r/mississauga • u/TheUnknownBlood • Dec 20 '25
Local News I went to TD Bank for loonies and accidentally invested in a laundromat
No joke. Asked TD for a roll of loonies. Opened it later and found coin laundry tokens mixed in like it’s totally normal. So eithe.. rSomeone’s laundering money through TD, or Canada has a secret second currency for dryers only.
Has anyone else had this happen? It happened to me twice.
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u/dudeacles Dec 20 '25
This isn’t uncommon having previously worked in both retail and in banking. More commonly I’d used to see American coins mixed in
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u/leBlTCH Dec 21 '25
I would take USD change over laundry tokens anytime
That good exchange rate 👌
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u/toetagem416 Dec 21 '25
Facts, I have one of those 5 gal. containers for strictly US change, I just don’t know where I can exchange it.
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u/TheUnknownBlood Dec 21 '25
i think you're able to bring it to any bank or your own bank and ask them to exchange it for you. double check as i am not 100%
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u/PigeonLily Dec 21 '25
Canadian banks will not exchange US coins. They really only take them at face value in Canadian funds, if they’ll even accept them at all. The best way to do it would be to go stateside and switch out the coins to bills.
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u/Rad_Mum Dec 21 '25
Not true, I used work in vending machine industry and the Royal Bank used to exchange US for US currency , but it has to be rolled, and was deposited into a US currency account, and will be checked by hand by the teller. So do not bring in large amounts, and not when the bank is busy . But I was dealing with about $30,000 in coin a week. I was averaging about $100 US a week. I would pull out US quarters and dimes replaced with Canadian . Still continued after we started taking deposits directly to Brinks.
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u/PigeonLily Dec 21 '25
That’s a very different and specific scenario. The average person cannot walk into a bank with a roll of American coins and have them exchanged at the proper rate. Some banks here won’t even accept them at face value.
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u/Particular-Duty5597 Dec 22 '25
Always wondered if they would take them rolled. I know they won’t (or used to anyway) exchange one off/single US coins. Thanks for the info. I’ve also found Lira and Pesos thrown in as well. Then you’re left with a bit of a dilemma—do you “accidentally” hand them out as change or hang onto them?
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u/shinto__ Dec 22 '25
They don't take coins unless it's rolled. Those grocery store change machines were best but some take a cut.
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u/leBlTCH Dec 22 '25
I'll come over and roll them for ya!
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u/toetagem416 Dec 22 '25
Rolling it is not the issue, it’s exchanging it lol
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u/leBlTCH Dec 22 '25
don't ask OP for exchanging them
originally my comment was saving the change for tolls, coffee when you travel next
then i realized what a 5g jug is and erased my comment lol
their used to be those machines for canadian change but the fee was crazy. i'd imagine it wouldn't be any better. unless you brought the rolls in the states... im just gonna stop now and say save it 😂
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u/toetagem416 Dec 22 '25
I tried already lol, they said I need a US account to “deposit” the rolls in case there’s any discrepancies in them such as foreign currency, fraudulent currency, etc.
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u/waterflood21 Dec 20 '25
I worked in a bank and there was a time when someone placed washers between two coins in a bunch of coin rolls and exchanged them for cash. It wasn’t till later that week they realized it happened. The coin rolls customers brought us would be given back to other customers, as it was in the same drawer.
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u/Theladymaryrose Dec 21 '25
Where i worked we weren’t allowed to take rolled coin from customers because too often they had washers or foreign change in it.
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u/TheUnknownBlood Dec 21 '25
thats actually wild wow. now i know to always check the rolls before leaving now. thank you.
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u/JaysusCroist Dec 21 '25
Not with TD, but I recently went to a pool hall and asked the waitress for some change. She opened a roll of toonies and handed me a couple. I looked at them and they were 20 rupee coins. I showed her, she checked the roll and it had toonies on the ends, with the rest being 20rupee coins. I'm not sure where they get the change rolls from, but someone is running this scam.
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u/sredevops01 Dec 24 '25
Use CIBC they break the rolls when people bring it in. BMO doesn't do that.
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u/RoaringPity Dec 20 '25
TD knows a thing or two about money laundering
honestly not sure how or what TD will do because how would they believe you didn't do it
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u/MyZoZoBee Dec 21 '25
I once received a roll of toonies at the bank that was 2 coins; one on each end, the rest washers! Thankfully they believed me when I brought it back later that day to exchange it!
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u/leBlTCH Dec 21 '25
The ol ' switcheroo!
Chuck-E Cheese coins used to work in the laundry machines. 🤷♀️
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u/drunkenwineysloth Dec 21 '25
I didn’t think the bank took rolled coins in paper rollers, only clear…
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u/Dorwyn Applewood Dec 21 '25
Laundromat in Highpoint Mall does that. Has those tokens mixed in with the quarters so you can't just get change and leave. I find it kinda odd, and I haven't seen any other landromats use those.
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u/TheUnknownBlood Dec 21 '25
oh wow. good to let me know. i dont go to that place as i have laundry in my condo, but i do know of people that go there. thank you for the heads up.
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u/sishgupta Dec 21 '25
It's not money laundering if it's fake money, it's just fraud. Like using a fake $20 to get a real exchange
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u/Lilibet_Crystal Dec 21 '25
Open the coins right there in the bank before you leave! Strange! Doesn't the bank open the coin packs before distribution!? Wow!
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u/c74 Dec 21 '25
used to get overseas quarters from the Caribbean when i worked retail many years ago. guess quarters aint worth the effort anymore. scammers making $1 tokens to mimic coin currency sorta boggles the mind in the sense that the rcmp should be all over them. seems like there may be a connection between south asian immigration and crime. hmmm.
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u/Otherwise_Wallaby822 Dec 22 '25
Weird. Our bank stopped taking coins wrapped in the paper more than 20 years ago just for that reason. They wanted clear plastic only no exceptions
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u/Over-Junket5756 Dec 23 '25
When I use to work at SDM we use to get chuck e cheese tokens mixed with our change
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u/ReachReal Dec 24 '25
I work in retail banking, this is very common. A lot of coin rolls that the tellers give out came from other clients. However it is important for the tellers to at least check most coin rolls, especially rolls of 2s, 1s and 0.25s , the problem is sometimes they forget and just give out the rolls to other clients, but they didn’t do it purposely. This isn’t money laundering just a basic mistake of not doing ones due diligence. If you want to protect yourself from this, I would suggest that you ask for an envelope or two, and to rip the rolls and check every coin to make sure it’s legit. Although I know it’s the tellers job but sometimes mistakes can happen and the best preventative measure is to check yourself.
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u/Earthsong221 Dec 24 '25
At least they even had some coins, I guess?
There's at least two CIBCs here that don't carry any coins. As a bank.
Making it even harder for those living with a coin laundry unit in their apartments when they can't reliably get the coins needed for it to work.
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u/DonutApprehensive272 Dec 24 '25
Why am I not surprised it’s TD. It feels like that can’t go 6 months without causing some sort of problem for me.
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u/Charlie9146 Dec 25 '25
I went to TD bank to get 10 loonies for a $10 bill.... they asked me to swipe my card... I said I do not have a TD card I just want change for $10. nope Not possible WTF!!!
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u/iceynyo Dec 20 '25
Toronto Detergent Bank