Returning Rolled Coins

[blueberra]

I want to open this question to the forum for its collective take on a situation that I've recently experienced.

First, the backstory ... I have been ordering a box of half dollars every week for the last 16 months at the local branch of my bank. I typically get the coins on Wednesday and the next day I dump the coins at another branch of the same bank in their coin counting machine. Loomis picks up the bagged coins from that machine and brings them to their facility where they get combined with lots of other bags of halves, put into boxes of 50 rolls, and the game begins anew.

Like most CRHers, I ask the bank if they have any other half dollars. Occasionally, they'll have a couple which I've had good luck with.

About a year ago, the teller said they had a lot of halves : 30 rolls -- customer rolled. I took them and, not surprisingly, they were someone's rejects. Furthermore, most were solid date rolls. All I could figure is that someone ordered a box (or at least a substantial number of rolls) of halves, searched them for silver, but also sorted them by date and then gave up on that tactic and just dumped them.

A month later, 20 more rolls +/-. Same story, but they were just random clad dates.

Fast forward to a month ago. Same bank that orders me halves. Teller says they actually have $660 in customer rolled halves. I take them and, like the other ones, they were someone's rejects.

When I went back later in the week to pick up my weekly box, the head teller said that she didn't order my coins because they had already had a box of halves in stock (the ones I took earlier in the week) and didn't want to tie up cash by ordering another one.

I explained the situation to her and said that they had just received the rejects of someone who was doing the same thing that I do; however, I told her that her branch would never see the halves that they ordered for me again and that I would appreciate it if she would not refrain from ordering my weekly box in the future. She said she understood and would order my box every week.

That other person is not ordering halves at the bank I get my halves from -- although he / she must have an account there, but is dumping halves there.

But wait, there's more ... a couple of weeks ago I was at a different bank (different company altogether) at which I have a small account. I asked if they had any halves and the teller said that someone had come in the previous day with 16 rolls. I took them and they were all clad rejects.

So I'm not sure if there are multiple people searching halves in my area or if there is one person who likes to spread his / her dumps at multiple banks.

By the way, not all banks have coin machines and some of those that do, do not accept halves.

The coin machine in the bank I use to dump not only accepts halves but I'm the only person who dumps halves there. I know that because I track how frequently I fill the bag and it's every other week like clockwork.

So, I ask the following questions ...

Have you experienced anything like my situation and, if so, how was it resolved?

If you dump rolled coins, what does the bank do with all of them? I figure that if you dump a box of rolled halves each week at a particular branch, in a short time it would have a lot of capital tied up in half dollars which would mean that they'd have to get Loomis or Brinks to take them.

 

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[Dozer D]

Blue: this is the MAIN PRIME REASON that many of us have said many a time. Don't DUMP & PICK UP at the same bank. You will be getting your same rolls back. In the case of buying bags off the machine, DO NOT DUMP your coins into the machine UNLESS you are topping it off only to buy the bag. This is the case where you have to have a good teller to let you know how much is currently in the bag so you can top it off, or wait a few weeks to do so. I had one branch that had the half dollar bag on the machine for 15-months before it got close enough to where I topped it off. Bank was very grateful that I did since it was tying up their cash for so long, which is another reason why some banks don't like halfs coming in their machine.
One time, several years back while I was picking up boxes of dimes, one of my tellers asked if I was interested in CWR half dollar rolls. I immediately figured they were someone's dump, 10-rolls, decided to take the chance, they were ALL SILVER (90 & 40's) except for only 2-clad coins. Just goes to show to NEVER assume that all CWR's have been checked for silver. You'll never know unless you buy them all, not just one or two rolls to test the water, what if the other rolls were ALL silver, like in my case.

 

[blueberra]

No bank that I frequent will sell me a bag. Funny thing is that one bank has a coin machine that won't accept halves, but when I (unsuccessfully) tested it with the customer service manager, she opened it and the half dollar bag was half full. I don't know how that could have happened, but I offered to buy the bag, but was rebuffed citing company policy.

I said that bag will sit as such 'till Armageddon, but she wouldn't budge.

As far as future multi-CWR rolls, my plan is to buy a few of them. If they're skunks, I figure all are skunks. If not, I'll buy them all.

 

[Diver_Down]

No bank that I frequent will sell me a bag. Funny thing is that one bank has a coin machine that won't accept halves, but when I (unsuccessfully) tested it with the customer service manager, she opened it and the half dollar bag was half full. I don't know how that could have happened, but I offered to buy the bag, but was rebuffed citing company policy.

I said that bag will sit as such 'till Armageddon, but she wouldn't budge.

As far as future multi-CWR rolls, my plan is to buy a few of them. If they're skunks, I figure all are skunks. If not, I'll buy them all.

Bad idea on your plan on CWR rolls. It has been repeated countless times in the past - Buy Them All. If someone dumps $400 and the bank has $420 on hand, your plan will likely only get a sample of the dumps and miss the $20 from another customer. If that $20 are solid rolls, you missed your chance.

I know it can get tiresome to buy other's dumps, but you are doing the bank a favor by moving them. It will be appreciated and reciprocated.

