tellers were cherrypickin!!!

fiddycent

Full Member
Oct 23, 2008
177
1
tellers were cherrypickin'!!!

went on a little road trip tuesday and figured to do some hoppin' once i was finished with my business. found a bank that had $660.00 in halves. had $200.00 on me. told the teller i'd buy $200.00 worth. she said they were loose and that she'd have to roll them. dang! i hate that. i knew she'd be gone a while.

a day and a half later (it seemed), she returned with 20 rolls. i paid and scooted out to the parking lot with great anticipation. 20 rolls and 4 40's later i dumped then hit MY bank to get some more cash. i went back to the original bank to get the rest of the score.

after i told the teller i'd like to buy the rest of the coins, she and another teller went into a room behind the teller's area. it was a large windowed room with a coin counter, canvas bags and a couple of desks. i watched the two tellers (i could clearly see them through one of the windows as the curtain up!!!) dump the coins onto a desk, sort through them, scooting a coin or two to one side of the desk then scraping the rest into a large plastic tray. they'd take the tray over to the coin counter and dump them in and return to sorting through the coins. i watched them do this over and over and over and over ad nauseum.

when they finally finished she came out with the bag and said, "i'm sorry. it's only $431.00 now." yeah....i kinda figured it wouldn't be the full $460.00 it started out to be. :BangHead:

i knew she was a silver hunter too as she had $4.00 in her teller tray with an obvious 90%'er sitting right there. i told her i'd buy those with some pocket change i had. she picked them up, looked at 'em and said, "oh, not this one.", and gave me the remaining $3.50 for $3.00. i dunno if the sight of that first 90 shook her up so bad she miscalculated or that she gave the extra one to me as a guilt payment but i didn't correct her. she wasn't on my good side at the moment. after she pulled it from the pile she looked dead at me and said, "oh...this is probably what you're looking for, huh?" "Well, it was." was all i could say.

total haul from that stop was 15 dirty forties. no shiny ones and no nineties at all. hmmm...wonder why.

a little over two ounces of silver for $7.50 and yet... i felt like i'd just watched somebody ripping me off. the nerve of me! :violent1:
 

Upvote 0

LJ

Silver Member
Dec 23, 2006
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Re: tellers were cherrypickin'!!!

Oooooh...that bites B-I-L. Don't let it get you down though. As you know some tellers are wise to the game and taking advantage of their position in the banks. If I were a teller, I would probably do the same thing. Doing it in front of you....now that just ain't right.

I always said, if it is in their tray and they want it....why don't they buy it. Well, one day I was at the teller window and saw a silver quarter in the tray. I mentioned I would like to buy it. The reply was "I'm saving that one". I then asked why don't you buy it instead of leaving it in your tray in plain sight. The reply was "it is bank policy that I can not buy any coins in my tray". I then asked well, how are you going to get it into your personal possesion if you can not buy it? The reply was "another teller can buy it from my tray and then sell it back to me personally".......made no sense to me but.....

This teller was alone at that moment....guess the others were at lunch...I knew I wasn't getting that quarter, so trying to become an quick ally of this teller for future purposes, I asked if I bought it then I could could turn right around and sell it back to him. His reply was "yep". I said okay, lets do it. I gave him 25 cents....took the silver quarter and walked away........ ;D

Nooooooo....just kidding!!!! I gave it back to him and he reached in his pocket and gave me another quarter. The point I am trying to make is due to that ridiculous policy that teller mentioned, that may be why we see these coins in the tray at times.

Another quick story on this same issue that worked in my favor this time.....I loved this one!! I went to a bank asking for halves (road trip..didn't have an account at this particular bank) and they had more rolls than I had cash for. This was the main bank for several branches. This teller had 3-4 silver halves in her tray but would not let me buy those. The vault teller over heard this conversation of her refusing to sell them to me. She walked over to the window we were doing our business at and said, when your done searching those rolls bring them back to this particular teller and cash in and I'll give you more rolls from the vault.

