ArkieBassMan
Silver Member
Road trip 7-1-11. Ever have one of "those" days?
I've been itching to hit the road for weeks and finally was able to do so yesterday. On my planned route there are 4 bigger towns with several banks each (per Arkansas standards) fairly close together with a few 1 bank towns scattered along the way. On paper, it looked as though I would be able to hit more banks in a single day than I ever have. My first stop was a bank in a town that contained 21 banks and was ~90 miles from home. Bank #1 opened at 8:00, but no other bank in town opened before 8:30. I took a guess and left home a little before 7:00 am. As I pulled into the parking lot at bank #2, I glanced at my watch...8:28 am. Perfect! But then I noticed the parking lot was full, and there were no fewer than 10 people lined up at the doors waiting for them to open. Going in, I knew that it was a Friday (payday for several), as well as a Friday before a major holiday. I was expecting more people than normal, but this was ridiculous. Then I noticed most of the people were elderly and it "clicked." It was the 1st of the month. Everyone was there to get their gubment check. So much for setting a new record on the number of banks hit. I had to wait in line at almost every bank all day - which usually isn't the case here.
It got worse. At bank #10 (no silver found yet) they had a coin counter in the lobby. I asked the teller about buying the bag, and she replied that if she had a full bag she could sell it to me. I just happened to have brought $500 in clad halves with me just in case this situation arose. She checked, and the bag filled at $1000 and had $520 in it. Perfect! I was told that if I would fill the bag, she would sell it to me. I return to my truck, grab my halves, and head to the coin counter. As luck would have it, there were 5 people in line in front of me to use the machine. The machine was the slowest I have ever seen (my $480 in halves took 11 minutes to count), and it jammed frequently. When it jammed (oddly it didn't jam when I was using it - just everyone else), we'd have to wait until 1 of the 3 tellers had no one in her line to fix. It jammed at least once on everyone in front of me, and sometimes it was a 10 minute wait until it was fixed. Finally it was my turn. I run my halves through and a lady comes out from the back to retrieve the bag. I told her that I was going to purchase it so she wouldn't disappear with it. She looked at me funny and said, "Oh we don't sell bags off the machine." What?!? I told her that the teller had said I could buy it. She didn't change her mind. I poured on the charm and went through the usual concerns that banks have in reference to selling bags: I wouldn't bring them back, I would accept the risk of the bag being short, etc. She wouldn't budge. I tried one last tactic: I told her that I collect halves and that I wouldn't have put my halves in the machine if I hadn't been told that I would be getting them back. So, I wanted MY halves back.
Didn't work, but I thought it was worth a shot. So I spent 2 hours in this bank for nothing, and I lost my bag filling ammunition. Its now 11:45 am. Its taken me 3.5 hours to visit 10 banks no more than 5 miles apart and I have found a total of $21 in clad halves.
The next town is about 10 miles away and has 7 banks. 5 had few halves and no silver. At 2 separate banks, the person I needed to speak with was out and I was told to come back later. So I killed some time by eating lunch and hitting a couple of 1 bank towns just a bit down the road. I return to the original town and speak with the people that were out. It leads to absolutely nothing (although I did find 1 40%er at each of the small town banks). Its now after 3:00 pm.
I decide to just head home. I know I don't have enough time to get to every bank in the next town. Throw in that its now getting late, on a payday before a major holiday and it seems like a no-brainer. I take the opportunity to return home on a slightly different route that will allow me to re-visit a 2 bank town I have been to in the past. It was nothing special before, but I did find a few 40%ers at each bank there several months ago. At the first bank, $22.50 produced 4 40%. At the second, 2 CWRs gave me 11 more 40%.
Only one other stop produced. Back in the very first town, a bank with a coin machine just simply pulled the bag and sold it to me on the spot. $213. It contained $212 in halves (2 '64 Kens, 4 40%), 4 quarters, 2 dimes, 1 nickel, 5 pennies, 50 centavos coin from Ecuador, 10 peso Mexican coin, and 3 British large cents (1908, 1946, 1966)
Totals for my frustrating day: ~ $600 in halves produced 2 90% (Kens) and 21 40%...which isn't horrible on a day where pretty much nothing went right.
