Banks: The good, the bad and the ugly!

That's not be a bad idea. Something I never thought about (just searched a map) is that apparently I live 3 hours from the border. Maybe that's why I got hit with almost another $2 in yet another box. I was in Portland, ME for a concert a few weeks back and saw street signs about how they accept Canadian currency. I laughed because I'd left all my change at home.

 

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I got a surprise from my BofA teller yesterday. She said that they've switched suppliers for their halves. They used to come in a chunky short box with brown lettering. Now they come in a long flat box with (if I remember correctly) yellow lettering. The pic below shows a roll from the old box on the left, and the new on the right which is String and Son.



She said that they used to go with Brinks, but now with ....whoever it was, she said it so fast that I didn't catch the name. I'll probably ask out of curiosity next time I go in. I have to say that I'm slightly worried - my first String and Son box was a skunk plus a lot of the coins were extra dirty/grimy or marked up. Considering I finally hit a megabox with Brinks not that long ago, I'd hate to lose out on the chance for more silver.

Have other folks had good results with these long flat boxes?

 

Darchangel, out of $400 in String & Sons halfs I've had 2 proofs, no silver, and probably $150 bicentennials. I know smaller denominations of String have silver, but I've never seen a silver half from them.
Source-working at a bank that orders Strings, but no halves. Halves are from correspondent bank that also uses them.

 

Strings isn't a coin distributor, they just make boxes and rolls.

I was having fantastic luck (Think 2 90%, 4 40% average) with whomever uses S&S rolls before, then it went downhill quickly about a year and a half ago and I stopped ordering from them. I still order there from time to time, with crappy results.

 

Just to fill everyone in on how I resolved this, about a month after I got my $10 check (the regional manager was on vacation, apparently) I got a phone call from the branch at around 7:45AM on a Saturday telling me that they did discuss it and decided to put another $30 back into my account. So it took about 2 months of waiting but I finally got $40 back out of the $50-60 I lost, and the branch is now extra careful about making sure my halves get counted whenever I come in. It's more than I was expecting to recoup, so I'm pretty happy with how the situation turned out.

 

I'm glad to hear it wasn't a complete loss. Wow, they really took their time getting back with you. But at least someone did and worked out an amicable resolution.

 

I'm not sure whom my teller said the new supplier is. The only other company I've ever paid attention to in the area is Garda. I'll find out on Monday when I start in on my 2nd S&S box. Definitely worried if folks aren't seeing much with them either. I REALLY don't want to hunt down another branch because this one worked with me and understands that I can only buy 1/2 the box at a time - so I p/u 2 days in a row. That's a wicked favor and not easy to come by.

 

BofA folks: I recently found out that my regular branch where I get halves switched from Brinks to Dunbar for their coin. Not having or hearing any good results from the S&S wrapped coins, I decided to ask another local branch if they'd set up a regular order for me. After all the times I called that branch and they tried to convince me, I walked in today to see about working some arrangments. They told me that they no longer take coin orders and referred me to the US Treasury website. I spoke to the greeter about it and she said some sort of email came down from the powers that be 3 weeks ago stating they've had too many problems with people ordering coins since they're really supposed to be for business customers and taking the silver to make money off of it. She then said "oh but you were just a collector right?" I just agreed. She said ya, it sucks, gave me an , "it's just another way for them to be in control." Looks like the jig just might be up! I will continue to get the crappy halves from the first branch as long as they allow me.

I have to wonder if that email went out across the nation? How is it that I'm still able to get half boxes from a branch just a few miles away?

 

I think it all has to do with the area, a branch in town A "can't order halves" but another branch in town B down the road 5 miles gets me boxes each week. I was just trying to take some of the pressure off town B and lightening the load by ordering from town A as well. Doesn't bother me much since they are super nice at town B.
HOTN

 

That is disappointing news indeed, I am supposed to be picking up dimes tomorrow and halves friday from BoA so I'll keep everyone posted on my progress as well.

Have you had issues ordering dimes or lesser denominations, or just halves?

 

Atreides: I've only ordered halves from them. I got one or two dimes boxes from the a few months back, but they were plastic wrapped. I like paper cuz it's like a surprise.

 

Spanish Penny! (Arcade, that is...)

I got a kick outta this and thought y'all might enjoy. Today I remembered that TD's penny arcade accepts everything but dollar and foreign coins, so I decided give it a whirl my $160 CWR halves. I was a few cities away from home in a place that has a high Puerto Rican population. Good thing I've used the machine a couple of times to remember where the start and count buttons are. She may speak in English, but all of her screen info on this Penny is in Spanish!

 

Well just to update I didn't have any issues ordering coin this week, and all the suppliers were the same. Granted, I never find anything in BoA halves...

 

Today I went to the bank and ordered two boxes of Nickels and Two Boxes of pennies. The teller is like that is our whole weeks supply. She is really nice. She said she would need to talk the the branch manager. I guess she did and told me not to pick up Thursdays and Fridays because that is when they are open to 8 PM because that is when all the commercial people pick up their orders. The rest of the week in 4 Pm and on Saturday 3 PM. I cannot pick them up on any of those days. Now I get charged a dollar a box. I think I will order from another branch for a while then go back there.

 

I think I over did it at one branch. I got some rolls yesterday and came back today after I found this really nice merc. I actually thought I had more money in my account and went under my balance. I had to dump some dimes in my car to deposit to make my account over a hundred dollars. The manager said that they will not charge me out of courtesy.

 

If they tagged you with an overdraft fee, then they're not being nice, just executing a good business model...

 

I managed to find a bank that was more than happy to add a box of halves to their weekly order. I'm just having a problem finding dump bank. I can only hunt on the weekends and it seems only drive thru windows are open then. Has anyone had any luck getting a window to take change?

 

This afternoon during my lunch break, I stopped in at a "new favorite" bank branch to deposit a check. Lo and behold, the teller mentioned that he had six of the large dollar coins. So, I'm thinking, "cool, a couple of Ikes." He pulls them out, and I instantly notice something amiss. Two of the coins are noticeably larger. It turns out, two of the coins were 1987 Modern Walking Lib dollars. Yes the ones that are stamped "1 Oz Fine Silver".

In all my years, I have never seen a modern bullion coin in a bank teller's drawer. The coin says flat out that it is pure silver. To think that someone thought is was only a dollar, and deposited it at a bank. (correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't know if these coins were every available for sale for $1.) Then, the teller had to think it was only a dollar. and no body else asked about it.

Then, the best part..... he sold them to me for a buck each.

 

requesting pics!

 

afm1982, you owe them a box of donuts! then they'll go out of their way to save those things for you next time.