A Rant, An Observation, And Some Speculation

[mysterio]

Hello all...I am a bona fide lurker but don't post much. I enjoy this forum, love the finds and love CRH...I had an incident today that motivates me to share this with the board.

I finally thought I had hit the gold mine with a local bank...they allowed me to order 1K bags of halves- no fees, no questions, no nothing. In my area of Florida, the boxes are skunks and hand rolls are hard to find so I was in CRH heaven or so I thought.

Long story short, I did not "kill the goose that laid the golden egg"...I would order 1K a week (1 bag); sometimes 2K a week (2 bags)...no problem...today I show up and it was like they were waiting for me.

"Hi, here to get my halves"
New Teller Comes Running Up- "The bank will not be getting them for you anymore"
"Umm...why not?"
"Because the bank has had a problem with people buying them, then running them back thru our coin counting machine. They are apparently looking for valuable ones and then returning them...the volume has been too much and is causing havoc at the branches...."
"I see...it's not against the law, however...what can I do to get my halves? I never return mine to you"...(which is true because I don't dump where I get)
"Sorry sir...we have changed our policy...no more halves and the coin counter won't take them either"
"I see...thanks"

So...I guess it was good while it lasted. If it turned out that one person got greedy and grabby and order 10K at a time and then dumped it right back, I hope they realize that they just shut themselves and everyone else out. I tried the slow, steady and patient route but it got me back to square one. Some may say "greed is good" but I say "greed is good in moderation".

When all was said and done, it was a nice run...got about 100...including 1 worn 1907 Barber, a few Walkers, a few Frankies and a few 90's...I probably went thru 6-7K for this yield.

I don't know if there is a point I am trying to make because I am not sure what put the bank over the edge...but I am bummed out...if one greedy person blew it for all of us...

 

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[Bank Runner]

I completely agree with everything you said. I have no problem with the "Super CRHers" as long as they have special arrangements set up with both their supply and dump banks. But the individuals who break the rules hurt all of us.

HH,
Karl

 

[Ifyndit]

That is a bummer!

Maybe you should start buying a $1,000 in dimes.....sounds like people have been doing pretty good with those! Then see what the bank says about that!

 

[Rich Hartford]

The banks have to turn the bags into the fed so that the silver can be removed. Once the silver is removed the clad coins are boxed up for redistribution

 

[jim4silver]

I am surprised that banks still allow what they do regarding CRHing. If more and more people get into CRHing, then sooner or later the banks will either start charging fees or stop it like what happened to you.

Even with all the skunks in my area, I was seeing more and more CRHer activity at almost every bank I went to in search of halves. It used to be rare to have a teller mention others that bought halves, now it is the opposite. Whenever I found a bank that had no other CRHers I was a bit surprised.

Recently I was seeing some banks where they had halves (fed rolls), but they would only give out a certain amount per person because so many were asking for them (like they were rationing them out). In the past they were happy to get rid of the boxes laying around in the vault.

The few bad apples like you described will ruin it for everyone, but that is the way of the world in many respects.

As they say, all good things must come to an end.

Jim

 

[Diver_Down]

You just need to find a different supply bank. I just scored a new supply. I'll tear through their carrier's inventory at 8k a week until the boxes start coming stamped with new dates. I've exhausted the Loomis branch for the Jacksonville district. The Brinks is trash as they get my 8k in dumps.

 

[buffhunter]

Mysterio - I feel your pain. I have a bank on this coast that stopped ordering the halves. I kept on being told that Brinks was out. When i confronted the vault manager and told her that the same truck goes down the street and i get halves there, she fessed up. She told me that two different CRH's were coming in and started increasing their order. They would go out in the parking lot and check for silver and then return the coins back to the machine in the lobby. They figured out that half of the coins turned into that machine when they had to change the box were halves, any more than likely from those two guys. One or two guys mess it up for everyone. i still go there and order other denominations, but i don't use a supply band as my dump bank. That's rule 1,2,3,4...... of CRH.

