What To Say To Tellers?

green you always ask the strangest questions makes me chuckle sometimes, best way to find out is go and see what they say although 1000 dollars in pennies is pretty out there

Green,

First off, I would do a smaller amount--$100, max, maybe, for the reasons listed above. I like to open with tellers I haven't seen before with a joke: "I'm one of those awful coin-search collectors. I'll try to be nice." Then I make my request, which I try to keep reasonable (usually a box of pennies, $50 in dimes, or some dollar coins). This sounds counter-intuitive, but when you're a casually-dressed YOUNG woman (I've been told that without my glasses I look about 17, which I think is mostly people being nice, but 20 I would believe) wandering into a bank near closing time because of your work schedule, I think it helps. One Wells Fargo teller, when I asked for dollar coins, even went "any heads you're missing?" Turns out she was planning to pay me in loose coins, and had a variety of Presidents available (that's how I scored my John Q. Adams, incidentally).


Obviously, magic words ("please" and "thank you so much"--if you think that latter sounds like groveling, I promise you, when you work behind a counter for long it becomes very obvious who's really thanking you and who's saying it because they're "supposed" to, and you don't want to be one of those latter people) are in order. I get away with calling tellers "hon" because most of the bank tellers in my area seem to be around my age for some weird reason (where I'm from they were all almost old enough to be my grandma), but you may choose to go with "sir" or "miss" or, if the teller is wearing a nametag, by name.

I've also found that it helps to make sure you're not inconveniencing them; before I bought my first box of pennies, I asked if it was possible for someone without a business account to make that purchase so as to not waste my time or theirs.


And unless you're just looking for commons, DO NOT tell the tellers what you've found from their location. See how fast your silver dimes dry up when you say "yeah, someone's bringing in whole rolls of silver! Do you guys know what that's worth?" (On the other hand, if you dump out your bag of Prez dollars and find a John Q. you've been going nuts trying to get, I don't see a problem with mentioning it the next time you go in: "Hey, you know that bag of loose Prez dollars you picked out for me? One of those filled a hole that's been driving me crazy. Thanks!")

BRING TREATS! First you want to get to know the bank/credit union people, I would bet a( WAM)!! that 95% are ladies, they all love treats , cookies,etc . its a win win!! they get business and you get friends in the banking (bank roll) business!! they will take care of you, that's for sure, I have learned a lot from them and they from me,i taught them about change and they taught me how and when to get it,a few of them even look out for star notes for me,and have done well,, IE: 10 dollars in nickels in original wrappers from 1939, 100 dollars in quarters that yield 28 1935 jems, and a penny roll that lead to my first WAM!! Rollationships!! go get you one!
PS.I got 200 dollars in pennies for Christmas last year, it took them 10 days to get that, and it came in loose change , no rolls and in heavy gauge plastic, I just got through all of them last month for the most part, FYI. and I looked at them every night .

No way I'd walk in and ask for that....chances are great you'll get rejected. Dealing in coinage COSTS THE BANK MONEY. They do not get change at face value but they "sell" it at face, it's a losing proposition for the bank. Telling them you're a collector will likely greatly increase the odds of getting rejected. You're much better off not saying anything or telling them it's for your business.

For some reason a lot of you think your entitled to getting boxes at face value. I have news for you all, you are NOT and a bank can tell you to take a hike. When folks abuse the privilege of the occassional box by requesting huge numbers at once, the greater the risk that ALL of us searchers will one day be cut-off or forced to pay extra.

What BadThad said, and then some.

You're doing it wrong. I use my "debit" card as credit and get 1.5% back on every purchase... every day.

When I went in to get my first box of pennies, the tellers kind of rolled their eyes at me (I'm assuming because I'm a kid) asked me what I was doing with them, and went off to get the box.

[Let's remember this was a small bank in a small town]

But the second time I wanted to get pennies I called ahead, and when I went to pick them up they had them set aside, and it was all business with a little "Good Luck"

So, yes, build relationships with the tellers is what I have been doing and it has done nothing but good for me.

But if you're planning on getting $1,000 dollars in pennies, then you should probably split it up amongst 5 or more banks (order ahead), and go around and pick them all up in the same trip.

According to my calculations, it will take rougly 130 hours to search through them all, good luckkkkkkkkk

Jayman, thanks for the info! I'll definitely look into that. I would understand if, say, my balance had been Two Cents, but for eighteen cents? Really? Especially when it's a matter of record that every Wednesday at 3am, I have over two hundred bucks coming in?

Ummm . . . . right.