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Would anyone be interested to know......
Donovan
Posts: 386 ✭
That I recently started working in a coin sorting/processing facility for an armored car company that contracts with the Federal Reserve. I "handle" about $100,000 worth of coins per day and spot quite a few interesting things. The big surprise of today was a full bag (5000 coins) of steel cents. I guess someone cashed in grandpa's hoard. I've only been there a few weeks but I've seen pleanty of interesting stuff like that. If there's any interest in me doing so, I'll make periodic posts of the things I see.
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<< <i>You saw 5,000 BU steel cents in a bag and didn't try to buy them at face? BIG MISTAKE!!!!! >>
They weren't BU, circulated. We can't buy any of the stuff we see anyway.
OOPS,already answered.
Noun, working for an armoured car company, seeing plenty of cool coins, can't buy any of them.
Man, that would drive me nuts to see all that stuff and know all I could do is look!
Ditto LanLord's comments. I can't imagine it...
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Holy cow! This must be shear Hell!
<< <i>Can you pilfer any finds,or is that against federal law?
OOPS,already answered. >>
Yup, if you take even one cent, it's a federal felony. They treat it just as if you'd robbed a bank, because in reality, we have the monitary equivalent of many banks, tens of millions, if not hundreds of millions, at any given moment.
Now, the funny thing is, occasionally a few small items do seem to come up missing. I'll post more on that later.
<< <i>Sounds very interesting. Ever see any old clad coinage? That's stuff that was stored more than five years ago. >>
Yes, in fact, yesterday I saw what was probably someone cashing in their Kennedy half collection. Many uncirculated early clad and proofs. The amount of 40% silver halves that I see is so much that they don't even merit a second look anymore.
<< <i>"We can't buy any of the stuff we see anyway."
Holy cow! This must be shear Hell! >>
It was for the first week or so but you get used to it. No one else there but me knows anything about coins so their interest level is about zero. It's funny though, whenever someone spots something interesting, they bring it to me and ask what it is.
<< <i> Hell, doesnt even have to be rare or neat, I wanna hear stories about pallets full of bricks of 100 dollar bills and stuff like that too. >>
When they bring the armored cars in toward the end of the day from their runs, man o man, talk about bricks of $100 bills (and every other denomination). They haul those around on pallets. Picture a pallet of $100 bills three feet high, three feet wide and two feet long. Bundle after bundle of cash tied up in "bricks" of what must be $10,000-$20,000 per brick. That's neat the first time you see it but not as interesting as the coins that come by.
That is very interesting indeed. I've got a good friend who has been working for a very large commercial laundry company for 15 years. They place washers and dryers in apartment complexes and so forth, and his job is to empty the vaults. It is amazing how many people will use silver coins to wash their clothes! Unlike your position he can and does buy the keepers he finds at face value, he has assembled a Washington quarter set, key dates included, has several Barbers, and even some Standing Libertys, not to mention about $3,000 in common date silver quarters. He handles so many quarters he just bags them up in his van in 50 pound increments, that's roughly $1,000 dollars, and takes them to an armored car company for counting at the end of the day.
Joe
I bet the gov won't allow that either !
Now that would be cool. And legal.
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<< <i>Let me ask you this; In the unlikely event that you came across an early (pre 1850's) silver dollar or say an MS flying eagle cent, what would you do? I mean, for the sake of numismatists every where, you couldn't just let it go to the melting pot could you? >>
All good coin either gets rolled or bagged. Bad/foriegn coin goes to the junk bin and gets sold as scrap. I've already inquired about buying the "scrap" but no deal, they have a contractor (lucky guy, I know he's making a fortune just on the high face value canadian and euro coins). So what about those two things? Well, they'd either go into a "good" coin bag or roll or I might do what I see some of the people doing when they find a coin they think is neat, they glue it to the front of one of the wrapping machines. The funny thing is, those coins that get glued there often disappear over the weekend. Someone clearly has the means and access to get what they want (in small amounts), but it isn't me. I don't have the opportunity to get anything unless I try and steal it (no easy task), and I wouldn't do that anyway. No coin in existance is worth a felony robbery conviction and jail term. So, it's probably best that coins like that go into rolls or bags so a lucky collector has a shot at finding them, rather than the weekend crew smuggling them out probably never to be seen again in numismatic circles.
<< <i>Donovan, what happens to some of these coins after they are sorted? For example, the 40% silvers. Are they (could it be???) just rolled and put into circulation or are they netted out to some firm for future sale to people like us( Oh me me me me me please)? >>
Everything goes into rolls or bags and sits on a pallet awaiting an order from a bank. Maybe what I need to do is specially mark some of the bags and then request my bank order a bag of halves but only the one with the "red star" on the bag. Hey, there's an idea.
<< <i>No coin in existance is worth a felony robbery conviction and jail term. >>
1933 double eagle?
<< <i>YES! NO! Yes...No...yes...no... I do but I don't. It would kill me to work in a place like that. You need to work out an above board perfectly legal way to gain access to the goodies. Try explaining to your boss that the roll of silver quarters is worth more than the $10 face value just for the metal. >>
I'm the only coin person there. No one else knows much of anything about coins. In fact, they had a french 20 franc gold coin glued to one of the machines. When I pointed out what it was to one of the supervisors, he said oh yeah, we put it up there because it was cool but it's not really gold. I pointed out that it was in fact real etc. etc. and it disappeared that weekend. So, for the most part, the people who work there have no idea what they come across. I did speak with the boss about how we're leaving "money on the table" but he actually became annoyed and gave me the company line about it doesn't matter what we think is valuable, our job is top sort/bag/roll, etc and not think about it. Oh well, sigh.....
<< <i>send pictures >>
Can't. They are very strict about security and NOTHING goes in or out of the building. Everything goes into a locker before you go into the facility.
That would make for a good weekly thread!
Pics! Oh yes, and a floor plan please.
Larry
Dabigkahuna
UGGGGGH!!! PLEASE STOP THE NUMISMATIC HORROR STORIES!!! I CAN'T TAKE IT!!!