I took the pocket change...

[Edwin Santos]

Lowell, did they charge you a fee or a percentage to use this?

It's been a year or so since I did it, but when I used a Coinstar machine, there was no fee if you took your payment in the form of an Amazon gift card (there were several other retailers too, like Home Depot). In other words, if you turned in $30 of change, you'd get exactly $30 to redeem with the vendor. I assume the vendors are paying Coinstar something on the back end for driving the business to them.

[Mike Chance in Iowa]

When my daughter was born I built her a Rockinghorse and hollowed out the belly (about 1 1/2 gallons capacity). Anytime I get the two dollar coin I drop it in her horse. My daughter is special needs in a wheelchair. One day she might cash it in for a new wheelchair or something...

Beautiful job on the rocking horse. What a wonderful idea. I hope there is an easy way to retrieve the coins years down the road. Would be a shame to have to dismantle the rocking horse!

[Tony Pisano]

Some of my change goes from my pocket to the counter, then to the car, mostly for small stuff. I also have 2 large piggy banks, one cast iron, and one that I made from a 20 lb propane tank, that would l probably fall through the floor if I ever fill it.

[Justin Rapp]

My change bucket is a 5 gallon water jug from a water cooler. Now that the debit card is used more often, as most of you have stated, I also don't get much change anymore. The most I ever had in there was maybe 4 or 5 inches of change, which turned out to be about $750 when I cashed it in. At the time, a local bank had a no-fee change machine if you were a customer. A few months ago, my son decided to count it and there was about $300 in it. When I get a chance to turn it to cash, it is gonna be a really nice date night for my wife and I.

[Myk Rian]

When I retired 15 yrs ago, I counted all the change I had collected for many years. $430. Nice pocket change.