Half dollars

I'm wondering where you dispose of half dollars if you get a box to search through. I asked at the bank and they said I could only get them in a $500 box. That's a lot of money to have tied up in coins that I feel are really hard to get rid of. I suspect they wouldn't like it much if you order a box and show up a few days later trying to return it. So what do you do?

 

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Go to another bank or spend them

Except some coin counter machines don't take them at all, so that must be taken into consideration.

 

Yeah, I never ordered a box, partly because of that issue. I don't have a bank that offers a free counting machine.

I cashed in a bunch once at CoinStar for a no-fee Amazon gift card. That works, but it's a bit noisy and slow.

I've also spent them at Harris-Teeter or Walmart, because the self-checkouts at both accept halves. But that's even slower and noisier.

 

I don't think the coin counting machine I use takes them. There's only one bank in the area that has a coin counting machine now. I'm kind of self-conscious about spending weird coins like halves or dollars. I feel like someone's going to think they're not real money or give me a hard time.

 

Or at least think "now how am I going to get rid of these things?"

 

A lot of credit unions have free coin counting machines for members, check around. I use a credit union's machine - I just keep $100 or higher balance and no fees.
Some people dump at other branches (I've picked up someone's dumps more often than I care to remember). It's bad form, plus you're just re-searching your own coins eventually. Don't crap where you eat.

 

My bank orders boxes for me with the understanding that after I search them I will return/redeposit them and will eventually order another box. Never had a problem returning them. They even provide sufficient wrappers to re-roll the ones I choose not to keep.

 

I take rolled up change to my bank semi-frequently. You can't just re-roll them and deposit them?

 

I'd usually get $200 at a time. My wife like to play the Powerball and MegaMillions so I have her use the $.50 to buy her tickets when she walks up to the gas station to buy them. Works out really well once they figured out it's legal money (I guess, how many people 25 or younger have ever seen a 50 cent piece in real life nowadays). With 5 drawings a week (she only buys when the prize gets over $250M) she whittles that pile down pretty quick.

 

I feel like half dollars stand out, and the banks I go to are starting to know me which is good in many ways but bad for this. Maybe they don't care but it just seems like a bad idea to order something and then redeposit it. I guess I could ask if they mind. The guy did tell me that they order boxes of halves for people who look for silver. Most of the branches of the bank I go to are inside grocery stores and they always just say no when I ask if they have any halves. This was a standalone branch and they said they did have them and I was kind of surprised, but that was why I checked there.

 

They said I'd have to get the whole box because I was hoping to just get some. Of course I'd like to look for silver but really I wanted to help my son complete the Whitman folders and I thought that would get us there pretty quickly.

 

You have to remember, it's a bank. It is their job to deposit and withdraw money --- all day long. You aren't asking them to do anything that isn't part of their job, and if anything, maybe they like the opportunity to fiddle with getting you the coins over endlessly counting $20s in front of customers casing their paychecks. But I get what you mean. I've kind of given up locally (on finding silver in $.50), at least at my (WF) bank. I've been considering hitting up out of the way, small town banks to see if I can improve my luck.

 

It's true but perhaps I tend to overthink things. I don't like to feel like I'm inconveniencing someone or putting them out. Maybe they'll do what you ask but they won't like you for it. I even feel kind of bad just asking for a bunch of individual rolls.

 

I get a $1,000.00 a week. I look through them and re-roll them in the same roll they came in. Real easy to do. I then take them to a different bank I maintain an account with. I spread them out between branches. Been doing it for years and never had a problem. Just don't take them back to the same bank branch you get them from.

 

You're still searching through your own dumps.
You need to buy and dump from banks that use different coin suppliers - Brinks, Loomis, or Guarda.
If you buy a brinks box and dump at a bank that sends coins to Brinks, it gets re-rolled and you are picking it up again.

 

I have a checking account only at a different bank. They don't seem to mind me making deposits of halves or small dollars and I can withdraw cash anytime I want. I once called a bank and asked if they would take some rolled small dollars. She said we’re a bank, we have to take them.

 

That's what I do. One is Loomis and one is Garda.

 

I use several banks around my area like 15 to 20 different branches to get my coins weekly I'll stop into different ones but they all either order Loomis, n.f. stringingsons (or how ever you spell it my tablet is not liking it) or brink's so I get a range and it doesn't matter from what bank. I've only ever received a Garda box once. And if you can find a bank that give there bags that's even better then boxes in my opinion my out comes have been a lot better. And for dumping I only use 2 banks same company that have a machine that so I do a round or to of bags of dumping at a time. To fill the machine.

 

Garda brings the String & Sons

 

Are they the same company? Cause I have seen a string & sons money truck and an Garda truck but I've ever only got one Garda style box.