 

[Megalodon]

I have two pickup banks and I do not return coins to any branches of those two banks. One of them specifically told me that was a condition for ordering me a box just last week. I just picked up my first box at that bank today and they are "checking" to see if they can order more as a standing weekly order. My regular local bank orders two boxes per week for me with no issues and would order more if I wanted - but I am trying to get boxes from two different banks because they use different couriers with different sorting centers - Brinks and Loomis. In addition, I want a backup if my main bank's policies change as a result of their recent merger with a bank that refuses to order boxes.

For returns, I have accounts at two credit unions with multiple locations. Both have coin machines. One of the credit unions uses Coinstars with no charge for account holders and I prefer those because there are no bags to fill. It never fails that when a teller is pulled from her station to do a bag change, that is when a line of customers forms. They are much further away and I use them when I need to do things in that area. For example, the only two places to buy ethanol-free gas in my part of the state are close to several of that credit union's branches, so I put safety gas cans in my truck bed to fill for use in my boat, garden tractor, chainsaws, weedwackers, etc. And the dump is on the way there too (we have no trash pick-up which is fine with me because we produce so little trash). So that trip combines several needs. When I dump at the free Coinstars, I dump up to $1K in halves at a time. For the more local branches of the other credit union that uses bags in their coin machines, I limit my dumping there to $400 max/week to avoid being a pest who requires frequent bag changes. And I won't dump there on saturdays or close to closing.

When I ask for CWRs, the tellers who know me usually tell me "You don't want these" and I understand that to mean they are someone's dumps, and I appreciate that honesty. One teller at a branch of one of my banks told me "Yes, we have plenty of rolls; one of our customers goes through them looking for silver and he brings his re-rolled coins back here". Until she told me that, I got stuck with some of those rolls and they were all rejects. That branch has since balked at ordering me more boxes, and I have even offered to take some of the dumped rolls off their hands as a favor after I explained that their customer should not be returning his dumps where he buys his boxes. Sometimes things happen that we can't fully explain...

My banks and credit unions also won't sell me bags, even though the head teller at my main dump branch complains they are tripping over the full bags while waiting for Dunbar to pick them up - useful info since my experience with Dunbar MWRs rolls is they are all dumps.

 

[Megalodon]

Bad idea on your plan on CWR rolls. It has been repeated countless times in the past - Buy Them All. If someone dumps $400 and the bank has $420 on hand, your plan will likely only get a sample of the dumps and miss the $20 from another customer. If that $20 are solid rolls, you missed your chance.

I know it can get tiresome to buy other's dumps, but you are doing the bank a favor by moving them. It will be appreciated and reciprocated.

I won't do them the favor of buying known dumps unless they also do me a favor by selling me boxes. It should work both ways.

 

[smokeythecat]

What they said. You are going to have to choose whether or not you want that branch to order for you or go to another one. MOST of the time, in my experience, if a bank has halves, it's $100 or less and there is silver mixed in. I did get $440 earlier this fall at a B of A and all were junk. I take all the halves to a different named bank and run everything through their free coin counter. Your bank will probably get annoyed with you if you order and also don't take what they have in stock. Most banks here HATE half dollars and are happy to get rid of them. They also hate $1 coins and $2 bills. No one wants them. I have seen dumps that contained a few clipped coins in them and proofs, and sometimes a silver gets missed.

My dump bank won't sell bags. Sometimes their machine rejects 40% halves, I got a few freebies from a reject tray not that long ago.

 

[Sleepy Holow]

Good topic...love talking strategy!

My general rules about this kinda stuff:

1) For halves, I buy them all unless:
a) They have exactly $500 in CWR.
b) I've noticed over several transactions that the vault mgr is using me as their personal dump CRHer.
- I agree with Diver_Down that you could miss the solid roll because you're trying to dodge dumps, but if it kills my enjoyment of the hobby I feel that's more detrimental in the long run.

2) Your relationship with each particular branch is unique, and thus will determine what you can (and cannot) do.
- Over time, I have leveraged my good relationships to yield more boxes and simply get what I can get from the poor relationship banks. Some vault managers are extremely prejudiced against CRHers and there's nothing that you can do to change their mind.

3) Don't ever get married to the system you currently have in place.
- No system is perfect. From time to time, it requires tweaking, altering, or even sometimes a complete overhaul. It might be time to look at reworking your system. I had to completely overhaul my system once and I'm very glad I did. It led to the best five dime boxes of my CRHing career that each contained between 17-26 silver dimes back in 2013!

4) Know the competition.
- My main pickup bank has several branches. One of which has a guy that religiously dumps rolled dimes there. A ton of rolls! They refuse to order dimes for this reason. I just act like that branch doesn't even exist.

5) Don't pick up from your dump bank.
- In the past I was fortunate enough to find a dump bank that rolled their own coin and told me to bring them all the coins I could find. I used that dump bank as my personal warehouse to get my searched coins out of my coin courier's system for as long as possible. My current dump bank (different state) has specifically told me that if they find out people are picking up and dumping on them, they will shut their account down.

These are simply my opinions based on my personal experiences. HH -

 

[fistfulladirt]

Like the others said, always buy them all.
Regarding the dumping of rolls, not sure I ever have done that at least not since 2008 and hundreds of thousands of dollars in change.
Most times my dumps were loose, and in $500 bags carried directly to the vault. Bags never counted, and never an issue.