Is it better to buy a few rolls from several banks or a box from one bank? Or is it a crap shoot altogether?
TIP 1: You're looking for customer rolls, coins that come in from customers that the bank hasn't searched through, processed, or re-wrapped. It's also nice when these rolls come from a non-collector, because otherwise, they having NOTHING of interest. TIP 2: Try credit unions. They seem to be more likely to serve individuals (slower circulation) than businesses (faster circulation). We have a popular CU in our state with branches all over the place. TIP 3: I like to get customer rolls from branches in more rural areas since they appear to get older coins. There's nothing like finding a roll from someone cashing in their 30 year old cookie jar! You can usually tell how old it is within a few years by the latest coin it holds. Sometimes the wrapper is a give away. I occasionally find them with nothing newer than 1970s, and these almost always have a wheat or two. TIP 4: On the other hand, it is also nice to find a new bank roll with lots of BUs to upgrade existing coins. My collections always try to keep three of each coin so that upgrading is a more likely and balanced process because it is usually easier to compare one to several instead of just one. This also helps make finding new rolls less depressing! Maybe Preston can keep a box of dupes for those beyond three to sell/trade to his friends?
Buy any and all you can get and are willing to go through. My best suppliers are a couple of credit unions that I buy up all the customer deposited change from. It involves calling them ahead of time so they can mark off the account numbers, names etc. Some collectors here will not prefer customer wrapped rolls - but I live in a demographically older community that tends to spend and use older coins so CWR are better usually for me. I do buy from a couple of credit unions that I don't have accounts at, but usually even $5 in the credit union is the key to getting the goodies. My one credit union has no problem ordering me five boxes of nickels and 4 boxes of cents at a time. There have been occasions, more recently where I end up with brand new coins. I take them, I won't search them, but I take them because I can then trade them at another bank that has a box of circulated coins but won't sell them without getting something in return so they have coin on hand for commercial customers. Actually commercial customers prefer new coins - it just looks cool when they hand you brand new change instead of raunchy corroded Zincolns. Always take your son with you, I hate to admit, he is probably more of a charm than most people coming in and asking to buy coins in bulk, likely even more than me. I find some of my best stuff in those rural backwater branches of banks. Original rolls of Ike dollars, Series 1966-A $100 Red Seal(from a bank in a small town in the Calif. gold country in 2010)
Thanks for those comments. That's really good advice. We do live in a very rural town. The local bank where I hold my accounts is very nice to Preston. He found three Kennedy half $ there a few weeks ago. I will have to ask them if I can buy CWR, although every bank I went to yesterday gave me rolls right from their drawer. Sometimes I remember to ask for CWR, but nobody ever had any. One Chase bank said that they take in all the coins and they give it to Brinks to roll and then it comes back...or somebody's coins come back.
I have a deal going with my credit unions that they sell me all the nickels, cents and halves - saves them paying to ship them to a bank a couple of hundred miles from here. So you can work out a win win, that is if you have a way to get rid of them without taking them back to the same bank.
I am new to this too, thanks for the tips! I am definitely going to check out some credit unions, as most banks have not been as friendly or have not had what I have wanted.
