Coin Counting Machine Won't Accept Half Dollars

[blueberra]

I'm in the process of changing banks and I need one that has a coin counting machine.

First bank I go to has a machine with a caveat : "this machine does not accept half dollars". Funny thing is that the service rep. opened the machine and not only was there a location in the machine for half dollars, but the bag was almost full of halves.

I had a half with me and we tested it in the machine. It spun around and around and went nowhere. Maybe a single coin doesn't really work in any coin counting machine, but that particular coin did not.

So question #1 : how did those halves get into the bag? I don't think that someone would manually put them in because it would bypass the counting mechanism which must be part of the machine auditing process.

Next bank I contact (via phone) also has a coin counting machine. I ask the service rep. if it accepts half dollars. She said that it did not. She did believe that it was an older model, but confirmed that the bank was not planning to replace it any time soon.

I did not ask her to open the machine and check for halves.

Question #2 : is this a new phenomenon with coin counting machines? Maybe the smaller (cheaper) models don't accept halves. I would guess that golden dollar coins are probably not accepted as well.

So my quest continues and now I have to ask an additional question when the bank says it has a coin counting machine.

That's one way to thwart half dollar roll hunters.

 

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[TxAg]

2 separate banks of mine each have a branch with a machine that won’t take halves. I can’t see them from the lobby but I suspect they are old machines. Another bank has a very modern programmable machine (made by Cummins Allison) that they can program the denominations of coins it will accept. So far they are still taking halves which I don’t dump halves into but I do buy the bags.

 

[blueberra]

2 separate banks of mine each have a branch with a machine that won’t take halves. I can’t see them from the lobby but I suspect they are old machines. Another bank has a very modern programmable machine (made by Cummins Allison) that they can program the denominations of coins it will accept. So far they are still taking halves which I don’t dump halves into but I do buy the bags.

Is buying the bags a useful strategy? Wouldn't it kind of depend upon how frequently the bags get filled? I'm not sure how many halves fill the bag but I filled one at the $550 mark (i had some extra rolls) which I suspect meant it was fairly empty when I started. The other time I filled it, it was around $400.

If your inside person at the bank said they fill the bags every couple of weeks or so, then you can probably assume that it's not a dump site and would be much more lucrative than a high volume machine.

Are banks happy when you buy the bags because it saves them the headache? That might be a tactic I'll try at the bank I mentioned that had halves in the machine that "doesn't take halves".

Do you every buy "full" bags and, if so, how much does one hold?

 

[ArkieBassMan]

Is buying the bags a useful strategy? Wouldn't it kind of depend upon how frequently the bags get filled? I'm not sure how many halves fill the bag but I filled one at the $550 mark (i had some extra rolls) which I suspect meant it was fairly empty when I started. The other time I filled it, it was around $400.

If your inside person at the bank said they fill the bags every couple of weeks or so, then you can probably assume that it's not a dump site and would be much more lucrative than a high volume machine.

Are banks happy when you buy the bags because it saves them the headache? That might be a tactic I'll try at the bank I mentioned that had halves in the machine that "doesn't take halves".

Do you every buy "full" bags and, if so, how much does one hold?

Buying bags off machines is my favorite way to CRH. The machine can be set for the bags to fill at any amount. Most in my experience fill at $1000. I've seen a few that fill at $500, and heard of some that filled at $100. If the bag fills every couple of weeks or so, thats too often. You have a CRHer dumping there. The good bags fill about once per year or less.

Question 1: My guess is that it used to accept halves, but they changed it for some reason. The most likely reason is they had a CRHer dumping an amount they considered "too much." Regardless, I would try to buy that partial bag.

Question 2: Its not new. I've seen a few that had signs stating that the machine did not accept halves and/or dollar coins.

 

[blueberra]

Buying bags off machines is my favorite way to CRH. The machine can be set for the bags to fill at any amount. Most in my experience fill at $1000. I've seen a few that fill at $500, and heard of some that filled at $100. If the bag fills every couple of weeks or so, thats too often. You have a CRHer dumping there. The good bags fill about once per year or less.

Question 1: My guess is that it used to accept halves, but they changed it for some reason. The most likely reason is they had a CRHer dumping an amount they considered "too much." Regardless, I would try to buy that partial bag.

Question 2: Its not new. I've seen a few that had signs stating that the machine did not accept halves and/or dollar coins.

The person I dealt with that had the halves in the machine that "did not accept" halves told me that she wasn't allowed to touch the bag (because I had asked her to test the machine with some halves from that bag).

The machine should know exactly how many halves are in the bag, so maybe I can cut a deal with my contact.

 

[TxAg]

All good questions Blueberra and ones I have pondered myself. Buying bags can be lucrative. The first bag I bought only had $168 in halves. The branch manager offered me the partial bag because they did not have any loose or rolled halves to sell me that day and I chatted her up about building albums for my Grandkids (truth). I nearly croaked when I got home and started pulling silver, a total of 51 (all 40%ers)! Since then I try to buy bags at all my banks/branches that have coin machines. Some insist that the bag be full ($1000), some will sell me a partial bag. The least full bag I bought was $27, lol. But it’s real easy to become a nuisance, so I check with my favorite tellers about once a month and buy a partial bag if I can. I’ve seen full bags take a year to fill. My theory is that bags that fill slowly are generally the best because their coins are from multiple deposits instead of being filled with one big dump from a fellow CRHer. However, the other day, I asked to buy a bag from a machine that I had culled a few silvers from a month earlier only to find out that “an older lady” just bought the bag a few days before! I once topped off a bag that was at $980 and that teller would not sell it unless it was full. IMO, the best bags are from machines that are “self serve” to minimize the chance that a silver sniper teller will get them first. That’s not completely bulletproof because one teller I know pulls all the coins out of the bag first “to count them and make sure the machine is accurate”, lol. I’m convinced that she sniped the silver before selling me the partial bag. Hope this helps, HH!