I live in a busy cosmopolitan college town in the US. Looking through my change I sometimes find that I have accepted oddities without even looking, and sometimes I get a prize!
In the last month or two, I received all these at different coffee shops or news stands. Hard to think what the clerk made out that he or she was giving me with a gold colored 20 eurocent, but it is worth almost exactly 25 US cents. The Icelandic 10Kr is worth less than 1cent!
The silver Washington is only a common 1964, but it is worth about 15 times face value!
Jamais l'or n'a perdu la plus petite occasion de se montrer stupide. -Balzac
A while back I received a 2011 Turkish 50 Kurus coin in my change pretending to be a 2 Euro coin. I've also heard of US quarters being found in British pocket change (probably mistaken for 10p coins).
I work as a checkout chick (register operator) in a busy Australian supermarket. Even in Australia I have found many coins from Malaysia, Thailand, and other Asian countries in my till. New Zealand coins are common as they are very similar to Australian coins, and I have even found American quarters in my till and even the odd UK 10 pence. It's a small world now.
Collector of Third Reich coins (1933 - 1946), and Australian coins.
Not swapping at this time.
Cita: "jokinen"Here in Europe UK Pennies are often passed on for 5 Cents. They look pretty similar from a distance.
And of course the Thai 10 Baht is sometimes abused as a €2. Chances of finding a silver coin here is completely non-existent.
I've heard reports of circulating silver French €5 commemoratives... never actually had it happen to me, and I can't imagine anyone dense enough to use one for it's face value even if it is legal tender.
was used as a quarter , it was very popular back in the 1990 and used in parking meters
and laundrymats very common to be found in new york because of he large greek american community.
its value was about 2 cents .
Cita: "jokinen"Here in Europe UK Pennies are often passed on for 5 Cents. They look pretty similar from a distance.
And of course the Thai 10 Baht is sometimes abused as a €2. Chances of finding a silver coin here is completely non-existent.
I usually get 5 cents as pennies.
I did get a few New Zealand dollars as old pounds and old Irish punt in circulation and this similar to Pearcem's as a £1,
I got a new one today, a Bermuda 5cent circulating as a US nickle, which is exactly right, as the BMD is pegged, and the size of the planchet is exactly right too.
also found today, (i though to start a new thread,"what did you bend down to pick up in the parking lot", but decided not)
A pre-1964 silver dime, bullion value $1,18 today! I can't read the date clearly but I think it is 1953.
yes, i absolutely will always bend down to pick up any coin, even 1cent!
Jamais l'or n'a perdu la plus petite occasion de se montrer stupide. -Balzac
Cita: "Mr. Midnight"yes, i absolutely will always bend down to pick up any coin, even 1cent!
Totally!
Pickings are even better in airports; I've found American, Turkish, Russian, Polish, Swedish and British coins on floors in or near airports across the Eurozone.
May seems to be a good time for this. In the past few weeks I have gotten two interesting coins in change posing as US quarters, both the same diameter, but on different planchets.
Jamais l'or n'a perdu la plus petite occasion de se montrer stupide. -Balzac
When I was a dealer, I had a lady contact me about selling a Sovereign. When I asked her how she got it, she said she was given it in her change — nice little payday for her.
There are a lot of Hungarian 10 forint coins in Croatia. Croatia is a popular travel destination for Hungarians, and the 2 kune coin has the same parameters as the 10 forint. 2 Croatian kune worth around 85 Hungarian forints, so Hungarian tourists use the 10 forint coins in vending machines or to pay for their parking ticket.
My wife is constantly bringing my granddaughter and myself , her change. So far ,She has brought home a couple proof quarters and both a Liberty and Buffalo nickel.
Recently I received a Czechoslovakian 2 koruny coin in change for a quarter. The dimensions, color, and weight are very similar, but judging that Czechoslovakia hasn’t been around for nearly 30 years, I wonder how long it has been in circulation here and if so, how had no one noticed? Interesting stuff.
I know this is an old post, but I found these within 1 week in the UK in my shop:
Technically the Isle of Man and Gibraltar coins can be spent as they are the same as the UK ones but they aren't legal. The others are certainly not supposed to be there. Over the years I found loads of odd coins in lieu of UK ones. East Caribbean $1 instead of a 10p! Lots of Euros and Turkish Lira instead of £1.
I don't run a shop, I used to work in one. A Swiss 10-Rappen is smaller than a 10p but larger than a 5p. It is silver-coloured and milled like these coins, and has a head on the back.
Pre 1990 ”Chunky” 5ps and One Shilling coins can be passed as 10ps because I found one in a bank bag sometime last year.
Hi to whoever is reading this. Did you know that TYPEWRITER (on a QWERTY keyboard) is the longest word you can type using only the letters on one row of the keyboard.
I remember a kid once paid me with one as a 10p. I decided to let them off because clearly they wouldn't have had it for ~30 years or known what it was. It was quite stupid of our coin designer to make the 10p nearly identical in size to the old 5p.
Almost certain I've told this story recently on Numista, but I seeing as it falls under the topic…
Can't recall whether it was supposed to be a 1p (colour) or 5p (size) in my change, must be 10+ years ago now. I don't believe it's a particularly rare coin, but it's got to be worth more than 5p.
