Many Now Using Spare Change to Cover Extra Expenses
BELLEVUE, Wash.--(BUSINESS WIRE via COLLEGIATE PRESSWIRE)--Sep 5, 2001--Between tuition, books, rent and food, college students don`t have a lot of extra money which is why more and more students are using change to help them pay for extras like lunch with friends or a morning coffee at the Student Union.
Those savvy students have discovered the wealth hidden in their spare change. Coinstar, maker of the coin counting machines found in supermarkets, estimates the average American adult handles $600 worth of change a year or $50 a month. And although the average adults handles $600 worth of coin a year, Coinstar believes the amount of coin handled by college students is actually much greater than that.
''College students tend to accumulate more change than most adults for a variety of reasons,'' said Rich Stillman, chief operating officer of Coinstar. ''Many conduct most of their transactions in cash either because they do not have a credit card or because the campus area restaurants and stores only take cash. In addition, there are some students who work in service jobs, such as at a restaurant, where they also collect a lot of coin.''
Based on an average mix of coins (78% pennies, 22% silver), Coinstar provides the following table to give students with accumulated change an estimate of just how much money they might have.
Container Size Estimated Weight Estimated Value
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Half gallon 17 lbs. $80.48
One gallon 34 lbs. $160.95
Three gallons 102 lbs. $482.85
Five gallons 170 lbs. $804.75
Of course, the problem with spare change is that often times people wind up with more pennies than anything else. And who wants to walk into the campus bookstore and plunk down $2 worth of pennies for a study snack and soda.
Students have discovered a few ways of dealing with that problem. Banks and credit unions are one option. Some will exchange your coins for cash, provided you have an account with them. Another option, if you have some spare time, is to sort and roll the coins yourself. While a third, and probably the most popular, option is to take your coins to a coin counting machine like Coinstar. Those machines quickly count coins and then dispense a voucher good for cash or groceries at the store.
Coin Counting Machine Concept Born on College Campus
It is no surprise that coin counting machines have gained a following among college students. The idea was dreamt up on a college campus in 1989. Coinstar founder Jens Molbak was sitting in his dorm room at Stanford University when he came up with the idea for a coin counting machine. Molbak says he was trying to figure out how to get some extra cash when his eyes were drawn to the coin jar sitting on his dresser. Unfortunately, Molbak quickly realized there really wasn`t an easy way to cash in those coins.
Molbak`s college-inspired idea, which he developed with the help of fellow Stanford classmates, helped build Coinstar, which was recently named one of the fastest-growing technology companies in the United States. Since 1992, the machines have processed more than 313,000 tons of change valued at $4 billion.
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