gave a coin and tips to a teller, good or bad

[thing]

I was in a chase I never go to to dump 1000. And this 20ish teller asks me if there were any old ones. My first response was you shouldn't ask that you could tip people off to what you are doing. She had apparently found 5 Carson City morgans in great condition, and that got her started. I told her about edge searching, why halves are still your best bet for silver (in LA anyways), road trips and what years to look for (she didn't know of the difference between 90% and 40% coins) and of course I told her about this web site. I showed her some proof coins I had with me (she didn't know about them) and I gave her the one she mentioned was her birth year.

Interested to hear some opinions from other members

FYI when I dump coins I tell people up front exactly what I am doing if I am asked

 

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[fjer]

I always just say I'm a coin collector looking for coins to fill my collection or are old and interesting. That way I come off as pursuing a kind of nerdy hobby, not pursuing something valuable. I even reinforced that (though in my case it's mostly true) by showing a teller a dateless buff that was showing through a bag. It's obviously interesting to a collector, but also not valuable enough for most people to care.

 

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[thripp]

It depends, I have a teller who saves silver coins for me even though he knows they are valuable, and sells them to me at face value. Some people just don't want to be bothered with reselling the coins, and others are just generous.

 

[fistfulladirt]

From dating a teller, have you learned anything about how much other tellers in the area snipe? I also CRH in Maryland, so just curious.

I married a teller, and I know this much - what tellers at banks do and what tellers at credit unions do are completely different regarding policy on employees buying coin off the line. Given the chance, most tellers at CU's will snipe if they know a coin is valuble, because they can, just more of a "relaxed" policy. Overall, most new tellers are educated quickly, by crh'ers. Roll hunters are in and out the door of banks almost daily in some areas. Many of these hunters are not aware of this forum, let alone any kind of roll hunting etiquette, and they talk. So, "loose lips sink ships".

 

[Dodeskaden]

I think that was very sweet to help her out. I personally think its good karma to teach people about coins and silver whenever possible. I just had a family into our store using the coinstar and again and again a coin was rejected. I asked if it was a canadian and the young girl and her family, held out the coin. Looking at it I was that it was a 1958 quarter. I told them to save it that it was 90% silver and worth at least 5 dollars. The looks on their face was priceless, all 5 jaws dropped. Now do I think they are going to start coin roll hunting just on helping them out. Nope. But it could steer them to the nearest coin show which is fine by me. I am a small scale coin roll hunter and I am not afraid of another hunter coming into the territory. there is more than enough banks, credit unions and big businesses where I live that there is no way I can go to them all. So let another hunter come and search and I wish him or her well-wishes and luck in the world. Here in michigan, they are going to need it.

Hugs and Smiles,
Garoulady

I agree with THING and Garoulady. Expecting the worst from people isn't going to yield you anything worthwhile in the long run. And treating someone like you'd like to be treated could make this whole affair much more pleasant. I don't believe it's as zero sum as many people make out. A teller can't check all the coins in a bank. But he or she can put something aside for you -- and this frequently happens. It's happened to me. People who work in banks aren't stupid people; if they're cherry-picking something to put aside for a person, they know it likely has value.

Many of the negative comments on this board relate to having a hostile interaction with tellers and other people at banks. People get very, very angry and typically have to reroute a part or all of their usual routine (by losing a dump bank) due to those interactions. On the flipside, many of the biggest, I'll-remember-this-for-the-rest-of-my-life scores, while exciting, would't buy dinner for two at a mediocre steakhouse.

I'm not saying you have to tell every bank person what you're doing in explicit detail, the same way you wouldn't subject them to a long, blow-by-blow of your aunt's recent hospitalization for sepsis. It just ain't necessary.

But being friendly and relatively open when asked, and sharing your enthusiasm for coins with people who may share it...good God, you can be that generous. There's a strong likelihood it'll come back to you. And if it doesn't, you'll have lost very little--even if a particular person here turns out to be a "only one of us can win" type of individual and bogards some halves or Morgans that you would have laid your hands on. Risking that someone might take...What? $40 or $50 of silver out of your stream every year, versus the possibility that tellers will set something aside for you, cheerfully order for you, not give you grief about dumping...I'm not sure what reasonable person wouldn't make that swap.

