European coins

OK, first good evening. I'm siting here going through some coins I just bought. Now my question is, Why is there so many European coins out there? I mean I just bought a 'lot' on ebay, I knew there would be some, always is. But between Spain, France, Netherlands and Italy, was most of my 'lot'. Why is there so much out there? Didn't people turned them in for the euro when they had the chance? Now too late I guess. And question 2 is what do you do with them now. Nobody wants them. Thanks, just don't understand, I'm just an American living in Europe and it surprises me. Any ideas in getting rid of them?

I have an Idea !!! Send them to me :)

On a serious note, you can swap them with people and have coins that you really want in return

Well, I can give some tips for France.

- During WW2, german were confiscating Copper-Niclek coins from 5 to 25 centimes ~1920-1938
It was to participate in the struggle for the homeland to hide all the old coins in filthy attics and especially not to exchange them for the zinc coins of the Second World War. So, you find now these coins in each attic.

- At the end of WW2, everybody was obliged to change banknotes, and fortunes that were badly acquired on the black market could not be changed and were also hidden.

- On 1960, the revaluation of the Franc was a division by100. All old 1 Francs and centimes had about no value. A little like pennies that americans throw on the parking lot to get rid of it.
Same for the change to euro on 2001 at the rate of 1/6.6, Centimes had about no values.

You can also find on flea markets entire boxes of 10FF from the 90's, mostly rusted and in poor condition.
Old boxes where forgotten savings were sleeping ...

And do not underestimate the impact of nostalgia.
"You see, my son, with this old aluminium 1 franc, we were buying a loaf of bread, Oh happy time of my childhood ..."

Citeer: "Frenchlover"​Well, I can give some tips for France.
​
​- During WW2, german were confiscating Copper-Niclek coins from 5 to 25 centimes ~1920-1938
​It was to participate in the struggle for the homeland to hide all the old coins in filthy attics and especially not to exchange them for the zinc coins of the Second World War. So, you find now these coins in each attic.
​
​- At the end of WW2, everybody was obliged to change banknotes, and fortunes that were badly acquired on the black market could not be changed and were also hidden.
​
​- On 1960, the revaluation of the Franc was a division by100. All old 1 Francs and centimes had about no value. A little like pennies that americans throw on the parking lot to get rid of it.
​Same for the change to euro on 2001 at the rate of 1/6.6, Centimes had about no values.
​
​You can also find on flea markets entire boxes of 10FF from the 90's, mostly rusted and in poor condition.
​Old boxes where forgotten savings were sleeping ...
​
​And do not underestimate the impact of nostalgia.
​"You see, my son, with this old aluminium 1 franc, we were buying a loaf of bread, Oh happy time of my childhood ..."

​I know there is a lot of history in the European countries. And I try to collect a few of each, but there is just so many out there and don't know what to do with them. I'm still trying to put them on my exchange list. Still working on the them and still got a lot. But nobody wants them.

I guess one point is that most euro-contries had quite short exchange-periods (in comparison to countries like Germany or Austria - there: unlimited):

https://www.ecb.europa.eu/euro/exchange/html/index.en.html

Another point could be that during the last decades millions of tourists/visitors took many of French, Italian, Spanisch...-coins in their home countries and after euro-introduction it wasn't worth enought to organize an exchange of 20.000 lire (20 €) or 100 francs (15 €).

Citeer: "Leitwolf"​I guess one point is that most euro-contries had quite short exchange-periods (in comparison to countries like Germany or Austria - there: unlimited):
​
​https://www.ecb.europa.eu/euro/exchange/html/index.en.html
​
​Another point could be that during the last decades millions of tourists/visitors took many of French, Italian, Spanisch...-coins in their home countries and after euro-introduction it wasn't worth enought to organize an exchange of 20.000 lire (20 €) or 100 francs (15 €).

​Yea I kind of figured that. I just need to find a way to get rid of some of them that I have. Still going though them but I see a lot of extras

Sell the coins you don't need via ebay.

Citeer: "Leitwolf"​Sell the coins you don't need via ebay.

​Tried that, can't get much and will complain that they're all the same kind. No sweat , I'll find a use for them some where. I see Spain can still be turned in. Have to find out where.

But only the last series of coins can be still exchanged ... so quite a lot of what you found (and is in your swap-list) already lost its monetary value long time ago:
https://www.bde.es/bde/en/areas/billemone/Publico_general/Billetes_y_moned/

re: "Any ideas in getting rid of them?"

1) You can give some to co-workers whose kids are around tooth-losing age. That way instead of comparing who got more $ from the tooth fairy, they can get distracted by who got more countries - maybe you'll inspire a new collector

2) Offer them to a local school. The lower grades can use them to play pretend games such as "store". Older kids may be interested in handling pieces from whatever country and/or time period they are learning about in history, geography, or social studies/humanities class.

3) offer them to children (or adults) at the local coin shows / sometimes there'll be someone who doesn't have one of each yet

4) offer them to the local metal detector club to use for practice

5) it sounds wrong to suggest damaging a coin, but if there piles left over after everyone has all that they want, there are some people who make art from coins.