How do you spend the coins?

If you have any “lightbulb”. clues left, the coins are not useful. But if you use up all your hints, THEN holding down the lightbulb gives you a hint and deducts coins.

Most people who play this game seriously have a bunch of hints saved and will never need the coins.

If you are a pinch at the end of the game – and you’re wanting to compete with someone to get a higher position – you can use your coins to buy an Star animal without waiting the hour it might take for the animals coins to be available. It’s only worth it if you are very competitive and want to win against someone, it will cost you a lot of coins to buy, say, the giraffe.

Reading answers here I think ppl are confusing “Wordscapes” with “Wordscapes Shapes”. It’s the latter where coins are earned but can never be used.

Only benefit I have found for coins is getting a letter by tapping light bulb (hint), down by the circle. You do not get to choose where the letter (hint) goes in the puzzle. If you touch the coin total, you will get link for option to purchase more coins & etc.

You can spend them during the game if you get stuck and can't complete a Wordscape. Say for example you just can't figure out a word in the puzzle, you can spend coins at that point for some help. Tap the lightbulb icon if you need assistance.