Penny Arcade roulette (long)

[JerrySpringer]

Deposited $250 in dimes at a TD Penny Arcade today except it shorted me about $2.50. It may have miscounted eight dimes as cents or maybe there were actual pennies still sitting in the coin trough. I do not know. My total was actually 247.43. I still find it puzzling that the money may have gone poof. A bank manager came over and emptied the bags after they filled. She was curious why I kept dimes a separate count from pennies and nickels. It is because of things like this. I like to have round numbers of dimes, nickels, halves, etc. to dump so I can see if there is a discrepancy. Normally I find the PA counts accurate but it does miscount dimes as pennies sometimes. The manager took the politically correct stance that the machines are checked twice daily for coin count accuracy and that the machine I was using was just serviced. I did not press the issue because I do not want the bank personnel to tell me to just not use the machine if I have a problem with it. I did tell her that the PA does mistake dimes for pennies sometimes though. Now, it is possible I actually had about $247.50 in dimes in the bag I dumped but I am usually very careful to make sure any dimes I take out of the boxes I replace with exact same dollar amount. The box itself could of been short that amount, but man, that is highly unlikely. Maybe time to weigh dime boxes.

I know you folks get tired of me carping about the coin counters that eat coins here and there but the attitude of the bank is that their machines are never to blame. So tread with advance knowledge to know how much you are dumping into these Penny Arcade counters. I am thinking of never using them for dimes again. I guess in the long run, we get much more money's worth of service from these counters as we pay no fees as account holders so it may all even out anyway. The one thought that crossed my mind as I saw the machine's final tally on dimes was that I need to get more copper pennies from now on to help defray the costs of this coin-chase game. It is still fun but I feel like the banks will sooner or later restrict the rather great ease we have of getting coins and dumping them with extreme glee.

[68Camaro]

Well, all those "extra" coins that many of us get from time to time? They came from somewhere. Like your bag. I always get a couple of extra dimes - sometimes those are real, but I doubt that all are. Friday I got a quarter that I know wasn't in the bag. It came from someone else, went into the machine, and didn't come out - thus didn't make it into their count.

[slickeast]

I ALWAYS have dimes in the penny bags I buy off the machines. The bank can't adjust the count for every person that brings in coin and has a discrepancy. You are taking a gamble dumping dimes. You are out $2.50. So what!!! That is a small price to pay to use their machine.

When I dump pennies, the count on the ticket usually shows other denominations. I know that I don't have quarters and nickels mixed in, but they show up on the ticket. Maybe running 30,000 ! Pennies dislodged some coins that were in the machine from the last person. Whatever the reason, I cash the ticket out and go about my business.

The only thing complaining about a minimal loss will do is get you banned from using the machine.

[Thogey]

Nothing is perfect.

When I was working in 'corporate' America ,I know it's had to believe, but I worked for Smith-Klein Beecham, now it's GlaxoSmithKlien. They would push this 6 sigma business model, which meant your error rate was supposed to be 6 standard deviations below the mean rate of error (whatever that is). Anyway, it's impossible to achieve 6 standard deviations above or below the mean of anything that requires effort or any kind of system at all.

Before that, I was a nuclear missile combat crew commander for 6 years. Our whole job revolved around being error free, perfect. That whole nuclear command structure (many decades of history) was occupied by a mass of 'attention to detail' dorks. Our job was to avoid errors and mistakes in security, operation and maintenance.
But, mistakes happened every day.

The bank guy is and absolute fool to even dream about his piss ant coin- counting system being error free. I would have laughed out loud, thanked him for the use of his equipment and drove on with my life.

[Henchman]

I been shorted a few times when dumping halves at TD and probably pennies (though I never count them). The max was 4 halves, but I made the mistake of throwing them in on top of $150 in pennies. However all and all I make out like a bandit dumping at TD bank. I fill the bags every time making the tellers change them. As they change they also empty out the reject shoot and throw between $1-2 in on top of my pennies. Then thanks to the tip by 68Camaro I scrape the magnet when possible for TONS of goodies. My biggest score in one trip was $3.15 Canadian, $1 Euro, 10 other foreign coin and the pop out penny I just sold.

Even if the machine gimped me 1% every time, I would not complain. 1% is a small price to pay versus wrapping the coin by hand.

Long live semi-free dumping at TD!

Henchman

[Aqualung48]

I have a question for all who use these coin counting machines:

Why bother and take this risk, when you can roll the coins for at a cost of about 1/2 cent per paper rapper? Or you could reuse the original CWR by simply opening one end with a screwdriver and drop the coins out. The slip them back in after sorting.

Either way, when you take rolled coins to the bank, you can take them up the counter and get your deposit ticket back immediately for the count of the rolls. The only problem can be too much volume for the vault teller, where they claim they no longer have room to accept this coin deposit and offer to call another branch to see if they do, which wastes time. The tellers can grow tired of this type of deposit, which means its time to take the banking business elsewhere. Nevertheless, returning rolled coins removes the risk complained of in this thread, and can be done while sorting. For pennies, as I sort, I place them face up on a flat surface in groups of ten, which is an easy visual check as I sort. Five groups and its placed in a roll. It takes a fraction of the time to place them in a roll than it does to do the sorting, not to mention the effort at getting them in the first place. The cost of the flat paper rolls is further offset by the percentage that some coin counting machines take as a fee for their service . This can be greater than 5% (or make you accept the full amount as a non-refundable gift card to a local merchant.)

[cesariojpn]

I have a question for all who use these coin counting machines:

Why bother and take this risk, when you can roll the coins for at a cost of about 1/2 cent per paper rapper? Or you could reuse the original CWR by simply opening one end with a screwdriver and drop the coins out. The slip them back in after sorting.

Because some banks don't accept CWR or coins from a non-trusted source due to people out there that aren't "perfect little angles" and would glady swap $1 worth of washers stuck in a roll with only $2 worth of quarters at the end for a "massive" $7 profit from the bank.

[Aqualung48]

"Because some banks don't accept CWR or coins from a non-trusted source due to people...."


The key word in your reply is trusted. Once a bank gets to know you, they accept the coins as long as their vault teller can accommodate the volume. I would also suggest a way to achieve this is instead of cashing in the coins or making a deposit, use the coins to make a payment on one of their credit cards. If they refuse, ask for their name to use when you call the 800 number on the card to complain the bank will not accept your payment.

[CardsNCoins]

In the coin roll hunting hobby sometimes there is a "cost of doing business" associated with it. The 1% you "lost" in this instance is negligible in my opinion, and I would not have even mentioned it to the bank. Here is a picture I've posted in the past of dime rolls I got straight from a sealed Brinks box.



I'm not saying some of your dimes were not counted as pennies, but you may have walked in the bank door with less than you thought. You have to learn to take the good with the bad in this hobby.

[gotin]

I've received sealed Brinks boxes that were $50 (yes, that's 5 rolls) or less short.
I also have received sealed Brinks Boxes that had an extra roll in them.
In the end it evens out.
How many times have you received more than what you dumped?