Buying bags from coin counters, is it worth it?

[Ben Cartwright SASS]

I have asked at several banks and none of them will sell bags from the coin counters. Well today I asked at my final bank where I have an account and they said sure, what ever I want.

So the first question is, is it worth it? Their machine is a CoinMAX and I am not sure if it rejects silver or not, don't really want to waste a dime to find out, but I would think it wouldn't reject 40% halves, BUT there is another CRHer who checks for rolls at the bank and I am trying to find out where he dumps them, although to the best of knowledge he doesn't buy boxes of halves.

Secondly, what are peoples percentages on Dimes, Quarters and Halves doing this?

I have a bank that I dump at that won't sell CWR and really doesn't like to sell BWR so I just dump there

What are peoples thoughts on the bags?

 

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[Ben Cartwright SASS]

I do order half boxes and get the occaisonal dime box, but figured to cut out the middle man if someone dumps silver

Just got back with first bag of dimes. We will see if I find anything, there are a lot of CRHers around here, at least 10 that I know of. on the way home stopped to dump some quarters at another bank with a CC and asked about buying half bags, they said no they cannot guarantee the count, they suggested I talk to management so I will do that and say I will sign something saying I realize the count may be off...

Will give update on dime bag

 

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[Ben Cartwright SASS]

Well it took 4 hours to go through the bag, only found 2 90% a Rosie and a Merc and also about 8 pennies.

I was hoping for more but will not make any decisions about not getting them until I have done about 6 or 8 of them

 

[gordon and tanner]

There is a bank 371 miles from my house, I drive by it about twice a year. i do not have an account there. The will sell bags off their machine even if they are not full. Last week a bought a bag of dimes $500 = 2 rosies. $128 in halves = 0 $50 in cents = 22 common wheats. Bags are hard to come by in Southern, MI. We really like bags.

Keep on Searching
Dad and Tanner

 

[enamel7]

You surely aren't talking about coinstar machines are you? You're talking about the banks own coin counting machines behind the counter, right?

Most banks where I live the coin counters are in the lobby. I think the machines behind the counter is a regional thing.

 

[smokeythecat]

I've not been able to get any bank here to sell me a bag.

 

[Ben Cartwright SASS]

Here in Mass some banks have the counters behind the counter and they feed the coins in and a few days later credit you the money. Most however are in the lobby.

I so far can get dimes at one bank (or quarters) but as mentioned some CRHer has a standing order for all their halves. Talked to someone yesterday who used to get their halves but never found a thing and gave it up, too many of us dumping there. I talked to another bank yesterday that didn't say emphatically no, they said talk to the corporate office re the halves. I will do that this week when I dump dimes there.

I have two boxes of halves coming Thursday, so far have only found one bank willing to order halves for me, most won't

 

[fistfulladirt]

I really miss the days where one could walk into an unfamiliar bank, a 'no-account', and buy a bag off the machine or buy a couple boxes from the vault. Really wasn't that long ago.

 

[Ben Cartwright SASS]

Seems to be getting tougher to even get rolls from a bank we don't have an account or even the bank where you have an account I have at least four banks with accounts that they will not allow you to buy customer wrap rolls they still allow Bank wrapped rolls but even that's getting tough

 

[Tommybuckets]

I am down to only one bank that will sell all the halves from bags. The usual operation is that the head teller pulls the bag, dumps it on the counter in front of me and counts it out. There is always less than $100 since there is so much competition to get these bags. I ask to keep the foreign coins and there are always other denominations in there. The count is rarely correct and is always under prompting me to not want to buy them uncounted though I would if that was how it was done.
At the other branches they dump them out in the back, I hear the silver coins on the table and get excited. After a long wait they bring me the coins and the count is smaller than the initial reading. I may get one or two dirty 40% that they missed but they make sure to snipe as many coins as they can.
At some of the branches they talk me in circles and I have visited multiple times trying to buy the bag. I offer to fill it and buy it and I can tell they are just stonewalling me. They say I can buy it when its full and I leave my number. The one time it got close to full after waiting a full year they say the management told them to ship it out. I asked if they still had my number and they showed me my number in a little book beside the teller line. Frustration. It has been a year and a half and there is less than $200. At a different branch the tellers brag about checking the bags every time there is a dump and show me their finds. The bottom line in my area is when the tellers have the bug they get first dibs and you may be able to buy the left overs if you grovel and beg long enough. All but one of my helpful management that I spent years building a relationship have moved up or on from vault teller and the new people aren't interested in helping me. All in all as you may gather it has been a super frustrating experience for me and the bags are actually worse than just getting boxes since they are getting sniped as I wait to haul the trash away for them.
The most annoying experience I ever had was that they had $100 in big dollars . "Ikes?" I asked . "No older coins" said the teller. I offered to buy them and the tellers said she "had to hold them for two weeks in case they were stolen." She even clinked them in her safe to tease me but would not show them. I said I had never heard of this and would look into it. I knew it was a load of BS but left my number. Ten days went by and I couldn't stand it anymore. I called and said I would be by to get the coins once they were given the ok to get them. I took off work and 14 days later went there. They predictably ran me in circles and said someone (the teller) had bought them. They said they were so sorry about the misinformation and even offered to call me for the next bag of half dollars off the machine.
Meantime I heard from a detective that the police were in fact looking for some stolen coins. The thief had met up with a guy at the local Walmart and unloaded some coins and that led police to his identity. He was in jail at the time and claimed he panicked and threw them from an overpass into the creek below. The police had searched the shoreline with a regular detector but had not gotten in the water. I offered my services jumped in the police cruiser and took the Excalibur to where the thief claimed to have thrown some of the coins into the river before getting captured. Circumstances were in our favor as they had opened a dam and dropped the water level to waist deep. Immediately I found a cookie tin which was very new in the creek and unfortunately empty. After finding many many big pieces of metal and no coins we called it a day. I never did tell the police about the coins at the bank. I did tell the bank people that I had helped the police in looking for the coins and that I hoped they had followed proper protocol since they suspected the coins were stolen. I wish I could have gotten the tellers face on camera lol. I again left my number and told them to call me if they got some coins.
A week later the manager called and said she had a bag of halves for me as a sort of apology so I went and picked it up and thanked them up and down. The bag was $450 although she had said it was " a full bag" . I gave them $450 and got a skunk bag of clad. Since then I stop by on occasion just in case they change staff but it makes all of us upset and uncomfortable when I go by lol. So bags aren't fool proof. Sniping tellers find them even easier to loot since they don't have to ask their coworkers if they have coins. My two cents but I still try to buy them every chance I get. I keep meaning to dump there heavily but haven't gotten up the gall as I keep holding a candle that they'll help me out.

