Scholastic Book Fair coin counter
For those of you who will be having a Scholastic Book Fair this spring, I have four words of wisdom for you:
Buy the Coin Sorter!
Scholastic now offers a coin sorter in their Resource Catalog, so you can buy it with your Scholastic Dollars. Here’s a look at it.
Do you hear the sound of angels singing when you view this beauty? I did!
It claims to sort 312 coins per minute with a heavy-duty motor and anti-jam technology. After using it for a week at our (understaffed) book fair, I can say, without a doubt, IT WORKS!
I would not have spent $149 on this (plus shipping), but my Scholastic rep gave me 100 Scholastic dollars for having a family night at our Book Fair. So, it felt like this little miracle only cost $49 (plus shipping).
Here’s what happens all day long at our Book Fair. See if this sounds familiar to you.
A long line stretches before you, because another volunteer had a sick child or some other emergency, so you’re covering the cash register all alone. A student approaches the register with a sandwich bag full of pennies and assorted household debris, and no idea of how much money he has. In the past, I had to hold up the whole long line to count those pennies one by one.
NO MORE! Now I just pour those pennies into the machine, trying to catch the petrified cereal bits and clumps of pet hair before they hit the sorter. In a few seconds, I have a digital total displayed on the machine, and a student who can go shop for a book. You don’t have to use the coin wrappers. I just put the coins into a clean zipper bag and wrote the total on it with a Sharpie.
This machine is great, and soooo worth it! If you have a book fair coming soon, give it a try! I think you’ll be VERY glad that you did!
(And, of course, remember the jumbo bottle of hand sanitizer to deal with all of that assorted money debris!)
If you have one of these, I’d love to know how it worked for you!
Just finished up our Book Fair this week and soooo could have used this. I am definitely going to use some our Scholastic Dollars for this guy. I can see other uses for it during the year, too, as we have several coin drives and I somehow got put in charge of counting up all the coins for those fund raisers. Thanks for the tip! =)
~Jo
http://mrsnthebookbug.blogspot.com/
Jo, I’ve tried a few coin sorters before. Most are too puny for the heavy book fair traffic. I think you’ll be happy with this one!
Just found your blog and this post hits home. I am glad that I’m not the only one who has to deal with sandwich bags full of coins and debris. My 2 favorite times of the book fair are setting it up and taking it down!
Swersty’s Swap Shop
My book fair starts Monday. I wish I’d read this before. Now if I could just find something that would sanitize all the sweaty dollar bills that are hauled out of pockets!
Good luck with that! I keep a HUGE jar of hand sanitizer next to the cash register during book fair, and I use it all day long!