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have some rare time off so decided to ask for a box of pennies at my credit union(I know its silly for you pros, but I feel weird asking) well., she leaves, comes back and asks if I am a member, sure heres my ID!looks me up(i have a large amount in checking and a closed loan) turns out they didnt have a box, but she went to three tellers to get me $25 in cwrs!(by the way always have some kind of bag with you, stuffing 50 rolls in your jacket and pants pockets is an experience!) a large city CU without a box on hand seems strange, but I will take it. ten rolls handsorted so far one dime, 3 wheats,28% copper, and... my first wide AM! 2000. would anyone else rather have customer rolls instead of box? TY PP

I've only been doing this for about a month but I prefer getting both boxes and CWR's. I tend to get more wheat in my brinks boxes including 4 wheats in one roll a couple weeks ago. I usually get a higher copper percent in my CWR's. Including some all copper rolls. I tend to find stranger stuff in my CWR's like this month I've gotten 3 dimes, a Bermuda penny, a Bahamas penny, and a Deutsche Pfennig (German penny before they went to the euro). I did get a steelie this morning in a CWR.

tuleja wrote:I've only been doing this for about a month but I prefer getting both boxes and CWR's. I tend to get more wheat in my brinks boxes including 4 wheats in one roll a couple weeks ago. I usually get a higher copper percent in my CWR's. Including some all copper rolls. I tend to find stranger stuff in my CWR's like this month I've gotten 3 dimes, a Bermuda penny, a Bahamas penny, and a Deutsche Pfennig (German penny before they went to the euro). I did get a steelie this morning in a CWR.

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There may be exceptions I'm not aware of, but all credit unions that I'm aware of rely on their customers for coin; they normally don't have regular coin service. They may have a backup plan via an account at a local bank (I think mine does) so they can do a small amount of change order in the event they run completely out, but none that I know of have armored car service. So boxes would be rare. CWR are usually better anyway.

ty camaro, could not stress enough what the teller went through to get me a box worth! thanks again for the info.

I too have just started out and my credit union seem annoyed when I asked for $20.00 in pennies. My teller had to ask the other tellers and then get a manager to go to the vault. The people behind me started grumbling. Oh well. The next time I called a day ahead for $50.00 and that went much better. I did pretty well on that bag, about 32% and 14 wheats.

They like doing something different once in a while. If they like you for whatever reason it is an awesome thing. Even though I dump at my CU, they still like me, because I'm a friendly face! Still, they won't do CWR around my parts so they are impossible to find. CWR can be the way to go when you hit the jackpot on them, which comes with time, wit, patience, and chance. Still, regular boxes are all I can get from the banks around me.

I love my credit union. I started out getting $50 a week, then $100, Last week I was going to get $200, but they forgot to order it, so they told me to come in today, and they would just do a double order $400 for me... When I got there they said there was a mix up, and only had $300, but would order the other $100 for me and have it on Friday, and then asked if I wanted to start getting $400 every Tuesday, I told them as long as it's not a hassle I would love to do that, but I didn't want to make it a pain for them. With a smile on her face the manager told me "No, it's not a problem at all"...

I'll be taking a couple of boxes of doughnuts and maybe some coffee for them on Friday...

Welcome aboard to the new penny sorters!!! If you want boxes, some of the bigger banks will sell them to non-customers without any questions. It just depends on the branch. Most Bank of America branches I have been to have allowed me to pick up a single box even though I don't have an account with them. Wells Fargo on the other hand is seldom that accomodating. As far as credit unions go, mine hasn't been a good source for picking up any pennies so I just stick with them as a place to dump my zincs.

I've also found credit unions to be a mixed bag, but when you find a good one they can be a great source. CUs with a number of small branches may not have any significant amount at the branches, but sometimes they will have a main office that collects all the excess coin from the small ones, and they can be a great source - because if you're in an area where their customers turn in a lot of coin, and they don't have an armored service, they may actually love you for getting rid of it for them! Especially the cents. Try a teachers/educators credit union - their members seem to do a lot of coin wrapping.

+1 for the coffee and doughnuts. I'm always very polite, understanding and occasionally drop off goodies. I've never had a problem and they always got out of their way for me.

Time to start asking what they do with the coins from the reject tray

Since most Credit Unions don't service commercial accounts, they typically won't order new coin unless its for their own needs. In fact its usually the opposite, they are paying to ship out coins. I have several CU branches that give me all the coin I can handle. Most of the managers know me by name and greet me with a smile, they know that I save them money on outgoing coin fees. Most of the tellers hold the "cool" stuff for me too. Just give them a days notice when you want to pick up, and try to pick up before they do the daily vault count.

i just started hand sorting this december and have gotten nothing special from CWR's. did get one dime and a coin from Zambia. i get better copper %'s from bank boxes.

madman326 wrote:i just started hand sorting this december and have gotten nothing special from CWR's. did get one dime and a coin from Zambia. i get better copper %'s from bank boxes.

That will typically be true, until you hit the inevitable, but unpredictable, motherlode - when you get a box, or two, or three (or in my case 6 equivalent boxes of CWR) of nothing but copper. I hit it big once this year, and along with it had 2 or 3 lesser but still interesting hits of large amounts of copper from people turning in their grandfather's collection (and the like).

TY for all the info! dont know if this is taboo but my CU is ESL in rochester ny. took a 20 mile road trip yesterday and got $20 in pennies at the four other main branches(each) none carry boxes, the tellers have to fill out slips to buy from other tellers, I have to wait while they black out phone numbers from the rolls.whats with numbers on rolls?

penny pretty wrote:whats with numbers on rolls?

It used to be that you had to put your account number on rolls that you brought in, but that has actually been nixed, and there are several privacy laws that prevent it (sounds like the bank you went to does know that, or at least the tellers don't). But, what they are doing is blacking out the account numbers, so you can't steal their money...