Denied a Silver Coin at Bank

She had dibbs on it first....her call!

 

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dave_in_delaware, go to the bank to make a deposit with the same teller and include a silver coin. Then at the last second, pull the silver coin back and say "you can't have this one" and replace it with a clad. If she asks "Why?" say, "because it's silver." This won't get you silver coins in the future but this may make you feel better.

I will concede in advance that ToughCOINS' response above is probably the more mature approach.

Also, cointalk 2012 thread:
https://www.cointalk.com/threads/ca...oins-with-silver-and-replace-it.201919/page-2

 

Same thing with me. In Ottawa Canada, I visited my bank and saw several Canadian $10 Olympic silver coins in the teller's cash tray, that someone had deposited into their account. I asked if I could have them and told the teller why. She simply said that she was not allowed to keep them or even exchange them for face value with her own money, so I gave her the $40 face for them. Each is sterling silver and 1.44 oz.

 

If you are just exchanging cash for cash they don't HAVE to give you anything. If you are removing money from an "on demand" account (as most checking accounts are) they have to give you the amount of money you request but not the specific pieces of money you want. And if it isn't a demand account (most savings accounts) they can at their discretion wait up to 30 days to give you your money. But they will almost never do that, it could cause a run on the bank.

 

If I was that teller I would have done the same thing.

 

Oh my.

 

Our small & pitiful bank has a policy that each coin, and every roll that comes in, must be checked and counted by the teller, who then places her number on the paper roll. They take out every silver coin. What they do with it is not revealed...

 

I live in a rural area and have a great relationship with the small bank I have used for the last 20 years. If they find a coin or bill that they think I might want they call me. I'm only 15 minutes away so I normally take a quick run down to see what they have. Here's the latest "find" they called me on:

 

Wow - Nice bill to get from a bank!

 

I'm lucky to have them take the time to call me. I'm hoping that someone will bring in a $500 or $1000 bill, but that has never happened and while I can hope...
I've shown them where to look for star notes and I have a pretty good collection of them. They even put their own money in if I can't make it down that day. Needless to say, I make sure they each get a nice Christmas present.

 

So let me get this straight. It's OK to rip off a dumb bank teller but when we encounter a smart bank teller life is soooo unfair!

 

I've explained to the tellers what the bills are, none of them have an interest in collecting, and I think it's good customer service for them to aid in my collecting. You may consider them "dumb bank tellers", I consider it good customer service. Again, I said I live in a rural area, people tend to be more helpful and friendly here than in the big city.

Considering the extremely low interest banks are paying on the different accounts they offer, I think that helping a collector is a smart move on their part. It's also possible that they may be saving some for themselves, all the more power to them, I consider them a good source to add to my collecting and I thank them.

 

I think Eddie was talking about the OP being upset the teller knew well enough to keep them for her/him self. Where if the teller were uninterested, didn't realize the upside value, or felt some obligation to him, he could benefit. This is why I would never own my own business.

 

I'm a first generation American and the first in my family to go to college. The only condition I was given was that I would have to come up with a way to pay for college myself. I was lucky to get a partial scholarship, but had to get a part time job to pay for the rest. Since then I've worked several retail jobs, and I was fortunate that I was allowed to check the cash register for coin or currency for my collection. I guess I was fortunate to have understanding supervisors.

So I guess I was one of those people who didn't give collectable coins to customers, but I was smart enough to put them in a slot in the register that was not visable to customers, so they couldn't ask me for a specific coin they saw.

 

Wow. I never expected some of these responses. I was only wondering if anyone else was denied any specific money (coin, bill, whatever) by a teller before. I didn't know a teller could do that. That's all. And I had to vent a little via this original post. I certainly didn't lose any sleep over it.

I'm all for the teller knowing what they had and keeping it. Either is was for herself, or promised to another customer, or some sort of policy. I don't know. If I never saw it then I wouldn't have even known about it. So being told "you can them all EXCEPT for this one" as she grabbed all the coins but put that one back just didn't sit well with me at the time.

