disposing of English coins in our home piggy bank

Why not bag them up and take them to your bank (although I appreciate that so many banks have closed that may not be possible for some)

I don't understand this . I keep the coins in my purse and use them , why stash them ? The local small shop always asks me if I want to use up my small change so I empty the purse and we count out what is needed

Metro Bank have a coin machine and you get full value... supermarket machines take a percentage. No need to be a Metro customer. It's great fun and the branches are open 7 days a week!

I empty mine into the charity bottle on the bar at the golf club - each year it adds up to quite an amount for the charity we are supporting that year.

Suggest doing a super market shop and take the piggy bank coins money with you and save your self paying out 7 per cent of your savings.

I can't imagine many supermarkets being happy with anyone paying for their weekly shop in pennies and tuppences .

And anyway, according to the Royal Mint, 1p and 2p coins are only legal tender for transactions up to the value of 20p, while 5p and 10p coins need only be accepted for transactions up to £5. So you could find yourself having to pay by card and then haul your shopping and your bags of coins home with you.

We (lots of my neighbours and me) collect 1p's and 2p's and donate them to the Devon Air Ambulance .
Or, those Coin Star machines at supermarkets are very easy to use.

Exactly what I was thinking Bathsheba

I agree with aggie. Just use them for shopping, don’t let them build up.

I have my childhood money box full to bursting with 5p coins. I'm not sure quite how many, but certainly more that £5 worth. I'd quickly be persona non grata at Waitrose if I tipped them all out at the checkout.

Bank?Whats that oldwoman!
Banks and post offices will only take loose coinage bagged up in the appropriate bags and quantities.
Those coin changing machines are an excellent suggestion.
Do NOT attempt to pay for your shopping with them if you are ahead of me in the queue ????

Our branch of RBS has a machine similar to Coinstar, but you need to insert your bank card first, and the money goes into your account.

I use mine to pay for my shopping, but they've never been in a piggy bank. In other words, I use them up as part of my payment towards all cash purchases, so that I never accumulate too many of them in my purse.

DH, on the other hand, empties his into a jar. When it finally got full, last year, we did indeed use one of the machines in the supermarket. We reckoned that even minus their percentage, it was worth doing, and certainly better than paying both petrol and parking to take it to a place with a 'free' machine, or even our bank.

DS did actually suggest that we use the self-service checkout at the supermarket when doing a weekly shop, and just pour all our coins into the machine. He seems to think that the check-out machine will accept the change even if it's over the amount that is legal tender.

We weren't tempted to try that one - it's embarrassing enough having to get the assistant over for the usual problems, without risking jamming up the machine with an overload of small change, while those in the queue look on as it has to be emptied!