With the commercial climate being tougher than ever more and more businesses are looking for ways to gain a competitive advantage over their competition. One of the most effective ways to attract business (if you are in a location that has lots of foreign tourists) is to become a dual currency business. Many organisations that are located in areas such as London now accept Euros as a method of payment for good and services. This includes bars, restaurants, attractions (such as museums) and shops.

Many of these operations now happily take Euro coins and notes happy in the knowledge that they can exchange Euro coins for cash with our trade service. This has helped many businesses gain significant extra foot-fall and consequently significant extra revenue. You only have to walk round popular tourist spots to see businesses advertising that they accept Euros as well as Sterling.

In addition we have also now seen and increase in businesses accepting other popular world currencies such as Japanese Yen and US Dollars. Wherever you are located we can support you by exchanging ALL foreign coins that you accept (either intentionally or unintentionally). The great news is that our service is fast, simple and secure and we GUARANTEE to give you the BEST exchange rates in the UK.

Why us us?

Increase cashflow

We also help many organisations such as bus and train operators, taxi firms and large operations such as airports and ports exchange euro coins for cash. We can arrange for secure collection of all your foreign coins and notes and importantly we provide almost instant payment. These are just a few reasons why we are the most trusted foreign coin exchange brand in the UK today.

Please feel free to take a look at our customer comments and client list to see just how customer focused and efficient our service is. If you’d like to start accepting foreign coins and notes in your business please contact us on 0161 635 0000 or e-mail Admin@cash4coins.co.uk

The post Euro Coin Exchange Trade Services appeared first on Exchange Euro Coins.

When it comes to art its a very emotive and subjective issue. What’s art for one person may be a ‘pile of junk’ to another. We’ve all seen the rise of people like Tracey Emin and some would say that she’s a genius and visionary, and others would say that she’s simply ‘blagging it’ by putting ‘arty’ explanations behind her artwork. Certainly this issue has been much debated over the years with many artists making a lot of money from their work.

The thing that caught our eye recently was the artist who paints Euro coins for a living! Now I know that we love what we do here at ‘Exchange Euro Coins’ but I’m not sure if our dedication would see us having ‘Euro Coin Artwork’ adorning the walls of our offices or even our homes. There is a limit to what’s considered art.. so is painting coins art?

Well, there are a load of people out there who think that painting Euro coins is the next big thing as the paintings are selling for a considerable amount of money! Bern Sprengel has started a quiet revolution in the German art-world with his paintings of Euro coins. A few of his painting hang in some of the most prestigious German financial boardrooms  and this has created a demand that he has not expected. “I was asked to create a painting for a well known financial institution to hang in their main boardroom and I thought I would simply paint some Euros. I had no idea if they would like it or not so I was a bit nervous when I unveiled the picture. However, the reaction was astounding and they loved it. This then lead to a number of other individuals and businesses asking me to paint more pictures” said Sprengel.

If you wanted to commission your own picture of Euro coins to be painted by Sprengel then you’d be likely to have to pay in the region of around €13,000 (yes, that thirteen thousand Euros!!). Not too bad for a few days work!

If you want to make some easy money however (maybe to save up for a Sprengel?) then you can swap your Euro coins for cash with us! Try us out today.

The post Euro Coin Artwork appeared first on Exchange Euro Coins.

Have you ever wondered what happens to old Euro coins and Euro banknotes when they get damaged or worn out? The European Central Bank has to maintain a balance of the physical amount of currency in circulation and this includes the tricky job of knowing what to keep and what to destroy.

All Euro banknotes wear out or get damaged at some point. As well, of course as the ones we lose. (Not a happy day to lose any bank note!)

I guess it’s pretty obvious that banknotes will wear out faster than any Euro coins. The average lifecycle for a Euro banknote is around 18 months to 2 years.

As cash is handed over the counter at banks (and other cash handling centres) the notes and coins are sorted and any ones that are damaged or worn are returned to the central bank in that country. These are then sent in bulk to the European Central Bank (ECB). These are then destroyed by incinerating the notes in special furnaces in very secure conditions.

With Euro coins the life cycle is usually around 20 to 30 years (however this can be a lot longer in some cases). Again damaged (or garbled coins as they are called in the trade) are sent to the ECB who arranges for the coins to be marked in specially designed machines and then sold as scrap metal.

In each country the national or central bank is in charge of minting coins with their own national design on one side of the coin. In the manufacturing of Euro coins a circular blank is stamped out of a metal sheet. It’s then softened (with heat) and the one, two and five cent coins are then covered in a copper coating. The design is then stamped on the surface using 2 coining dies. With €1 and €2 Euro coins they are constructed using two different metals that are put together at the same time as the design is stamped onto the surfaces. (This makes them harder to fake).