I'm not so upset that I want to buy the bank and fire her. That might be a little excessive.

And I never thought she was a dumb teller. On the contrary. Tellers are extremely bright and have to learn and know SO many things (and pass so many background checks it isn't even funny). I'd never be able to be a teller. And I'm not just saying that because my wife is a bank teller (although not for the same bank franchise).

But from other people's responses I know now that every bank must have a different policy when it comes to this sort of stuff.

Where my wife works, she would have had to give it to me. Obviously at this bank they're allowed to not give it out even though I saw it and asked for it specifically.

It's all good. And it all balances out. I actually stopped at a bank today where I'm NOT a member and grabbed 49 $2 bills. As usual, the teller was very happy to get rid of them.

 

So you guys can see into the tellers draw. Here in NYC, that is not possible. Maybe if I were to grow a foot, then I would be able to peer into the drawer.
I think the teller used bad form. She could have said " Oh I'm saving that for my grandson. He is a collector". It's always nice to be nice.

 

Do you inform your bright tellers you are looking for silver because it is worth more than face or do you withhold that little bit of info from them hoping they are not bright enough to know it, then complain at them, just as you did here, when they are bright enough to know it? For what it's worth, there's the hypocrisy I was getting at.

 

No, I can't see into the actual drawer where the paper money is kept. This was a separate, moveable, coin organizer that tellers either always keep on the counter (off to the side) or can pull out of a drawer. She had positioned it just to the left side of herself, near the edge of her counter, in plain view to me.

What I do is call ahead to the branches and ask if they have any $2 bills. If they say yes, I'll tell them I'd like to grab them all I'll be there in however many minutes to pick them up. When I get there in person, I tell whoever asks if they can help me that I am the one who called about the $2 bills. Usually one teller has them all in their drawer. And while they are getting the $2's together I also ask if they have any half dollars or dollar coins. If they say yes, I tell them I'll take all of those, too.

Usually, they're happy to get rid of so many items. It makes it easier for them to count and balance their drawers at the end of the day (for some reason, $2 bills are the most evil). Occasionally, a teller might ask me how many of a particular denomination I want, and I tell them all of them.

Only once has anyone asked me why I want any of this stuff. I answer honestly "I'm a collector." Which is true. I collect and keep all of the $2 bills, quarters, and half dollars I get.

I don't ask to see them all, or ask to pick through the pile they might have. I don't selectively take only shiny coins in the hopes that they are silver. I don't ask for certain years of coins. I don't "inform" them that I'm hoping to find a silver coin, nor do I "withhold" information that silver coins exist in the first place.

I take them ALL. I ask for ALL of them.

And until this particular bank teller, I've received them ALL without ever seeing them first before being counted out in front of me, and being told (and shown) by the teller that she is keeping "this one" BECAUSE it's silver.

That was the point of my thread: being denied a specific coin by a teller in the first place, after asking for ALL of a denomination. I had no idea they were allowed to do that. And it was in plain view. She had them all in her hand, counted them out to me while putting them all on the counter in front of me EXCEPT one, because SHE knew it was silver.

Maybe I should have named the thread "Denied a coin at bank" instead? Would that have made a difference? I simply wanted to know if this is common, if it has happened to anyone else, if this might be every bank's policy. I don't know, so I started a thread.

Wow. I never thought I'd have to justify/explain my methods on a coin collecting forum.

And for the record, I've never gotten any silver coins from a bank. Ever.

 

I'd call it the special snowflake effect.

 

At the bank I use, the tellers have to check their handbags in when they clock in for work. They can't exchange their own money for bank money, so they don't have any problem doing it for a customer. As I mentioned earlier, as a long time and regular customer, they even give me a call for good finds. Again, this is a small bank "up in the mountains" that is friendly and very customer oriented. They go out of their way to be helpful and I guess the fact that a Wells Fargo bank is also just down the road kind of helps motivate their customer service. Here's another find they saved for me both a star and a good serial Number. As I mentioned before, it looks like the BEP may eliminate Star Notes, so I save all that I come across.: