Are bank tellers told to find and send back silver

BennyV

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I was at a chase bank in Westchester NY,a teller im friendly with told me she was trained recently by Chase to spot silver coins and send them back to chase. i doubt she was keeping them because im friendly with her and she would have said she wanted them. Has anyone experienced this .
Doubt it.

Most of the bank tellers I interact with act like they’ve forgotten they work at the bank 🤣
 

MalteseFalcon

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Aug 17, 2005
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I have a teller who says they are not allowed to keep anything that passes through their hands on a daily basis.
It was at a major, national bank with branches everywhere in the US. I will just leave it at that.
I just happened to be there a couple of days ago, and the thought suddenly struck me to ask if I could order a box of half dollars.
She asked a fellow teller who said it had to be a minimum of 1000 dollars. I was ok with that.

I have only ordered a couple of boxes in the past 10 years. Sort of got out of it about 2010, after pursuing it pretty seriously for a couple of years, with moderate success. I just began getting way more skunks than not, so I decided to get out of the game. Last one I ordered was a couple of years ago. I got a 64 and a 68 JFK.

So I will see if I wind up with skunk or silver this time.
I should be getting the boxes by the end of this week.
 

MojaveSteve

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I was at a chase bank in Westchester NY,a teller im friendly with told me she was trained recently by Chase to spot silver coins and send them back to chase. i doubt she was keeping them because im friendly with her and she would have said she wanted them. Has anyone experienced this .
I don't know. But I got TWO, 1930's twenty dollar bills from a branch ATM earlier in the year. They had average circulation wear. Doing a little homework online led me to believe they weren't worth much more than face value. But the real value was in the surprise discovery! I'll bet I never see THAT happen again.
 

Ben Cartwright SASS

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Some of the banks around Boston the tellers are able to swap out for coins in their drawers, others don't allow it, but it sounds like more and more do.
Boxes are ok, in 2022 it averaged 2 skunks for every one with silver, but the silver was very slim, 1-3 coins. Just did 3 boxes of dimes, 1 skunk, 1 with 2 silver and 1 MERCURY 1918S but maybe a GOOD very worn. and the last box with 2 silver Rosies
 

UnderMiner

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I use to get a ton of coins from the old Comerce/TD Bank in my area (NYC). The employees would gather all the rejected coins from the Penny Arcade (back when they still had those) and put them in a coin sack for me. I was only a kid at the time and had a gift for charming the employees with my youthful excitement, so they ended up giving me hundreds of free reject coins.

I remember finding silver Kopecks from Tsarist Russia, a 2 Reichmark from Nazi Germany, many pre-unification German coins, Ottoman coins, countless mid-late 20th century pre-Euro European coins, an 18th century spanish half reale, countless British and Canadian coins, many WWII-era US steel pennies (from the Penny Arcade magnet), and tons and tons of tokens including many great depression tokens. But all those days are over now.

One of the last coins I got from that bank, shortly before the coin machines were removed, was an elongated souvnier penny from the original World Trade Center observation deck. I dropped that coin in my sister's car and couldn't find it. That old car was scrapped a few days ago with the coin still lost somewhere inside it 😭
 

ARC

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Banks aren’t in business to sort out silver. All the tellers I’ve known, including my wife when she was in banking, grab the best for themselves. You wouldn’t believe what they get first dibs on.
Agreed.
At many banks they keep it now.
 

Buchsy

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For me, it used to be that way (30 years ago) - the tellers grab all the good stuff. Now the vast majority of tellers don't even know what silver coins are. The few that do tell me they don't come across that much now (ten years ago they came across a lot of it). What they do come across they can't keep because of bank policy. This goes for Chase as well (I live in NY Metro too).
 

dieselfool

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My mother-in-law was the teller in our local small town bank for 39 years (1965-2004) and when she retired she had a massive coin collection which helped fund her retirement. She started work just when the new clad coins came in and from day one she watched for silver and rare coins. It paid her very well; she is still alive today at age 85 and still has a lot of coins.
 

CJ9

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For me, it used to be that way (30 years ago) - the tellers grab all the good stuff. Now the vast majority of tellers don't even know what silver coins are. The few that do tell me they don't come across that much now (ten years ago they came across a lot of it). What they do come across they can't keep because of bank policy. This goes for Chase as well (I live in NY Metro too).
Agree - couldnt have said it better myself. I am also in the NY metro area.
 

Ben Cartwright SASS

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I would assume any smart teller would have someone they trusted on call to come in and get the silver. I am not a bank worker but I would think they could put it to one side and then when their friend or family member came in they could give it to them in change. Just thinking...
 

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Blackfoot58

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I would assume any smart teller would have someone they trusted on call to come in and get the silver. I am not a bank worker but I would think they could put it to one side and then when their friend or family member came in they could give it to them in change. Just thinking...
That’s what a lady I know does. She sets anything unusual aside. Calls a friend at lunch and friend stops for change. Tellers at that bank don’t serve their own family, so friends help out.
 

MalteseFalcon

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I was at a bank in west Nashville about 15 years ago. Got to the teller window and noticed a large dollar coin in her tray.
I offered to buy it from her, and she turned me down.
So I asked "can you at least tell me the date?".

She looked at it and said "1872".

I decided not to kick up a fuss with the manager about it.
But I was pretty irritated. :sad10:
 

fistfulladirt

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I was at a bank in west Nashville about 15 years ago. Got to the teller window and noticed a large dollar coin in her tray.
I offered to buy it from her, and she turned me down.
So I asked "can you at least tell me the date?".

She looked at it and said "1872".

I decided not to kick up a fuss with the manager about it.
But I was pretty irritated. :sad10:
That would’ve probably been a seated Liberty, unless a fake. I would’ve offered to buy it (over face) if real, don’t see those every day.
 

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