Interesting conversation with the coin machine guy

[markmopar]

I ran into the DeLaRue maintenance guy at a local TD Bank fixing the Penny Arcade machines.

He told me he could set the machine to discriminate out silver coin, as long as he had silver coins to put through it to 'teach' the machine what was what.
He said some machines will accept silver dimes and quarters if they're not 'tuned' right but they won't normally. Naturally, I didn't ask him to fine tune it to separate the halves(or others). Gotta keep getting that stuff back into circulation for us to find...


The local machines only take $100 in halves per bag. I asked him about resetting them to $500 like a couple other branches do. He said no problem and asked the teller if she wanted him to do that- and she said no! I couldn't believe that she did that since she and I had had several conversations about getting the guy to do exactly that.

He also said it's very easy to set them to separate copper pennies from zinc. That lead him into a story. He claimed that a fellow in Philly bought a couple machines used and was using them to do exactly that. He supposedly got a visit from some Federal Reserve official and told to knock it off and his machines confiscated after he had a service call on the machines filled.

I really doubt that happened but it was an interesting conversation.

 

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[myprecious]

I doubt that part happened too. Since separating copper pennies from zinc is still legal.
Or at least it was at breakfast this morning.

 

[47thelement]

Oh my here we go again

 

[mistergee]

i use TD all the time as my dumpp bank. most of them are set for $100 for 2 reasons.
1- the bigger bag blocks the reject chute
2- the bags are too heavy for the smaller female tellers to handle
at least thats what i was told. i have found one or two that held $300 and the bag did block the reject slot and i fished out some cool stuff.

 

[markmopar]

There are two TD's near me that have them set to $500 and they seem to have no problem blocking the chute. At the other three TD's near me, one uses fullsize bags set at $100 and the other two use a cut-off bag to make sure they don't block the chute. If the teller pays attention to what he/she is doing, blocking the reject is not a problem. I've been the recipient of the results of blocked chutes too(one time over 5 bucks). I never saw one set at $300-yet.

As far as weight goes, I've been told the same but have you seen how big the other bags get when full? A $500 bag of halves is about 26 pounds. I'd bet the penny or quarter bags are heavier.

 

[jim4silver]

As far as weight goes, I've been told the same but have you seen how big the other bags get when full? A $500 bag of halves is about 26 pounds. I'd bet the penny or quarter bags are heavier.

Back in the good ole' days when silver coinage was made from silver, 500 dollars worth of dimes, quarters and halves would all weigh the same. Nowadays I don't know how that all works. I am sure they are pretty close still.

I don't mess with pennies so I don't know what they weigh.

Jim

 

[mistergee]

If the teller pays attention to what he/she is doing, blocking the reject is not a problem.

i agree but most i saw weren't paying attention. so i think it probably was blocked more times than not.

As far as weight goes, I've been told the same but have you seen how big the other bags get when full? A $500 bag of halves is about 26 pounds. I'd bet the penny or quarter bags are heavier.

i can't agree with you more, but this is what i was told. perhaps they just percieve it to weigh more . i saw a few inventive tellers who would roll a chair out to the counter and put the bags on the chair to wheel back to the vault. she was able to move a substantial amount of coin in one trip.

 

[markmopar]

At my three nearest TD's, depending on which teller I get, I help carry the bags to the vault door. Anything to help smooth the transaction...

 

[mistergee]

i ask if they need help but they always refuse. besides all the ones i go to have police officers in them, so i'm not touching any money unless they want me to.

 

[cyberdan]

i ask if they need help but they always refuse. besides all the ones i go to have police officers in them, so i'm not touching any money unless they want me to.

Real cops? or just renta-cops?
I have only seen a real officer at one bank in all my banking history and he wouldn't let me in the front door. It had just been robbed

 

[mistergee]

Real cops? or just renta-cops?

these are Philadelphia's finest. i only see them in TD banks. an officer friend of mine told me that these are off duty police officers and they get $80 per hour. i forget but he said the officer gets like $30 per hour and the city gets the other $50 for the car. or something like that. i'll have to ask him when i see him again. believe it or not sometimes they have 2 on at the same time.