Post Office: The Good, the Bad, and the UNBELIEVABLE

I went to our local post office to mail a couple of items that I sold on eBay. One of them was a coin. The lady waiting on me asked me if I collected coins, and I said yes. She asked me if I would like some old coins-I have learned to ALWAYS say yes. She gave me four Buffalo nickels, which was very nice and interesting (not worth much, as only one of the four has a readable date, but it was still a nice gesture.

The unbelievable part came next. Come to find out, her husband had put those nickels in her change tray. I did the obvious, and asked her to hang on to anything that he brought in that looked old and interesting. Her response? The husband's grandfather had recently passed away, and as they were going through his possessions they remembered that he saved all his old silver change (I guess for a rainy day). Anyway, they counted over $10,000 in change, all of it containing silver! You know what I offered to do then-I would have taken out a loan and bought all the coins, but she told me that they just deposited it all in a bank about an hour away from here and used it to open CDs for their kids. She said, "We just didn't have time to sort through that crap."

Wow...just wow.

 

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What bank was that again that she deposited them in? Just curoius, I always wanted to take a road trip to Arkansas...

 

So...an hour away from Manila, AR?

 

I bet...lol.

Seriously, could CoinTalk have a convention there or something? There'd be enough for everyone to sort through...kind of like the diamond mine in southeast Arkansas where you get to keep what you dig up. A lady there found a 6.88 carat diamond there last week, and got to keep it!

 

I think that the clerk was having fun at the OP's expense.

 

I don't think so. The lady seemed very ignorant of coins. In fact, she only gave the buffalo nickels when I told her that I collected.

She also said that they had to use wheelbarrows to get the coins from the grandpa's house to the car. He had filled mason jars with these coins.

I just wonder how many people do the same thing, taking those coins in for face value and having no idea what they're worth...

 

Well, that's how we'll be able to support future generations of roll searchers.

 

That's a great story! Although I have to agree in thinking she was telling you a story...

I'm a bit skeptical...not of you stating the clerk saying what she did, but of what the clerk told you. I mean if there was so much change that it required wheelbarrows to load it into the car/truck, we're talking "tons" of change, why would they haul that heavy load to a bank that's an hour away? Unless she thought by telling you the bank was so far away that it would discourage you from driving an hour away to the bank to try and recoup part of her deposit. And if her husband had tons of change, why would he place 20 cents in her drawer? And how did he place the coins in her drawer??? It seems like a lot of trouble to go through in order to get two dimes in return. And didn't she say she had already cashed-in the change at this point? I don't get it. And how did she know all $10k contained silver? I mean the buffs don't have any silver...and if she was knowledgeable enough to know the $10k contained silver, then I'm sure she was aware that the silver content would make the $10k worth more than face value and MADE the time to go through it.

-LTB

 

Find out the bank, and make a road trip!!!!

 

All I know is that she said her husband's grandfather saved changed over the years. Whether she knew about the silver content or not, I don't know. A lot of people call halves and dolalr coins, "silver dollars," whether they have silver or nickel in them. She said that he kept them in jars, and while he was still alive, he told them that he had a "few" jars of change that they could have when he was gone.
As far as the buffalos go, apparently the husband had made a purchase with them at the post office. It is possible that they either (1) are pulling the wool over my eyes or (2) they are that naive about the value of coins.
Also, why would she care if I went to the bank and bought the change? She deposited it those CDs. It's not like I would be taking her money by buying change at a bank. She would not gain anything by that, unless it's one of those things to where, "If I can't have it, no one can."

I thought it was a neat story about the grandad keeping his change over the years. And if nothing else, I ended up with four buffalo nickels and the lady told me if she saw anything else in the drawer that looked, "old and interesting," she'd hold it for me.

 

They counted $10k in change, yet didn't have time to sort it? You smell that?

 

You should ask her if Grandpa had any old Confederate notes laying around too. Sighhhh I hate to see the Bankers get that silver for face value. QUOTE=mattunion99;1167235]I went to our local post office to mail a couple of items that I sold on eBay. One of them was a coin. The lady waiting on me asked me if I collected coins, and I said yes. She asked me if I would like some old coins-I have learned to ALWAYS say yes. She gave me four Buffalo nickels, which was very nice and interesting (not worth much, as only one of the four has a readable date, but it was still a nice gesture.

The unbelievable part came next. Come to find out, her husband had put those nickels in her change tray. I did the obvious, and asked her to hang on to anything that he brought in that looked old and interesting. Her response? The husband's grandfather had recently passed away, and as they were going through his possessions they remembered that he saved all his old silver change (I guess for a rainy day). Anyway, they counted over $10,000 in change, all of it containing silver! You know what I offered to do then-I would have taken out a loan and bought all the coins, but she told me that they just deposited it all in a bank about an hour away from here and used it to open CDs for their kids. She said, "We just didn't have time to sort through that crap."

Wow...just wow.[/QUOTE]

 

She was pretty ticked off about it, according to her story. They rolled it, and then took it to the bank. Apparently the bank didn't believe that the count was accurate, so they opened the rolls and ran them through their own counter to be sure.

It just seems like an awful lot of trouble to concoct a story to tell to a person that she doesn't even know.

 

Look on the bright side. Now there's 10k in silver circulating that are bound to end up rolled and sent to banks around the country! Their loss our gain.

 

Since I am an everyday Joe. I can't purchase large hoards. I wish I never see them because of the sick feeling you get knowing that some rich person is going to just sell them for a quick profit to a broker. I have seen people with buckets and boxes of old coins and let them go for face or a little over face. A collector could rescue these coins and be in coin heaven.
I also have a question. I was told banks have to return all silver back to the reserve. Is this true?
Thanks Big Ed

 

Banks don't have to, no. Individual company policy dictates what's done with it. Typically, the tellers will take it, or the head teller will.

Also, biged, takes money to make money, remember that. Sad, but true.

 

But with the current silver hysteria, if you're roll-searching, it doesn't take much money to make money. Potential profit on each coin is 3400% (1300% for 40%, 5300% for war nickels); potential loss is zero (except for time, gas, or droppage).