Hi, I recently took some advice I saw on CoinTalk and started asking for half dollars. I went to Bank of America and asked if they had any. They had many rolls so I exchanged currency for some of them and told them I would be back to get more. The teller told me he was searching thru the halves and he found some silver ones. Of the rolls I received that day I knew which ones were searched because of a consistent mark put on Kennedy's ear. I went back the next day to get more. I was told that they do have more but that the rolls were in the vault and the only person who can access the vault was not scheduled to come to work for another hour. I left and returned an hour later. I had to wait another 45 minutes to receive the rolls. Every one of these rolls had been searched as I saw the same mark left on Kennedy's ear. I'm concerned that they made me leave so they had time to search the rolls. Can anyone tell me if it is normal for BofA to not schedule an employee to have access to their vault for an hour on a Friday morning? If there was an employee that had access to the vault, can they tell me to come back later and have me wait another 45 minutes so they have time to go thru the rolls? I would appreciate any assistance regarding this matter. Thank you
At my local BB&T branch, there is only one teller on shift that has keys to the vault. If he is not there, the vault is locked. It is possible that you ran across some customer wrapped rolls that were already searched prior to being turned in at the bank. As far as waiting 45 minutes for the rolls, im not sure. it is possible that he just had some more pressing matters to attend to. i would have someone dump a couple rolls there and then go pick them up a short while later. inspect them for the marks you found on the others.
I suspect Jay was correct about customer wrapped rolls, as almost no bank uses 50 cent pieces. A person's bank may order a box for customers ( $500 ), but otherwise they don't, as they get as many as needed from customer's turn-ins. I also suspect that any employee searching takes place after they buy customer rolls from their tray and goes home, or they put silver ones aside in their tray. They are constantly on camera, and any suspicious activity will be noticed. If you ask for 50 cent pieces and they have them in their tray they are usually obligated to deliver them to you in exchange. yes, my bank ( Rabobank, NA) has only one teller designated as vault manager and it is rotated regularly. If he/she is out to lunch, the vault is closed until they return. However,in the business account area, the tellers have boxes of cents, dimes, quarters, in the bottom reserve drawer they can give out to customers needing them. Other banks may differ. Jim
If silver is primarily what you're looking for I would have walked out of that branch and not looked back any time soon. I wouldn't have bothered trying to get anymore rolls of halves from that bank. In fact, I would have taken the teller telling me that he searches through the halves there as saving me from wasting my time.
Thank you for all the replies and the greeting! I did find a few silver coins in the 1st batch even after he said he started looking thru them which makes sense some rolls were not marked the 1st go-around (my very 1st silver halves). The rolls were ordered by another customer who never picked them up. It was two boxes of $500. Both boxes were open, but since I found some the first time, I was hoping I would find some the 2nd. I did find a possible double "P" and also a 2004, 2005, 2007, and 2008 in the 2nd batch even tho I know that is not much of a big deal. There were many employees there both days I went, and yes, I should have just said never mind & left. I'm kicking myself for not doing that. Thanks again!!!
In addition, a number of banks around here can only access the vault so many times per hour, at which point they have to wait a set amount of time before they get back in. They may have accessed the vault early in the morning to get the change and then had to wait before they could get back in. But definitely to echo what NOS said, if a bank has an employee that's pulling out silver it makes it very difficult to find any for yourself at that branch, unless you're getting unopened machine wrapped rolls. Also, get used to seeing searcher's marks on all the halves regardless of where you get them. Halves are incredibly competitive, around here at least 30-40% of all the halves I find have all sorts of marks all over them.
your double P, if it is doubled, is most likely a re punched mint mark. up until i think 1990 the mint marks were punched into the dies by hand. sometimes the person punching the die did not get a good impression into the die and hit it again. If it was not exactl. lined up with the first punch, a doubled mint mark was formed.
hmmm, maybe it's not a double "P" then because it is from 1994 and also one from 1999. i tried to take some pictures but they didn't come out so great (and i consider myself to be decent at photography too). there are a few other cool halves i found, but nothing to make me go screaming down the street. was going to attach some pics but can't figure out how.
well...somebody beat me to the $100 worth of halves. the teller that was holding them for me left early today. I did however pick up one 40%er from a teller tray and 3 more 40%ers at a gas station. YAY!
that's awesome! i'm learning, i should ask everywhere, not just banks. figured out how to upload; the other pics were to big. these were a few cool-ish ones i found. prolly not worth more than .50 but neat regardless. the first one looks off-center a bit, the 2nd is obvious, the 3rd looks like a possible die fill (i hope), the 4th has weird blobs by the "1" and also the "I" in LIBERTY (almost like an additional mint mark), and the last one looks like a possible die break by the ear (double ear)????? sorry for bad pics, but maybe someone can tell me if these are worth holding onto???
One more. i'm not sure if this is a double die or a machine double. i've read that double die halves were frequent from the 70s so this coin might not be worth keeping either
the off center ones do not usually carry a premium unless part of the lettering is missing. i cant really tell by the pics about the "blobs" but they could be some die chips. Die chips generally are used to guestimate the die state. (how much the die has been used) and in some cases can be used as die markers.as far as the double ear goes, you may want to wait on a more expert opinion, but it could be a machine doubling, doubled die, or deteriorated die. on the possible die fill i would need some closer pics( im assuming you are talking about the mint mark) i am not too familiar with telling these apart. figuring out whether or not to keep a coin is really up to the coin holder. if you like, keep. if you dont like, dont keep. But as far as asking about halves, I generally ask every that has a cash register.
Sorry, I will do that next time. I got these from the rolls I was talking about at the beginning of the post so just continued on. My 1st day on CoinTalk. Thanks everyone for the help!
no need to apologize. i figured you were just continuing on your orig. post. just didnt know if you knew bout the error section
