An AWESOME day

jrf30 · Sep 18, 2009

I don't do very well with silver in AZ, so I work on pennies more than anything else. But I still try my hand at dimes, quarters and especially halves from time to time.

Today I went into my W.F. bank to deposit some checks. Not even to pick up any coin. My teller told me that another teller had some money for me. Old coins. Cool. She was at lunch, and back in 7 minutes. I waited. And it was WORTh the wait!

This year so far I have found 4 silver Roosies and 6 silver quarters. Today those numbers changed unimaginatively (is that a word? LOL) The teller got back, opened her drawer, and gave me a roll of dimes. SOLID SILVER. 50 silver dimes, to add to my measly FOUR for the YTD column. Then she pulled out another roll. Solid silver. And another. and another. And ANOTHER!

When she stopped pulling out rolls, she placed $70 of dimes and $10 of quarters in front of me. ALL silver. That's 700 silver dimes! And of those, 5 were Mercury dimes. (Go Freddie!) So my total of silver Roosies goes from 4 to 699! And my silver Mercs goes from zero to 5.

Not to mention my quarters goes from 6 to 46.

I gave her FOUR coupons for free sandwiches at Chick Fil-A, to reward her for saving these for me. She liked that, and I'll get anything else she gets in the future. But this is amazing. I struggle so hard for a dime here and a dime there, and then I get 700 in one day! PLus 40 quarters!

AWESOME!

:-)

jb7487 · Sep 22, 2009

Jim, it looks like the way they get around the issue is to buy them from another teller. That makes sense. They aren't allowed to swap their own money with money in their till but they can play the role of customer and get change from another teller. So tellers who do this obviously have some sort of rule that they are trying to get around. But there is an easy way around it assuming that you can convince another teller to swap with you and them sell them back to you personally.

Thanks for the info.

coinmojo · Sep 22, 2009

The fact this this teller saved them for JRF tells us 1 of 2 thing's. 1-She does not know the value. 2-she doesent care. But If she knew their value, you hit it right on the head why should see give them to JRF when she can simply cash in herself. I'm sure a teller's wages are just above minimum wage and this would be huge for her. So apparently she did not understand that she just handed this guy Nearly a month's wages. @ $8 an hour x 40 = 320 gross x 3 = 960 - 20% income tax = $768.

I also wonder if she knew the depositor? which would make it worse in a do the right thing world.

I guess you guy's are right. Keep her in the dark and make her work hard for the money. Take advantage of her generosity. After all you got her in your back pocket already with those 4 sandwiches.

This goes back to the old debate of how much is too much. and if I'm a teller and someone turns in a couple of old coins it's no big deal but to turn in a large amount that could benefit the depositor. I think they should be informed of their true value if the teller knows. Apparently the teller only knew that they were of some value to JRF and not how much value. So her part could not be construed as criminal. Just ignorant.

It is hard to decide when you have a conscience, what would be the right thing to do. I still have mixed emotions about finding small hoards of silver but I justify it by saying that it could not be prevented and why shouldn't I benefit from my own knowledge of coins and their value. But it does suck when I hear about little old ladies cashing in valuable coins and tellers knowingly accepting them.

That's why I have a free conscience when searching machined rolls / boxes. Because they only got to that point because no one in the loop was aware of the value or was taking advantage of someone and I can't connect these coins to an individual.

Mojo

jim4silver · Sep 22, 2009

I agree with you Mojo that a teller should tell a customer if they bring in a hoard of silver coins. My theory on why they should do this is based on principles of agency. In my view, there is a minimal fiduciary duty that exists between a bank and its customers. How far this duty goes is not clear. Although the duty is perhaps not legally binding, I believe it is appropriate for a teller to inform a customer if they bring in valuable coins, since that person is a customer of the bank. I have stated this in the past when people told stories of gold coins being brought in and tellers taking them for themselves. I caught quite a bit of flack from those who thought the teller had the right to take them (turned out the coins were hot).

I have had tellers mention that they told the customer to take them to a coin store.

Jim

coinmojo · Sep 22, 2009

jim4silver said:
I agree with you Mojo that a teller should tell a customer if they bring in a hoard of silver coins. My theory on why they should do this is based on principles of agency. In my view, there is a minimal fiduciary duty that exists between a bank and its customers. How far this duty goes is not clear. Although the duty is perhaps not legally binding, I believe it is appropriate for a teller to inform a customer if they bring in valuable coins, since that person is a customer of the bank. I have stated this in the past when people told stories of gold coins being brought in and tellers taking them for themselves. I caught quite a bit of flack from those who thought the teller had the right to take them (turned out the coins were hot).

I have had tellers mention that they told the customer to take them to a coin store.

Jim

I remember the story and before it was revaeld I was in your corner and caught plenty of flack. The coins were returned to it's rightfull owner I recall.

Mojo