I am no longer able to travel abroad, but have a large amount of Euro coins. These are mostly 1 and 2 Euro coins, with a lot of smaller denominations. Can I exchange these anywhere for notes, which I can then post to my son? I know some shops in town (Marks and Spencer for one) trade in Euros as well as stirling, so coins must be needed somewhere for change. Travel agents and the banks I have been able to access (no call centres) cannot help. Somewhere there must be a market for these coins. Can any financial expert offer any ideas?
No, there really is nowhere commercial that will change them for you. The cost of transporting them about is the killer in this.
The only places I can think of are that at some airports and on some cross channel ferries there are machines that change them for sterling coins at a poor rate of exchange.
Most shops that take euros take only notes and give the change in sterling.