Did an experiment in my area

[red89]

So I decided to run an experiment in my area. I wanted to see how many tellers pull silver coins when someone deposits them. What I did was I would take a small amount of coins to banks I haven’t been at before and deposit them. I did halves, dimes, and quarters, probably somewhere around 10 to 15 rolls each time. In each batch of dumps I would take at least one roll and hand write “franklins” “old coins” or something along those lines to hint at the fact that there may be silver in the rolls, but I never actually wrote “silver” on any of them. I would lay out the coins one by one on the counter, and make sure whatever I wrote was facing up so the teller could see it. I did this 20 times, at about 5 or 6 different banks, (mostly all different tellers, minus the time I got the same teller twice). I wanted to see if they would “check to make sure they are all there” in just the rolls that had something written on them. 17 times out of 20 (the teller had I had deposited twice with checked the rolls both times) they reached for the roll with something written on it, opened it, and “counted” the coins to see if I had the right amount in each roll. Of course I had taken all the keepers out. The look of disappointment on their faces was priceless when it was all clad. Anyway, just goes to show how many tellers silver snipe while working. I don’t know if the results would be the same for all over the US but here in Southern California it seems like the tellers are on the lookout for some extra cash on the side.

P.S. the banks I did this are BoA, WF, Citi, Bank of the West, and US

 

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[Yinzi50]

Nice work! You have a scientific mind. Well designed experiment! In my experience white female teller in the 50's or 60's usually knows about silver.

 

[TimZim]

I think only 20% know whats what about silver. Most are in the dark, I can tell from the stuiped stuff they say. Its just a job for them.

 

[fistfulladirt]

My wife is female, almost in that (age) category, she works at a bank, and thank goodnesssss I've trained her well.

 

[BuffaloBoy]

I have found that EVERY SINGLE teller here knows about silver except for one bank, and it's not even a real bank, but a supermarket bank... they get a half dollar about once a month and know to save for me, sometimes I get a stray 40%

 

[red89]

I'm sure it varies by location, but here in North Orange County, it seems like the majority knows about it. I scored pretty big a few weeks ago on some CWR but luckly they didn't have anything written on them. It seemed like just normal rolls, but the $70 produced 10(ish) 90%ers and somewhere around 30 40%ers, so at least they don't check every roll. I've actually recieved a few rolls from banks with stuff written on it hinting that there might be some silver inside, but if there was the tellers snatched it up, because they have all been skunks.

 

[kontrapunktus1750]

I'm sure it varies by location, but here in North Orange County, it seems like the majority knows about it.

Around Thanksgiving time last year, I stopped by a WF branch in Brea and asked for the usual "halves and Eisenhower dollars." The teller pulled out a tray and started fumbling through it, putting a few on the counter and throwing some back into the tray.

The ones he threw back were Morgans. He gave me four Peace dollars (including a 1927S) and commented that the coins were silver.

Some of the tellers that know about silver seem to be willing to share their finds.

 

[CC-Hunter]

Great experiment! Although it's somewhat discouraging for those of us who plan to ask for CWRs and loose halves. However, some folks still seem to be finding the keepers.

 

[Gilmore Happy]

Great experiment! Although it's somewhat discouraging for those of us who plan to ask for CWRs and loose halves. However, some folks still seem to be finding the keepers.

Dont worry dude. I was BSing with a silver sniper teller one day and she was telling me how her and her husband take the silver to the coin shop. I left the bank discouraged, but then 2 months later went there on a whim, asked the SAME teller for halves, she had $10. Then she asked the other teller, who went in the back and brought out $60. 3 solid rolls with writing on them "65-70" and the sniper, picked them up, read them, and handed them over to me reluctantly...I felt some dissapointment from her.

Ive had snipers gladly give me the silver in their tray.

PHX is oh so bad with silver education and tellers, but just like everything, there are people who give/and are kind...and there are Aholes. But yes, for the most part, tellers are taking solid rolls...wouldnt u?

