Realcent.org

This week I hit a significant roadblock, the pennies/cents are unavailable. Anyone having difficulty sourcing those bevelled disks? Is it just me?

WF has been my main source bank, and since the scandal they have been willing to trade cash for cents. I have three branches I visit regularly, this week I was unable to get any.

My back up has been a large local credit union. The main branch was unable to provide any reporting they are unable to order in coin. The local branch which has been unable to get coin for three weeks.

Even a different branch of my dump bank was, no go.

Just keeping my "small business" going has become difficult. When I explain this the answer is a convoluted cashless society answer.

I'm not noticing exactly what you are, but nonetheless I am noticing a lack of cooperation on the part of banks. I went to a BofA branch (where we've banked for decades) and spoke with the manager. She was very friendly but said there is no way she can have tellers save coins for me or call me when they get good stuff.

Then I went to a small local bank which is my dump bank. A guy who appears to be the manager came over to me and asked if I was a coin collector. He then said they can't cater to coin collectors anymore. What the????

After making the post and reviewing it, I saw an important quote form a some people I really respect.

Ardent Listener: Hoard as much as you can, as quickly as you can friends. "There will be time enough for sorting, when the dealing is done." (7/6/2006 old forum)

RealCent: I think Ardent is right about this. I can see a time coming, maybe sooner than we think, where any pile of coins will be worth much more than the equivalent in paper dollars. Hoard ye pennies while ye may... (7/6/2006 old forum)

Have we reached the time?

While I haven't sorted in years, I'm still offered bags of coins at a couple branches I visit regularly. I have a bunch of copper that I need to go through, but those live in the garage. Out of sight out of mind....

Deal

As the dollar continues to lose value and as the younger generations become more and more disconnected from the historical value of coin its inevitable that the trend of making coin increasingly difficult to use will continue. I'm seeing cashiers start to roll their eyes when I use cash and I had my first experience last week with one that didn't want to make change - she owed me 38 cents and that was too difficult so she gave me 2 quarters.

Unless your bank branch services business they are hardly even stocking coin now. I am back into very low level hand sorting and have been able to get 10-15 bucks per week without problem but I don't think I could get the 100-200 week that I once ran.

coppernickel wrote:

RealCent: I think Ardent is right about this. I can see a time coming, maybe sooner than we think, where any pile of coins will be worth much more than the equivalent in paper dollars. Hoard ye pennies while ye may... (7/6/2006 old forum)

Have we reached the time?

I guess that banks not having many coins could be an important step toward ultimately having base metal coins be worth a lot more. But it is a supply demand thing. There are people who want to look through pennies and save copper cents, but I don't see that many that will go to a coin shop, for instance, and pay even 1.5X face for bags of copper cents. One dealer I go to a lot has bags of cents sitting around that look like that haven't been dusted in years.

When dealers start saying they can't keep copper in stock and when Adam Youngs says he is consistently having difficulty getting enough to satisfy his clients over a several month period, then perhaps things will get better.

As a totally random question, is there anyone with knowledge of the state of Kansas? Since wheat is a big crop in that state, I wonder if wheat cents sell better there than in other places???

Every now and then I buy a box of halves. Rather than finding a dump bank I slowly spend them. Many young cashier don't even know how much they're worth. Some think it's a quarter others a dollar.

My CU seems cool with giving me a box a week, my little brother gets me a box every now and then, and I wish he could get me more. If I could get more I would just stockpile and get a sorter. I still meet people who save their pennies separate than their other change, it takes them years to fill a container, then they don't know what to do so to the bank it goes. That is another reason I'd rather have a counter.

My only thing is finding more dirtier pennies that I don't want to put in with the rest, so I've been cleaning them, putting them into rolls and then adding them to the rest so they are separate. Still, doing a box a week is slow going, which is fine. I was rolling them back up into boxes for a while, but went back to just filling buckets again.

And, once I get back up to around $1000 I"ll probably stop again, because I'm not seeing the value in dealing with collecting and dumping all the time.

I agree with someone else, more retailers are scoffing at pennies, some I see (not many), are not even using them, choosing to round up in giving change. Still others, like independent restaurants just have their bills come out to the dollar, not wanting to even deal with change.