 

[puckhead]

Pretty soon CRH will be like using an ATM. When ATMs first came out they wanted you to use them and once we were hooked on them, they started charging us for all the spare time the tellers had. If you switch from halves to dimes, it will not matter, there will be fees for anything ordered and/or dumped. Do you really think that bank people do not read this forum or any other of the many out here that deal with this subject? Welcome to the real world, be glad you got some before they vanished and we started paying for skunks. Of course the other thing was the volume that some of greedier in the world felt they needed. Oh well, rant over, enjoy your day and the fee associated with it.

 

[golden silver]

mYSTERIO, Nice to see you posting more often. All it takes is a couple of monster hunters at a branch with a bad ethic or attitude and it puts a bad mark on the hobbie. The only thing I can say is roll with the punches and adjust strategy. I am switching up supply banks trying to find the next Golden Silver vein. I happen to live in a good area where my dump bank has several branches and coin counting machines. The machines make it so teller don't have to deal with rolled coin and the several branches make it easy for me to spread out my dumps so as to not overwhelm one branch. We seem to have a good relationship. Hope you can find another good source.

Golden Silver

 

[fistfulladirt]

The banks have to turn the bags into the fed so that the silver can be removed. Once the silver is removed the clad coins are boxed up for redistribution

Oh-Oh!............

 

[Rich Hartford]

A few months ago a bank manager told me that I could no longer dump more than $500.00 in coins a week there as it costs the bank money to ship the coins out. I told him that I won't dump there at all and went on to say that I will buy the bags off the counter on a weekly basis thus saving the bank money. The manager said that he would sell me the bags if he could,but that he cannot.

During one of my road trips Looking for halves I came upon a bank 35 miles from home. I asked them for halves, loose or rolled, and the head teller offered me six hundred of halves in a plastic bag. I took them and she told me that I can pick-up bags once a week from them. So Once a week I'd pick up a bag ofvarious quantity's of halves and dimes. The bags always yielded silver, not in spectacular amounts,but the potential was there.

The last time I was there picking up bags the manager approached me and told me that I can get the bags as long as I don't dump them there. I told her that I live 35 miles from their closest branch and dump in banks close to home. She said fine.

A few days ago I got a call from that bank and was told by the head teller that the manager told her that I could no longer purchase the bags. I asked her why,and she told me that it was too time consuming to count the contents of the bags. I said " you have to count the contents of the bag anyway before you ship them out,and inventory them every day at closing, right". She could not reply. So I told her to ask the manager if I could purchase the bags if I open an account. After conferring with the manager,the head teller told me that even if I open an account I cannot purchase the bags,but that the bank would order me boxes of coins. I told her no thanks and ended the conversation.

Conclusion

It was an obvious lie to tell me that it was time consuming to count the bags.
It is advantageous for the bank to sell me the bags because
1. They don't have to wait for the bags to fill up for shipping
2. They save time because they don't have to include them in the daily count
3. They save on the shipping out cost
4. They can pawn off the foreign coins and buttons to me.

They are obviously not really worried about me dumping their own coins back on them, as they offered to get boxes for me if I opened an account.

They are not looking for silver themselves otherwise I would have skunk bags, which I never did.

Something is up ! But what I don't know. Anybody care to guess.

 

[srcdco]

To add to this topic, when I picked up my boxes last Friday, the teller told me that the auditors are really starting to clamp down on the amount of money that they keep on hand at the branch. She was asked who all of the coin and currency were for. She didn't tell them that some was for me for hunting, but she said that there may come a time when they are not allowed to order coin for anyone that is not a business customer. She said she'd keep doing it for me as long as the auditors allow it. After 35 years, it's sad to think that my time of coin roll hunting may be coming to an end (I started in 1974). They are looking at all expenses to see where they can cut. They've closed some branches, cut branch hours, and let all of the assistant managers go.

Scott

 

[jim4silver]

The banks have to turn the bags into the fed so that the silver can be removed. Once the silver is removed the clad coins are boxed up for redistribution

Oh-Oh!............

FFD,

Actually, I would rather search a skunk box than debate this again. This would be a huge issue for CRHers if there was any real proof.

Untill someone can provide an advertisement or some business literature that describes and details a coin counting machine that works on a LARGE scale that mentions how it removes silver (not how the supermarket coinstar spits out silver coins in its return bin), I ain't buying it.

Even then it would not prove Brinks or whomever are using such, but at least it would be possible evidence for those who believe the coin couriers are removing silver.

Jim