 

[kfs]

So I decided to run an experiment in my area. I wanted to see how many tellers pull silver coins when someone deposits them. What I did was I would take a small amount of coins to banks I haven’t been at before and deposit them. I did halves, dimes, and quarters, probably somewhere around 10 to 15 rolls each time. In each batch of dumps I would take at least one roll and hand write “franklins” “old coins” or something along those lines to hint at the fact that there may be silver in the rolls, but I never actually wrote “silver” on any of them. I would lay out the coins one by one on the counter, and make sure whatever I wrote was facing up so the teller could see it. I did this 20 times, at about 5 or 6 different banks, (mostly all different tellers, minus the time I got the same teller twice). I wanted to see if they would “check to make sure they are all there” in just the rolls that had something written on them. 17 times out of 20 (the teller had I had deposited twice with checked the rolls both times) they reached for the roll with something written on it, opened it, and “counted” the coins to see if I had the right amount in each roll. Of course I had taken all the keepers out. The look of disappointment on their faces was priceless when it was all clad. Anyway, just goes to show how many tellers silver snipe while working. I don’t know if the results would be the same for all over the US but here in Southern California it seems like the tellers are on the lookout for some extra cash on the side.

P.S. the banks I did this are BoA, WF, Citi, Bank of the West, and US

Interesting experiment.

I have found that 25% of the tellers seem to be clued into silver halves the other 75% have know clue. When they ask me I just tell them about the 5 Whitman Halve dollar collections I am working on and how difficult it is to find 1987 halves, which it is difficult to do. A lot of them say things like wow I do not see those very much. I had one guy yesterday look at me like I had three heads, repeat "halves dollars Uhhh no" clueless I am not sure how this guy functioned as a teller.

 

[CC-Hunter]

Well, that's encouraging. I can live with 25% clued in tellers, although I guess it only takes one per bank branch to make things a lot harder for CRHers.

 

[ArkieBassMan]

Neat experiment. But, it does have a few flaws. The simple fact that something was written on the rolls may have just simply lead to some of the tellers opening the rolls out of curiosity. Just because a teller opened a roll with "Franklins" written on the roll does not necessarily mean that teller even knew what a Franklin half is, that they are silver, and/or have value and what that value is. They may have simply been making sure they weren't foreign coins. This is true even more so with the rolls marked "old coins". Even the most uninformed person in the world coin-wise knows that old coins can have value. However, they might not even notice an "old coin" by sight. But, they can read. For example say I was browsing through a flea market and one vendor had boxes upon boxes of costume jewelry. I know nothing about costume jewelry, but I do know that occasionally some of the older stuff can be valuable. If one box was marked "old" or "pre-1930" or something along those lines my interest is going to peak. I might even gamble and buy the box if the price makes the gamble worthwhile in my mind. Had the box not been marked, I likely would not have given it a second glance.

I have came across many tellers that knew about silver, but weren't 100% correct on their knowledge. The most frequent mistake is that tellers either don't know about or do not know the value of 40% halves. Also I have been told that all pre-(insert-date-here) coins are silver. That date has been anywhere from 1959 to 1976. I once had a teller tell me that all pre-1965 nickels are 35% silver. I once had a teller proudly show me a stack of about 10 of what he called "40% silver dollars". All were clad Ikes. I tried to be nice and let him know that they weren't silver, but he insisted that all 1971-1974 Ikes were 40% silver and that I needed to get myself a "coin book" so that I would know what to look for. I once had a very nice young male teller that when I asked for halves went around and collected every tellers' halves without my asking him to do so. When he returned and laid them on the counter to count, I saw (and heard) a few what appeared to be 40% rims and 1 definite 90%er. He paid no mind whatsoever to the 40%ers, but noticed the 90% instantly. He grabbed it quickly and looked at the date. He laid it back down and it "clanked". He picked it back up and looked it over very carefully only to finally shrug his shoulders and put it back in the pile for me to purchase. 1992 silver proof. Obviously he knew about silver, but the date was "wrong".

All I'm trying to say is that just because tellers may search, they don't always get them all. I have scored literally hundreds of silver halves from tellers that told me, "If you're looking for silver, you're wasting your time. We search them all." While I do think its a neat experiment, I certainly wouldn't stop searching CWRs because of it.

 

[SilverForBrains]

Good experiment, and great input ArkieBassman. You're right, even the tellers that know about silver are commonly very inaccurate in their knowledge

 

[GlenDronach]

I had a good experience yesterday with a silver snipe teller. I found a bank that is closing in a few weeks and asked if they had any coins they'd want to get off the books and she brought out the machine's bag of halves. As she was counting them, she heard the clang of a 40%er. She did a drop test a few times, said "hmm, this must be silver", and then just put it in with the rest.

So score one for "the teller knew, but handed it over anyway". I haven't had a full on sniper yet. 3 of my quarters were from teller's trays.