Do They Sell "Boxes" At Canadian Banks?

From memory, a box of pennies is $50, nickels $100, dimes $500, quarters $500, loonies $500 and toonies $1000 or something like that.

Most banks keep coins in bundles of about 10 rolls near the front desks, and if you ask for a 'box' they have to lock down their desk, ask a manager for the key to the back room, discuss the difficulties of their jobs with coworkers, get a trolley (because the boxes are heavy) and assemble a box for you in the back room or the safe which takes a few minutes.

And heed Topher's words, you don't want a RCM box! The tellers I've dealt with either don't know what that means or are unwilling to make that distinction, so if they come out with a mint box (which usually has brown RCM package tape on the outside) you can politely try to get it switched, or just return it. Either way they will be annoyed, because the bank makes nothing on the deal and it requires a lot of effort, and if there's a line up of customers they can be downright hostile. That's when it helps to be a customer. I've had managers come out asking questions and asking for photo ID, tellers telling me to place a special order and come back in 3-4 business days to pick up the coins, and outright refusals to supply more than 2 rolls where I'm not a customer. This is all part of the fun of roll hunting, good luck!

Thanks for the info.

When I ask for a bunch of roles, it feels like I'm going against the grain in the system. The idea of walking out of a bank with $500 in quarters almost feels criminal. I guess if you do it all the time, you become desensitized to the whole process.

Are there limits to how many rolls you can get at your personal bank?

Yeh Topher, I wish my bank was like that. They know me, They still give me new boxes every now and then. I can see the sealed box coming my way right away, but I don't want to be rude, and send them back.

If you find a bank in a commercial area, then you can go directly to the vault teller. There is an RBC branch near my office that serves mostly businesses, and I can just stroll up to the vault and ask for my coins. They even know to keep anything unusual for me, like 50 cent coins, and older currency. That reminds me, I'm due for a visit tomorrow. I'll have to get a box of nickels and cents as I won't be coming by anytime soon.

It is funny how often the tellers feel bad for me, because I have to carry out typically 20 pounds or 50 rolls of assorted coins. They usually offer me a box to put my rolls in and apologize because it takes a few minutes to assemble my order. I find if you are polite and joke around with them they are very helpful. I always engage in idle chit-chat talking about the weather or how long they have been at the branch.

I found that my bank (RBC) ask me 30% of the time what I need the coins for and 80% of the time if I am customer. I visit about 20 branches a month to get a good sampling throughout the city and to avoid visiting the same branches multiple times in one week.

Only once out of hundreds of times did I get a rude teller that told me the coins are for businesses only. I was tempted to speak to her manager, since I have my retirement investments with the bank, but I decide to let it go since I really do get many money's worth from all other the good tellers.

I wonder if a lot of business customers just refuse to buy anything but machine-wrapped rolls from the bank because so many of the customer-wrapped ones are short. If someone's willing to buy the customer rolled stuff then they don't have to worry about re-rolling it for the picky customers, plus it's someone else taking the loss for the short rolls.