Professor Hartford Routine

[Rich Hartford]

I can't count this as CRH finds but ScoobaSteve and myself have a little scam going on that we've pulled off quite a few times with great results.
We both save proof halves that we find in boxes or road trips and buy as many Indian Head cents that we can find for under a dollar . I don't hunt in Steve's part of the State. Steve makes note of the the tellers in his area that are cherrypicking amateur coin collectors.
These tellers becomes the mark.I put on a tweed jacket, bowtie, and a pair of glasses that I wear low on my nose. I kind of look like the "Nutty Professor".
I go to the listed banks and ask for halves (which I know I'm not going to get). Then I'll strike up a conversation about coin collecting. At some point I'll show the very valuable treasure that I have found (worthless proofs and dirt cheap IH), and without going into details of how I get the teller to do it, we work out a trade. I've made some fantastic trades with tellers, and I get repeat business. It is a bit time consuming but on average I get almost as much silver as I do CRH. I split the booty with Steve.
Best score was 5 mixed Walkers and Bens for an IH that I paid .90 cents for.

 

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[sir]

That's pretty smart

 

[coolpix9]

Hey Rich, I wonder what you could trade this for ? Cheers, Jim

 

[Rich Hartford]

I almost sold it in 78. I was dining at a restaurant at St Katharine Docks by the Tower Bridge, when I noticed a tourist admiring the stucture.
I struck up a conversation with this gentleman, who turned out to be from Belgium. Fortuneately I am fluent in Flemish, which made him comfortable speaking to someone in his native tongue.
During he course of our conversation I mentioned how I was good friends with Baudouin, King of the Belgians, and that I recently sold him some shares in the bridge for a good price. This perked up his interest, and we actually started negotiations.
I must have said the wrong thing because all of a sudden he became suspicious. I excused myself for a trip to the loo,and exited out the back door, making a hasty retreat to my West End flat.

 

[sir]

Hey Rich, I wonder what you could trade this for ? Cheers, Jim

I have a puzzle of that EXACT same picture. It glows in the dark too.

 

[DAS7NY]

Such a great idea! I HAVE to try this!!! Can you write up in a little more detail about what you say and how you figure out if they are coin collectors? I'd love to know this!

 

[Rich Hartford]

"Such a great idea! I HAVE to try this!!! Can you write up in a little more detail about what you say and how you figure out if they are coin collectors? I'd love to know this!"

It's actually pretty elementary. Let me give you a couple of examples which you have to encountered while CRH which would be a strong indication that a teller collects coins.
1.Teller says," I have halves but you won't find any silver in there.I collect them
2. You observe silver coins in a tray that the teller won't sell you.
3. One teller says to another don't sell him that one it's silver
4.The teller asks you if your a coin collector and says he is too.
5.Strike up a conversation and simply ask

I could go on and on the examples are numerous.
Trading is simple well I'll give you this very shiny coin if you sell me that. Or I'll give you an 1892 Columbian Exposition Half Dollar for 10 1964 Kennedys.
Whatever you think that you can get away with. The young tellers are like the shiny proofs. The older tellers you might have to trade a .75cent V Nickel for 2 90% halves.

It works very well. You collect the silver and have nothing to dump.

 

[jim4silver]

I can't count this as CRH finds but ScoobaSteve and myself have a little scam going on that we've pulled off quite a few times with great results.
We both save proof halves that we find in boxes or road trips and buy as many Indian Head cents that we can find for under a dollar . I don't hunt in Steve's part of the State. Steve makes note of the the tellers in his area that are cherrypicking amateur coin collectors.
These tellers becomes the mark.I put on a tweed jacket, bowtie, and a pair of glasses that I wear low on my nose. I kind of look like the "Nutty Professor".
I go to the listed banks and ask for halves (which I know I'm not going to get). Then I'll strike up a conversation about coin collecting. At some point I'll show the very valuable treasure that I have found (worthless proofs and dirt cheap IH), and without going into details of how I get the teller to do it, we work out a trade. I've made some fantastic trades with tellers, and I get repeat business. It is a bit time consuming but on average I get almost as much silver as I do CRH. I split the booty with Steve.
Best score was 5 mixed Walkers and Bens for an IH that I paid .90 cents for.

Sounds like an interesting sales tactic, but in the banks I go to it would be hard to get them to spend enough time chatting about coin collecting, etc, to make the pitch. I am not asking you to give trade secrets or anything, but do you walk in with a suitcase full of items and show them to the tellers?

If the bank has a line of customers waiting behind you, it seems likely that most tellers are gonna be too busy to deal with the sales pitch.

I have told a few tellers I would buy their silver coins if they ever want to sell, but have not heard anything yet.

Jim

 

[Kantuckkeean]

My tellers are usually too busy to chat much (they're occupied with counterfeit nickels LOL!). I've never tried getting silver from the ones that I know collect. I figure I'll just go to the next bank and hope for the best.

Kindest regards,
Kantuck

 

[Rich Hartford]

Jim,

I go in the banks early on a Mon. Tues. and Wed.,when they are not busy. I just keep a few coins in my pockets,and I know what banks to go to.
Even when I go on a road trip to a new area I keep some coins on me just in case I run into one of the cherry picker/collectors. I trade the proofs, which I get at face and I buy the oldest but cheapest IH,V nickels, and cheap commemorative halves.
Everybody wins. At worst I'm paying 75 cents for a 90% in exchange for a coin that the teller is paying 50 cents for in the case of halves. The teller gets a coin that is 100 years old and which they will probably never find at the bank, and I'm getting silver cheap from a teller who would never normally give it up to a CHRer.