Common cents: What to do with all that spare change

We usually spend what change we have on beer (lord knows how many Kedis have had to deal with us meticulously counting out three kuai in one jiaos at 3 in the morning), but in case you're not major midnight inconveniences like us and you've saved up buckets and buckets of coins, a reader has sent in a pretty good tip:

You can drop them off at the nearest China Post post office and have them count it out (by hand, apparently) for you. The service is offered at banks as well and should be free, especially if you already have an account with the bank in question. If it's a smaller amount of coins, usually they'll have it to you in a couple of minutes.

But, if like our tipster, you're coming in with 3.5 kilos of 1 jiao and 1 fens, they'll ask you to come back in either a few hours (or in rare cases, a few days). Any guesses how much money is in there? We'll post the answer when he finds out.

(Thanks John!)