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Time To Clean Your Coins And Cash In!


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13 hours ago, phrunt said:

Why would that make a difference? I'm puzzled by that, a lot of Petrol stations in NZ are card only, and you pay at the pump they're not manned in any way.

Gasoline here is sold on such a low margin (for the retailer) because of competition that the surcharge from the credit card companies makes a difference.  Some gasoline stations will give what appears to be a discount if you pay cash.  (Or you can think of it as an extra charge if you use a CC.)  That isn't done everywhere; I think it is more common in the Western states.  I can't recall seeing it much (if at all) here in the Midwest recently.

I haven't seen a gasoline station that pumps the gas for you in several years, and that was one local (mom-and-pop Indiana) brand which went out of business.  In general they stopped doing that around 1980 by my recollection.

The other thing that is common here are 'reward' cards where you get discounts or rebates for purchases.  Sometimes the big gasoline companies (like Shell, Exxon, etc.) are part of that and you get discount off your gasoline by using their card.  But there are lots of other bonuses, like airline miles and even just percentage purchase 'cash' rebates (1-2%).

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another note on the bank interactions...

It costs the bank money to send in their coins.  They go to clearing houses, not the Fed.  If you ask, your bank might be willing to sell you the filled bags of coins.  Mine does, and it is WAY higher percentage of finding silver in those bags, than coins you would buy in rolls or boxes from your bank, which have already been run through multiple machines, kicking out most of the silver.  Your best bet is bags of Halves, or nickels to get silver.  Halves are the largest coins on the chute, and are not affected by weight...anything bigger than small dollars goes into the Halves bag...no questions asked, including foreign coins.  Silver dimes and quarters have to be really worn usually to make it through a machine.

Also...Tellers HATE Eisenhower dollars.  Too big to go through the machines, and they have to normally package them up separately to be sent out, so it is a lot of time wasted for them.  Let your normal teller you talk to that you would love anything rejected by the coin machines, and you will even take Eisenhowers.  Great way to get silver and wheats, and your kids/grandkids will love the Eisenhowers.

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1 hour ago, rod-pa said:

another note on the bank interactions...

OK, as usual I'm confused.  I get the part about the banks having to pay the clearing houses, and that coins that the bank buys in rolls/boxes are unlikely to be more than modern (clad, etc.).

It's the part about short-circuiting that route and getting coins that the bank recently exchanged & counted from its individual customers that has me confused.  (The few times I've taken coins to the bank for exchange they've given me slightly less for their count than mine.  As a result I've not been keen to exchange....  Thus my experience with them is quite limited.)

1) When coins (and non-coins, I assume) are rejected by the counting machines, what happens then?  You say that those can be purchased/exchanged by individual customers but I assume someone (human bank employee) has to count/sort/etc.  When you say "anything rejected by the coin machines", besides the Ikes, what else is there that you would be able to purchase?  (Bobby pins, paper clips, gum wrappers,... presumably you don't want those.  😄)

2) You say "Great way to get silver and wheats..."  Are you still referring to the counting machine rejects or rather the old coins that were accepted by the counting machines but that you subsequently 'buy' before they get sent off to the clearing house?

I'm aware that clad coins weigh less than their equally sized 90% silver alloy coins.  Do the bank counting machines differentiate that and somehow separate them out?  Ditto on 95% copper pennies vs. Zincolns?

 

 

 

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Sorry GB, 

I re-read after your questions...i was pretty lousy on explanation.  Here is clarification.

1. When a customer has their coins rejected, they might try re-running the rejects through, but at whatever point they give up, many take the reject coins to the teller line and have them counted manually and added to the deposit amount.  The Teller puts them in their own cash drawer for the time being.  Some tellers are on the lookout for their own silver collection, some couldnt care less, etc.  Some just leave them separate if asked.  

1a. you mentioned junk like "Bobby pins, paper clips, gum wrappers".  The stuff that I have pulled out of the actual junk bins of them when i open the machines up due to issues or jams...add .45cal rounds, condom in original packaging, stud earring(fake), silver ring.  bizarre

2.  both.  (granted I work for this bank, but the tellers at various branches tell me about the coins they give to customers that have asked them...some for longer than I have been there...over 20 years.  There is a guy named Jack who has a bag sitting with his name on it at one of our branches that started collecting when he was like 10 yrs old.  The tellers always balance out anything they think he would like into that bag and he comes in once a month or so and pays for it..he is like 30 now.  It happens.

Back when i was a bored person before a family, I used to keep track of how many nickels, dimes, quarters, or halves I would get in a bag of non-rejects that had been brought in by customers.  Nickels have been the steadiest...average has been about 5 per bag of 200 nickels.  Quarters and dimes averaged less, 2.5 per bag, although usually $500 per dime or quarter bag means the qty of quarters per number of quarters in the bag is higher.  Halves...75 percent of halves found in bags were the 40% silver, not the 90% of 1964 and prior.

A couple bags really skewed the numbers because someone was getting rid of their silver coins collection so i left them out.  

The counting machines are hard to maintain for accuracy.  Ours get checked quarterly if they haven't had to be maintained for some issue like jamming, etc.  It is not common to find the wrong coins in different denomination bag, but it happens.  Wheats do get kicked out more than the other copper memorials, but I believe it has more to do with the wheats having more variety in their actual weight compared to the more modern copper ones.  I would usually get a couple dozen wheats in a bag of the cents.

