There is a phrase I’ve heard which says, ‘There is money in rubbish’. All of us in the Balbriggan\North County Dublin branch of Guide Dogs have proved this over several years, especially over the past two years. Annually our branch puts out this request, ‘If you have any used postage stamps, stamp albums, or coins which are no longer in circulation, please give them to us. We will turn them into Euros and lodge them to the guide dogs account.’ We receive coins from all over the world and old postage stamps. In our guide dog boxes and large collection dogs we find coins from all over the world and from Europe that are no longer legal currency since the Euro came into place. We get paper notes of all sorts of denominations, coins and used stamps from our branch volunteers and friends. The stamps go into a box and over the past two years a total of 41 kgs were accumulated. We also received 13 kgs of old foreign coin and 18 foreign notes. A stamp and coin collector from the UK bought them. We received €610 for 41 kgs of stamps, 13 kgs of old coin and old notes. We actually collected 12 kgs of old Irish coin and 22 different old Irish notes. There were some part or torn euro notes, these and the old Irish notes were brought to the Central Bank of Ireland for converting to Euros. The old Irish coin was sold to a local coin collector for €100. The Central Bank needs old Irish coin sorted in a particular way before they will convert them into Euros for us.We also received sterling coin which came to £165. A branch volunteer took them up North and converted them into sterling notes. These were then converted into €187.93. All money was lodged to the guide dogs’ account.If you have any used postage stamps or old Irish coins or notes or foreign coins or notes, please contact us at 085 7663107 or email GuideDogsBalbriggan@gmail.com Thank you, Tom O’Neill, Guide Dog Owner.