If you have any leftover Euro coins that you want to change into Sterling then please contact us. We exchange all Euro coins (and banknotes) into cash.

The post Printing and Minting Euros appeared first on Exchange Euro Coins.

Just when you thought that your job was a bit boring spare a though for the photographers scratching their heads in order to come up with yet another ‘creative’ way to photograph Euro coins.

With all the constant furor about the Euro crisis newspapers are desperate for images of Euro coins to illustrate various elements of the unfolding problems in the Euro-zone. It sounds bizarre but all newspapers need images for their stories and you’d imagine that there are only a few ways to shoot a coin. However a number of enterprising photographers have been coming up with more and more ways to get the shots that newspapers want.

One photographer with a German news agency has been thinking hard about how to show the crisis in pictures. He’s constantly coming up with fresh ideas and his first photo involved him hitting a Euro coin with a hammer! The ensuing picture was snapped up by lots of newspapers and this spurred him on.

The fact that Euro coins have different designs for each country has helped to some degree but with all the problems in Greece and France (not to mention Ireland and Portugal) even the most creative photographer can run dry.

One photographer photographed a pile of Euro coins with kids toys and a plastic shark. It was also rumoured that another clickster poured petrol on some Euro coins and set them alight!

As the crisis drags on people’s threshold for images is lowered as they become used to seeing the Euro in the news. Therefore papers have needed increasingly bolder images to capture the attention of the reader. This has been further exaggerated lately as the Euro coin exchange rate has fluctuated so dramatically.

One very daring photographer in Spain was reported to have attempted to drop a load of Euro coins from a light aircraft and skydive at the same time in order to get a shot of the coins in free-fall. Although we’ve not seen any pics like this it does sound a bit extreme!

The post Creative Photos of Euro Coins appeared first on Exchange Euro Coins.

A Chinese gang has been arrested in Germany for exchanging broken Euro coins for banknotes in a scam reportedly to be worth almost £5.5 million (around €6m Euros).

The scam that targeted the German central Bundesbank was based on them exchanging Euro coins that were ‘broken’ (or garbled as is the industry term) for the coins face value.

The gang handed in consignments of fake broken €1 and €2 coins along with some genuine broken coins to pass the visual tests that the bank does. The Bundesbank is the only central European bank that will exchange Euro coins that are broken (or garbled).

The gang used specialist safebags that the bank specifies. However it is believed that the gang simply purchased fake safebags online. Each bag holds €1000 in coins. Unbelievably 30 tonnes of the coins were thought to have been imported by a number of flight attendants who brought them in to Germany as part of their luggage allowance.

The gang used sophisticated equipment to weld some of the fake broken coins together to give them a genuine look. Police commented that fake garbled Euro coins exchange on this scale has never been seen before because of the huge effort involved. However it’s thought that the bank would not spot or suspect this particular way of passing off fakes and by all account it was only a fluke that the gang were caught.

Although there have been a wide number of criminals trying various ways to produce realistic fake Euro coins this is the first time that a gang has tried this method. The Euro currency was originally thought to be one of the hardest currencies in the world to reproduce as a counterfeit due to it’s bimetallic construction and design. Police advise that if you do come across what you expect to be a fake Euro coin you hand it in to a local police station.

The post Broken Euro Coins Scam appeared first on Exchange Euro Coins.

It finally looks like Spain will swallow their pride and request a bailout from the European Central Bank (ECB) it was reported today (Friday 21st September). This has seen a rise in the value of a Euro coin however it is not likely to hit the target of $1.31 unless the Spanish government act quickly in requesting financial aide.

This rise of ½ percent saw the value of a Euro coin against the dollar reaching $1.30. This has followed rumours that the Spanish government is considering a freeze on pensions and an increase in the age of retirement. This news is expected to spark new demonstrations on the streets of Madrid.

This is considered a strong recovery (albeit short term) following its dramatic fall due to slower growth in the EU business zone that was started by concerns over the seemingly endless recession.

In a similar move against the US Dollar, Sterling also rose to a 13 month high that was following lower public borrowing in the UK.

Euro Coin Values

In addition to market forces the Euro coin currency has seen increases following the ECBs plan to purchase bonds from countries such as Spain in an attempt to secure the Euro currency on a pan European basis.

This has seen a slowing down in Spanish cities of people queuing to take their money out of Spanish banks that feared would spark a nationwide run and financial collapse. The Euro coin since its introduction has faced many challenges however this is by far and away the biggest crisis to hit the Euro zone since it’s introduction.

