesting prize.
Last choice is sell it on eBay.
If you have coins from 25 different countries, try selling them in bulk on ebay to collectors. This way you can even get what they are worth back (but usually a little less than their face value).
You can also try selling them on eBay and get most of your money back that way too. Some of the coins may be worth $1 or more on face value for just one, such as the Japanese Y500 yen or the British £1. So a "handful" can be worth over $20 easily. Donate it on the principle of giving can be another option.
There are a number of companies in the UK who exchange foreign coins. We had a whole load of foreign coins that we collected with our school and then sent them an organisation called Cash4Coins - they exchanged all the coins and once we'd agreed we were happy with the amount the money was in the bank in less than an hour. My son, who is at university is collecting foreign coins with his student union for charity... Cash4Coins also will collect for free if the coins weigh over 5kg.
