Is It Better To Buy Boxes And Rolls From Big Cities Or Small Towns?

I live in Virginia Beach, where we have about half a million people, and plenty of banks. You can't go more than a few hundred feet it seems without passing a bank or credit union. I want to buy some boxes for the first time, and was curious whether the best bet would be to buy here, or go out to Suffolk or Franklin where nobody lives?

On the one hand, you think bigger city, more collectors doing the same thing, so there can't possibly be anything good. Then you think small town, they have nothing better to do, and with fewer banks, there is a higher chance everything is picked through. Not to mention, big city collectors might all flock to small towns thinking nobody else does that. I was just wondering which of these is actually true, based on the experiences of those who have done it?

And would I be better off going somewhere like BOA or NFCU? Would small banks be better than large banks?

I know it's mostly luck of the draw, and I ask a lot of questions, but I've never done this and I'm excited to start doing it. And while it's a lot of luck, I know there has to be higher percentages of success in different scenarios.

 

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I try to go to banks in different sized cities and small towns as often as possible, but I really haven't seen any difference.

I had the same theory as you. I thought that in small towns you'd probably see more old coins. But this isn't the case in my experience. It's about the same everywhere. It may even be a little better in bigger cities, since there is more turnover in the change. Small towns might have a few old folks with a interesting coins turning in CWRs, but these are few and far between, and it seems more likely that the bank is going to get the same sorts of rolls as a bigger city might get (since they're probably coming from a regional distributor), and due to the infrequent need at the smaller bank, they just sit on the coins they have.

I'm not sure if there is a rhyme or reason to it. I've gotten a box of CWRs which was a total skunk from the same bank where I got a Brink box with four buffalos, and this was not in a small town. On the other hand, earlier this year I stopped in a small town and got an entire box of 2012s. It's hit or miss.

 

I honestly dont see a diffrence to be honest.....

 

Agreed. I mean I don't live in the biggest city nor the smallest but boxes come from big cities to possibly a bank in a small town so no difference unless the bank sorts them before they put them in boxes. I have heard of this happening.

 

The best thing to do in order to tip the scales in your favor is to make friends with a teller at a nearby bank and get them to hold onto interesting coins for you.

 

i dont think credit unions will order boxes.
at least not state employee's here in NC.

as far as boxes go, i dont think it matters since they're ordering from the fed.

rolls dont seem to matter either. i live in a big city and cleaned out all the banks in my area in a month and got a handful of good halves.

 

For BWR coins it doesn't matter. For loose coins the only things that matter are teller knowledge and bank rules on buying out of your own tray, and those vary from branch to branch. For CWR's... I'm still figuring it out!