Guess who came into the coin shop today...

[fiatboy]

A guy who works for Brinks. He came in to sell silver halves. I was with another customer, so my boss took care of him, and they obviously knew each other quite well. The guy is currently employed with Brinks, and he sold several thousand dollars in halves. He said he probably won't be back in for a while (I don't know how long that means). He left with a check for a ridiculous amount of money. He sold mostly 40%ers, but more 90%ers than I anticipated. No Barbers. A few walkers. Lots of bens. The usual lot. I don't know how frequently or to what degree...but yeah..it does happen: armored car employees do pull silver halves.

 

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[ringding]

I'll bet he works in the Atlanta region. Brinks boxes don't have anything in them anymore.

 

[Texas_Meteorite_Hunter]

Well thats pretty concrete empirical evidence. But not unexpected. I still suspect its on a person by person basis vs a company wide programme.

 

[schramm]

I have heard of this before,but not with such a huge company as Brinks but of a smaller regional company.

The way the coin dealer descibed it is the employee had "connections" in the company and that instead of rolling every half dollar that came in they would bag them @ $2,000 each and let them sit until their supply of boxes got "low"(Not often since there were few other box hunters at this time) and the employee would be able to buy the bags when they filled and take them home on his own time and search them and whatever he didn't want would be brought back and ran through the machine again,this way the company was accomadating a valuable employee(who must have been worth the hassle) and not having a risk of being shorted because his rejects would be counted by THEIR machine and on HIS time.

I saw this guy in this shop about once a month selling halves and quarters/dimes.He was in there more than that,but that is about how often I visited the shop to look around-chit-chat etc.

I never did try to talk to the guy because I didn't want him to know that I was ordering boxes from banks and have him try to put a stop to it with the bank manager.I also didn't want him to realize that other people besides him were doing this(albeit on a MUCH smaller scale!).

At the time this was going on there were very few other hunters in my area(1 I knew of for sure and I assumed a few others),Nothing like it is today.

Anyway,I never knew what happened to that guy,he just stopped coming anymore,the dealer didn't know either,he just never came back,maybe he found a higher price(not likely because the dealer paid him almost what he sold them for himself ),we figured he either quit,got fired or moved.

He was bringing in approximately $1,000 face value per month of 40% and 90% mixed,with a LOT of walking liberty's and even more franklins.Now realize this was back when the spot price of silver was around $4-$4.50/ounce,so he wasn't making a killing at it like some of you are today but with the volume he had access to-it added up quickly.

Another thing to consider was that the ratio of 90% halves to 40% was VERY different back then.It was not uncommon to find a 50/50 ratio in boxes then and I don't mean a couple of each.So he did well on the 90%er's even though they were only worth a little over 3 times face .And the 40%'s weren't worth very much at all BUT since there was no cost to him-why not pull them?He didn't have to pay for gas to drive all around to different banks or BEG tellers to get him boxes etc.He had a sweet deal going.

Another benefit of his ability to search bags($2,000) back then was that it was not uncommon to find 8-10 Barbers in that amount(it was rare to get a box that didn't have one in it).And even though they weren't worth a whole lot more than WL's,Franklins,'64's(they still aren't) he would still get a little more over spot for each of these from the dealer.

I only wish that I would have bought more Barbers from the dealer for the price he paid the guy.He would give between $2-$3 for them.

Seated halves were already rare to find in boxes when I started hunting but a few have turned up in boxes(haven't seen one in 10+ years).I found maybe 1 per hundred boxes searched.

This guy only sold about 10-15 during the time that I was aware of him searching bags and selling to this dealer.I didn't get any of them because I thought they were overpriced .

By the way he wasn't pulling all the silver,as I was getting boxes from his company and always found a good amount of silver in them(although back then there were no silverless boxes at all),So it just meant that he found a lot of it but couldn't get to it all.It would be impossible to and still be able to do "work" for the company as well-not enough time in a day.



Anyway thanks for posting this and maybe YOU could start a cool thread about what kind of interesting people come in to sell halves and any interesting tales they have to share?

 

[Silver_Fox]

Bummer. There is the answer none of us wanted to hear. I gotta get a job at Brinks.

 

[fiatboy]

I still suspect its on a person by person basis vs a company wide programme.

Agreed.
And fwiw, we shouldn't turn the armored truck personnel into our CRHing whipping boys.

Anyway thanks for posting this and maybe YOU could start a cool thread about what kind of interesting people come in to sell halves and any interesting tales they have to share?

I will certainly keep you posted about all the crazy coin hunting characters that come in! What an interesting bunch we are. haha.

So far, most of the people coming in to sell silver are old people who have been saving their silver for a long time. A lot of Peace and Morgans and 90% junk silver. For example, today an elderly gentleman came in to sell 50 rolls of silver quarters. Last week an elderly lady sold her late husband's coin collection---mostly Bens and Walkers. Overall, there is about one coin hunter per day, but a lot of them aren't just after silver. Most are collecting the state quarters and the new nickels, and if they happen upon silver, they keep it, but they aren't actively searching halves like most of us are.

Another benefit of his ability to search bags($2,000) back then was that it was not uncommon to find 8-10 Barbers in that amount(it was rare to get a box that didn't have one in it).And even though they weren't worth a whole lot more than WL's,Franklins,'64's(they still aren't) he would still get a little more over spot for each of these from the dealer.

