It cost too much to keep rolling machines up and running. My local BOA does not even have a counting machine. Most banks send out bags of loose change to a service and bring in boxes of rolls. You need a teller friend that will take the time to pick out older rolls for you.
It amazes me that a lot of people never see hand wrapped rolls and don't do it themselves. I wrap all my rolls and take them to the bank. The tellers give me the paper rollers for free. I'm not the only one. Most around here who are not collectors, save their change all year, then sell it for Christmas. I save mine to trade for their's at the bank. There is something about giving away 10-12% of my money for someone, or some thing to count it, that just doesn't make sense to me. I'm not a die hard coin roll hunter, but do search a roll or 3, when bored. My best finds are silver dimes. Seems I find more of those than any other silver coins.
I've been rolling my own for 20+ years, and yes, my BoA branch gives me as many wrappers as I want for free. FWIW, I don't trust the accuracy of the counting machines. In test cases, I submitted varied amounts that I had (carefully!) counted myself, and I found that the machines were off as much as 11%. Chris
I hand wrap all of my rolls as I go along after searching. It's easier than waiting until I have a 5 gallon jug filled like years ago. My bank also gives me all the wrappers I want but they do ask me to put my name on them from time to time, not always. I guess some people out there either cannot count or are just cheats "pinching" a penny here and there.
You're best chance is to try to get to small banks with a population of older customers who will dig out the "penny jars" they've held for many years to cash them in and hand roll them up.Chances of finding any good stuff in the newer rolls is poor.....
Good you will have to lay out some cash to get started but unlike most of the stuff we buy it's not gone! I would start a small checking acct. so you can deposit your returns(searched stuff) without getting any resistance from the tellers.You may have to wait for one to be free to dump them into the counting machine and run them thru but it makes getting rid of them easier....
I have been averaging 1 90% silver half dollar per 1,200 halves. Using multiple banks requires finding one that uses a banking service (Brinks, etc.) and ordering cases. Otherwise, in my experience if I buy a couple hundred dollars worth from a bank, they are usually self rolled and picked through.
I have best luck when I ask the teller if they have coins turned in from customers. Bank rolled not so good
What I do is buy the bags of coins that come out of the banks counting machines. I have had better luck with that than ordering coins form any of the rolling services. The banks in my state don't except rolls that customers bring in, if you have rolls you need to break them in to the coin counters.
I like halves because I've been reading your threads for a few months and noted that many of you periodically get bags or rolls of coins at the bank, so when I was there a couple of months ago, I asked for a roll of halves and the teller said:" I just got 2 rolls in do you want them both?" Well I'm a sport and went for the $20. Both rolls had a lightly noted "silver" on them, so I figured it was someone's name. To my surprise I scored the following K's: 1 (65) 3 (66) 12 (1967) 16 (68D) 4 (69D). And oh yeah, 2 (64), a 63 Ben and a 45D Walker. If my math is correct, I guess about $103 in melt value.Thank you for your impetus to do this; the bank's address will remain anonymous.
For $3.00 you will not get much. If your doing pennies you will probably only get 40's and 50's but they will most likely be unsearched for Errors. I found quite a few Errors in cheap rolls