The Coinstar Conspiracy.

OK I had to test this at the newly installed coin counting dealie at Navy Federal Credit Union. I had a bunch of "normal" coins plus my test coins:10 1943 cents, one very worn 1944 nickel, one Indian cent that was extremely worn, and a Roosevelt 90% dime. Wasn't willing to risk anything else.

I'm not sure who makes the machine, but it rejected all 10 1943 cents, a wheat cent I didn't realize was in there, the dime, and the Indian. It took my damn nickel but credited me 5 cents!

All the rejects came out the front in the reject bin, so it ended up being accurate to a "T". Not sure why the what sent would have been rejected. The Indian was worn very thin.

In this case an honest machine. Plus it cost nothing - just adds it to your account. Beats people bringing in screwed up coin rolls, I guess.

 

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It was on the outside, at a grocery store. 3rd time ive found something in one, and the only coinstar I have ever found anything in. First it was a steel cent, then pocket change, and now this.

 

Actually, if she gives you one dollar each for those, then no, it's not really theft. Banks are not in the numismatic or silver business. They are only obligated to pay you face value, not worth. And if she gives you a buck apiece, then puts a buck apiece from her wallet into the drawer and puts the coins in her purse, then again, no theft here. Of course, if you're going to throw a pile of Morgans on a bank counter, let me give you the address of my branch, and a time I usually go there...

I'm pretty sure, if you're implying that she'd "confiscate" them as illegal or counterfeit, that's a pretty far-fetched scenario. Some new teller may question what they are, but I don't think they are as dumb as some make them out to be.

I'd love to see a link for this one.

Vending machines do not work solely on the size of the coin. It also takes into account electrical properties of the metal as well. My guess is Coinstar is all about size only.

Not sure what the big deal is on this. Coinstar provides a service, that is, cashing in your jar of change without the hassle of counting and rolling. They charge a fee for this convenience. I see nothing wrong with that.

I keep my loose change in a gallon pickle jar. When full, it holds between $300 and $400. I'll hand count it and roll it, then take it to my bank. All I spend is time. Why? In case I threw in a keeper. But that's just me. If someone is willing to spend the fee to blindly dump a bucket of change into the machine, they are either unaware that the foreign coins/slugs were in there anyway, or added in the hopes the machine doesn't notice. Kind of like "accidently" putting a slug in a vending machine. I would be willing to bet that's the general rule.

 

Coke AND Ma Bell

 

That's a great line from one of my favorite movies (Dr. Strangelove).

 

It's no more far-fetched than an internal "rejection" bin.

It is exactly equivalent if it takes a morgan and doesn't credit you $1.

Most coin counters use pretty primitive discriminators.

This doesn't ring right to me. It seems you're saying that the company has a right to steal because there is a presumption that someone was trying to steal from them.

Let me ask this; who started stealing first? The person who dreamed up an internal rejection bin or the person who drops a disc in that doesn't happen to be a US 1c, 5c, 10c, 25c, or 50c? If I accidently drop a gold coin in my bottle of coins and don't notice it then it simply belongs to someone else because they made a machine with an internal "rejection" bin?

No. This can not be justified.

Again though, this is stil all hearsay. For all we know only junk, slugs, and bent coins in up in it and they throw it in the trash so they don't profit from it.

 

After reDINg this thread it ALL now makes sense. The coinstar third party guys are the ones flying the black helicopters w/o markings.

I've been using the coinstar machine in my local grocery store for years and never paid a premium. If you request a credit slip instead of cash there is no premium. I always get a credit slip for amazon.
The kids always want something that i can buy from Amazon.

 

Nobody is justifying anything, since, like you said, there is really no proof that it even happens. Remember the source of the original post.

 

LostDutchman posted early on that he buys coins from Coinstar employees that are retrieved from an internal collection device. I thought it was proven that these machines do have a place where they reject coins to, but not return them to customers.

Say what you wish about Detecto, (not really, its just a phrase), but he started this thread in which most of the accusations have proven correct and in my opinion was an informative thread.

 

Some coins do go into the bin inside, and some people do make out from that. What hasn't been proven is that the companies built and designed this to collect Ikes, Morgans, and other large dollars, along with silver coins and steel cents, with the intention of profiting from that. In fact, from what I have seen and the coins I have gotten, the bin can catch coins, but it is more to catch pieces of foil, screws, nuts, wires, lint balls and other junk that people put in their coin containers and don't sort through before dumping it all into the machine. Neither has it been proven that the companies hire 3rd party people to cleanout and keep the money that is there. What has been proven is that people not even involved with the money counters (i.e. employees of the bank or store) are able to open up the machines, and take the bins and do what they want with them, be it throw it in the trash, keep anything they find that is valuable and sell it if they want, or give to the person there asking for it. In other words, there is no accounting for the contents of this bin. In fact, there really is no way of for the people of the bank to throw the odd coins in with the rest of the coins that do go to the counting service to be counted and rolled again.

Yes, the machine maker could have designed the machine to spit out all this stuff. But they didn't. I think people should deal with that.

 

That's a great marketing scheme to direct people's money to a particular store. In other words, you do that and the money is already spent. Even if the card is never used (lost, forgotten). The discount from the store is worth getting peoples' large amounts of change directed to them.

 

Too bad he got thrown in the pokey.......

 

I got this in my change yesterday. check out the mint mark

 

Everybody does know that Coinstar owns RedBox video right. And together they made $57 Million income last quarter.

I gather not many are joining the My-Coinstar account https://www.coinstar.com/Login?returnurl=%2fMyCoinstar

They say that if you have account there is no fees. I don't use either service, so I didn't pursue the details.

 

they made 57 MILLION before they collected all those Morgan Dollars in there coin machines, and dimes without mint marks.

Ruben

 

I hope young Detecto will be back at some point. I find his passion for all things coin related to be refreshing. Of course he gets carried away at times but I reckon that goes hand in hand with entusiasm.

 

This statement make me doubt Detecto's intentions:

Not really a reliable source of information, those "ten people" on "numerous (unnamed) forums", are they? I would tend to believe LostDutchman. But the discussion isn't really about the internal bin, but how Coinstar is stealing from the users of the machine because of this bin. The machine gives fair warning, so if the user still blindly dumps the bucket of coins into the machine, then walks away and cashes in his voucher, who's at fault? The technician cleans out the machine, probably long after the user has left, and finds the Morgan, Peace, or even BU's gold coin, what are the options, since the machine is anonymous as to who put them in there? Is taking the stuff out of the outer reject slot that someone found walking past the machine the same thing (there are numerous threads on this)? Are these people "stealing" when they put these items in their pockets?

We're quick to jump on the big guy because he's making a profit, just like CRHs complaining because banks with which they don't have an account charge a fee for coins. I equate the cleaning of any internal reject bin the same way I would to the guy walking down the sidewalk and seeing a $20 bill lying in the gutter, and no one is nearby. Is he stealing when he picks it up and puts it in his pocket?

 

1) The company, for not redesigning their machines once they realized that legal currency was being taken without credit being given,
2) The company, for not making the limitations more obvious, and
3) The customer, for not realizing what is happening.

Poor analogy. It is more like someone watching a $20 bill fall from someone's pocket, waiting for that person to get out of site, and then taking the $20 for yourself "because the owner is gone."

 

OMG. The markings are ON TOP so you can't see them from the ground. Didn't you ever watch "the X-Files"?!?!?!
And they're not FLYING them, they are passengers. Sheesh.