Two people who appeared to be together boarded yesterday, the guy then stated his destination, I said ‘£1.60, please’ at which he dumped a one pound coin and an enormous pile of loose change into the cash tray adding ‘Sorry about the change’! Sorry, my arse, he was glad to shed that lot, he knew what the fare would be and had it counted out. But he’d made a mistake – he’d asked for his ticket before his companion :-) She asked for the same destination and offered a £2 coin so was due 40p change. I’d left the pile of coins in the cash tray to put away later so was I quickly able to snap up the £1 coin and the only silver coin (20p) leaving nothing but pennies and tuppences left by her companion and say ‘There you are ….. sorry about the change’. She then joined her companion who’d already sat down and it looked like they they were having a team meeting about how it had gone wrong and were planning not to do it that way round next time.
I don’t have any copper in my quickchange, it goes straight in the bag.
However, I do tend to do what you did in this instance – if the copper’s still in the cash tray and another passenger at that stop needs change, then they’re fair game . . .