OMG!!! My bag of halves evaporated! Christmas chananagins

Tommybuckets

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So I've been waiting patiently for a bag of halves to fill up,... FOR 4 YEARS!!! The first one two years ago got shipped out despite me diligently checking on it like it was a baby in a nursery every month having spent countless hours in the car and on the phone with them.

I was determined not to let that happen again. No way. Not this time. Over the two years this bag has eeked along while neighboring branches have gotten and given mountains of halves. We were at $200 and the head teller was determined I couldn't buy it until it was full. I was waiting until it got to $300 to make the final push. I made a big run and was informed for miles around that someone had cleaned out everything for miles. I was pretty sure they couldn't get to these. Not after spending 2 yrs working on this.
I go in looking for the head teller to find she has been promoted. Uh oh. I ask after halves and they tell me someone brought in $180 but they were bought the same day. This makes no sense. I am always told they have to unwrap them and run them through the machine and then at other branches they can give them out but at this branch they would stay in the infinite depths of the bag. Or they used to until the head teller switched recently. OK so I missed $180. So hows the bag? They tell me there are $390 on the counter but these counters are notoriously faulty so they must hand count them for me. OK lets do that. "Well we don't have enough time to do it right now since its so many coins. They look like theres some good stuff in there too. Why don't you come Weds?"
Of course just take off work and drive a hundred miles, no problem. So I phone a friend and line up someone local to pick up the coins.
I go leave them $400 of my CRH funds. Yea we're tight like that.
I call the branch this morning and they say they'll start on it right now. The phone rings in ten minutes and they tell me " theres only $15 dollars in the bag. You still want them? "
WTF WTF WTF ???? So several different people who have laid eyes on the contents of the bag tell me theres " too many to count right now,"
the old head teller obviously imagined seeing the bag filling to $200 in halves for TWO years and now they've mysteriously vanished? I've had this happen before and its the most frustrating part of the game. I am about ready to bring them a big bucket of rotten fish heads and ask them to put it in the machine. They're also telling me that they gave away $375 free dollars that were miscounted coins the machine thought were halves. Well guess whos now getting thousands in dumps? Thats right. I am going to dump on them so hard they will be buried in coins. I'll be laughing getting those free 50 cent credits for pennies from now on. Sorry had to vent I try to keep it positive but this is too much. I hope the guy ahead of me enjoyed the run its skunk dump city in that area from now on.
 

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Diver_Down

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Dec 13, 2008
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Why didn't you dump to top off the bag 2 years ago? I wouldn't have waited especially that it is some distance from you. I would have given your local connection $300 to dump and would have followed up with buying the "full" bag.
 

LooseChange

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If they can sell bags off of the machine, I've never had a bank or credit union say no when I ask if I can top it off with my own coins and then buy it full. I've done it many times.
 

Dozer D

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On Xmas Eve I was able to top off my next dime bag #12 with only $25, head teller was more than happy to get rid of it NOW., however, only got 5-Rosies , but they stack just as well. I'm more than willing to TOP OFF any bag to about $150-200 just so to get it.
 

smokeythecat

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My bank refused to even consider selling bags.
 

port ewen ace

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most of us would have better luck buying bags of crack near the banks :BangHead:---- whenever I tried to buy a bag...... they say-- "no way, hose A"----

love to buy nickel bags some day---- no stinkin' beaver tails like in boxes :BangHead:
 

Coincrazed

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OP, like you mentioned, dump as many halves on them as you can. I have noticed how when I will come to banks asking for halves, every bank has a teller who ironically had some but "gave them out to a customer earlier before you came in". I think that's just a lie tellers are using to discourage us. What are the odds it happens 70% of the time that they sold them the exact same day I come asking?
 

TxAg

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Bummer on the lost bag Tommy. I’ve been watching a half dollar bag slowly fill for about 6 months. That’s a good sign even though it is testing my patience. The head teller that took over about a year ago refuses to sell the bag until it’s full at $1000, even though the previous branch manager sold me several partial bags before, and the other branches in town sell me partial bags whenever I ask. In fact the first bag I ever bought was at that branch 2 years ago and started this whole CRH obsession, lol. It was $168, and produced 51 silvers! The current bag is probably somewhere around $300 now, I haven’t checked it in a couple of weeks. Still too low to top off. I’ve been promised first dibs when the bag fills. I’ll play it safe and top it off when it gets to about $850. Man, I want that bag!!!!
 

Coincrazed

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Bummer on the lost bag Tommy. I’ve been watching a half dollar bag slowly fill for about 6 months. That’s a good sign even though it is testing my patience. The head teller that took over about a year ago refuses to sell the bag until it’s full at $1000, even though the previous branch manager sold me several partial bags before, and the other branches in town sell me partial bags whenever I ask. In fact the first bag I ever bought was at that branch 2 years ago and started this whole CRH obsession, lol. It was $168, and produced 51 silvers! The current bag is probably somewhere around $300 now, I haven’t checked it in a couple of weeks. Still too low to top off. I’ve been promised first dibs when the bag fills. I’ll play it safe and top it off when it gets to about $850. Man, I want that bag!!!!
Keep us updated on the final haul.
 

LooseChange

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It is always a risk to leave a partial bag. I once topped off a bag of halves so that I could buy it and when I got to the car, I saw that there was a note tapped to the bag with the name and phone number of the client that was to be called once the bag filled. The tellers working that day didn't know or didn't care that someone was waiting for that bag to fill. It is just not a priority for them.

If they are cool with it, top it off - no matter how far from full it is (put $875 into it if you have to). Do it every 2-3 months if they let you. That is the only strategy that reduces the risk of if it getting poached out from under you.

