The more I sit and think and read, the more ways that I can find to get scammed in the coin world. 1.(and this one is for roll searches mainly) Getting ripped off from the bank. I recently got some rolls of cents, and one was 11 cents short? How does a bank teller manage to not realize that a roll of coins is 11 short? I think they just realized they had been ripped off and did not want to take the loss from it. Also, the idea of of stuffing a roll of dimes with cents. I just tried it to see if my dad would fall for it. I took a dime wrapper, and filled it with cents minus 2 per end. I handed it to my dad and he was willing to give me $5 for it until I told him what I did. If a bank doesnt realize and sells it to you, they probably wouldnt believe you to refund your money. 2.(this is one of the any for ebay buyers) You always see rolls of 'unsearched' shotgun rolls of wheats. They always say they went to the bank to get them wrapped, and just somehow managed to have a Denver minted Mercury dime on one end. Just to see if I could, I unwrapped a shotgun roll of cents, put a dime on the end, filled it with wheats, and closed the end. It looks like it did right after it came out of the box. It is kinda obvious that it wont be a 1916 D Mercury dime on the end. What is to stop anyone from starting to rip people off? If anyone else has any other things they would love to vent about (sorry for letting my time to talk last a tad bit long), feel free to comment.
I used to have to buy rolls of coins for work back when I was a poor student (out on Long Island). I'd be buying $500 of coins with my money and be getting reimbursed by the school later. I thought it was awesome, a chance to search rolls on someone else's dime (forgive the pun on this one). Unfortunately, when the rolls came up short, I was out, not my school. The bank I was getting them from insisted all customer rolls contained the account numbers. I was repeatedly short rolled, and it was almost always the same account. The bank just did not care about this when I tried to take care of it. Why would they, they didn't take the hit, I did! I'd guess I lost about $8 to $10 every time I'd buy $500. Though I was a coin collector, a MUCH more pressing priority was to get my research done and get my degree so I took that hit for about 4 years.
Try thinking of some ways you can gain from this instead of all the ways you can lose; people who think positivly usually have better happier experiences in life than people who look at the horrible side of everything. Everything you are saying is mainly speculation. Your father is probably not a trained professional in knowing the weight differences of the rolls pennies versus dimes, etc. Train yourself to be a professional and know the differences in weight and length. If you got ripped off 11 cents, say something about it. You shouldn't just sit and speculate that they wouldn't fix what they did wrong. Make them fix it. If they are shortchanging you, you need to say something. You also can't just assume that they intentionally short changed you. While it is very possible, I find it to be highly unlikely. Remember we're all human and we all make mistakes! Learn the general weight and length of various rolls; this should help you. :thumb:
This is unacceptable. I would have screamed for the manager. You put up with losing $4-$8 bucks for 4 years??? I bet you if you would have simply asked for the manager, he/she would have fixed it right away.
My bank will not accept rolled coins for deposit, even in original wrappers. They will ask you to open them and submit them in bulk. Therefore all rolled coins purchased by customers have been re-rolled by the bank and issued with accurate counts.
This is why the bank I used to work for broke open every customer roll that was brought it and ran it through the coin machine. The only rolls we sold were rolls that were professionally rolled and shipped to us.
I've had accounts at the same bank for 30 years. It has changed names three times, but it has been BoA for the last fifteen or so. The manager has changed three times through retirement and transfers. There is only one long-term teller left who knows me from way back, but she has introduced me to the other tellers and I never have a problem when turning in rolls. About ten years ago, I tried the "loose change in the big plastic bag thing". It was $400 in mixed denominations which the bank turned over to Brinks for counting. I knew exactly how much was in the bag, and I even wrote the amount in Sharpie on the bag. When I received my next statement, the deposit was 13% short ($52). I spoke to the manager, and she credited my account without even batting an eye. I've never had a problem turning in rolls. I've never had to write my name or account on the rolls. For more than two years, I was ordering two $500 boxes of half dollars every week to search, and the bank even provided the wrappers (gratis!) so I could put them back into the boxes. The tellers never questioned the accuracy of the count and never complained about getting all of those half dollars back. It sounds to me like some of the tellers at other banks are a little bit lazy. It's very easy for them to check the odd numbers of rolls they receive to ensure that they aren't short. Like the chip trays that casinos use to make counting easier, the banks also have roll trays for the various denominations. They are sized so that a roll will fit perfectly in each slot. If a roll is short, it will be too loose in the slot. Another thing a teller can do is to run their fingers along the side of the wrapper. If there is a smaller or larger coin in a wrapper, they can feel the "bump" or "recess" inside the wrapper. Some of you younger squirts may not have had the chance to develop a long-term relationship with the staff at your bank, but when you finally settle down in a permanent location, it's the best thing you can do. Chris
That might be easy for you Chris.. but i have to change banks every few months because of money laundering and fraud... It's a tough business but someone has to do it..
Professionlly rolled rolls can be short and have wrong coins in them also. I do wonder how the machine rolled ones come up short , but have seen it several times.
I will echo what others have said, when my father passed on, he had tons of change, well at least hundreds of pounds, I did a test to see, I took exactly 100 dollars in rolled coin, halves, quarters, dimes, nickles and pennies (cents), and turned them into the bank for deposit in the estates account, the person told me that they had to put them through a machine, they came back with a chit for 93.82. So I decided that was too much for the estate to give away (over 6%) It might have been some coins were rejected and the teller did not bother to check, it could have been that she pocketed some coins, but what it could NOT have been is that those rolls were that much short. I felt that 6 dollars and 18 cents was a cheap lesson to learn that the bank in question was either dishonest or lazy. Many times it has cost me more than that to find out someone was not trustworthy. Now the credit union and the bank I get rolls from has not shortchanged me even once, shop around, there are good places out there. It sometimes might even be a particular branch that is shoddy in their practices, talk calmly to the head teller or manager about your problems, if they do not take any action write a letter to their corporate HQ. Be courteous and matter of fact in your letter, and let them know the facts as you do, and perhaps they will look into things and if it is a bad branch they will clean it up. If not there are thousands and thousands of other banks, find one that welcomes your business.
Sometimes the coin machines can kick out some of the coins. I personally always checked...but I imagine some people don't. I highly doubt the teller pocketed it though. Any stealing withing a bank by an employee is a felony and will result in prison time. So, for $6...it's not worth it.
I had established the estate account in the same bank at the same branch that my father had used while he was alive. When I pointed out the mistake the teller who took the coins to a counting machine, out of my sight, in a seperate room, instead of saying she would check was very defensive. Like I said, for slightly more than 6 dollars I knew to double check closely the transactions. I preferred to think they were merely lazy slackers rather than penny ante thieves.
Okay guys, I do a lot of coin roll searching. I have gotten hand wrapped rolls that were a few coins short, curiously the most of them had the deposit stamp from a local school district. OTOH it always balances out in the end, because especially with hand wrapped cent rolls and even rarely machine wrapped cents - dimes are not quite as uncommon as you would think. I also end up with quite a few foreign coins I would not expect to find, ie South African rand coins, a Portuguese Mozambique 50 centavos from the colonial era. I take all my leftover coins back to banks. Some want them wrapped, some have them go through their coin machines. Never have I been shorted, and on a couple of times I had to tell them with half dollars that I was credited for more coins than I knew for certain that I had, the machine had jammed, they fixed it, but somehow some of the coins were counted 2x. I don't stress out over shorted rolls, it is reality - humans created them and they make mistakes. I find it always evens out in the end, usually I find a dime, a Wheat, or an S Mint and all is good. Relax - this is a hobby not a job.
