Was talking to bank manager

[quiksilver]

at a wacovia in ST.Petes florida [on vacation] and she told me that at her bank the tellers are not allowed to collect coins at any time especially when dealing with customers

 

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[db23]

As far as I know, this is a standard policy at all Wells Fargos / Wachovias.

 

[Yinzi50]

I would guess it varies branch to branch. I know for a fact that one of the WF in my area has a teller who cull all silver coins. So they are my dump bank.

 

[MentalUnrest]

One of the WF that dump at has a banker that goes through bags and gladly shares his finds with me. Who among us wouldn't if we worked at a bank? If there is no rule against it of course.

 

[Generic_Lad]

It really depends on the bank. The big national banks usually have more strict regulations about it, while the smaller, independent banks are generally more loose about it. But really, just be nice to the tellers and those that save out coins/bills might save some out for you. Of course, if all you do is order boxes (or dump), they aren't going to be wanting to save out coins for you, but some cookies or chocolates goes a long way. Heck, even just talking to cherry picking tellers about coin collecting you can make a new friend in the hobby.

Really, I don't see this hatred on the forum for people who deal with coins buying silver coins that they come across. If any of us were in that position, I can guarantee you that every one of us would be a "cherry picking teller", and most likely worse than just simply looking for silver rims, some of us would search for die varieties and the whole nine yards. And really, it is kinda silly that we expect tellers, especially those who know about silver, to simply give up any silver that might come through their drawers to people, in many cases, who they have never seen before and will never see again. If you really get to know your tellers, they will be nice to you, but you have to realize two things:

A) Very little silver really comes through in a bank. Most loose change is dumped into a machine, and the goal of running things through a machine is speed and unless you happen to notice a merc or a walking liberty, most of it is put into bags and sent back to Brinks/Loomis/etc. Teller trays only hold about $10-20, or about 3-4 rolls. Unless you are in a really busy bank that deals with a lot of small transactions, it might take a week or more to get low enough in a tray to need to crack open a new roll. A single teller in the course of a normal month might handle only a hundred dollars or so in loose, search-able change. Really, the average CRHer goes through more change in a night of searching than most tellers. And old ladies who cash in their late husband's coin collection is a very rare occurrence indeed.

B) Handling large amounts of change is annoying. While ordering boxes and such isn't too bad, dumping large amounts of coin is a pain because changing bags in many machines is a pain. If you don't fill a bag, dumping with a machine is fairly painless, but on many machines, bags, especially the half bags, are awkwardly located and hard to put the new bag on the nozzle that the coins come out of.

So bottom line, be nice to your tellers and they will be nice to you. The cherry picking teller might just be your new best friend in the coin collecting hobby, after all, you might have a few dates the teller wants (such as a 1970-D) and she might have some generic silver you want (like some 90%ers).

 

[FormerTeller]

If any of us were in that position, I can guarantee you that every one of us would be a "cherry picking teller", and most likely worse than just simply looking for silver rims, some of us would search for die varieties and the whole nine yards.

Very little silver really comes through in a bank.

Both points quite true. When I was a teller, I cherry picked every opportunity I got. However, the opportunities were few and far between. There just wasn't time to go through bags or rolls of coin; we had to do our jobs, to do what we got paid for, not search for coins on company time.

That being said, cherry picking was not against policy, with one exception: money and coins in our drawer belonged to the bank. All tellers have purses, pocketbooks, wallets, and pockets. If you chose to swap out a silver quarter with a quarter of your own, and put the silver (now yours) in your pocket, that was your business. However, if it was sitting in your drawer, and somebody wanted to buy it, you had to give it to them; in the drawer, it's the bank's for bank business, not yours. That's why I was so incensed Saturday when the teller looked at the date of every half she gave me; if she saw one was silver and refused to give it to me, I would have raised holy hell with the bank manager.

Actually, striking up a friendship with a cherry picking teller would probably be a good idea. I know that I looked for silver at the time, but what I found most of all was bills: silver certificates, red seal 2's, 1934 hundreds, etc. I would have gladly traded stuff I had found that I didn't collect for stuff I did collect, and would have had no problem pulling it out and keeping it until the person I was trading with came in. Tell the teller what you're looking for, and if they're not collecting it you can probably get it.

 

[kb4iqm]

One of the banks I used to visit, prior to the tornado of course, is a Wells Fargo in RingGold GA. They are always friendly and never ask if I am a customer when I ask for coins. I made a trip there this past friday to check on my friends cleanup progress. Hit a few banks that were open while there, turned up $330 of someones dumps at a Capitol Bank. That $330 in dumps held 3 40%'ers. Someone near there dumps 40%'ers all the time.

I look forward to finding those dumps

 

[kd5txx]

I agree with the above. You want to buy it do it and put it up. If I see it in your tray, I'm about to get REAL mad when you tell me its spoken for. That is just lazy and rude. And you will be getting many rolls of dumps soon.

 

[quiksilver]

Part of the "hatred" and i mean part is that it is just wrong while working to do certain things. Making customers wait while searching coins is wrong. The proper time for this is after hours or while no one is waiting to be helped. How right is it if say while waiting on the check out , or waiting to be served , you are delayed because the person decides to make a phone call to chat. Why some think it is ok for tellers to do this while waiting on you i find odd. Must be my old style upbringing and work ethic. You will also never catch me talking on the phone in a movie theatre or blocking the box by choice but some also consider this fine.

 

[BillyOceansEleven]

It really depends on the bank. The big national banks usually have more strict regulations about it, while the smaller, independent banks are generally more loose about it. Very little silver really comes through in a bank.

As a former teller this was my experience. I worked for a regional bank and there were no formal policies about buying coins or bills out of your own till. There wasn't even any rule saying that you had to sell a coin or bill to a customer who requests it, but I primarily worked drive-thru so it wasn't ever an issue.

I was a teller for two years and finds in the regular course of business were pretty rare. Most common finds were wheat pennies (probably about four dozen over two years), while silver was minimal (probably a total of about $2 face over two years). You just don't open up that many rolls of coin to search through. Of course if I were in the same position now I would use that access to search rolls which I didn't do at the time.

 

[jim4silver]

I agree with the above. You want to buy it do it and put it up. If I see it in your tray, I'm about to get REAL mad when you tell me its spoken for. That is just lazy and rude. And you will be getting many rolls of dumps soon.

It's all a judgment call. I have a bank where I have no account but they will sell me boxes of halves whenever I want. Twice in the past year or so I have seen a 40% silver half and 90% silver dime in a teller's till. I asked for them and the tellers said no, either they were keeping them for themselves or holding them for some other customer. I said ok thanks anyway. I figure why raise hell over a couple bucks of silver. Even if I were a customer there, why take the chance of ruining a good buy bank or dump bank for such a small sum. Even though in principle I agree the tellers should not leave silver in their tray.

Raising hell about this could cause the bank to change its policy about buying or taking dumps in a way that is unfavorable to you as a CRHer. Sometimes life is just not fair. A good buy bank or dump bank is worth far more than a couple of silver coins I believe, just my opinion though.

Jim