Rolled Coins. What Do I Do With Them?

I’m a change gatherer. I don’t really know how it happens, but I always end up at home each evening with tons of change in my pockets. I have two piggy banks on the go at any one time, and both of them fill up rather quickly.

My niece and nephew love coming over because there are always coins lying around my apartment, and it’s a fun game to find them. Despite my best efforts, I usually end up with change on counters and less frequently in my bed. One time I was taking a shower in the morning and heard a few “clangs”, only to look down and see a few pennies fall off my body — apparently I had slept with them and they got stuck to my body during the night. I rule.

Since I was running out of room to store my change, I decided I would simply cash them in. Only problem is the coin sorter I used to use at Safeway is no longer there. I did a quick Google and realized the only one left in the city (that I could find) was at the Burrard IGA downtown. Unfortunately, according to some forum posts, it recently went the way of the dodo as well.

Not knowing what else to do, I went down to Staples and spent $30 on a change sorter. I spent about 90 minutes the other night going through two piggy banks, and ended up with close to $300 in rolled coins. The things is, I really don’t know what to do with the rolls now.

In the old days you’d take them to a bank and they’d give you cash in return. Usually they want your account number so that if you’re short in any rolls they’ll simply take the difference out of your account. Unfortunately, I do all my banking online nowadays with PC Financial, and I don’t have access to any physical tellers.

So I’m pretty much stumped right now. I’ve been told sometimes you can take them to casinos and pretend like you won them on slots, but I’m not sure which casinos in the area still use coins. Anyone have any great ideas for what I should do?