Experience at the self check out (AKA Nickel Dump)
Posted: Tue Jul 12, 2011 3:07 amHi All!
I'm new to posting but I've actually been reading Realcent since Coinflation.com linked to
the old site.
(Believe it or not the only thing that held me back that long was that it
took me that long to choose a password, hard coming up with something I can remember,
is reasonably hard for someone else to guess, and I'm not aleady using somewhere else.
)
I tend to sort Nickels more than pennies because I hand sort and at the moment it seems
both more efficient in terms of yield for time as well they don't seem as grungy as pennies
overall. If I at some point get a Ryedale that may change though. Annother bonus is
higher value density in my hoard at $10/lb rather than $4/lb Nice being able to pick
99.9% pure out of circulation!
I'd like to thank the person (can't remember who) that said he dumped his Zincolns by
feeding them into the Self Check Out machine at Home Depot. Shortly after I noticed
that a Safeway store near me had one so now every time I go shopping there I unload
some steel 5ยข pieces.
I went with 4 bags with $10 of nickels each. First 3 bags no problem. Shortly after the
4th bag starts the machine jams up so sombody had to come and unjam it. About 2/3
of the way though that bag it wouldn't take any additional coins, and not just nickels,
wouldn't take a penny, a dime, or a loony either. Apparently it has a point where it has
an "absolute" limited number of coins it will hold regardless of type. So I pay the rest
with a $20 bill, get back my change and the funny part it dispensed the under $1 portion
entirely in nickels! I guess it's programmed to unload whatever it has too much of, at
least when it considers it's self "full", hopefully everyone that used it all day didn't get
a fist full of nickels. On the good side about a week later when I was going
through my left over bag to see how much I had to top it up for the next trip I discovered
that 3 of the nickels I got back were not my own dump but 3 nice 99.9% pure nickels, bonus!
So the lesson learned is that I should only dump $30 per trip. This works well because
most of my shopping trips I spend between $30 and $50, so I can pay for most of my
purchases in coin.
The next time I went (with exactly $30 in nickels) it went off without a hitch. Funny thing
the couple behind me noticed and the guy said "hey, that's a good idea for me to unload my
pennies". I tipped him off that 600 coins of any type combined seems to be the safe limit
before the machine chokes on it so for pennies he's good for $6 at a time unless I was
ahead of him. Only glitches that trip were when I got up to the machine there
was transaction that somebody abandoned part way through, I guess they got confused,
gave up, and went to a regular check out instead. The girl had to clear that off. I did
my bagging while the machine was counting batches of coin but it still had some coin to
go by the time I finished so I was standing watching waiting to load more coin. The girl
came over and asked what was wrong so I had to say nothing was, I was just using up
change. (Didn't specify it was all nickels. ) I guess they'll eventually get used to the
weird guy that uses up his coins at the self check out.
Prior to this I'd built up a bit of a backlog of "left overs", this should make a good dent
in them.
I'm new to posting but I've actually been reading Realcent since Coinflation.com linked to
the old site.
(Believe it or not the only thing that held me back that long was that it took me that long to choose a password, hard coming up with something I can remember,
is reasonably hard for someone else to guess, and I'm not aleady using somewhere else.
)I tend to sort Nickels more than pennies because I hand sort and at the moment it seems
both more efficient in terms of yield for time as well they don't seem as grungy as pennies
overall. If I at some point get a Ryedale that may change though. Annother bonus is
higher value density in my hoard at $10/lb rather than $4/lb
Nice being able to pick99.9% pure out of circulation!
I'd like to thank the person (can't remember who) that said he dumped his Zincolns by
feeding them into the Self Check Out machine at Home Depot. Shortly after I noticed
that a Safeway store near me had one so now every time I go shopping there I unload
some steel 5ยข pieces.
I went with 4 bags with $10 of nickels each. First 3 bags no problem. Shortly after the
4th bag starts the machine jams up so sombody had to come and unjam it. About 2/3
of the way though that bag it wouldn't take any additional coins, and not just nickels,
wouldn't take a penny, a dime, or a loony either. Apparently it has a point where it has
an "absolute" limited number of coins it will hold regardless of type. So I pay the rest
with a $20 bill, get back my change and the funny part it dispensed the under $1 portion
entirely in nickels! I guess it's programmed to unload whatever it has too much of, at
least when it considers it's self "full", hopefully everyone that used it all day didn't get
a fist full of nickels.
On the good side about a week later when I was going through my left over bag to see how much I had to top it up for the next trip I discovered
that 3 of the nickels I got back were not my own dump but 3 nice 99.9% pure nickels, bonus!
So the lesson learned is that I should only dump $30 per trip. This works well because
most of my shopping trips I spend between $30 and $50, so I can pay for most of my
purchases in coin.
The next time I went (with exactly $30 in nickels) it went off without a hitch. Funny thing
the couple behind me noticed and the guy said "hey, that's a good idea for me to unload my
pennies". I tipped him off that 600 coins of any type combined seems to be the safe limit
before the machine chokes on it so for pennies he's good for $6 at a time unless I was
ahead of him.
Only glitches that trip were when I got up to the machine therewas transaction that somebody abandoned part way through, I guess they got confused,
gave up, and went to a regular check out instead. The girl had to clear that off. I did
my bagging while the machine was counting batches of coin but it still had some coin to
go by the time I finished so I was standing watching waiting to load more coin. The girl
came over and asked what was wrong so I had to say nothing was, I was just using up
change. (Didn't specify it was all nickels.
) I guess they'll eventually get used to the weird guy that uses up his coins at the self check out.
Prior to this I'd built up a bit of a backlog of "left overs", this should make a good dent
in them.