Back when I used to work retail, a lot of euro cents would end up mixed in with our UK penny coins. Every now & again the 2 euro with £2 (which I always thought particularly silly given the gold/silver rings are inverted).
The occasional US penny or dime slipped in too.
I do recall someone trying to spend some far-eastern banknote (think like Malaysia, Thailand area, unsure of the exact note now), then being confused I wouldn't accept it. Don't recall the customer being “obviously foreign” (for lack of better term) as to be unfamiliar with our currency. I do remember looking up the exchange rate & being grateful I didn't accept it. Was worth about 1/20th of what the customer was trying to use it as.
Scottish and the rare Northern Ireland notes turned up. I always accepted them & would then swap out with English notes at face value (I had the shop manager's permission of course). Great way to start an early collection.
THese are both legit US quarters of course, but I thought of this old thread.
There are still many Bicentennial quarters out there, and this one is well circulated, just nice to see one 50 years old this year.
But this 1923-D now, it has a mirror like, not to say proof like finish, unlike the other common quarters in my pocket this evening. I wonder if it was busted out of a special set.
Jamais l'or n'a perdu la plus petite occasion de se montrer stupide. -Balzac
On the topic of coins that shouldn't be in circulation in your country , but they are -
In Bulgaria it was common to get a 1 or 2 Euro instead of a 1 or 2 lev coin as the coins look alike and are the same size . I have personally recieved euros in change several times . This is always welcome as 1 Euro =1.96 BGN . Bulgaria is set to join the euro zone in a few days , so sadly this accidental “discount ” will no longer be in effect soon . That being said , I have also heard of people getting leva instead of euros in euro zone countries ,but those guys lose 51 cents /1.02 Euros then .
Apart from that my mom once got a Russian 1 rouble in change once instead of a 20 stotinki due to the two having the same look and size . She didn't notice until later . I have also heard of people getting Turkish lira coins in their change instead of leva down south , due to their similar size and designs .
And as a final note - I live on the border with Romania and here if you find an abandoned shopping trolley in the parking lot , many times it will have a Romanian 10 or 50 bani inside the little coin thing , since those coins are the same size as the BG 20 stotinki and 1 lev that the cart use , but they are worth a lot less than that ( 10 bani - 4 stotinki , 50 bani - 20 stotinki ) .
THese are both legit US quarters of course, but I thought of this old thread.
There are still many Bicentennial quarters out there, and this one is well circulated, just nice to see one 50 years old this year.
But this 1923-D now, it has a mirror like, not to say proof like finish, unlike the other common quarters in my pocket this evening. I wonder if it was busted out of a special set.
You would do well to find a 1923 quarter in your change! Especially one with a mirror like finish 🙃
„If your reply or post in the Forum stinks of AI, I will call you out! Knowledge comes from experience, the I in AI stands for incompetence.“
Interesting older discussion; here's my contribution to keep it going:
I live in the New England region of the USA and I always check my change to see if anything interesting or different turns up.
So far, 2 months into 2026, I have only come across one interesting find mixed in with regular quarters: a silver Washington quarter dated 1935! It is heavily worn (I would estimate its condition at “about good” but the date is strong). Based upon its wear, it must have been used thousands of times in commerce since it was minted. Imagine the stories it could tell! Also, based upon the current crazy silver prices, its silver content makes it worth an astonishing 63 times its face value!
Here's what crossed my path last year (for quarters):
Several USA 1776-1976 clad quarters (from both the Philadelphia and Denver mints). I get some of these every year, and I always leave them in circulation for someone else to find and enjoy.
I also received four Canadian quarters (1978, 1979, 2013 and 2015). I always get a couple of these (and other circulating Canadian minors) due to New England being near Canada.
The most interesting find I had from last year was a 2001 Kentucky Statehood quarter with the “S" mintmark of the San Francisco mint (yep, a PROOF clad quarter that was only issued in proof sets). It has some light wear, so it hasn't seen much circulation, but its mirror fields and frosted designs make it stand out from other, circulation grade quarters. I wonder why someone would break up a proof set and spend the coins? Either desperate or ignorant, I suppose.
One question for those more knowledgeable than myself regarding coins: Do people grade proof coins that have circulated using standard grading guides (i.e., based upon wear)? I was told that isn't normally done, a circulated proof coin is considered to be an “impaired” proof coin, but it would never be given a grade like regular circulation strikes (G, VG, F, VF, EF, AU, UNC, etc.). Any thought or guidance on this?
Over the past 25 or so years, there have been a number of different quarter designs, all of which turn up in change at some point in time (although some are more common than others). I am not a fan of most of the designs, but I do like the 2021 “Crossing the Delaware” design:
I am also looking forward to getting some of the new 250th Anniversary of Independence 2026 dated quarters in my change this year - some of those designs look really nice, and there will be different obverses as well as reverses! I haven't gotten any yet, but hopefully some will tune up soon.
but it is worth almost exactly 25 US cents. The Icelandic 10Kr is worth less than 1cent!
