Trying to save a buck

When Joan and I have come to Europe I have always tried to secure some of the currency used in the European Union.  These are called, of course, Euros. It helps to have them for incidental purchases when you don't want to use a credit card.  As you may know purchasing Euros in the United States always comes with a fee, as much as seven percent.  So changing $100.00 will cost $107.00 and then you get your Euros at the current exchange rate whatever that might be given on any particular day.  The seven percent fee has always grated on me.

Enter my "friend" Michael, the money changer I met on line. Michael very conveniently lives in Phoenix and has quite the knack of coming up with lots of Euros and is very willing to sell them without the seven percent add-on fee.   Perfect.  What could possibly go wrong? 

Michael calls me from time to time and informs me that he has accumulated a good supply of money and that we should meet and complete a transaction, dollars for Euros.  

Only one small issue. He only accumulates coins!  Euro coins come in two Euros, one Euro, .50, .20, .10, .05, .02 and .01.   

The most recent phone call included the amazing detail that he had over $500 in Euro coins.  This purchase would save me over $35.  Knowing we would be in France for over a month this time we could do use this amount.  I should mention that this purchase was made months ago when the exchange rate was one Euro for $1.25. He agreed to sell them to me for $1.18, a great rate!  I wonder where he gets them and for what rate.  He has never revealed his source.  Flea markets, maybe.

I met him as the usual place and he handed me the coins and I found to my dismay that they weighed over 60 pounds!! A quick look determined that no coin was over the .20 denomination and quite a few smaller.  I agreed to the deal on the phone so the transaction was made.

Fast forward to travel day about a week ago.  I have a small carry on suitcase that has wheels so no one noticed the weight but the TSA agent sure noticed the "blob" in the suitcase and was quite insistent that he was going to find out what was going on.  Volume wise the case was 80 percent empty with the big "blob " at the bottom.  He found it very important to flatten out each baggy of coins to make sure that I didn't have some contraband hidden in the middle of the coins.  He was stone faced throughout the search while I thought he was a bit overboard.  He probably thought I was an idiot.  On to the plane where I knew I  needed to lift the carry-on up into the overhead bins.  When is the last time YOU lifted 60 pounds over your head?  With a great big heave I was able to do it with no one noticing.  With nothing strained off we were to Atlanta and then to Paris, so, of course, I had to get them down in Atlanta, up in Atlanta and down in Paris. It was a real struggle every time.  

Oh, did I mention that by the time we left Phoenix the exchange rare was down to one Euro for $1.17. I could have secure 500 euros in 100 Euro notes and slid them into my wallet?  Weight? Less that tenth of an once.

Now the challenge of changing the coins to paper money.  Not easy at all.  The banks in France, I find out, want no part of the "blob" .  We did start feeding some of the .20's into the pay tolls, which are quite prevalent on the freeways.  That got rid of a little.  I decided to try to get our landlord to change them in for me but again was told the banks wouldn't take them.  But Steve, our gracious landlord, did come up with a solution. He told me the local Supermarket had a machine that took coins and gave you a receipt that could be used for goods at the store.  I lugged in four baggies, about a third of my pile, and started feeding them to the machine. It worked perfectly and spit out a record receipt for about 150 Euros.  With this huge credit Joan and I began our shopping.  At the cash register the amount came to about 100 Euros.  The clerk apparently had never this scenario where there was still a credit due. A call. to the manager solved the dilemma. We purchased a gift card only redeemable at this store.  A second visit to the store and the same scenario.  We're getting this drill down to a science.  In the meantime I have been dumping more coins at the local bakery, eating out at lunch, etc.  A couple more visits to the supermarket and the task will be finished.

The moral of the story.  Never try to save a few dollars of fees, never lug coins to Europe and make an appointment with your chiropractor for after your trip.  And, oh yeah, Michael, don't call me ever again!!