So I've gotten into the fun of box/roll searching. I've got accounts at two different banks and the bank from which I order the boxes gets their coins from Loomis so every box is MWR. I've had some decent luck with cents and nickels but not so much for halves. I will buy from the one bank, go through the boxes, and deposit at the other bank so that the first bank doesn't get mad at me for recycling. But I've noticed that my "deposit" bank also uses Loomis. The last time I dropped some coins off there, there was a Loomis truck parked out front making a transaction. So this led me to start thinking about something. I would assume that there is only a single Loomis facility for the metro area in which I live which services all the surrounding area. I don't know how much of an inventory they keep on hand but I would have to think that the number of half dollars they have available at any one time is a very small percentage of their overall coin inventory simply based on the fact that no one wants them for commerce. Given that this "pool" of half dollars at Loomis is finite, if I am buying from one bank and depositing at another yet they both use the same source, I am in effect pulling and putting from the same pool. How many boxes of Halves does Loomis keep on hand at any one facility? 5 or 500? I would imagine closer to the former. So how long will it be before I am truly recycling coins I've already looked through. So that led me to the next rabbit down the mental trail I was following. I know that Brinks also services this metro area as I've seen their trucks around. if I could "buy" from Loomis and "deposit" into Brinks, that would seem to limit the possibility of recycling. But how can one easily determine which banks use a particular service? I went to Brinks' website but they obviously don't post a list of their "customers", which I didn't find surprising. But it also seems weird to me to start calling around to different banks and asking "where do you get your coins from?" Anyway, just thinking out loud. Perhaps I'll see a Brinks truck parked outside a bank at some point and I'll open an account there and see if I start to have better luck.
Good questions, midtncoin. I have wondered this myself. Not sure if there is a common "pool" for Loomis where the various bank instituions coinage all gets blended together. Someone recently posted that this would be an accounting nightmare so maybe the get batched and rolled separately for each bank institution? On your question about which courier service a bank uses, I've asked tellers before and they are not allowed to say. I guess for fear somebody will use the info to "knock off" the armored truck. I do know my Wells Fargo branches in my town uses Loomis, but in another town 15 miles away they use Brinks. Best way is to see the truck or the armed guard when they make their deliveries or look at the coin wrappers. Where I live, Brinks uses black and white wrappers for halves with no name on them. Loomis uses a gold and white wrapper with "Loomis" on it. BTW, if your bank has a coin machine ask them if you can buy the half dollar bags (full or only partially full). They can be a bonanza. I'm picking up a $700+ bag today from my new bank.
That's a really good idea about the bags from the coin machine. Can't believe I didn't think of it! Of course I'd have to get the bags from my "buy" bank as the bags from my "deposit" bank are made up of halves mostly from me! I feel the same way about asking the tellers. That kind of question just seems to beg some unwanted scrutiny.
Yes, you are right about "not dumping where you feed". For me, it means I have to roll my halves and take them to my dump bank (they don't have coin machines anymore) and keep my banks with the coin machines as strictly source banks.
Stop fooling yourselves! It doesn't matter if your bank uses Brinks, Loomis or PiggyBank.com to supply their coins. What goes around, comes around! Sooner or later, all of the coins that have been searched by you and countless others in your area will eventually come back home to haunt you. Chris
I agree with the "eventually" part of that Chris. But this CRH game is about trying to maximize your success rate. Knowledge about how the "system" works can improve your odds. Thist is why I read CT every day, to learn something new that will help my coin collecting.
Chris, I don't consider it a waste of time. Even if there was 100% recycling, an hour spent looking through coins is very relaxing and enjoyable. It's all about the "thrill of the hunt". For example, in the last few rolls I searched, I found a beautiful 1997 half that looked like it just came out of a mint set. I set it aside when other searchers might have blown right past it. Yes, mathematically, assuming no new influx of coins from outside the area, eventually one will start to recycle everything. But given a metro area of over a million people with hundreds of banks (and hopefully relatively few people -- as a percentage of the supply -- searching rolls), I hope that the saturation point is well in the future. As TexAg said, I'm just trying to increase my success rate.
I live in an area where the surrounding population is about 1.5 million (3 counties) and when I was searching boxes of half dollars more than 10 years ago, it only took me a little more than two years to begin seeing recycled coins. Regardless, my point is that, eventually, all of the banks will start charging fees for this service. Many already have begun, and some of the customers who are members here have been unrealistic in their complaints about this. Chris
Got to the Loomis Corporate website, go to Job Opportunities. Any location that has a job opening title here is how to tell if your Area is service by. Go to Loomis.us and at the top,of the page go to careers, find your state and click it, it will open up all opportunity and locations in your state that Loomis has either a sorting facility or service center. The look at the type of jobs in those location. Vault teller or Coin Processor will give you indication of the type of facility nearest you.
I work for Brinks. It depends on what bank system the bank or customer location uses is how they get there coin boxes. I delivered loomis boxes in a Brinks truck. Being a coin collector and roll hunter myself. I’ve heard it harder to find silver in the boxes today because the coin machines when the coins get wrapped from banks we pick up from spit out the silver because the weight it different for silver then glad and they sell the silver back to the govt for the value of silver and make money off of it. Better to go through pennies and nickels. Picked a bag of $50 in pennies from a bag that where ALL wheats. But the bank couldn’t sell it to me because Incase the coin machine was not accurate and I could sue them for taking my money. It’s not cool but I get it
When I get halves in the past. I never take them in full rolls to any other local bank. I spent the ones i do not intend to keep. I have fun in seeing the young try to figure them out. Once on vacation trip, I bought a tank of gas. I went in and handed them the rolls of halves to pay. The cashier would not at first take them. So, I asked to see the manager. he came and asked what was the problem. When he saw the problem, he told the clerk to take them. I went on my way with fewer halves.
from what I know most coin machines nowadays reject silver coins, maybe not the 40%ers, I don't know about that. I can't get boxes currently with this hoax of a coin "shortage" and I'm limited to 1 roll of coins per bank visit per day, no halfs or dollars at all. I usually get loomis, but my bank varies the supplier, and my CU with the sorting machine is served by Brinks for the collections. I'm going to have to ask them I guess if they will sell me the bag of cents from the machine for something to do, I'm dying to hunt something and with cents there's some oldies, and some varieties to look for. I'm getting stir crazy not being able to hunt since the end of last year. I'd take a bag of quarters but for sure their machine rejects silver, and I have no idea how much a full plastic bag of quarters would run me, must be $1000 I'd think. Then if I take it, where do I dump it? Not back there right? LOL
Soak the brick rolls then rinse open then sun dry coins. Residue rings will form. Hard water rings form. Track the cycle.
