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I am going thru 3 boxes of halves a week. Before I cut open the rolls I weigh each roll to make sure that there is 20 coins. It should weigh 225 grams. Lately I have been finding rolls that are short, they weigh 215, out of 3 boxes THIS week I have 5 short rolls ($2.50 short) I keep them seperate unopened. I talked with my contact at my bank about what has been happening and she said to bring them in because if it's happening to me then it is probably happening to them also. The boxes are string, the yellow/white wrapper for some reason has a lot less problems than the brown/white wrapper - I'm not happy about losing $2.50 but it isn't easy to find banks willing to order that many boxes of halves week in and out. Any suggestions on how to handle this? I'm supposed to meet her friday morning. I can use all the advice you guys are willing to offer.

One thing i've noticed, is that many of the halves i find, have spent a lot of time in casinos, so they are very worn and probably underweight. Before making a big deal at the bank, when you visit Friday, open the suspected rolls in front of the teller to confirm count. That way if they really are short, the teller sees it with you, but if they aren't, at least you have a good explanation.

I had the same thing happen to me on bags got 2 car wash tokens in the bag, told the vault manager about the shortage. I get a call from the vault manager two days later they will no longer provide me with halves. Going forward I just smile and accept the shorts without complaint. I figure that with the free money that I'm sorting out in silver and copper a few coin short bag is not worth the chance of losing a pickup up location.

I wouldnt shoot yourself in the foot. I as well search bags and have been shorted up $30 on some of them. Its part of the game. I have had long bags and bags with extras in them but shorts are way more common than longs. If you are finding silver that helps but by going to the bank and complaining you might be getting the call like strikeaxe and get cut off.

I wasn't finding anything to make my efforts worthwhile any longer, plus encountering the same short halves problems from the same source. So I quit. I just pick up extra shifts at work now.

I read a review the other day from a customer on the canadian mint website that said she had bought a few rolls of half dollars from the mint as a collector roll set. Right from the mint 4 of the 10 were 1 short. Couldn't be a wear issue here, just a crackhead counting I guess. Thought it was strange.

strikeaxe wrote:I had the same thing happen to me on bags got 2 car wash tokens in the bag, told the vault manager about the shortage. I get a call from the vault manager two days later they will no longer provide me with halves. Going forward I just smile and accept the shorts without complaint. I figure that with the free money that I'm sorting out in silver and copper a few coin short bag is not worth the chance of losing a pickup up location.

I agree with you that this is the "price" of doing "business" - I think I am going to just smile ear to ear tomorrow and not make a issue of this. It took me a long time to find a bank willing to supply me with whatever I want. Seeing as the boxes are closed sealed... the real question is whether I want continue sorting halves at all. I don't think this is the banks fault. All of your guys feedback really helps in making a decision.

It's goes with the territory, and it happens with all denominations. Occasionally you will get one that is long, or extra loose coins in the box. Back when I was still searching halves I got a brinks box with a loose SBA dollar in the box. Go figure...

AGCoinHunter wrote:I wouldnt shoot yourself in the foot. I as well search bags and have been shorted up $30 on some of them. Its part of the game. I have had long bags and bags with extras in them but shorts are way more common than longs. If you are finding silver that helps but by going to the bank and complaining you might be getting the call like strikeaxe and get cut off.

Very smart advice, remember your goal and don't let small bumps stop you.

I get short rolls as well. I don't complain, because I as well think of it as the cost of doing business. I don't want to make the banks stop supplying me with coin. If you use coin counters at the bank, don't count the coins in the rolls. You likely won't even notice the shortages, and it won't bother you anymore.

I had occasional shorts. More often I had junk coins in place of halves. Several Aussie cents I have gotten, and some other junk things I can't remember.
goes with the turf.......

Sure some are short. Also some have pennies, quarters, washers, etc. in place of a half sometimes. Then again sometimes they are over - one of my boxes last night was $1 over. It happens so often that I don't even bother to track it, but over all I figure it's pretty much of a wash. If you have a bank that orders boxes for you I sure wouldn't screw it up over a few bucks here and there.

beauanderos wrote:I wasn't finding anything to make my efforts worthwhile any longer, plus encountering the same short halves problems from the same source. So I quit. I just pick up extra shifts at work now.

I too quit sorting halves as I found very little siver but found quite a few boxes short

Getting short rolls is the price of sorting. If you are finding silver, than accept it. One 40% coin will replace 10 missing halves.

Any short boxes that I get in my area seem to be the ones with silver in them. It might be a coincidence, but it sure makes me wonder why the skunk boxes have never been short.

For certain ... I wouldn't "step over the dollar to pick up the penny." This place is supplying you with silver and shlepping it around for free. Under no circumstance would I risk my relationship with a good pick-up bank over such a small shortage. If it were me, I'd go in there with the attitude that "I just wanted to let you know your coin supplier shorts you." Chances are she'll rush to cover your shortage. I also think it could be a chance to strike up a conversation about what you're looking for, that could pay off big in the future if they'll remember you when some customer brings in grandad's collection. Who knows?

I complained to my credit union about the same and yes, mine are the same kind you described. String & Sons yellow. The boxes have holes on the top and bottom so you an see the coins.
They said they would talk to the coin delivery service. The coin delivery service said "The boxes have holes so you can see the coins and if you want to return them, then don't open the box". Only thing you can really do is weight the boxes before you open. You can get a weight from a full box that has no silver and any boxes weighing less than that probably have short coins. If it weighs more, then you will likely have a box full of silver, since silver halves (12.75 grams) weigh more than non-silver (11.34 grams).

Tourney64 wrote:I complained to my credit union about the same and yes, mine are the same kind you described. String & Sons yellow. The boxes have holes on the top and bottom so you an see the coins.
They said they would talk to the coin delivery service. The coin delivery service said "The boxes have holes so you can see the coins and if you want to return them, then don't open the box". Only thing you can really do is weight the boxes before you open. You can get a weight from a full box that has no silver and any boxes weighing less than that probably have short coins. If it weighs more, then you will likely have a box full of silver, since silver halves (12.75 grams) weigh more than non-silver (11.34 grams).

The 40% weigh 11.5 grams. The major factor in my quitting is that the bank changed carrier's... and they were going to implement a $5 per box charge. I was to the point of only finding $40 or so of silver out of $10,000 a week, I don't care what anyone says, there's better use of your money than that. Too much opportunity cost at that level.