Not too long ago I decided it was time to cash in the change that I had been saving in a jar for the past few years. Brea and I had just replace our desktop computer, so I figured we could use the extra money. I wasn’t too excited about this process, because the last time we cashed in our change it involved first wrapping all the coins before taking them to the bank. I did not want to this again.

I decided that I was going to take the coins to a coin counting machine that I knew was at a local grocery store. There was going to be a service charge, but I was willing to pay the money to save the time and effort it was going to take to wrap the coins. When I went to the grocery store the coin machine was out of order. At first I was upset, but it turned out that this was a blessing in disguise.

While driving around trying to figure out what to do next I drove by a Century Bank and remembered that I had seen something about them having a coin counter. This turned out to being one of the best investments I have ever made. Century Bank does not charge a service fee for using their coin counter. On top of that, they will give you $50 for opening a free checking account with a minimum $100 deposit.

I had about $300 in coins saved up, so here’s the math:

Coin Star: $300 in coins – 8.9 cents service charge per $1 = $273
Century Bank: $300 in coins + $50 for opening accound = $350
Difference = $77 or about 28% increase

That’s good money. If you happen to decide to open an account after reading this, please mention that you heard about it from me (Kevin Rossen). They give a $25 credit for every person you refer to them, so that little out of order machine might end up making me even more money.