I'm still amazed at how many Barbers are still around---not in circulation, but sitting around in personal collections and coin shops. Sometimes I can only buy them as 90% junk. Same with Standing Liberty Quarters. In those 50 rolls of quarters I bought from that old guy, there was about one SLQ per roll. But they were all quite worn and dateless.

Bummer. There is the answer none of us wanted to hear. I gotta get a job at Brinks.

However, here is something you will want to hear. That same elderly gentleman told me that one of his Bingo buddies knew that his coin collection was worth a lot, but he didn't want to deal with the hassle of selling it, so he just cashed it in at the bank. The bank tellers told him that he could get a lot more at a coin shop or an auction, but he didn't care. He sold it for face. The most striking thing I've learned from my job is that there a great number of elderly people who are finally cashing in their old coins. And not all of them are bothering to come to where I work. I imagine that quite a few are simply going to the bank. And when they die, their children sometimes don't know what they have. "Oh, dad saved a bunch of rolls of halves. Guess I should make a trip to Bank of America tomorrow."

Overall, the more I see, the more I think that bank tellers are the ones to who might be cherry picking.

 

[pepperpump]

I figured somewhere they would hunt them...too hard not too.
Pepperpump

 

[coincollector101]

Again
Good thing im Researching other means to get them.
Im Pulling from Brinks,At Systems and dumbar.
Ive done many Boxes with Brinks.
Ive only done one order so far from at and dumbar.
Im going to do a few more then Find out witch one is less productive, then phase it out and Use that company to dump on.

CC

 

[cyberdan]

Again
Good thing im Researching other means to get them.
Im Pulling from Brinks,At Systems and dumbar.
Ive done many Boxes with Brinks.
Ive only done one order so far from at and dumbar.
Im going to do a few more then Find out witch one is less productive, then phase it out and Use that company to dump on. CC

Please keep us informed on your research. I am sure it will be different for different areas of the country though.

 

[srcdco]

Because of all of this talk about whether armored car employees can or cannot skim silver, I called Brinks in Rochester, NY and asked them the question. The answer that I was given was "absolutely not". The employee can be fired for "tampering with the money". She indicated that this was actually company policy and if any other Brinks locations were allowing it, the employees and their managers can not only be fired, but prosecuted.

Scott

 

[tw656]

Since, it is brinks policy not to allow pulling coins, can you report the guy?

 

[Silver_Fox]

Because of all of this talk about whether armored car employees can or cannot skim silver, I called Brinks in Rochester, NY and asked them the question. The answer that I was given was "absolutely not". The employee can be fired for "tampering with the money". She indicated that this was actually company policy and if any other Brinks locations were allowing it, the employees and their managers can not only be fired, but prosecuted.

Scott

WOO HOO, good news for us. I hear of it, I'm on the rat line to Brinks.

 

[Ben_banned]

Cant really get too mad I woud be doing the same thing.

 

[Immy]

One thing I've always wondered FB, and now you're just the person to ask.

My local coin shop insists on getting Social Security #'s when they buy junk silver, bullion, etc. from the public. In fact, when I sold about $500 face value silver last January they not only needed my SSN but also my fingerprint. I can understand the fingerprint, but when I asked why they needed my social, they said it was for tax reasons, and is a state law in Nevada. Huh? How can there be a state law that requires a goverment issued ID number that has nothing to do with their business? Is this the case with your shop? Have you heard of this?

Thanks for all the insight you've given. It sounds like you're having a great time!

 

[Patrick Earl Houston]

Immy, coin shop gonna report yo' sale as income to da IRS, meanin' you gonna have to claim dat sale as earnings. Don't know 'bout dat fingaprint, less they trippin' over some mescans just wanted to pick some lettuce!

 

[TxTim]

Immy, coin shop gonna report yo' sale as income to da IRS, meanin' you gonna have to claim dat sale as earnings. Don't know 'bout dat fingaprint, less they trippin' over some mescans just wanted to pick some lettuce!

I agree - they want to show they paid (dearly), for their inventory.
That makes me wonder about the 1099 form - misc. income. Have they ever issued you one (or something similar), around tax time, Immy?

 

[soldierman]

I've sold to my dealer at least 3 times. Amounts vary 550, 200, 225 and he has never asked for any identification at all. I am a somewhat regular customer but I don't think he would know me by name.

 

[Immy]

If it's an income tax thing, than why don't all states do it? It can't be a state income tax rule because Nevada doesn't have state income taxes. And if I don't have to declare it as income, why does he need my SSN? Plus, the govt. doesn't know when I originally bought this stuff. It could have been at the height of the boom at $50/oz., so this would be a huge loss.

 

[scotto]

Overall, the more I see, the more I think that bank tellers are the ones to who might be cherry picking.

Agree 100%. I know some tellers personally, and when you have one teller at a bank that saves them, all of her co-workers will keep an eye out as well. And half the time it turns them into hoarders as well.

 

[fiatboy]

Where I work at least, we only take ID for large purchases, such as over $10000. If we're at all suspicious, we don't even bother to buy. I buy thousands of dollars in junk 90% per day, and not once have I had to get a SS number. From what I understand, it isn't necessary to get any info from anybody. I've had people sell me scrap platinum by the pound, scores of Kugerrands, and collections of pre-1800 U.S. coins---and not once did I have to get their SS number. Never even heard of asking for fingerprints.

By the way, Immy, glad to see you're back!