he'd really want from them is a coffee. Lastly, I know there are those
'CoinStar' machines - these are the machines you get in supermarkets
which accept and count up your (Sterling) shrapnel and then I think
give you a voucher for spending at the supermarket, whilst taking a
generous cut for themselves for all the hard work they do - well I
dunno if there are any such machines which accept and exchange Euro
coinage for Sterling around? I've got some very vague idea that they
might exist somewhere, though I'm sure the deal they do isn't a great
one.

I've seen one at Budapest Ferighey airport that converts Euro coinage
- however, I know that it'll only convert them into a voucher for
Hungarian Forints, exchangable for cash or services at a few of the
outlets in the airport - machine looked identical to the Coinstar
machines in the UK.

It might be worth keeping an eye out in the arrivals hall of Heathrow
or Gatwick - I'm sure there's countless holidaymakers wasting their
baggage allowance by bringing back tons of coinage after a fortnight
in the sun - a machine such as this may be very handy.

Lastly, assuming your friend has a UK bank account, it may be worth
asking them if he can pay the coins into his account? I've done this
with Natwest with Dollars and Euros, although they wouldn't take the
really small (coppers) coins. Exchange rate wasn't too appalling,
either.

M