If this place will sell you bags, don't burn the bridge no matter how frustrated you are right now. Take bags of dimes and come back in 3mo for the partial of halves. A source that will sell you bags is a rare resource. Treat it gently.
 

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Tommybuckets

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Coincrazed, someone definitely did a sweep of the area Friday afternoon and I don't blame them. It happens for me that way most times except when I am killing it and then I know I got out ahead of the competition timing wise.
Loosechange, they've never sold me a bag of halves but shipped one on me 2 years ago. I buy up dimes and nickels and have less luck there than other banks. I always have enough to top the bag off with me but it never even got half full. The multiple stories they told me don't add. Up. I figure they poached the bag and offered me the $15 in clad . Statistically they should have gotten some halves in two years but they are not staying in the branch. I doubt a bank would be willing to lose the $375 they claim they credited clients for halves on accident but similar machines do miscount coins as halves up to 30% . This would mean this particular machine only correctly counts 3.8% of the halves. Probably a great reason to dump anything that resembles a coin there ! I sense a sniper at the management level. I have good relationships with other branches but they serve the bag out to everyone so there is never more than $20-30 to buy so it negates the whole purpose of trying to get a bag. Port Ewen Ace, it would definitely be waaay easier to get a bag of crack right down the street from this bank lol.
 

Zomotion

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This is a tough one... It's crap what they did, whether lying, selling to someone else, or buying it themselves. Most frustrating part of the hobby, it's like a dangling carrot you can never get to.

You mentioned other branches. My thought is if these other branches are the same bank as this one, then don't dump. You risk pissing someone off, word gets out to other branches where you get other bags/rolls from and they cut you off.

If it's just another bank that keeps breaking promises and no relation to the others then dump away!
 

TxAg

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A lead teller at a bank in my town poaches the silver out of the partial bag before selling it to me, under the pretense that the machine may have miscounted the coins. On one occasion, she spent too much time kneeling down below the drive up window where I couldn’t see. At first she said there was $20 in it, then I ended up with only $15. I’m sure she took 10 silvers out of it. I now go inside the lobby where I can watch, and buy the partial bag if she is not there. Occasionally, I get a silver or two. Problem is she can always poach the bag anytime she wants or simply snipe the silver before it ever goes in the bag because the machine is not self serve.
The bag I am waiting on is at a different bank and is self serve which is a better set up for me to find silver!
 

b3y0nd3r

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And why the hell do you think it's funny the guy got screwed? Not cool buddy.

Not trying to be offensive, just blunt. He is a victim of his own greed. Should of took what he had when he had the chance. It may not be cool what I said, but it's true.
 

Megalodon

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It is always a risk to leave a partial bag. I once topped off a bag of halves so that I could buy it and when I got to the car, I saw that there was a note tapped to the bag with the name and phone number of the client that was to be called once the bag filled. The tellers working that day didn't know or didn't care that someone was waiting for that bag to fill. It is just not a priority for them.

If they are cool with it, top it off - no matter how far from full it is (put $875 into it if you have to). Do it every 2-3 months if they let you. That is the only strategy that reduces the risk of if it getting poached out from under you.

If this place will sell you bags, don't burn the bridge no matter how frustrated you are right now. Take bags of dimes and come back in 3mo for the partial of halves. A source that will sell you bags is a rare resource. Treat it gently.

I think this is good advice. I once topped off a bag with $875 in halves at one dump after being told the bag was the original bag from the time the coin machine was first installed at that branch 7 years earlier. So there was about $125 in the bag when I dumped and filled it. I didn't ask about buying the bag because I didn't want to go through all the coins I'd just dumped. But I wondered later about what I'd left behind. Also possible they would not have sold the bag and asking the question would be like admitting to CRH...
 

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ArkieBassMan

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Bummer on the lost bag Tommy. I’ve been watching a half dollar bag slowly fill for about 6 months. That’s a good sign even though it is testing my patience. The head teller that took over about a year ago refuses to sell the bag until it’s full at $1000, even though the previous branch manager sold me several partial bags before, and the other branches in town sell me partial bags whenever I ask. In fact the first bag I ever bought was at that branch 2 years ago and started this whole CRH obsession, lol. It was $168, and produced 51 silvers! The current bag is probably somewhere around $300 now, I haven’t checked it in a couple of weeks. Still too low to top off. I’ve been promised first dibs when the bag fills. I’ll play it safe and top it off when it gets to about $850. Man, I want that bag!!!!

Waiting for $850 is cutting it too close IMO. Anytime the total is over $500, its in danger of some random CRHer dumping a box into the machine and the bag getting shipped off.
 

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Tommybuckets

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B3yond3r,
How does working with the old head tellers wishes make me make me a victim of my own greed? It may be more appropriate to say I was a victim of my own nonchalance, or willingness to go with the flow and not irritate the old head teller. A victim of my own greed would be appropriate if I had topped off the bag, she told me to come get it the next day because she didn't feel like counting it on demand and shipped it or sold it lol. I did everything reasonable to get the halves short of putting on a ski mask and taking them. Its a fox and the grapes situation and sometimes we can't win. I go to great lengths to get halves but I also like people and our mutual happiness, comraderie (and on occasion friendship) is more important than getting every last coin I can. I enjoy the hunt and if there are extra obstacles it requires the ability to think quickly on ones feet. Thats the test. I am frustrated it didn't go my way but the end of the day I have bigger fish to fry. I just enjoy sharing stories so we can learn and empathize. I enjoy sharing whether its of the great victory or the one that got away, thats ultimately why we are here on this site. Now I need to get these coins out of my friends wall to have a victory story lol.
 

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