Newbie Questions (Yes, I read the sticky post for newbs)

[SMPress]

OK,

I am looking to start roll hunting today. I plan to go out to find a local bank or two that have free counting machines int he lobby. I suppose I will try to hit the bigger national named banks, my personalbank is a small regional one, and I have never seen a machine in any of their banks, but they should be good for ordering boxes I would guess. Anyway, I will oipen accounts at the banks with the machines...

I do not really relish the idea of rolling all of these coins back up. I noticed in a lot of the posts on this site that people use the automated machines. Do you just take buckets of coins and dump them in? How many coins is reasonable to dump in a machine at one visit? I imagine that the tellers will start to recognize me if I keep this up, and I dont want to kill their machine by dumping 10,000 pennies at a go or anything. I saw several people mention that they use something like 5 banks to do their dumping. That leads me to believe that there is a "magic cut-off" for how much most of you dump in one place at one time...

I think that sit for now, I spent the last two days reading most of the posts on this site, and feel that everything was pretty well answered except for the above.

Thanks
Andy

 

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[jrf30]

I dump about 12,500 pennies every monday at a bank, and at times dump halves, quarters and nickels at the same bank in addition to the pennies. They don't mind, they like my business, and they even save coins for me when they see a silver something or another. So I wouldn't worry about dumping, as long as you develop a relationship at the bank.

Finding a bank with a coin counter is going ot be the toughtest part of the job. Keep looking, but it is hard to find. Then make sure you get in good with them, by being friendly and having an account there (even if you have ot open one).

Good luck. It's a great hobby.

 

[SMPress]

Thanks.

I went to 17 banks today. I found near the end of my trip a Chevy Chase Bank that had a counting machine. I sat down and started a checking account. She told me there were four other branches in town. I drove to each of them to verify, and they all had a coin machine in the lobby, free to those with an account. YAY!!! I have plenty of places to dump within 8 miles of my house, and many more across the state if I ever needed them.

I asked about rolls of coins at all of the banks I went to, and they all looked at me like I had two heads! I guess this means there aren't many people into this hobby in my town yet, another great thing!!! I did manage to pick up 200 dollars of quarters at one bank. I have read a lot here, and seen that quarters are tuff to get good pulls from, so I wasn't expecting much. He went to the back to get the rolls, and when I got them, they all had the bank account number of a local church on them. I really didn't think there would be anything in here if the church ushers were counting and rolling these things. I was right, looked through them all, and no silver, and nothing interesting. There were 4 Bicentennials. I know they aren't worth anything, but I kept them anyway, made me feel like I found SOMETHING. I did pull some Denver mint mark State Quarters, which I needed for my collection, and an American Samoa Quarter, which I had never seen before.

One of the banks I visited was my current bank, a small branch in a small town a couple of miles form the main town that I live in. They had no coins to sell me, except a roll of John Adams dollars, which I took, as I want to collect a single set of those, the rest will be returned to the other bank. I also ordered a box of Halves, Quarters, Dimes, Nickles, and Pennies, just to get started. They will be in next week she said. Must remember to order in advance of needing a time sink. She asked what I was doing with these, and I told her I collect them, and asked if they had any in the bank that other customers might have brought in that I could buy. She said no, but she did mention that she could hold on to future rolls that come in for me. I thanked her, and told her I would come in once a week to see what they might have for me.

So, no good coins, but I think I have set myself up well for starting down this road...

 

[Mercury63]

hey dude. just keep working those personal relationshps. Try some halves. maybe you can find an untapped vein.

 

[JJTheisen]

As stated above, its all about the relationships. Take it from someone who works in a bank full-time. Enjoy the hobby and make sure to take care of your tellers, because they will take care of you in return. Try to learn from guys on here who have been doing it for a while. You will come to find most of them have awesome relationships with their tellers. Enjoy the hobby it is a blast.

JJ

 

[SMPress]

Take it from someone who works in a bank full-time.

JJ

Do you find much in the bank? I want to quit my job and work as a teller full time. I dont think my mortgage company, or "She who Must be Obeyed", would be happy, but hey, you cant please evryone!

 

[SMPress]

I went to the bank today to turn in a few jars of pocket change that I have been building over the past two or so years. I got 1700 dollars counted out before I broke the machine. They had to change 4 of the bags while I was working, and they tried to fix it when i broke it, and it looked like there was about 4 bags very nearly full again...

I figure that i lost a good bit of money in the machine, maybe 20 bucks? I was talking about this to the teller as he switched the bags out. I asked him if he hated the machine, and he said that he did. He said he works with only women, and they don't change the bags, he has to. I told him that I went ti two other branches on my way to his, and they were both out of order. He said the women working at those branches probably hadn't changed the bags. I don't recall seeing any men at those branches, so that makes sense I suppose. Both machines were working yesterday when I went to find them. Must be a lot of people dropping off coins in my area!

I mentioned to my wife as the guy was changing bags, that I figured some of the coins were not getting counted, but that I counted it as a service charge which saved me from having to roll them all myself. He told us there was no way the machine could miss a single coin, or credit them in the improper denomination. As he was bagging them up, I silently pointed out to my wife the dozen or more dimes in the penny bag, and the key ring in the quarter bag. I didn't want to piss the guy off, he was nice, and I will probably be seeing a lot more of him...

Anyway, I got nearly enough to pay for my first order of boxes coming in next week, so it was a good day. I am thinking that tomorrow I should go to the two banks that had the out of order, but probably just full, bags, and see if I can buy them.

Oh, I also saw a Dunbar truck dropping off boxes of coins as I left the bank, so i guess I know who fulfills orders at that bank. The ones I ordered were from a different bank though, so i still don't know where mine will be coming from. Are the boxes labelled in any way?

Thanks
Andy