Half Dollar Box Question

I currently work at a bank and worked in our cash vault for close to 3 years. I can tell you from experience that any half dollar that comes through has been searched. Or, at least when I was working our coin wrapping machines.

We had one day where a customer came in with A LOT of silver. Ranging from halves, to dimes, to nickels. As soon as the teller opened the bag and told us what was in them, the change never left our vault. We pulled all the bags from the counter and ran the change by itself. Gave the customer face value and we bought all the silver. If a bank has a coin wrapping operation, as my bank does, the halfs are searched pretty hard.

And everyone is right, we had a few customers come in and order just halves and then "dump" them back on us. We hated it and eventually told the customer we weren't ordering halfs anymore. They truly are a hassle for bank staff.

I recently stumbled across $20 in face value of $7(face value) in silver from 64 kennedy's, $12(face value) in 65-70 kennedy's and $3(face value) in 40% silver Eisenhower's. I forgot I had had these from years ago, from that silver purchase mentioned above. I would like to go on the hunt again, but it's a lot of work and I didn't find anything rare when I was a coin wrapper. The day when all the silver arrived was a shot in the dark. We even tried to get the customer to go down the street to a coin dealer where he could make a much better return.

I keep seeing people who feel it is somehow the bank's responsibility to provide them with either entertainment or profit. Let's review:

Banks are not a charitable or social improvement institution. They exist to borrow money from depositors, lend it out to customers and factor in enough safety margin for a profit for their shareholders.

Some banks will provide other services, such as foreign currency exchange, lock boxes, bank checks or bullion sales. These cost the bank money, and they are entitled to a profit on them.

Enter the coin collector/searcher/hoarder. Some understand, others who ask "why does it matter if I have an account" perhaps never will.

As banks move to smaller locations, vaults get smaller. Cashiers who used to cost the bank a buck or so an hour are now $10-15 and up. Armor car services charge more for their fuel and wages.

It can cost the bank five bucks each way for transportation of a box. Every 4-6 minutes a clerk spends on a special trip to the vault (paperwork, etc) costs another dollar.

In walks Mr. No-Account and he "only" wants a few boxes of coins. The most popular are cents. He just wants to go through them and return 2/3 of them. Hint: stores that normally get cents buy them and hand them out to customers, not shuffle them around between banks. The "dump" bank orders its needs, you're not helping by overfilling their limited vault space.

Next is nickels. Grab all you can get, for an immediate 30% profit. One poster asked for $5500 worth, a year's supply for a huge store. The cashiers are told to smile and help the customer. Ask accounting for a second opinion. Hint: How long do you think it will take if hoarders buy a year's supply in a week and don't release any, before there are none for commerce?

And finally, halves, a favorite among searchers who like the high hit % and silver premiums. Equally despised by tellers and banks alike, because about the only businesses that use them are casinos. Buy ten boxes, return nine to your dump bank, which has to pay to recycle them, because there are NO retail users. Gee Thanks, Mr. No-account!

In addition to these expenses/problems, add a couple others:

Tellers have to keep track of one or several people doing this, so they don't get back the ones they already searched. Shuffling boxes in the vault for the customer who only likes certain colors.

Someone had to buy and maintain that $10,000+ coin sorter for the convenience of searchers returning loose coin.

Finally, every time the coins are taken out and returned, there's the chance of losses, intentional or accidental. When rolls are a couple quarters short, the customer blames the bank, not the searcher, and the bank has to make up the 50¢.

And all this for "customers" who are providing no income to the bank from their relationship.

Eddiespin -

Here are pics of the find.......

https://goccf.com/t/22710&whichpage=389