I need the wisdom of the elders here!

[Roll Hunting Family]

Hey, I need some guidance from the forum. My kids and I got into this hobby about 6 months ago, and we’ve been rolling up all of our coins after searching them, since our banks won’t accept loose coins, and I couldn’t find any banks with free coin counting machines.

I bought plastic tubes to make it MUCH faster to roll pennies/nickels/dimes/quarters, but the kids still hate doing it, and if they don’t help it takes me about an hour to roll up a single box of halves.

I eventually found a regional bank that DOES have coin counting machines, free to their members. And a few weeks ago, that regional bank finally opened its lobbies back up (by appointment only).

I’ve got several thousand dollars worth of loose halves in my house right now, and I’m hoping to be able to dump them at this regional bank… But I’ve never done this before! I don’t know how it works, what the etiquette is, etc.

So, I have a few questions:

1) Is there a limit on how much I can, or how much I should, dump at a single bank? I’m guessing that there machine has a limited capacity. Will the bank take out a full bag, replace with an empty one, and let me keep on dumping? Or should I expect to only be able to dump about $500 per visit?
2) How common is it for these banks to allow people like me to buy the half dollars out of the machine that have been deposited by other customers? How does that work? I have several boxes of rolled halves that I could swap them for a bag of loose halves, is it more likely that they’ll go for that?
3) This bank has about a dozen local branch locations with coin counting machines… Should I be assuming that I’ll need to visit a bunch of them in order to dump 10+ boxes of halves?

 

[LooseChange]

Hey, I need some guidance from the forum. My kids and I got into this hobby about 6 months ago, and we’ve been rolling up all of our coins after searching them, since our banks won’t accept loose coins, and I couldn’t find any banks with free coin counting machines.

I bought plastic tubes to make it MUCH faster to roll pennies/nickels/dimes/quarters, but the kids still hate doing it, and if they don’t help it takes me about an hour to roll up a single box of halves.

I eventually found a regional bank that DOES have coin counting machines, free to their members. And a few weeks ago, that regional bank finally opened its lobbies back up (by appointment only).

I’ve got several thousand dollars worth of loose halves in my house right now, and I’m hoping to be able to dump them at this regional bank… But I’ve never done this before! I don’t know how it works, what the etiquette is, etc.

So, I have a few questions:

1) Is there a limit on how much I can, or how much I should, dump at a single bank? I’m guessing that there machine has a limited capacity. Will the bank take out a full bag, replace with an empty one, and let me keep on dumping? Or should I expect to only be able to dump about $500 per visit?
2) How common is it for these banks to allow people like me to buy the half dollars out of the machine that have been deposited by other customers? How does that work? I have several boxes of rolled halves that I could swap them for a bag of loose halves, is it more likely that they’ll go for that?
3) This bank has about a dozen local branch locations with coin counting machines… Should I be assuming that I’ll need to visit a bunch of them in order to dump 10+ boxes of halves?

Hey RHF.

You could consider discussing it with the vault teller. Some CRH-Friendly vault tellers will give you the coinlok bag and you put $1000 of halves in it at home and bring it in for cash or deposit. No dumping into the machine and no bag changes.

Some machines fill at $100 for halves - because halves are low volume. Others fill at $1000. I suppose some might fill at $500.

You can ask to buy the filled half-dollar bag, I've done it.

 

[smokeythecat]

I would take $500. Then wait some time before dumping more. It MIGHT take $1000 but feed them slowly so it doesn't jam up. I have never found a bank that will sell a bag off their machine.

 

[jrf30]

As to your question on a limit, every bank is different. So ask them. They won't mind the question. Buying bags? You don't want to buy where you dump. Not only will you get your own back, but it just doesn't work well to double dip. On the last question. YES, go to different branches. That ill slow down how much you dump at any one branch. That's the best part of your three questions. Oh, and even among branches, one might let you dump $1,000 a week, a second maybe $2,000 a week, and a third maybe $500 a month. Each branch manager is different.

Welcome. Best of luck to you. :-) If you have kids, you might want to do pennies or nickels for a change. Both get much more results than halves. Keeps the kids interested.