There's just no return in this hobby that's worth negativity or confrontational stress.

How many 90-percent halves is worth losing a dump bank or getting sighs of weariness/disgust every time you walk in the door? Life's just too short for that. Something tells me that if there's a person who openly shares their love of CRH with every person who asks, and readily shows any interested person the difference between silver and clad coins, and treats bank tellers like friends and community neighbors instead of opposing poker players, that person probably pulls more silver (and other cool coins) in a year than most people on this forum who do much more volume. And they have a much more pleasant time doing it.

 

[FormerTeller]

On the flipside, many of the biggest, I'll-remember-this-for-the-rest-of-my-life scores, while exciting, would't buy dinner for two at a mediocre steakhouse.

Umm, no. Just.. no.

 

[CC-Hunter]

I'm all for being pleasant, respectful, etc. with tellers and don't take the attitude that tellers are there to serve my CRH needs. Even if I am an account holder at the bank, I realize it's out of the ordinary to dig up loose halves, set aside CWRs, etc., so I am very nice to the tellers and thank them profusely for any help they give me. If any tellers express an interest in what I am doing I am happy to speak with them about coin collecting and what sort of things I am looking for.

All that said, I still don't see any need to say "I'm here for silver and if you want silver here's what you should look for." As others have said, we have spent some time educating ourselves on this hobby and spend a lot of time and gas pursuing the hobby. Even though a lot of tellers probably already know about silver, they might not know about the finer points (e.g., 40% halves, silver proofs, etc.). If I thoroughly "educate" every branch I go to, why should I expect to find silver at those branches ever again? I might, but haven't I drastically reduced my chances? It's hard enought as it is around my city. I'd rather be the collector who wants any halves, Ikes and CWRs an leave it at that. If the tellers let me know they snipe silver that's a different story and I may be a buyer from them. As it is, it's not like I'm cheating the tellers out of any silver - they are taking it in at face amount using the bank's money.

 

[Catcake]

The forum has spoken. The teller must be eliminated. It's for the good of the hobby. She'll understand. Don't forget pics.

 

[GlenDronach]

The forum has spoken. The teller must be eliminated. It's for the good of the hobby. She'll understand. Don't forget pics.

Before or after pics?

Either way is creepy, in different ways.

 

[chuckie]

This is my first post on my first day as a member.

I'm a former banker and I can tell you that there's probably someone in that branch who's already checking a lot of the stuff that comes in. When I was at a branch in the '80s I ordered $1,000/wk in halves and pulled a bunch of 40%. And some 90%. Most everyone knows that there can be valuable coins but many won't take the time or think its beneath them. Seriously.

I CRH (my initials too!) but I stick with cents - $50/wk for fun. I've found Indians and a VF-40 1909VDB amongst a lot of wheaties. I also put all the copper away.

Good luck to you all!

 

[Dodeskaden]

I'm all for being pleasant, respectful, etc. with tellers and don't take the attitude that tellers are there to serve my CRH needs. Even if I am an account holder at the bank, I realize it's out of the ordinary to dig up loose halves, set aside CWRs, etc., so I am very nice to the tellers and thank them profusely for any help they give me. If any tellers express an interest in what I am doing I am happy to speak with them about coin collecting and what sort of things I am looking for.

All that said, I still don't see any need to say "I'm here for silver and if you want silver here's what you should look for." As others have said, we have spent some time educating ourselves on this hobby and spend a lot of time and gas pursuing the hobby. Even though a lot of tellers probably already know about silver, they might not know about the finer points (e.g., 40% halves, silver proofs, etc.). If I thoroughly "educate" every branch I go to, why should I expect to find silver at those branches ever again? I might, but haven't I drastically reduced my chances? It's hard enought as it is around my city. I'd rather be the collector who wants any halves, Ikes and CWRs an leave it at that. If the tellers let me know they snipe silver that's a different story and I may be a buyer from them. As it is, it's not like I'm cheating the tellers out of any silver - they are taking it in at face amount using the bank's money.