What a sweet deal!!! I didn't have to find a bank that I had an account with to dump to get cash for the other rolls they had in the vault. I went out to my car in the parking lot of this bank....searched them....brought the searched rolls right back in to that same teller....if I brought in 70 rolls, the vault teller gave me 70 more from the vault.....I made 2-3 trips doing this always going back to that same teller. This teller was not happy AT ALL. The look on her face every time I walked back in could have killed me! I eventually went through all of the rolls in the vault pulling every silver half they had....other than the 3-4 in that tellers tray. I think the vault teller was trying to send a message to the teller at the window.....ha! I loved it!!

Anyway.....keep plugging FiddyCent man. I agree with you.....I hate it when that happens though.
 

Silver Stripe

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Jul 8, 2007
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Re: tellers were cherrypickin'!!!

I have a little bank I hit every 3 or 4 monthes that robs ME every time, every time I say I ain't goin back but I do. First time I went there I had just started and they had a couple boxes and some loose rolls in the vault. The teller I was dealing with told a story of a recent theft of someones collection so they keep an eye out for old coins and sell them back to the person at FV- how nice. Next time I was there was my Bday last year, I was on a road trip and in a hurry. Supposed to had $500 in the vault, she walks by struggling to carry the bag, says she has to recount them- I said I trust the count but to no avail. Eventually one by one every teller goes to the back, the last one standing guard at the door (like I was gonna jump over the counter). 30 mins later she comes back (easily carrying the bag), we only had $300- I paid and left thinking that is the last time I waste time at that bank. Out of that $300 I got about 50 40%ers, 20 or so '64's and 1 Ben that they missed. Needless to say I have been back. About a week ago I was there and they went from $800+ down to $350. They had spent an unusual amount of time in the vault, and I could hear what they was doing. When she left the vault and went to the back room to count two tellers went back to the vault (10 feet from the couch I was sitting on) and it sounded like a silver synphony in there. Anyways when she came back and told ME $350 I said "Boy there must have been alot of good ones". She said "Trust me I wasn't back there fishing". I said "Your kidding right cause they're still fishing in the vault". Paid and left, only got about 30 40%ers and no 90% that time so don't know that I will be wanting to waste another hour there any time soon. I figure one time I will get a teller that will sell ME the bag without recounting- maybe at rush hour next time or 10 mins to close and hope they don't say come back tomarrow.
HH Mark
 

TxTim

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Jan 14, 2007
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Re: tellers were cherrypickin'!!!

Hey Fiddy!

Don't despair!

It seems like the more "experienced" tellers with 10 years under their belt are the silver hunters.

They are the ones who will tell you there are no halves in the bank or ask if you have an account - any excuse to get you out of there.
They only represent a small percentage of the the seasoned vets who are mostly very helpful and very good at their jobs.
This happened to me a couple times- you hear them sorting silver out of sight and you feel like shouting over the counter:

"Just dump it in the bag, I don't care if the count is off by a buck or two!!!!"

You have to calm down and remember that you catch more bees with honey than vinegar.
Ask them if they will sell you all the halves they culled for $1.00 each. It has worked for me more than once.

If anything, it gets the conversation going and they may laugh at you (what else is new? :tard:). I have had those tellers talking forever; expounding on the great finds over the years and how much silver they have in boxes in their closets. That's when you ask them if they would like to cash it out and sell it to you. Try to get them to bring it in and let you see what they have so you can make an offer.

Leave your business card or cell phone number and tell them to call you when they get ready to sell their hoard.

Worst case- you make a friend with a common interest.

Best case- they sell you all or part of what they culled for face or 2X face and you have a shot at buying their silver below spot. :thumbsup:
 

fistfulladirt

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Re: tellers were cherrypickin'!!!

Yeah, what bites is when half the tellers in town have been taking their silver to the only coin dealer in town, 'cause he's experienced and will pay them 4X face for their 90%ers......AMC
 

jim4silver

Silver Member
Apr 15, 2008
3,662
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Re: tellers were cherrypickin'!!!

