How much would you pay to be able to buy people’s coin deposits? For example would you pay 5% or maybe even 10% of a total bag value if the machines also dispensed coins instead of just took them?
I was thinking 10% at first and then I was thinking that would be a little steep so I threw in 5%. That sounded okay. Then the next question, which ones do you target? I would think quarters and dimes.
Nickels. Most good Quarters & Dimes have been already taken out of circulation because of the silver, but it's not uncommon to find older Nickels. I have two daughters that work in retail, and I have them on the lookout for older coins. They've yet to bring me any silver, but I get lots of Nickels & Pennies from them older than 1950.
I would assume that they are sold to bulk companies such as Loomis or Brinks and then rolled and sent out again.
Given that CoinStars reject silver, and seem often to reject older Lincolns, I'm going to say "no". Now, if you offered me first crack at the rejected coins, I'd be willing to talk premiums.
I mean maybe 1% over face. These machines seem to reject silver so that cuts out a lot of profit. I’m sure you can find some wheats and maybe a few older nickels but thats about it. Would be interesting for sure.
Nickels have always been the source of my better CRH finds for the last thirty years. Obviously, hunting halves for 40% and even 90% silver coins is good work if you can get it, but halves don't really circulate and they're hard to get at banks.
I wasn’t aware those machines would reject silver, etc. I’ve read a few forum posts where people have tried to buy coins from people before they dumped them so I thought it took them all.
I have helped several elderly people use the machine. None of them realized there’s a reject bin. I always made a point to show and offer to buy the silver coins that were rejected (usually a single dime). They always ended up gifting it to me for helping them out. The machine must use weight as a factor. I’ve seen other machines that take silver too.
People giving away 11% of their money in order to change coins into cash are being victimized. The reason the machines don't accept silver is for "wrong metal". As it accepts zinc and copper pennies and there is a weight difference. 2.5/3.1 That's why steel pennies and foreign coins are also rejected. Anything, aluminum or steel or silver. Also, if a foreign coin is the right metal but the wrong size and weight, off it goes. So weight is a factor, but not why silver dimes are rejected.
I'm pretty sure the coins get sorted by size, weight, and magnetic (electromagnetic) characteristics. If the coin isn't the size of a cent, nickel, dime, quarter, half, or small dollar, it gets rejected. (I don't think CoinStars take Ikes.) Most damaged (dented, dryered, bent, stuck together) coins register as "wrong size". If the coin is too heavy or too light for its size/denomination, it gets rejected. (There has to be a certain tolerance here, because the weight of newly-minted coins varies, and they lose weight as they circulate, albeit slowly.) The coin also passes by a magnet. Iron, steel, and pure nickel coins get attracted to the magnet, and rejected. Coins that aren't conductive enough don't slow down as much as a real coin, and they're rejected. Coins that are too conductive (silver) slow down more than a "real coin", and they're rejected, too. I see completely normal coins (clad dimes, copper or zinc cents, nickels and quarters) in the reject slot fairly frequently, so it's possible that the machines are tuned to err on the side of caution. It's also possible that there's an equal or greater number of "bad" coins getting accepted -- but if the machines mistakenly accepted slugs or foreign coins too frequently, it would come out of CoinStar's bottom line, so they've got good business reasons to tune the machines conservatively. (They don't lose so much money if they fail to accept the occasional cent or dime, especially since users will typically keep trying to run them through until they're accepted.) I guess CoinStar could put some work into recognizing and segregating silver coins, counting them at face value but setting them aside for resale. I suspect the expected volume of silver is low enough that it's not worth their while.