I think trying to educate a bank teller (or anyone) on the finer points of coin-roll hunting probably falls into the category of being an incredible bore. Most people just aren't that interested, in my experience. I find that saying, "I love coins and I like looking for interesting ones to keep" (which is 100-percent true in my case) is all most people who ask want to hear. Maybe even a little too much. They might follow up with "that's cool, my grandmother gave me some coins once" or something like that, but that does it. It bores them.

It reminds me once of a guy I met once who was into little radio-controlled 4x4 vehicles. He was at a table with some friends of mine so I asked a couple of polite questions about this when he brought it up. He unloaded on me. He "educated" me about how the market for certain radio-controlled trucks was exploding among collectors, but you could get really ripped off if you didn't know to look for these particular things, and that only two manufacturers could be trusted for these certain parts, and that knock-offs were easy to spot except the ones that weren't and while they were excellent to play with they certainly wouldn't be worth anything to a real collector, and...it was stultifying. I was praying for the dude to stop.

He was certain that other people had to be as interested--fascinated--in that hobby as he was, whereas I was in the vast majority of humans who, sadly, were not interested in it at all (except as a point of sociological curiosity, maybe). While he was talking, after a while, I just felt the minutes of my life dripping away, wondering how a grown man could turn something like toy trucks into such a seemingly collosal waste of time. And I truly, honestly did not care that some of those trucks were supposedly worth thousands of dollars, which was a very big part of the appeal to him. God knows what kind of dangerous "insider" info he gave me. He could have even given me a little cheat-sheet pamphlet to take to flea markets. Which I would have thrown away. Becuase, to me, they were...toy trucks. With knobby tires. And batteries. Vroooom! Thanks, that's all now.

Sure, any sentiment that his totally-absorbing hobby might be a silly waste of time was certainly a hypocritical judgment, given the hobbies I've had before and have now, but what can I say? I don't like what he likes. Toy trucks just don't mean anything to me. I'm glad he gets so much pleasure out of them. The world takes all kinds.

I'm pretty sure the look on my face was the same as you'd find on most bank tellers who were being kindly informed, "Now, listen closely cause this is important: You've got your 90-percent halves and your 40-percent halves, which can look similiar to the untrained eye but don't be fooled..."

 

[Rushfan]

Great... now I'm all interested in little radio-controlled 4x4 vehicles... thanks!

 

[CC-Hunter]

Dodeskaden - I agree about the topic boring most people, but if I had to sit at a teller window all day and handle cash and coin I would probably be interested in learning how I could make a few extra bucks off it. Last I heard tellers don't get paid a whole lot, but even if they did they wouldn't mind making a little extra.

In any event, I see "educating" tellers as a no win situation: either they will be bored to tears, as you suggest, or they will take the info (and possibly spread it), making it that much harder for CRHs. There's the off chance that they will turn into a silver source who snipes silver and sells it to me for half of melt or something (and I know some folks here have that arrangement), but I think that's one of the more unlikely outcomes.

 

[sagittarius98]

I think trying to educate a bank teller (or anyone) on the finer points of coin-roll hunting probably falls into the category of being an incredible bore. Most people just aren't that interested, in my experience. I find that saying, "I love coins and I like looking for interesting ones to keep" (which is 100-percent true in my case) is all most people who ask want to hear. Maybe even a little too much. They might follow up with "that's cool, my grandmother gave me some coins once" or something like that, but that does it. It bores them.

It reminds me once of a guy I met once who was into little radio-controlled 4x4 vehicles. He was at a table with some friends of mine so I asked a couple of polite questions about this when he brought it up. He unloaded on me. He "educated" me about how the market for certain radio-controlled trucks was exploding among collectors, but you could get really ripped off if you didn't know to look for these particular things, and that only two manufacturers could be trusted for these certain parts, and that knock-offs were easy to spot except the ones that weren't and while they were excellent to play with they certainly wouldn't be worth anything to a real collector, and...it was stultifying. I was praying for the dude to stop.