Silver Stripe said:
I have a little bank I hit every 3 or 4 monthes that robs ME every time, every time I say I ain't goin back but I do. First time I went there I had just started and they had a couple boxes and some loose rolls in the vault. The teller I was dealing with told a story of a recent theft of someones collection so they keep an eye out for old coins and sell them back to the person at FV- how nice. Next time I was there was my Bday last year, I was on a road trip and in a hurry. Supposed to had $500 in the vault, she walks by struggling to carry the bag, says she has to recount them- I said I trust the count but to no avail. Eventually one by one every teller goes to the back, the last one standing guard at the door (like I was gonna jump over the counter). 30 mins later she comes back (easily carrying the bag), we only had $300- I paid and left thinking that is the last time I waste time at that bank. Out of that $300 I got about 50 40%ers, 20 or so '64's and 1 Ben that they missed. Needless to say I have been back. About a week ago I was there and they went from $800+ down to $350. They had spent an unusual amount of time in the vault, and I could hear what they was doing. When she left the vault and went to the back room to count two tellers went back to the vault (10 feet from the couch I was sitting on) and it sounded like a silver synphony in there. Anyways when she came back and told ME $350 I said "Boy there must have been alot of good ones". She said "Trust me I wasn't back there fishing". I said "Your kidding right cause they're still fishing in the vault". Paid and left, only got about 30 40%ers and no 90% that time so don't know that I will be wanting to waste another hour there any time soon. I figure one time I will get a teller that will sell ME the bag without recounting- maybe at rush hour next time or 10 mins to close and hope they don't say come back tomarrow.
HH Mark


I wonder why they would wait to take out the silver when a customer wants to buy the bag? You would think they would go thru it on their own.

I have found that younger tellers (those who are under 30 or so) generally aren't as aware of silver in our old coins. I once picked up a coin machine's bag and they insisted on hand counting. I thought they would take all the good ones but when I got home it had a few Walkers and Franklins, and a nice amount of 64s and 40%s. I have had a pick up or two at a different bank where they hand counted and the final figure was about 30 bucks less than they originally quoted, and there were no keepers other than 40%ers, so I know they pilfered.

If I was a teller and knew about silver I would take what I could has well. Otherwise it is like giving away free money. It would be like us CRHers leaving keepers in our rejects when we dump them.

Jim
 

golden silver

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Oct 22, 2007
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Re: tellers were cherrypickin'!!!

Hey Fiddy,

It has happened to me too. One time I waited in the lobby of a bank for 30 minutes while my bag was being picked through. I went through all 1,000 dollars in halves and not one keeper was found. Now that is a shot in the pills. Another time I went to pick up a box of halves and noticed silver staring back at me from a teller tray. It was four silver dimes and I asked to buy them from the teller and she tried to pretend she misunderstood me and placed a sacagawea dollar on the counter. I said "no not the dollar, the four dimes there." She said "oh I wanted those..." I appologized and offered them back to her and she said "No that is OK there will be more where they came from. What I try to remind myself is that we most likely find way more than these tellers with all the bank hoppin' we do. A loss of a few coins is no big deal in the scheme of things.

-Golden Silver
 

Goes4ever

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Jan 30, 2008
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Re: tellers were cherrypickin'!!!

at my bank the tellers are not allowed to buy any coins till the end of their shift. If a customer wants them they get em
 

sniffer

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Dec 31, 2006
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Re: tellers were cherrypickin'!!!

after standing there watching them separate all the good ones, I would have told them, no thanks, I'll go down the street
 

jim4silver

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Apr 15, 2008
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Re: tellers were cherrypickin'!!!

Goes4ever said:
at my bank the tellers are not allowed to buy any coins till the end of their shift. If a customer wants them they get em


You have to decide if it is worth one silver dime, quarter, etc., to try and take a coin that a teller wants to buy from his/her till. If it is a bank that is usually helpful to you in your CRHing, I say let them have the few crumbs that show up in the till if they want them. Of course stopping the tellers from pilfering thru a $1000 bag so you can get it for yourself would be a good thing. If they (the tellers) wanted it so bad, they should have searched the halves BEFORE a customer comes in and asks for it.


Sniffer said:
after standing there watching them separate all the good ones, I would have told them, no thanks, I'll go down the street

But then you would have missed out on the 15 dirty old 40%ers that fiddy scored and it would not have made a bit of difference to the tellers anyway. I like to follow the old saying "don't cut your nose to spite your face". Sometimes in CRHing (as well as life in general) you have to suppress your pride to be successful. My 2 cents.

Jim
 

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