Please cite the federal law.

That's not how it worked with us. At the end of each day...you had to count all your money and see if you balanced with what you should have. If you were off by a few cents, your end of day report simply stated that...it wasn't a big deal. We took it as a point of pride to balance to the cent. If you were more than $100 off (which happened at times), you had to stay and attempt to find the error.

 

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Jim

 

I don't know if this is an actual law or not, but I know in the 60's, the banks my parents were banking at had to give out coins at face value if asked for them, and to my knowledge weren't allowed to be sorting through them and setting coins aside. I think it was simply because as a business they did not want the tellers and others working there to mismanage the money or make it their personal playground for that sort of thing. But I'm sure that management probably had other opportunities to switch out for older coins if they came along.

It would be difficult to enforce a federal law, even if it was there, because the feds don't normally get in on the day to day operations of any one bank in that respect.

To me it would also make more sense for the banks to either have someone to save them for and sell at face value, as is what the bank is there for, or if someone was truly knowledgeable, to simply have a friend come in (at a phone call) and buy it from the bank, again for face value, and then turn it over to that bank employee later on.

 

Where are you located that requires anyone selling collector coins to have a license?

 

There are laws and there are regulations. Prior to the 1980's, banks were a state enity and regulated by the states. If any requlation exist, it would most likely be at state level.

 

I didn't read all the posts, someone may have brought it up...

I doubt there is a law as such, but I would imagine that any bank would have a policy against the practice.
The reason I say that is because it's almost certain that any and all gain from such a practice would go right into the pocket of the bank employee doing this deed. Therefore the bank itself is being stolen from, both in the form of wages for the time spent sorting coins while the employee should being doing their real job, and the loss of profit from the work done on bank time for the coins themselves.

Make sense?

It's not in the interest of the bank and will cause an ever increasing loss of productivity in it's employees as the practice grows and spreads. So one or two tellers might engage in the practice under the radar, or maybe even the bank manager overlooks the actions (unlikely), but the big picture is that the employee(s) is not a good employee, and at worst, going down a road that will eventually cause the bank some reason to let them go. A person that breaks one rule for personal gain is probably breaking several.

Just my opinion. Worth what you paid for it.

 

I would think there are some states that require this.
Not for "anyone" selling coins, but anyone doing it as a profit endeavor.
My state, Florida, is pretty Nazified about this sort of thing.
They send revenue agents to flea markets, swap meets, and such to record who is there and give them paperwork to file sales tax.
I cleaned out my garage and took the stuff to a flea market type meet and was interviewed by the agent, along with everyone there, and when I didn't file paperwork in 60 days, I was harrassed and almost fined for not filing sales tax on yard sale items. They don't do it to everyone, the agent says they don't have the manpower, but said they would if they could.

Any "hobby" type selling like this is considered a business here after 5 individual transactions in a year, and needs a business license.
The business licenses here are a whole other ball of wax. The type of business covered by a license is VERY narrow and does not cover any venture other than the stated mission of the business, and to boot, there is a requirement for many types of business to show competence in the subject. I don't know if a coin dealer is in that group, but I know you can't get a business license for a lawn service (example) and then sell coins using that license on the side.

Just noting how different states might frown upon the practice.

 

Hopefully, to end the arguing over this. I called my bank and spoke with the branch manager, whom I've known since high school, and according to her there is no such law.

She also told me that most her tellers wouldn't know a silver coin from a clad, too.

 

To my knowledge, there is no such license in existence anywhere.

However, most states require retail business' to have a valid sales and use tax permit that authorizes the business to collect sales tax on all taxable goods, and some counties require a small business license, but there is no specific license to sell collectible numismatic items.

 

I am not sure about a license that is specific to coin dealers, but it is not uncommon for a licenses to be required for selling used goods, for selling bullion, and/or as a pawn broker. Sound far fetched? Just ask Lost Dutchman about his experience with the pawn broker's license.

 

I believe that selling coins over face by a bank would create accounting problems. Each teller starts their day with a "bank" of a specified amount. During the course of the day the teller keeps track of the cash flow, both in and out. Let's say a customer brings in a roll of silver Washington quarters. According to the transaction records, ten dollars was received. If a teller then sold these coins at 30x face, her/his "bank" would be in error at the end of the day showing an overage of $290. Banks, like any other businesses reprimand cash handling employees for their drawer being long or short. The only way a teller could possibly sell coins or bills over face would be to search incomming monies, swap their own cash and then sell on the sly once they are off work. This does happen but raises red flags if and/or when the video tapes are reviewed by the bank staff. Any teller who wants to keep their job and have few, if any hassles from the management will not want to swap out of their "bank". It looks too suspicious and could lead to a verbal reprimand at the very least.

 

Pawn Brokers are really a different animal than coin dealers as they have more restrictive laws to follow in order to do business because the pawn shop is the first place thieves head to to get rid of the loot.

 

Maybe by your definition (and mine), but we do not write the laws.