Creating a CRH System/Plan, thoughts/advice appreciated

[Wickaboag]

Throughout my time as a CRH'er I've always just had the following line or some variation: "Good morning, I'm looking for a few boxes of coin, can you tell me what's available in the vault?" and usually get the response of "sure, we have a box of (X, Y, Z).." and I take what I can.

I'm at the point now where I have banks willing to do coin orders for me (more convenient for everyone!) I asked a few branches of one bank to order halves for me, but after browsing and sifting through the last 10-15 pages of the TNet CRH'er forum, it seems like heavy hitters on halves are/have begun switching to dimes to ensure the AG keeps stacking. I know CRH'ing is a bit like the lottery (Some days it's 10 skunks, next it's a box of 20 40%'ers...) Should I plan on grinding out dimes? Quarters? Halves? My goal is to stack AG. I'll keep doing nickels along the side because buffalo's are cool for my collection.

Establishing coin orders:
What's appropriate per branch? I use a national bank chain and they have 9-10 locations in my county and I plan on establishing orders (ideally weekly? bi weekly?) at most of them. Is $1000 per week per branch appropriate? $2000? What do you all do?

Dump Banks:
I'm going to open an account at a different bank with a lot of local branches and I plan on using that as a dump system (also a potential pick up)... Maybe dump at 3 locations, try to pick up at 3? What's appropriate to dump at a time?

The Issue of No Coin Machines...
I doubt it was a targeted effort to stop CRH'ing a few years back, but it seems every bank but one has eliminated coin counters 3-5 years ago in York County, Pa. So I have to re-roll everything... Not terrible, but not convenient either. This may effect what I order (eliminating cents, as wheats are cool but not a priority for me right now.)

I'm going to be keeping a log in CRH Logs, and hope to share finds, statistics, and results (and SUCCESSES?) with you all shortly.

Best wishes, looking forward to your wisdom and advice.

Thanks,
Wicka

 

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[weighit]

I only order $1,000 per week from one branch of a National brand bank. I was told they will NOT accept coins in a bag at another national bank I use as my dump so they want them in rolls and in the box. So When I open the new rolls, I cut off the top of the roll and slide the coins out, examine, look and pull any silver and reinstall a non silver replacement into the roll when found. With the top of the roll cut, it ensures that they are not going to just send back out my already hunted rolls to another hunter/buyer of rolls. The coin machines in my area all charge for use, and at 3% or 9% that is way too much to give up for the use of the machine. I have 6 branches of my dump bank in my area and a I rotate to each so only see a branch every 6 weeks. I also drop off cookies to the buy bank and they hold any odd or old coin or bills for me. So far seems to work out well. I might be a low volume hunter to some, but it has worked out well for me over the years.

 

[Megalodon]

I think people in our area switched to dimes because the halves changed so much since last year. Other areas still produce silver, but our area - and we are getting coins from the same geographic area, has really changed since January, 2019. But dimes can be tough too. I did 12 boxes - that's 30,000 coins, to find one silver dime. I kept at it because that was actually better than halves recently. Walking past Coinstars on the way out of the grocery stores is more productive. Actually, the odds for winning up to $500 in the lottery is better than my odds of finding silver.

Your rotation of dump banks is a good plan. I do a version of that as well, although it can be disrupted by machines that are out of service. I try not to dump more than $400 at any one time. I also don't go if the bank is busy - such as saturdays, because filling a bag requires a teller to either stop what she is doing, causing a line to back up, or make me wait until the line is served. Dimes are easier to dump because the coin machines have 2 bags dedicated to dimes but only one bag for halves, so there's less chance for you to be the guy that always requires a bag change.

You need to find a credit union and join it to get free use of its coin machine. I have joined two credit unions and dump at 7 branches of the two combined. Getting the coins is easy. I've cut back since the silver is so scarce from boxes, so one pick-up bank is sufficient. I don't want to be a pest, so $1000 is my limit. The dump credit unions are really the limiting factor in CRH.

The best finds you will see posted here almost always come not from people with standing orders for boxes, but from those who luck out with customer wrapped rolls (CWR) at their local banks.
The availability of CWRs is very sporadic and random, but those are the best sources for silver.

 

[Infowarrior]

Did you not read my PM?

BTW when you find a score, you should only post it in the CRH forum, and not in Todays finds etc. No need to bring any more attention to our hobby than necessary.

 

[gordon and tanner]

I currently get one box of halves a week from Huntington Bank. I dump at TCF Bank. Their machine do not have bags but a huge bin underneath. The most I have dumped at one time is $3000 in halves. I live in Metro Detroit so their are hundreds of banks to randomly stop at. If I had to re roll coins I think my volume would drop dramatically. Credit Unions are a good place to look for coin machines. Some banks may take bags of coins, but they often have to send it downtown to be processed and then credit your account. If you can not find any coin counting machines I would try this option. Perhaps start with $200 in coins a few times to insure accuracy and length of time to process.

When I stop at a random bank I often ask for $3 in pennies, just to gauge their reaction. They will often ask if I need any thing else, then I ask if they have any half dollars or Big dollar coins in their cash box or perhaps in the vault. Always remind them of the vault tellers often just consider only their coin tray or box. Then I ask if any other tellers have any including the drive thru teller.

