Interesting Coinstar encounter (2024-03-25)

At the local grocery store I walked by the Coinstar machine and noticed that there were a few coins in the dump basket. So I scooped them up - 1 quarter, 1 nickel, 1 cent - all undamaged and modern. I'm ahead 31 cents.

This is weird so I looked down in the reject/return slot. It was overflowing with coins. There were a couple of quarters just lying on the ground around the machine too! They all looked like normal coins, so I scooped up a handful and dropped then in my pocket and scooted out of the store - feeling somewhat guilty. I left behind at least a few more handfuls.

So at home I went through the coins and had about $5 +/- in regular undamaged coins, including a couple of small dollars. So I'm now ahead over $5.

Not sure what happened. Did someone dump a bunch of coins in, and the machine malfunctioned and just spit them out? Wouldn't the dumper notice that the gift card/credit slip was for pennies on the dollar? How do you not hear the huge number of coins landing in the reject slot? Or did the machine just spew out coins for no reason?

There were two coins that were non-US, the kind I expect to find in the reject bin...

A 1950 Hong Kong 10-cent and a 1951 French 10 Franc. I know nothing about these coins, so I'll read up on them later. The cent is for size reference.

 

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Interesting.... now, exactly what is the address....

 

My best was a CoinStar in Vegas with $8.00+ in the return slot

 

I think people hold little regard for pocket changed these days. I don’t think I have ever left the car wash without picking up assorted change. I don’t get it. Heck, I’ll run out into traffic to pick a coin up from the road.

 

Maybe a Morgan.

 

Me too!

 

Life bonus!

 

A tougher economy equals more interesting things being put into circulation and/or through a Coinstar.
My local King Soopers (Kroger) Coinstar is poached by employees I feel, plus the fairly new armed guard hangs around it a lot now so maybe he takes the rejects.

 

I can't believe anything but a malfunction...ALL of these coins would be accepted by a working Coinstar.

 

Malfunction and clueless person dumping. I had it happen once, got $20+ in regular change. Filled all my pockets and my grocery bag with change.

 

My kiddo had a 12+ dollar day at the local coinstar. He left what was jammed in the tray. He waited a while before he grabbed it. No one in the customer service line. My best is around $5.

 

These were my Coinstar finds for last week..

 

Hey CC, all you could fit in your pocket was $5+/-? My best CS day was just recently too.

 

I just grabbed one quick handful...there were several handfuls still in there...in fact the coins were backed up into the machine, so I felt like they would keep coming if I kept scooping. A bunch of people around made me a bit self conscious...lol.

 

Alright, I looked up my big score. It was in 2016. $40.83.

https://www.cointalk.com/threads/reject-tube-coinstar-finds.201092/page-56#post-2464301

 

OK... OK..... You guys have me sold. I am going to the grocery store and checking the reject slot on their machine.

 

It's pretty clear that some people using CoinStars are so distracted and/or impaired that they don't notice what accumulates in the reject slot.

Our local Food Lion is remodeling, and they unplugged their CoinStar and turned it 90 degrees. A few days later, it was gone -- and in the inch or so of muck where it had been, there were dozens of embedded coins.

I actually dug out a couple, clad quarters and dimes. Then I thought: "Wait. Coins that rolled under the machine are probably just stuff people dropped, not stuff the machine rejected, and they're no more likely to be interesting than any other pocket change. Also, ICK. Also, people are staring." That was the end of that.

 

Back in the day before they fixed the coin stars they would get jammed up and dump out a ton of stuff. I pulled 2 or 3 large loads. One was like $14 including some halves and 1 a 40%. Other times like $9 including some silver quarters and dimes and wheaties. And then some other ones like $5 or so. Those days are gone. Another time an entire pile of foreigns, that one I may have a photo of. Here are some photos of some foreign scoops.

 

Less than a solid citizen crams a rag up the reject chute. Comes back later. Pulls out rag. Store security grabs the guy, and in the ensuing struggle, coins end up everywhere. Along comes @CoinCorgi to find the aftermath.

 

Lol