Miscounting coin machines

So you take your coin to a bank or credit union and after running your coin through their coin counter the total disagrees with your count, here are some of the things that I have removed from coin counters in the last couple of months.
It doesn't have to be in your coin, it could have been in the machine from a previous batch of coin. It's stuff like this that keep me in a job. It also gives me a chance to rerun all the bags of coin on the machine and search for other interesting coins.

Any thing odd size can catch and cause the machine to missort and miscount. Usually in the banks favor. Especially the high speed coin counters preferred by the banks today.

 

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I once found a dead lizard in a bank lobby coin counter (I always check to clear the reservoir prior to dumping any coins inside.) At first, I thought it was a piece of tissue paper. Picked it up and thought, "Hmm...that's not the texture I was expecting."

Why do I ALWAYS check the hopper?

Back when I could coin roll hunt (when banks would order me boxes of halves and other banks would accept them, before everyone removed the counters from their lobby) I got two boxes of halves from my order bank (a credit union). Drove to my dump bank (a Bank of America) and went through the boxes in the parking lot. Pulled just two impaired proofs, put the rest directly into an empty canvas bag, and walked in to deposit them.

I could tell they weren't happy about getting such a large quantity of loose halves, but they took them into the back anyway. Came out after about ten minutes with a count that was about $250 short.

Yep, you read that right, about $250 short.

I knew this was incorrect because I'd JUST gotten the coins from the bank in a sealed box, pulled TWO COINS, and dumped the rest in an empty bag. I politely told them that their count was incorrect and I'd like them to check it. They refused, so I asked to speak with a manager. I explained that I'd counted the coins before coming in and I knew their count was off, so I asked them to check the machine. He initially refused, but eventually (I wasn't giving up on $250 when I knew they were wrong) he conceded and went in the back.

After about a half an hour, he came back out with a nasty look on his face. Stopped in front of me and angrily tossed a screw on the desk in front of me. "This yours?" he asked me with a sarcastic/smug look on his face. "No, it's not. I guarantee it's not." He sneered at me and informed me that basically the screw had gotten lodged in the counter and spit a ton of halves into the guts of the machine.

Oh, yeah, and the count was more or less correct that time (it was still short, but only like $1 this time.) Instead of arguing, I accepted the deposit, and the after thinking about it overnight closed my account with them. Never went back.

 

TD Bank was famous for its miscounting coin machines... oy vey!

 

yup, TD had a lawsuit and had to give a check to everyone who used it.

Crooks, but I got a check for about $1.30 or something like that

 

LOL! I got $0.35

 

I went to my credit union to deposit a bunch of (Very carefully counted) loose change, ran it through their machine and ended up with an extra $3.54!!
I told them about it and they said not to worry, their coin counter is rarely accurate...! Seems like they need to get a new one if is "Rarely accurate"...

 

I would go back again!!!!!!.

 

It's my nearest local branch, I'll definitely be in there a lot...

 

All I got was a rock.

 

I would have gone to a teller and bought rolls then put them in the coin counter.

 

Really accurate or rarely accurate? If its "rarely accurate" I think I should worry!

 

Several times a year I get called in to repair a machine after a bullet had gotten lodged or even gone off in the machine. 22 rim fire bullets and the customer always denied that it was in their coin.
I could do pages of things that I dug out of machines. If it could fit in your pocket it got put through a coin counter. Some of the strangest were a chicken nugget, an older flip cell phone, a gold tooth($17.50 in scrap weight), wedding rings and pot seeds.

 

You can’t always count on it being in your favor. If it was always in favor of the person counting the coins then the bank would fix it as they are loosing money.

 

So how often are the machines serviced and how are they checked for accuracy?

 

.22 calibre shell.



Some of the more interesting things I have found or seen in the coin counters. The ring is a 10k size 10 wedding band. The dime was in the trash can next to the machine last year.

 

Think i got about that. Then ol Penny Arcade, was gone. Sniff sniff.

 

Most machines should be serviced and checked for wear twice a year. Heavier volume places more often. The problem is that I can service a machine today and the first batch that comes in after that can have junk or sticky coins in it. It comes down to the teller checking the coin that they are running. On self service machines they have a few extra features to clear out the junk but they still can be shut down by foreign objects, bent coins, wet or sticky money.
It doesn't help that running and handling coin is one of the least favorite things that tellers do so they either rush through it or do a poor job of it in hope of the machine breaking. I've seen them put an out of order sign back on a machine before I was out of the door.

 

I guess I'm one of the few that has never used a coin counting machine (but I do check the reject slot every chance I get), and the only money the bank counts for me is currency, which I double check right there to make sure it is accurate.

 

I count my money as soon as I get it in my hand as I know that after I leave the window it becomes a big problem to rectify/correct the problem.

 

And yha

And that's the reason other banks started removing their machines. Some coin roll hunting lost a couple of dollars and sued them. Now there are none in my area.