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I'm planning on driving to Boise next Friday, or the following Tuesday, to search CWRs for the entire day. Its about a 120 mile drive from home, so I want to work this as efficiently as possible.

The smartphone's map function displays all the banks. I've got around $1500 in cash to work with.

The plan is to go to the first bank, get all the CWR half rolls I can, go to the next, and the next; until all the paper FRNs are invested. Then search everything and go to the next bank to dump and get the paper back. Then onward to the next batch of banks, etc. and repeat until tired of playing the game, or the banks close.

Just to make sure I don't miss anything, what are the best questions to ask the tellers?


My favorite LAST question is of course: "Do you have any odd-ball coins that are a hassle to keep track of? Like U.S. $5, $10, $25, or $50 coins? . . . heheheh

When I go for CWRs, the most I've ever come home with was $180. I hit 15 banks that day. CWR halves are very rare for me.

Unless you have an account at the dump bank, they will not often exchange your halves for their FRNs.

HH

halfhunter wrote:Unless you have an account at the dump bank, they will not often exchange your halves for their FRNs.

HH

I thought about that. I do have an account with a bank that has branches all over the country, I'm sure I'll find one or two of those to dump at in Boise.

IdahoCopper wrote:

halfhunter wrote:Unless you have an account at the dump bank, they will not often exchange your halves for their FRNs.

HH

I thought about that. I do have an account with a bank that has branches all over the country, I'm sure I'll find one or two of those to dump at in Boise.

Do this first with the bank(s) you belong too: Go to them first and make a deposit or pay off a bill alongside asking for change. Do a transaction that is "big enough" to keep the bank happy. Note to the teller beforehand you want to do two (or more) transactions to prevent confusion and give them fair warning. This tactic works because your establishing your a customer of the bank, and your bringing in business, so a change request will be tolerated.

Before you do your bank run on the others: pre-make several deposit slips from your bank but don't date them or put amounts. Hit banks that aren't named on the deposit slips. Once you burn thru the $1500 and sort quickly, pull out a slip, note the amount, date it, and rush to the nearest bank you belong too. Cash them in, walk out, go to the ATM, withdraw monies, and repeat cycle of getting halves and cashing them in at other banks. Rinse and repeat.

This will require some planning, so good luck.

cesariojpn wrote:

IdahoCopper wrote:

halfhunter wrote:Unless you have an account at the dump bank, they will not often exchange your halves for their FRNs.

HH

I thought about that. I do have an account with a bank that has branches all over the country, I'm sure I'll find one or two of those to dump at in Boise.

What I could advise is that if any of your banks that you have accounts with are in the area, pre-make several deposit slips but don't date them or put amounts. Hit banks that aren't named on the deposit slips first. Once you burn thru the $1500 and sort quickly, pull out a slip, note the amount, date it, and rush to the nearest bank. Cash them in, walk out, go to the ATM, withdraw monies, and repeat cycle of getting halves and cashing them in at other banks.

Of course, this means you might not be able to grab halves at said bank, so.........

...so call ahead to your prospective dump branch and ask if they have halves. If not, go ahead and dump there. If so, buy their halves and find another dump branch.

I've done this a lot. I have accounts with several banks. I call all banks ahead of time so that I am not wasting time stopping at a bank that does not have any half dollars and I only stop if they have $10.00 or more. I have found that almost all banks that have half dollars don't care if you have an account with them or not. They just want to get rid of the half dollars that are taking up room in the vault. I try to to dump my half dollars at banks with coin counters. I would dump all $1500.00 at that one bank and then ask for the first bag that drops from the counter. You now have $1000.00 cash and $500.00 in halves to sort. I would take any half dollars you can find, CWR or not. The biggest problem you will run into is running out of time. Good Luck..

Don't forget to ask if they have any "big" dollar coins.......

cesariojpn wrote: ... rush to the nearest bank you belong too. Cash them in, walk out, go to the ATM, withdraw monies, and repeat cycle of getting halves and cashing them in at other banks.

My dump bank will be branches of US Bank, its my only bank-with-account in that city. If I deposit the halves to the account, the daily ATM withdraw limit is only $400. I may need to just ask for FRNs for the coins instead.

You should be able to call your bank (where your dumping) and raise your Atm daily amount. My Cu has done this when we were on vacation.

HD-Daddy wrote:You should be able to call your bank (where your dumping) and raise your Atm daily amount. My Cu has done this when we were on vacation.

Thank you for this tip. I went to the local branch to request it, they said 4 days from now, it would be raised from $500/day to $3,000/day.

IdahoCopper wrote:

HD-Daddy wrote:You should be able to call your bank (where your dumping) and raise your Atm daily amount. My Cu has done this when we were on vacation.

Thank you for this tip. I went to the local branch to request it, they said 4 days from now, it would be raised from $500/day to $3,000/day.

Sweet. I need to do this as well. It's also a good excuse to go into the bank. I can ask for halves when I am in there!

US Bank wants a 5% fee to dump, even if I am depositing the coin. Sheesh, I think that kills this project....

I have seen this before and this works for me with US Bank (I assume you have a consumer account vs. a business account).

When they state that they have a coin return fee, ask the Branch Manager to show you where in the account information this is disclosed. If it is not disclosed, ask them if they are required under federal bank regulations to disclose all account fees.

If they push it with you, ask them to send you a letter stating the fee or give them your email and ask them to send information regarding this fee.

IdahoCopper wrote:US Bank wants a 5% fee to dump, even if I am depositing the coin. Sheesh, I think that kills this project....

I live in eastern Oregon but dump at US Bank in Boise often. I just walk in and tell the teller I have a "coin deposit" and after it is run through the machine I ask the teller for the cash saying something like, "I need it to pay some bills". Just walk in like you own the place.