I've been itching to hit the road for weeks and finally was able to do so yesterday. On my planned route there are 4 bigger towns with several banks each (per Arkansas standards) fairly close together with a few 1 bank towns scattered along the way. On paper, it looked as though I would be able to hit more banks in a single day than I ever have. My first stop was a bank in a town that contained 21 banks and was ~90 miles from home. Bank #1 opened at 8:00, but no other bank in town opened before 8:30. I took a guess and left home a little before 7:00 am. As I pulled into the parking lot at bank #2, I glanced at my watch...8:28 am. Perfect! But then I noticed the parking lot was full, and there were no fewer than 10 people lined up at the doors waiting for them to open. Going in, I knew that it was a Friday (payday for several), as well as a Friday before a major holiday. I was expecting more people than normal, but this was ridiculous. Then I noticed most of the people were elderly and it "clicked." It was the 1st of the month. Everyone was there to get their gubment check. So much for setting a new record on the number of banks hit. I had to wait in line at almost every bank all day - which usually isn't the case here.
It got worse. At bank #10 (no silver found yet) they had a coin counter in the lobby. I asked the teller about buying the bag, and she replied that if she had a full bag she could sell it to me. I just happened to have brought $500 in clad halves with me just in case this situation arose. She checked, and the bag filled at $1000 and had $520 in it. Perfect! I was told that if I would fill the bag, she would sell it to me. I return to my truck, grab my halves, and head to the coin counter. As luck would have it, there were 5 people in line in front of me to use the machine. The machine was the slowest I have ever seen (my $480 in halves took 11 minutes to count), and it jammed frequently. When it jammed (oddly it didn't jam when I was using it - just everyone else), we'd have to wait until 1 of the 3 tellers had no one in her line to fix. It jammed at least once on everyone in front of me, and sometimes it was a 10 minute wait until it was fixed. Finally it was my turn. I run my halves through and a lady comes out from the back to retrieve the bag. I told her that I was going to purchase it so she wouldn't disappear with it. She looked at me funny and said, "Oh we don't sell bags off the machine." What?!? I told her that the teller had said I could buy it. She didn't change her mind. I poured on the charm and went through the usual concerns that banks have in reference to selling bags: I wouldn't bring them back, I would accept the risk of the bag being short, etc. She wouldn't budge. I tried one last tactic: I told her that I collect halves and that I wouldn't have put my halves in the machine if I hadn't been told that I would be getting them back. So, I wanted MY halves back.
Didn't work, but I thought it was worth a shot. So I spent 2 hours in this bank for nothing, and I lost my bag filling ammunition. Its now 11:45 am. Its taken me 3.5 hours to visit 10 banks no more than 5 miles apart and I have found a total of $21 in clad halves.The next town is about 10 miles away and has 7 banks. 5 had few halves and no silver. At 2 separate banks, the person I needed to speak with was out and I was told to come back later. So I killed some time by eating lunch and hitting a couple of 1 bank towns just a bit down the road. I return to the original town and speak with the people that were out. It leads to absolutely nothing (although I did find 1 40%er at each of the small town banks). Its now after 3:00 pm.
I decide to just head home. I know I don't have enough time to get to every bank in the next town. Throw in that its now getting late, on a payday before a major holiday and it seems like a no-brainer. I take the opportunity to return home on a slightly different route that will allow me to re-visit a 2 bank town I have been to in the past. It was nothing special before, but I did find a few 40%ers at each bank there several months ago. At the first bank, $22.50 produced 4 40%. At the second, 2 CWRs gave me 11 more 40%.
Only one other stop produced. Back in the very first town, a bank with a coin machine just simply pulled the bag and sold it to me on the spot. $213. It contained $212 in halves (2 '64 Kens, 4 40%), 4 quarters, 2 dimes, 1 nickel, 5 pennies, 50 centavos coin from Ecuador, 10 peso Mexican coin, and 3 British large cents (1908, 1946, 1966)
Totals for my frustrating day: ~ $600 in halves produced 2 90% (Kens) and 21 40%...which isn't horrible on a day where pretty much nothing went right.
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