There have been a number of reports from Reuters news agency that many people have been exchanging euro coins for other ‘more stable’ currencies such as the UK pound or Swiss Franc (CHF).

Jose Vatrella of the ECL commented “We’ve seen some areas of the country that have had people crossing our borders with cars full of Euro coins and notes which they have withdrawn from the bank and are looking to change their Euros into other currencies. This has not reached huge proportions but we are appealing for people to stay calm”.

The post Euro Currency Market News – 21.09.12 appeared first on Exchange Euro Coins.

Here at Exchange Euro Coins we like to bring you the occasional bit of fun trivia about Euro coins. All-in-all the Euro is not very exciting in itself but here are some interesting facts that you may want to use as pub ammo!

1. There are around 56 billion Euro coins in circulation

2. If you wanted to transport all of the Euro coins in circulation by road then you need around 478,000 trucks to do the job. Now that would be one heck of a traffic jam!

3. If you had the time (and a big pair of ladders) then if you piled all the Euro coins on top of each other they’d be 966,933 kilometers high.

4. A complete set of Euro coins weighs almost 43g (42.92 to be precise).

5. The European Central Bank had to have 14.5 billion Euro banknotes printed before they were introduced. Now, that’s one big printing bill.

6. If you were to get all the Euro banknotes and put them in a line they’d stretch for almost 2 million kilometers.

7. The value of all the Euro banknotes is a staggering €650 billion.

8. €184 million euros were removed from circulation in Germany just hours after they were issued back in 2002.

9. The one Euro coin is one of the hardest coins to counterfeit due to it’s design and construction.

10. The design of the Euro coins means that they can be identified by the visually impaired as well as people who can’t read.

If you’ve got any Euro coins (of any denomination) and you’d like to change them to another currency (such as Sterling or USD) then this is a service that we provide. Payment for your Euro coins is made either by direct transfer, PayPal or cheque. If you go for direct transfer then the funds are usually transferred in under 1 hour. If you’d like more information on how to exchange Euro coins then please contact us.

The post Euro Coin Trivia appeared first on Exchange Euro Coins.

In 1999, the founding states of the Eurozone changed their national currencies to the Euro, but actual Euro coins and banknotes did not start to enter circulation until 2002. For a period of time after the switchover — a process still going on in a few countries — citizens could exchange Euro coins for coins in the country’s previous currency.

Today, the Euro is used in 22 countries across Europe, from economic powerhouses like Germany, France and the Netherlands to tiny states like San Marino and Vatican City. There are over 900 billion Euros in circulation, both in coins and banknotes. This means that the Euro has more value in circulation than any other currency in the world, even its global rival, the mighty US dollar.

The huge number of Euros in circulation means an equally huge number of Euro coins. There are estimated to be over 230,000 tonnes of Euro coins in circulation. If all these coins were to be placed in a single roll, it would be nearly one million km long.

There are eight varieties of Euro coin. The one- and two-Euro coins are composed of two alloys, giving them a multicoloured appearance. The rich gold colour of the 10-,20- and 50-cent coins comes from a blend of metals known as”Nordic gold”, which contains no actual gold, while the one-cent, two-cent and five-cent coins have a steel interior with an outer layer of copper. Each Euro coin has a standard design on the reverse side, showing a map of Europe, a number representing the coin’s value and twelve stars. These were designed by Belgian artist Luc Luycx. Two variants of this design exist; post-2007 coins incorporate a new map of Europe to reflect the expansion of the Eurozone in 2004.

While the reverses of the coins are standard, the obverse design varies from country to country. For example, Belgian coins carry an image of the country’s king on the obverse, while Greek coins display images of ships, figures from Greek history and Classical artefacts. In some countries, the obverse varies from coin to coin, while others use the same design no matter the value of the coin. In some countries, each group of coins — the copper, Nordic gold and bimetallic groups — has its own design, as in Portugal, where each group uses a different version of the country’s medieval royal seal.

The reverse of the design is not the only standardised feature of Euro coins; the edges also include scalloping, milling, engraved lines and other features. These different edges are intended to make it easier for vision-impaired people to determine the value of a coin by touch.

Although most Euros in circulation are naturally inside the Eurozone, Euro coins are not uncommon in the United Kingdom. Because most airport money changers will not exchange Euro coins, British travellers frequently return home with spare coins. Two-cent coins are even sometimes mistakenly given as change; although they are smaller than a penny — the penny has a diameter of 20mm compared to the two-cent coin’s 18.75 — it is sometimes mistaken for one by a casual observer.