He was certain that other people had to be as interested--fascinated--in that hobby as he was, whereas I was in the vast majority of humans who, sadly, were not interested in it at all (except as a point of sociological curiosity, maybe). While he was talking, after a while, I just felt the minutes of my life dripping away, wondering how a grown man could turn something like toy trucks into such a seemingly collosal waste of time. And I truly, honestly did not care that some of those trucks were supposedly worth thousands of dollars, which was a very big part of the appeal to him. God knows what kind of dangerous "insider" info he gave me. He could have even given me a little cheat-sheet pamphlet to take to flea markets. Which I would have thrown away. Becuase, to me, they were...toy trucks. With knobby tires. And batteries. Vroooom! Thanks, that's all now.

Sure, any sentiment that his totally-absorbing hobby might be a silly waste of time was certainly a hypocritical judgment, given the hobbies I've had before and have now, but what can I say? I don't like what he likes. Toy trucks just don't mean anything to me. I'm glad he gets so much pleasure out of them. The world takes all kinds.

I'm pretty sure the look on my face was the same as you'd find on most bank tellers who were being kindly informed, "Now, listen closely cause this is important: You've got your 90-percent halves and your 40-percent halves, which can look similiar to the untrained eye but don't be fooled..."

The problem is that to get RC 4x4 vehicles, you have to spend a lot of time on eBay, or yard sale-ing . With CRH, you just need some money and a bit of time and voila! you can find silver. Tellers handle lots of coins as their job and can easily CRH. Most people don't handle RC vehicles every day.

 

[Dark]

It reminds me once of a guy I met once who was into little radio-controlled 4x4 vehicles. He was at a table with some friends of mine so I asked a couple of polite questions about this when he brought it up. He unloaded on me. He "educated" me about how the market for certain radio-controlled trucks was exploding among collectors, but you could get really ripped off if you didn't know to look for these particular things, and that only two manufacturers could be trusted for these certain parts, and that knock-offs were easy to spot except the ones that weren't and while they were excellent to play with they certainly wouldn't be worth anything to a real collector, and...it was stultifying. I was praying for the dude to stop.

I'm pretty sure the look on my face was the same as you'd find on most bank tellers who were being kindly informed, "Now, listen closely cause this is important: You've got your 90-percent halves and your 40-percent halves, which can look similiar to the untrained eye but don't be fooled..."

I am busting up. hahaha
Thanks for the story. I totally agree.

 

[sagittarius98]

I'm pretty sure the look on my face was the same as you'd find on most bank tellers who were being kindly informed, "Now, listen closely cause this is important: You've got your 90-percent halves and your 40-percent halves, which can look similiar to the untrained eye but don't be fooled..."

Most, but not all. Just one teller can mess up the orders for your bank, which could order boxes for someone. That teller could call her teller friends at another bank, and the cycle would start that could shut down many banks for CRH.

 

[Gold Maven]

Loose lips, sink ships.

An educated teller, makes me a sad feller.

A Teller that knows, really blows.

If she searches the vault, it's not my fault.

 

[Rushfan]

Your informed teller will snipe, about that you cannot gripe.

 

[quiksilver]

Hmmmm. Well if she already knows and is asking questions she will find out sooner or later so being honest with her might help as maybe she will tell you if she has gone through the crws or not and since she is looking to learn anyway you can also ask her to keep it down .......so I will say as long as she is looking to learn it is a grey area.

 

[skateandcreate]

Skateandcreate: Did you educate the teller you are dating or did the teller already know about sniping? From dating a teller, have you learned anything about how much other tellers in the area snipe? I also CRH in Maryland, so just curious.

Thanks

Cchunter: I educated. She definitely has an eye out for silver now and she exchanged a 1920s fifty not to long ago that was somehow still in circulation. I know that none of the other tellers in her branch are very privy to the value