 

[Sleepy Holow]

A few years ago, I lived in a town where my dump bank vault manager wanted to roll as much coin in house as possible to cut down on ordering coin. He literally told me "bring as many dimes as you want". Great set up there! Last year, I lived in a place where I had one dump bank with multiple branches, so I did my best to spread my dumps between branches. I was told by one of the tellers that they had cut people off from the coin counters for dumping too much. In this situation, I was always conscious of the bag limits. I would still initiate bag changes from time to time, but did my best to not make it an every week thing (I only hit one branch per week). If I had to dump a ton, I would try to do it at a branch that I hadn't triggered a bag change at recently...or even go as far as to go to a branch that I almost never went to. Knowing the limit for your machine for the denominations you hunt is essential! You don't want to be dumping $1500 worth of dimes when the machine only takes $1000 on a consistent basis. Quick way to wear out your welcome.

 

[weighit]

I do it differently than you do. I buy 2 boxes of halves a week, open each box and remove one roll, I get the flat boxes not the cube. Take a exacto knife and slice off the roll top, slide the coins into my palm and sort each coin looking for silver, odd and strange coins. If nothing to keep out of that roll, slide the coins back into the roll, minus the top I cut off. Put the roll into the box and grab another roll to search. With all 50 rolls back in the box, fold the tops back down on the box and tape up the top. Take to a bank I turn coins into and the teller will cut the tape to look at the coins, or rolls and exchanges those for my cash. Never heard one complaint with how I turn them in. The tellers have told me it is easier for them as they have to unroll each roll and put those coins into a clear plastic bag to ship out, and with the tops cut off they are easier to extract from the roll.

 

[cyberdan]

Some CRH-Friendly vault tellers will give you the coinlok bag and you put $1000 of halves in it at home and bring it in for cash or deposit.

Wells Fargo did this for me. They would give me a handful of bags. I used them for halves and cents. I also had a bank coin counter as big as a copy machine.

I would carry in the bags at one branch and they had me carry them into the back area, never a problem. Once I was in the bank and the guy ahead of me also had bags of halves. So of course we started chatting. We knew each other from this chat group.

At another WF the manager came to the counter when I brought a bag of halves and asked me to not deposit there any more. The reason? I had filled their vault and they were out of room. That is something to be proud of, I had deposited so much at a WF they couldn't handle it.

 

[cyberdan]

I would take $500. Then wait some time before dumping more. It MIGHT take $1000 but feed them slowly so it doesn't jam up. I have never found a bank that will sell a bag off their machine.

There is a bank about 25 miles north in Oregon. They own the mortgage on my home. Twice I have paid my mortgage in halves. It does not bother them, they pour everything in a big counter with bags. They will not sell bags. I ask every time I am there.

Now, when I used to live in SoCa a branch loved to sell me as many bags as I wanted of any denomination. This was the main branch and was 10 miles from my branch. I once asked my local branch if they had halves and the teller left for a few minutes and came back and told me the main had about $200 in their counter and would sell them to me. I could pick them up the next day. The vault manager actually drove them to my branch. She got in trouble for moving money like that. From then on I went to the main branch when I knew she was on duty. She told me her grade school son had started collecting coins so we always talked a little as she brought out bags and bags (usually cents) I would give her some nice coins every now and then for her boy.

The bag that she delivered was the best single find ever for me. It was halves. I can not remember the count now but it was two big handfuls of standing liberty, Benjamins & 90%&40% JFKs.

 

[Zomotion]

First step is to ask if they will let you buy the bags - if so then honestly I would find another dump situation no matter how tempting it is to dump in those machines. However those machines won't fill up as fast to keep your hobby addiction satisfied.

It's this Hobbies ultimate damned if you do, damned if you don't situation

 

[Omega]

I had one bank near me with a Coin machine. I only used my account for dumping, I would always go in on the morning before their pick up, that was the coins didn't sit in their vault and take up space. I always had to use the machine, but had no problem dumping 3-5k in halfs on any given day. Takes time and people look at you funny, but gets rid of the coins. For smaller denomination they just let me bag them myself and bring in. I was bringing them $1000 in pennies in bags every week at my peak, and never had an issue. Ended up closing my account then I left the hobby since I had no use for it any more. Not sure if things have changed in the past few years, but open lines of communication and honesty are always the best course of action.

 

[Owassokie]

My only recommendation is not to ask to buy their bag(that you fill up) if you are dumping. All it takes is 1 person being annoyed enough to make a comment to a manager and the manager come up with some dumb rule that keeps you from dumping. Start out relatively low...like 500 or 1k. Build some relationships and go from there.

 

[Dozer D]

Buying bags off a machine is the BEST source to get to the original dump of a collection. If you can get bags then find some other dump site for sure. Sure you might have a fellow dumper mixed in with the bag, but you have a best chance to find the unusual coins first hand. I prefer bags above getting boxes all the time.