 

[Ben Cartwright SASS]

Tommy I feel your pain. Tales like yours are why I went for years without CRHing. I would figure the $4 or $5 I would spend in gas and go to the coinstore and buy junk silver dimes and quarters and the occaisional half, now have 8 coffee cans filled with junk silver. It is a sure thing, although not as much fun. I also put together a full set of Walkers and Franklins Roosevelts and Mercurys (except the 16D) from junk silver.

But I feel like Indiana Jones when I get a box or two, or the bag. I think dimes rather than halves may be the way to go since they are $1000 and take hours to sift through a teller probably won't do that. Halves you can often see what is there, there are 10,000 dimes, that is a lot of chaff.

 

[fistfulladirt]

Wish Hoss was still around.

 

[Ben Cartwright SASS]

I do have 3 boys, the middle son, Dan, is heavy set, my youngest was a lefty and we both shot Cowboy action together.

 

[Styfflin]

I really miss the days where one could walk into an unfamiliar bank, a 'no-account', and buy a bag off the machine or buy a couple boxes from the vault. Really wasn't that long ago.

I still do this regularly. Some of my nicest scores are at banks and credit unions where I don't have an account.
I had a nice haul recently at a credit union. I expressed interest in buying halves, and they gave me everything they thought they had. Then I asked them about the coin counter. They were more than happy to crack open the partial bag, roll the coin while I went to a few more banks, and sell it to me. The manager gave me her card and told me to call her ahead of time in the future so they can have the coin ready for me when I arrive. I told them they didn't have to roll the coin for me, but they insisted. Enders galore.
Then there is the bank, in the same city, where I don't have an account yet they count out all the coin counter halves by hand for me every time I stop by.
I love that city.

 

[Ben Cartwright SASS]

You are lucky that they will not snipe the silver, around here they come right out and ask if I am looking for silver and that they have taken in all out., and out of 10 banks so far only one will sell bags, and not halves as they have a preferred customer

 

[Styfflin]

You are lucky that they will not snipe the silver, around here they come right out and ask if I am looking for silver and that they have taken in all out., and out of 10 banks so far only one will sell bags, and not halves as they have a preferred customer

Believe me, I've heard that "no silver" line before. Many times. Even recently at a credit union I've been to over 10 times in the last few years, as the teller pushed over a stack of loose halves with a 40% right on top.
I've also been told "no" more times than I can count. Big deal. On to the next bank. Try back in 3-6 months when that teller is now working at a McDonalds or that branch manager has been fired. Or try another round of banks in another city.
You have to assume there's a fair amount of sniping at every bank. You also have to assume that there's no way every sniping teller at every bank can catch every bit of treasure. Think of bank hopping like metal detecting fairgrounds. They are constantly hunted, but the treasure is constantly replenished.

 

[Ben Cartwright SASS]

That is a good analogy, also it is a matter of timing.

My biggest haul this year happened because I go to the bank before the guy who buys ALL their CWR, I got 5 rolls of halves what was labeled 64-69 and was solid with 3 90% and 17 40%!

 

[fistfulladirt]

I've also heard the 'no silver' line before, many times. All the while, my stack of 40% grew...usually it's the older tellers...mainly because we used to throw the 40% back, ​they were 'dirty' and the Hunts didn't want 'em lol.

 

[Dozer D]

BEN: how long did it take you to gather together the full set of WL, Bens, Rosies, and Mercs? I find that to be an impossible task just from CRH, congrats if it's from CRH.

 

[Ben Cartwright SASS]

The Ben's and Mercs were all from junk silver (except the 16D) and the Walkers were all junk except the 16S, 21P and 21D rest all junk silver.

I would say that I was working on all 3 for about 10 years. I have never sold junk silver and now have about 2,500 halves and the same amount of quarters and the same of dimes in my gun room. I am very close on a Washington set from Junk, only needing the 32D

 

[NSR60]

I used a bank's coin counter to dump the dross after a penny hunt. The guy ahead of me had a handful of coins that wouldn't go through, so I offered to exchange some that would. I got a 1953-D silver dime and two wheats, plus a 50-cent coin from Jamaica. The wheats were a 1941 and a 1942, plus I found a 1919 in the reject tray.

This suggests that their machine is similar to a Coinstar, rejecting silver and some older wheats. So my guess is, buying the bags here might not do much good.