The post Euro Coin Facts appeared first on Exchange Euro Coins.

The practice of coin counterfeiting goes almost as far back in human history as coinage itself. When Eurozone governments began to exchange Euro coins for the coins of previous national currencies in 2002, however, they were confident that they had one of the most difficult coinages in the world to counterfeit.

The most notable anti-counterfeiting measure in the Euro coinage is the bimetallic construction of the highest-value coins. The one- and two-Euro coins are composed of two different alloys. Bimetallic coins are difficult for counterfeiters to replicate effectively because of the costs involved in minting them.

Initially, counterfeiting levels in the Eurozone were low. Police captured a total of around 26,000 counterfeit Euro coins in 2003. The relative novelty of the currency also helped to keep counterfeit totals down. However, as time went on and new countries were added to the Eurozone, the number of counterfeit Euro coins steadily increased. Over 150,000 were seized from circulation in 2011, and this is believed to be only a small fraction of the total. Nonetheless, the total number of counterfeit Euro coins remains small compared to many other currencies.

Large-scale counterfeiting operations may require specialised equipment, but this is not impossible for organised crime groups. In June 2012, two counterfeiters were arrested in northern Greece with equipment and parts to manufacture over 100,000 Euros worth of counterfeit two-Euro coins. Another counterfeiting ring was uncovered in Germany in 2011. Germany’s Bundesbank will exchange Euro coins being removed from circulation for new ones. The old coins are sold to China as scrap metal after being broken into two parts; a counterfeiting ring was reassembling the components and smuggling them back into Germany. These coins, being actual Euro coins, were difficult to detect.

Like all counterfeit coins, counterfeit Euro coins are likely to have defective features, including unclear lettering or soft detail in the design. Errors in the milling or scalloping of the edges are also common, as are rapid wear on the soft metal.

Although it is not technically counterfeiting, use of foreign coins as Euro coins has also been a problem within the Eurozone, particularly for vending machines. As other countries imitate the Euro’s coin designs, similar coins can appear so similar to Euros that they pass unsuspecting merchants or fool the sensors in vending machines. The Turkish one-lira and 50-kurus coins, introduced in 2005, superficially resemble the one- and two-Euro coins; these coins can occasionally be found in circulation in the Eurozone. Since a Turkish lira is worth around 50 cents, this caused a problem for vending machine manufacturers. Modern Euro vending machines can now distinguish between the coins.

Because counterfeit Euro coins are rare compared to authentic coins. Other currencies show a much higher rate of counterfeited coins. For instance, a 2008 study estimated the number of counterfeit pound coins in circulation at 37.5 million, or nearly twenty times the estimated number of counterfeit Euro coins — a higher number of fakes in a much smaller currency. As a result, tourists are unlikely to encounter fake Euro coins.

Using or spending counterfeit currency is a criminal offence. If you are unfortunate enough to be passed counterfeit euro coins (or any other currency) then the advice is that you take it to a local Police station.

The post Counterfeit Euro Coins appeared first on Exchange Euro Coins.

If you want to know how to change leftover Euro coins then you’ve come to the right place! We are the trusted brand for the exchange of Euro coins and leftover foreign coins back into Sterling (or any other currency for that matter). This is why we are the first choice for charities and fundraisers, schools and clubs, hospitals and healthcare organisations, businesses and corporations as well as private individuals.

When you use our service you’ll always get a fast and hassle free way to change those pesky coins. You know, the ones that always seem to make it home after your hols even though you did your best to spend them at the airport! We offer the best rates for the exchange of Euro coins and provide you with a 100% satisfaction guarantee that means if you’re not happy with our valuation then we’ll return your Euro coins at our expense.

Our payment to you is also super-fast. Once we have confirmation of acceptance the money is usually in your bank in under 2 hours. Now that is fast!

If you are a charity, school or club and you’re thunking how to change leftover Euro coins and want  a very easy way to raise funds then we can help you organise a Euro coin collection. And because people generally don’t mind giving away Euro coins (as they are pretty much worthless to them) then you can end up with a significant collection of them. We then convert these into your chosen currency (usually Sterling) which means that you get a great big lump of cash for your cause.

If you’re a business and you either take Euros willingly or inadvertently then again we can help. We provide a secure and fast way for you to convert those Euro coins into Sterling. This may be to help cashflow and revenue or maybe a way to raise money for your company’s charity.

As you can image the question how to change leftover Euro coins has been asked a lot – and only now is there an answer. Contact us for more info or send us your coins – it’s easy and simple.

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