a question for Tellers.

why don't bank tellers give halves out? if someone cashes a check for $105.50, they get 5 twenties/ 2 fifties/ 1 hundred, a five, and two quarters. why 2 quarters and not a half? (assuming that there are halves in the drawer). is it bank policy to give customers quarters unless they ask for something else? just curious. IMO, most customers wouldnt care if they got a half instead of 2 quarters, either way it will probably end up in a jar.


i ask because the other day i was in the bank and the guy in front of me was cashing a check for $XXX.60. i knew the teller gave him 2 quarters because i heard him count out the change "twenty-five, fifty, sixty". when i got to the front of the line, i asked the teller for halves. he handed me $6 worth and made a comment about how they had been in his drawer for weeks. i am curious to know why banks don't use them. it seems like wasted drawer space if theyre just accumulating in there until a CRHer like me comes and buys them.

 

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Because nobody wants them. I know I dont want to carry that junk around.

 

If your not into coins as a hobby and their just clad, it would be a nuisance.

 

I work at a bank and no one wants them. They are like $2's and $50's. They are uncommon and people don't really want them. I guess because they are big. The only time i get rid of them is when someone specifically asks for all I have, not knowing I have already checked all the rolls. Today, a guy cashed a $400 check and asked for large bills. I pulled out $50's, and he said he didn't want them. I told him it's either those or $20's. He reluctantly took them. They just aren't very common, and people aren't as comfortable with them or half dollars.

 

Same thing with dollar coins. We are the dumping ground for them, but nobody wants them back.

 

you could give them halves, unless they ask for quarters. i dont think people really care.

i understand people would rather have $1 bills than $1 coins, but why not fifties?

how so?

 

We just don't keep enough around to really give out. We just keep what people bring us, which is pretty rare. I guess people don't like $50's as much because they are a little less common than $100's and $20's. I have never had anyone refuse them, but I have never had anyone ask for them except for gifts. They always ask for $20 or $100.

 

I worked at a bank for quite a while and we simply didn't have them in stock. It costs money to have the coins delivered by the armored company and why pay for something that there is no demand for. Customers didn't want them, so the bank didn't spend their money to have them on hand.

 

i always ask for fifties because i dont like having a bunch of small bills, but cashiers get annoyed about breaking a hundred for a <$20 purchase.

 

but when there are a few dollars worth of loose halves in the drawer, why not use them?
im not saying banks should go out of their way to distribute them, but if they have some anyway, why not?

 

Because people don't want them. They simply don't. The very few who do...ask for them and are given the few loose one's in the drawer. Outside of those few, people don't want them. They are just like dollar coins.

 

I sure wouldn't want them.

 

........But half dollars circulated quite freely before 1965.

 

Yea I tried to give a cashier at the dollar store half dollars and he didn't want them. He said "oh do you have anything else those are hard to deal with" hmmm didn't know half dollars were hard to deal with but I guess if I were a cashier who didn't collect coins I wouldn't want them

 

We just don't stock them regularly. Once in a while someone may order a box but that's about the only time we ever get any. More commonly, one or two at a time may show up randomly, and less frequently people will cash in a few rolls. If I have a few individual coins in my tray, I will usually try to circulate them out in change. The drive-thru works best for this because there's bound to be less push-back if the customer doesn't want it. I once had someone open the cash envelope I sent out to him, look at the half, and give me a nod and a thumbs-up. I think he approved!

 

if they complain about it, give them quarters. otherwise, they dont care.

 

they were circulating to a small extent where i live in the early/mid 2000's. there must have been a local place that gave them in change, because i remember in Kindergarten/1st grade i had a few dollars worth in my piggy bank, and they weren't at all uncommon, kind of like the $1 coins now.

 

Ace,

If I had to guess they are "hard to deal with" because there was nowhere in the register for them. When I was a cashier we only had four slots for change; even dollar coins had to be jammed in the side that was for holding rolls.

 

dont use pennies. instantly frees up an extra space.

at BSA camp, the register layout is $20s - $10s - $5s - rolls of change
and the coins: $1 coins- halves- quarters - dimes - nickels

 

The problem is, cents are needed to make change...since many items are "$X.99." You need to have cents on hand. There is no need for half dollars in this way because their value can be made with 2 quarters.