Reducing the Cost of Counting Coins

Handling cash to open and close tills comes at a cost of labor, fees, and shortages.

Cash recyclers allow cashiers to receive and return banknotes during till open and close, and coin recyclers do the same for coins. But how much should you invest in the handling of low value coins?

New lower cost coin solutions.

Coin in/out machines work similarly to coin recyclers but cost about half the price. Cashiers receive loose coin by denomination for starting change banks, and return mixed coin at the end of shifts, but unlike coin recyclers coins are stored in a separate compartment or sorted by denomination in bags. The deposited coins must be emptied and loaded to internal dispenser modules periodically. The lower price is attractive but depending on the amount of coin your store handles, an office cashier may need an hour every few days to empty the deposited coin and reload the dispenser modules. That may sound like extra work, but if you are buying rolls of coin today, most likely you will need to buy loose coin to refill recyclers or in/out machines. A coin in/out machine costs about $10,000 less than a coin recycler, and using the example below saves $422 in labor annually - achieving a superior ROI.

Coin counting scales cost less than 5% of coin recyclers. Using a counting scale, cashiers weigh loose coin by denomination at the end of shifts, and the counting scale converts the weight to counts. The total operation for all coin takes about 30 seconds per cashier and the returned coin is reset to the original amount for the next cashier. Accuracy is higher than manually counting coins, but if your store gets a lot of new pennies you may find cashier counts are off a penny or two occasionally. At less than $1000 with annual labor savings of $5500, counting scales may be a good bargain for your stores if being a penny off at times, and 30 seconds per start bank for office cashiers to reset the coin amount to the original amounts, is acceptable.

Expect to spend up to $20,000 for a coin recycler; $10,000 for a coin in/out machine; and less than $1000 for a coin counting scale. The charts below display calculated results using a coin recycler, coin in/out machine, or coin counting scale for 10 cashiers at $9.00 per hour.

Coin Self Sufficiency

Consumer Coin Deposit machines range in price from $12,000 to $20,000; generate fee income of 8%-12%; drive store foot traffic; and supply coin for start banks that would otherwise cost ten cents a roll. A 10-cashier store with $1500 of consumer coin deposits weekly, generates income and reduces coin roll costs. If your cash payments are more than 24%, or your customer demographics include a significant unbanked community, consumer coin deposit machines could be a good fit for your stores.

Whichever equipment you choose it is important to integrate the results with a central control and reporting system like Compuflex’s BranchWare to avoid costly and error-prone written record keeping and systems key entry. Use the Compuflex free coin calculator to calculate ROI options for your store: Download here.