Best individual coin out of a Halves bag....1924 3 Mark silver coin..go figure.

I also have quite a collection of proof coins  gotten out of the bags, but I suppose you could get them in rolls also.

hopefully that clarifies things...if not, let me know.

Rod

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2 hours ago, rod-pa said:

Sorry GB,

Not a problem, and thanks for the clarification.  It sounds like you have a good relationship with the tellers.  I understand, but since you work for the bank, I'm guessing that goes with the territory.  Now this 30 year old 'kid' who's been collecting since he was 10?  I'm 66 and have been collecting since I was 6.  Let him know he has a ways to go to catch up with me.  😆

2 hours ago, rod-pa said:

Halves...75 percent of halves found in bags were the 40% silver, not the 90% of 1964 and prior.

You mean 75% of all halves in the bags are the 40% (1965-70) variety, or 75% that aren't cupro-nickel clad are that variety?

I often wonder if the fraction of coins that are silver found in circulation today (as you are doing) is higher than at certain times in the past 50 years.  You might be able to answer that.  Here's my thinking -- back in the 1965-1970 time period when people were removing the silver coins, lots of people were doing it.  50 years later, how many are even aware of the difference?  Lots of those people who knew the difference back then are six feet under.  Grandma dies and the heirs find a container in a dresser drawer with a bunch of loose change.  "Granny sure was senile, hanging on to that near worthless stuff.  Well at least the bank will cash it in, even if they charge me a fee to do so. I can probably use it to get halfway to the cost of a triple mocha latte!"

How many born in the last 50 years know the difference between 90% silver Washingtons/Roosevelts and the clad versions?  Heck, a majority of them can't even tell you what country Nebraska is in.  (I'm kidding -- well, sort of....)

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75% of the silver halves i get from the bags is the 40% type.. depends, normally quantity is somewhere from 2 to a dozen in there.  yes..most are cupro-nickel.

 

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  • 4 months later...
2 hours ago, nickeldNdimed said:

But what about copper vs zinc pennies?

Current copper spot price is $3.29/lb.  145 copper pennies in a lb at 95% purity, so about 152 uncirculated copper pennies together have a lb of copper content.  Add a few more to account for wear and you're still around 2 cents worth of copper each.  As with any alloy, there will be cost associated with separating the alloy components.  It's illegal to melt them but that doesn't seem to concern some....

Zinc, OTOH, is currently around $1.25/lb and since zinc pennies are lighter it takes more of them to add up to a lb.  Bottom line is that the bullion value of them is less than their face value.  Toss in the fact that many we find have been partially eaten away by galvanic action and their worthlessness is even more apparent.  (It's been pointed out here that the Federal Reserve is required to redeem them at 1 cent each even if degraded, so apparently even the eaten up ones still have face value.)

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18 hours ago, GB_Amateur said:

Current copper spot price is $3.29/lb.  145 copper pennies in a lb at 95% purity, so about 152 uncirculated copper pennies together have a lb of copper content.  Add a few more to account for wear and you're still around 2 cents worth of copper each.  As with any alloy, there will be cost associated with separating the alloy components.  It's illegal to melt them but that doesn't seem to concern some....

Zinc, OTOH, is currently around $1.25/lb and since zinc pennies are lighter it takes more of them to add up to a lb.  Bottom line is that the bullion value of them is less than their face value.  Toss in the fact that many we find have been partially eaten away by galvanic action and their worthlessness is even more apparent.  (It's been pointed out here that the Federal Reserve is required to redeem them at 1 cent each even if degraded, so apparently even the eaten up ones still have face value.)

So this first full year I’ve been sorting my zinc, copper, and wheats for the heck of it. But in reality, not like I am collecting enough to make worthwhile hoarding?

So Federal Reserve guarantees you one cent for that crusty zinc and won’t give you more than one cent for the copper, which is also illegal to melt.... so not like I can scrap them. The wheats, I just look through those for that elusive 1943 dug copper like  a good treasure hunter.  Other than the momentary fun, they aren’t really worth any more either.

I’ve been wanting to count my clad for the year and wondering what I should do with the pennies.  Some of those zincs are pretty rough.

I’m also torn on sleeving them or feeding them to the Coinstar for Jeff Bezos gift cards.  But I guess I’ll have that receipt as a clad trophy.... 

Another thought I had about the copper pennies was to punch them with a year and initials and put a few in places I detected.  Could be fun, could be discouraging. I don’t know.  

 

 

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1 hour ago, nickeldNdimed said:

Another thought I had about the copper pennies was to punch them with a year and initials and put a few in places I detected.

I think defacing USA coins is illegal, too.  :laugh:

If you're anything of a packrat (like I), you just have a jar (or jars) to toss the copper alloy cents into and wait until copper goes up enough to make it worthwhile to sell.  Copper is a commodity, afterall and a jarfull makes a good doorstop, counterweight,....  Most silver alloy coins we find are also numismatically worthless but their bullion content is the consolation prize when we find them (and confirm the date+mintmark isn't a semi-key or better).

I have a pocket of my detecting pouch for coins and jewelry.  The other 'finds' pocket is for trash.  The Zincolns go into the trash pocket to be sorted out later.  IMO, that's where they belong, along with those people responsible for their continued minting.

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