Question about bags,

pepperpump · May 25, 2007

Are there only certain banks that have bags vs. boxes and how do you go about buying them? If so, which banks tend to have bags? All the branches I go to says they can't sell them but will order boxes for me. I think a bag would be neat to get for a change. Do they tend to be at small banks or just what? I live in a big "metro" area which is why I think no one will sell them or has them. Any help is greatly appreciated. Thanks guys and have a great weekend! HH to all!
Pepperpump

scotto · May 25, 2007

It depends on how the banks can get them. My main halves bank can only get bags, but I did find another bank who can order me boxes.
So far the bags have very slim silver pickings. $:-\$
I did pretty good on my first box, since then I've done 6 - $1,000 bags, and I got more silvers from the one box than I did from 5 of those bags combined.

waseeker · May 25, 2007

My credit union has a coin counting machine. when they fill up the bags they are picked up by armored car and taken to the federal reserve.

they are kind enough to sell me the bags of cents and when they fill up bags of half dollars and let me search them. I take them back run them through the counter then it's off to the fed.

Since everything I look at has been deposited by customers I have good success on both wheat cents and silver.

I've had them order me half dollars but haven't had enough silver to make it worth my while to keep ordering.

GMan00001 · May 26, 2007

pepperpump said:
Are there only certain banks that have bags vs. boxes and how do you go about buying them? If so, which banks tend to have bags? All the branches I go to says they can't sell them but will order boxes for me. I think a bag would be neat to get for a change. Do they tend to be at small banks or just what? I live in a big "metro" area which is why I think no one will sell them or has them. Any help is greatly appreciated. Thanks guys and have a great weekend! HH to all!
Pepperpump

Any bank with a coin counting machine that sorts by denomination has bags. I find that I have more success buying bags from banks outside the metro area. Inside the metro area, the only banks that seem willing to sell me bags are the smaller local banks, i.e. ones with fewer branches and most likely not nationwide.

I do have one warning on bags:
I have found that typically bags are not spot on accurate and are more likely to be a little short than a little over. If that is a big deal to you, with the exception of half dollars, I would shy away from bags of anything larger than pennies or maybe nickels depending on your comfort level for risk vs. reward. I usually buy all the pennies, nickels, and half dollars. I sometimes buy dimes, but I only occasionally buy quarters as I am likely to be a dollar or two short and not likely to find anything to offset it. With dimes at least I typically can offset the short with the silver found and justify it because the silver can be sold for more than the amount shorted.

In my case I have found my little niche where I have a bank that has a few local branches which allow me to buy all the bags I want from them as long as they are full and I don't bring them back to them. In my case I go through a lot of volume (as noted by my other posts), so the bags are useful for me in a few ways:

1) I don't have to drive around a lot and "beg" for the right to buy boxes from banks who "claim" they charge a fee for them which is doubly helpful in saving on gas money and keeping my dump banks not my source bank.
2) bags are faster to search than rolls as I don't have to go through the time opening all the rolls
3) I enjoy the oddball (read "foreign") coins as well which I typically find more of in bags than rolls
4) bags produce less trash and I just give back the canvas bags I get each week to the banks.
5) I have a weekly pickup day so I don't have any issues trying to leave work early to get to the bank to get a box or two. Usually my 1 pickup day provides enough volume to keep me occupied until the next week. If not, well...hopefully that won't happen much only been doing this method for a month or two.

So in essence for me and this bank its a win-win. They would have had to pay to ship out the coins I am buying so they save money. They get the canvas bags back for free that they otherwise would have to pay for. I get access to a large volume of coins to search without driving all over thus saving me money in gas (or fees if I didn't want to drive all over). Yes I still do have to drive around a little to cash them in, but I would have had to do that either way and this way I have more dump options.

And if you can find a bank that is in an "older" community that will sell you bags you will have better luck. Essentially there are certain banks in which more "keepers" are turned in than other banks. It is from these banks that all the good boxes come from. If you can find one of these banks to buy bags from you will have better than average luck with all denominations.

I have basically become a bag searcher with occasional boxes mixed in. Hopefully that gives you some insight into the pros/cons of it.

grinin · May 27, 2007

My bank only has bags available, but the pickings are slim (no silver in 4 bags). They had to order the bags for me. I believe they were delivered by Brinks. They were sealed with a special crimp.

They then require return in rolls because they do not have counting machines at any of the branches.

My CU has a counting machine but they charge a fee if you return over $100. Also they will not sell the bags.

I am researching a better method of return.

scotto · May 27, 2007

Great post Gman.

I buy bags of pennies as well, a lot of what I buy comes from McDonalds and Walmart, and I get wheats and a lot of coppers as well.

I've never been shorted even one coin from all of the half dollar bags I've done. But quite a few people have. Dimes and nickels I've always done in rolls, and I get the rolls that people have rolled up. I've done rolls from the fed, and most of them are newer ones. I don't have the opportunity to buy bags of those here.

pepperpump · May 29, 2007

Thanks everyone for the feedback, I am going to find a bank with bags. Good luck hunting!
Pepperpump

MalteseFalcon · May 30, 2007

Seems to me you would be more likely to find silver in bags in the big scheme of things.
Less handling by peeps who are using the machine to roll them, thus less opportunity to cherry pick.
Like if they get them in, dump them in the counting machine (if nothing else the one at the Fed), and then dump them into bags, never to be touched by humans again until they are ordered by one of us.

But then I am just guessing. And obviously reality can be quite different from my theory.

pepperpump · May 30, 2007

I am thinking the same thing Falcon. Thanks!
Pepperpump

Texas_Meteorite_Hunter · Jun 17, 2007

I have to concur with the conclusion. Bags are gathered coins outgoing. Boxes are processed coins incoming. With few human handlers, the silver/1000 ratio would be higher on the outgoing bags.

My case in point, I had 2 boxes from my bank, each produced 1 dime. The bag of $500 that had the same count of coins, produced 14 silver dimes. A 700% higher producivity. Unfortunately the statistics are too small a sample to be valid. Other stats posted here show a 200% / 1000 better productivity.

Part of that productivity ratio will be serendipity. Someone's kid raids dads coin box for icecream money. The Ice cream shop deposits the coins. The CRH guy checking the bag finds them. If he doesn't, a coin wrap guy may, then the average joe checks the boxes that he orders. Thats 2 filters the coins may pass thru.