Besides bags, I think customer wrapped rolls are the best option.
In Metro Detroit I like to hunt in Dearborn Most of the tellers are from the Middle East, and I do not think they have much of an awareness about old US coins.

I am lucky my work take me all over the state of Michigan and parts of Ohio. I will often leave for a job 1/2 hour early, to give me time to hunt along my drive.

Keep on Searching
Dad and Tanner (mostly dad)

 

[Argentium]

I think the answer to some of your questions is ..
mix it up ! The what , the where , the when , and the how much .

 

[GMan00001]

I haven't CRH'ed heavily for a few years. Since I more or less stopped, I know at least some of what used to be my dump banks did away with coin machines and my main pickup bank got bought out and no longer is willing to sell bags off their coin machine.

A few pieces of advice to use as you wish:

1) When asking to buy boxes you may want to be more careful with your wording. I had a couple instances where I asked essentially the same question about what they had available and I could tell by their reaction that the tellers thought I was trying to get information on what they had in their vault like I was going to rob the place or something. These clearly were not the best and brightest tellers as I can't see any thief ever robbing a bank to steal all their coin boxes...

Instead, I would just cut to the chase and just say what you would like to buy rather than asking what they have. For example, "I would like to buy X boxes of dimes, X boxes of nickels, etc". If they say they can't sell you that many, then adjust your question and ask how many you can buy. This is more of a personal style thing than anything else. I suspect most banks have a pretty good supply of coin available, but just because they have it in the vault doesn't mean they can sell it all to you as they have to make sure they have enough for other customers too.


2) As far as ordering coins, each bank/branch will be different. Some probably won't care how much you order while others won't be willing at all. For example, one branch of my Credit Union wouldn't order anything (the branch manager there was unwilling to work with me in any way for that matter) while another branch would only order a couple boxes every couple weeks as they said they didn't have room in their vault for more.

I am not saying this will happen, but if ordering from multiple branches of the same bank be aware that sometimes tellers work shifts at multiple branches. They also have shared record keeping systems that span branches, so even though you are at different branches, it is ultimately the same bank and it just depends on how they track coin orders in their system, it may get flagged. If they decide you are costing them too much money ordering coins, they may cut you off at all branches at once. I have heard of it happening on this forum a number of years back.


3) As far as dump size, I usually tried to limit it to what I could carry into the bank in one trip or possibly two trips with each trip consisting of somewhere between 2 and 4 canvas bags full. The $ amount would vary by the denomination of the coins. I would also dump more at branches I rarely visited and make smaller dumps at branches I was at more frequently. During my heavy CRH years, I was running a 2,000,000+ coins per year through the Wells Fargo coin machines as that was my primary dump bank. I think my largest volume dump filled the two bins on one of those bagless coin machines that just have a big bin underneath. It was a car trunk full of bags of mostly pennies and nickels.


For all of the above, what is best for you in your situation will likely be determined by trial and error. Just be prepared to make adjustments as some elements are likely to change along the way (and usually not for the better).


Although just my opinion, I think the removal of coin machines was at least partially driven by CRHers, but my reasoning behind that is not just that we did too much volume, but in general CRHers are much more likely to know when the count was wrong and complain about it. When the average Joe brings in his can/jar of coins, they likely don't know what to expect and just accept that the count is correct. However, as CRHers we are very tuned in to the count being wrong even if just by a handful of coins as we usually know what we have down to the exact count if it was from a box. Not everyone is this way, but I can tell from reading the forum over the years that there are different personalities and some people are going to get upset every time they feel shorted by a single coin and demand it be corrected while others just accept that the count will be close and sometimes a few coins high and sometimes a few coins low. Also from what I understand, half dollars tend to cause coin machines to malfunction more often than any other coin. As CRHers are generally the only ones running lots of half dollars through their machines, we tend to cause said damage. Granted, CRHers coins are also likely "cleaner" in the sense that they have a lot less other items like paper clips, pins, and miscellaneous mixed in that jams up or damages the machines.

Ultimately, I think the banks removed the coin machines as they were costing the banks too much between repairs and complaints about the counts being off and at least some of those issues were due to CRHers. Since a coin machine is a nicety and not a required service, it got the axe.

Hopefully you can find a system that works for you and good luck!

 

[TxTim]

Cardinal Rule 1
Never dump where you buy.

Dump banks are more valuable than buy banks.

Mix it up.

Always pick up what you order as soon as it arrives. Never refuse an ordered box just because it's all new coins.

Develop relationships. My bag bank tellers always texted me when they wanted to get rid of bags.
Always follow up promptly when they call.

Always offer to move bins or help switch out and carry bags where you dump. I also downloaded manuals for these machines and fixed them whenever they let me. Some still call me to come fix them. Help them as soon as you can. Access to internal reject trays yields amazing finds.

For mega dumps I have a high speed coin counter and bank bags along with an arrangement to bring them in on certain days when Brinks picks up.

Lastly, reward your tellers and they will look forward to your visits. Be honest about your hobby and educate them on what you're looking for.
I've gotten calls to come pick up rolls of walkers and morgans.