Ethical Collecting at Your Job

Here's the situation:

Supposing someone, in the course of their job (not at a bank but say at a retail store) goes to the bank to pick up coins and bills for the daily float.

As they are counting out the bills, they discover a very rare error bill. They remove that bill and replace it with one of their own.

If that particular bill was worth double the value, does ethical behavior require that person to share the additional value with the business owner?

If not, what about if it was worth triple, quadruple?

Or what if it was worth $10,000.

(I've let my boss (the business owner) know whenever I come across something of value and he isn't concerned about whether I've found a coin worth $5.00 or a bill worth $500 because he isn't interested in collecting and would never look for errors or rarities. To him the moneys that come into the till is income and would just get deposited. He even asks me if I'd like to go through bills before he makes the deposit.)

I have been in correspondence with someone who, at his job, found a bill worth $10,000. He replaced the bill with one of equal face value.

Should he tell his boss about it?

 

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At my job, as long as the 20+ tills at the end of the night end up with the right number of dollars and cents, there is no issue. I regularly buy my boxes of cents from work. Even some managers and co workers go out of their way to find things and send them my way because they know I collect coins/bills.

 

i say no. if it's a $10 bill, replace it with a $10 bill. you can't beat getting something of value for face.

if a cashier at a wal-mart hands you a 1909-s vdb in your change, are you going to give wal-mart the difference in value?? or the cashier?? same situation, imo.

 

That is my boss's concern as well and it's my job to make sure that the numbers add up.

 

Has this person actually sold the bill and made $10,000 from the sale?

It may be worth figuring out on a case by case scenario as you have with your boss, before you find something of potential value and find yourself in this dilemma.

 

He's in the middle of negotiating a deal and $10,000 is what he's been offered. He wants to keep it for himself but that much money is really tempting (for him).

 

I guess it would all boil down to whether or not your boss was a greedy SOB, but let me ask you this..........

What would you do if you went to the bank for your boss, and you found a bill that was worth, say $10K, but you didn't have the money on you to replace it? What then?

Chris

 

Hell No.. Everyman for himself, there are very few good boss's out there anyhow...

 

I don't know which way to go on the limited knowledge of the people involved. I don't think it's selfish to keep the money in some way of thinking. If your friend's conscience is bothering him, then he should offer some sort of firm split. Yet, that is tricky with that much money as the business owner could be a jerk to begin with or suddenly become greedy in light of the value. By being honest with the boss, your friend could get screwed with that much money involved. Such has happened with 'found' money. I am apt to say your friend should stay quite about it unless your friend works in a coin shop where this note came through and the boss would care... or if the boss is themselves a collector who would care about such things. It all depends on a lot of factors, personalities (rational or otherwise)... tough one to call.

 

I'd sell my watch!

 

No, it's not a coin shop, just a small store in a shopping mall. I don't know what his boss is like but then that amount of money could change someone if they felt it was their's to begin with.

 

Is your job description to look for rare coins and notes? No? Then there's nothing wrong with it, as far as I see. Of course, you should clear your swapping with the boss beforehand. Some people get uncomfortable when money starts switching around like that.

 

if you take a bill for numismatic reasons and replace it with a bill/bills of equal value nobody is going to care. chances are if you even told or tried to explain it to ppl at work why youd take it they still wouldnt care or understand.

 

Being educated about coins and paper money is not a crime. It's not wrong to use your knowledge to your advantage. I say unless there is some mention of not being able to switch out bills in the till with your own personal money then search away and to the educated go the spoils.

 

agreed.

It is still good to ask if you're allowed to switch out, because as mentioned, some may get nervous.

I asked my boss when I worked with a cash register before, he said as long as the till is even, I can.

 

That's that way it is at my job. If I show somebody the King George nickel I found that morning their eyes kind of glaze over and they just nod. To them it's just a nickel.

 

I do not work anywhere near money now, but when I used to I would have swapped out a cool coin or bill if I had ever found one. Business owners just want the register to balance at the end of the day. TC

 

When it comes to money, you can't trust anyone!

I found out the hard way when my Mom died, and my ex-siblings cheated me out of my share of the inheritance.

Chris

 

Your agreement with the boss when you go to get money is to take a set amount of money and bring back a set amount of change or to take a check and cash it, bringing back an equal amount of change in bills and coins. The source of money is not at issue. Anything that happens in the interim is not at issue. If he asked you to bring back the bills and coins for him to search through first, then it would be a different story. I wouldn't give it a second thought. Even if the bill were worth 10 million bucks, I would swap it. If it makes you feel better, cash a check for 10 bucks while you are at the bank everytime and then 'decide' which bills were YOUR 10 bucks....

 

The way I see it is that if your boss knows you collect and doesnt mind you looking, so he trusts that you are honest enough not to take his money but he doesnt care about any collectors signifigance so dont feel bad as long as you have met his agreament to replace the face value. With that same token if he finds something of value and brings it to you for you input then you owe it to him and yourself to give him whatever information you can as a collector. It is not a crime to search for what nobody else feels is important or valuable, thats what makes roll searching so fun.