Who else checks the return slot of CoinStar machines?..

hrlaser · November 1, 2009 4:59AM

So I'm at the supermarket this morning, shopping "on the cheap".. Mmm.. 1/3 price "day old" bakery rack just being wheeled out.. "day old" is really a misnomer.. since all the goods they put on that rack, which they wheel into a hallway where the restrooms are.. kind of like they want to sell it, but they make it difficult to find, and put it out at a different time every day, and every day it has different baked goods on it.. all bakery goods dated to expire tomorrow.. after which, they can't legally sell the stuff.. there's nothing wrong with it.. it's not stale.. they just have to sell it by mm/dd or throw it out.. so they fill up a rack and mark the stuff down to 1/3 or even 1/4 the original price.. most stores don't have these racks.. Ralph's in So. Calif. does..

Then picked up this and that, paid (while I watch both the checker and the bagger at the same time as I'm working the card swiper to make sure I get the advertised "club card" prices, to make sure she doesn't double-scan anything, to make sure he bags everything.. and then, on my way out, I ALWAYS check the return slot of the CoinStar machine..

It is, to me, remarkable how many people pay a 10% rake-off to have a machine count their bags and jars of change (which I wish I could go through before they dump it in.. but that's another story).. but even more remarkable is how many people walk away from the machine and leave a bunch of coins in the return slot, which is down by yer knees..

Don't they KNOW the machine has a return slot?.. are they in a hurry, don't care, or just stupid?..

So I always check it.. and this morning, I pulled out nine quarters (the oldest, a few dated 1966, the newest, a 2008 Alaska.. a few Roosies (no Silver..).. a few cents.. and a BU 2000 Bermuda dime.. once, I pulled out about $12.00 worth of change from the machine's return slot.. I couldn't believe it.. and yes, I've gotten Silver.. usually dimes.. and often I find coins from Canada, Panama, and a few Euros.. this is the first time I've ever gotten a Bermuda coin..

So I'm posting because I'm curious if you kids also check the return slot of CoinStar machines, and if so, what's the most you've ever scooped out of one that someone else left behind.. OR.. what's been your best find in the return slot?..

Harv

tjkillian · November 1, 2009 5:04AM

I make an effort to check the coinstar return slot too. I call it the "silver filter" as it rejects silver coins and I go there to scoop them up.

Free silver always puts a smile on my face.

PerryHall · November 1, 2009 5:06AM

And I thought I was the only one.

tbarreca · November 1, 2009 5:15AM

I don't check the return slots on CoinStar machines, but this topic reminded me of something that happened on Father's Day in 2004. I dropped a bucket of recently searched Lincoln cents into the CoinStar machine at a local supermarket and it jammed.

The Assistant Manager of the store came over, and ran the standard drill: Opened up the cabinet, swung out the counting mechanism, and cleared the jam. But as he was finishing, he pulled out the reject bin that is internal to the cabinet. He handed it to me and said, "Anything in there you're interested in?" I looked quickly, and saw something big and white, but from an angle such that I couldn't see what it was. Given where I live, and the neighborhood this store was in, the probability was high that this was a Mexican piece of some sort. I reached in and removed it without looking at it, keeping my eyes fixed on his. "Maybe this one. Thanks," I said, and dropped the coin into my pocket.

I completed the counting, got the ticket for my funds, and then proceeded to check out. As I walked to my car, I removed the coin from my pocket and got quite a surprise. It was a 1900-P Morgan, in surprisingly good condition, sort of EF-AUish.

The moral of this story: If you ever get a chance to check the reject bin as well as the return slot, make sure that you do!

MsMorrisine · November 1, 2009 5:25AM

mine are dry dry dry.

JimDepot · November 1, 2009 5:30AM

Check it everytime, once found a token for Dollywood.

jessewvu · November 1, 2009 5:32AM

I don't do any shopping so I don't see CoinStar machines. I did grab a 1962 quarter sitting on top of a coin counting machine at our bank a few months ago, it was all bent up.

hrlaser · November 1, 2009 5:32AM

Nice score, tbarreca!.. Your story sort of reminds me of the apocrpha.. aprocry.. duh.. famous story posted to R.c.c. a number of years ago by a guy named Bob, who bought rolls of Halves at his local bank to search for 90% and 40% Silver.. well, one day, he came home with a few rolls.. cracked them open and a SAINT fell out of one of them!.. he shot pictures of the roll(s) to prove it.. he was a long-time poster on R.c.c. so no one had any reason to doubt his story..

We figured that some senior citizen had "hidden" the Saint in a roll of Halves, for what reason I can't begin to guess.. had passed away, and his idiot descendants had taken all the rolls of Dad's or Grampa's Halves to the bank to cash them in for folding stuff.. and lucky Bob came along, bought a few hand-rolled rolls at face, and got VERY lucky.. since a Saint is about the size of a half.. it'd fit just fine in one of those D.I.Y. paper rolls..

My other head-slapper is that I went into a local smoke shop once, and the guy who ran the place told me a "senior" had come in the day before, and bought a few cartons of smokes and paid for them with rolls of Halves.. ALL Franklin Halves!.. I asked the shopkeeper if he wanted to sell them, but he said he had already taken them home.. just my luck.. he was a coin collector..

SaorAlba · November 1, 2009 5:35AM

I check them all the time and have found silver, coins from France, Germany, Bolivia, even Malaysia. My most recent find is a 1951 French 10 Francs that must have been masquerading as a nickel. My best finds are steel cents, and 1920's Lincolns. About a month or so ago I found a 1926 in the reject slot.

GrumpyEd · November 1, 2009 5:44AM

My curiosity makes me look!
I've also found several coins abandoned on the top of the machines. I think those are rejects people put back but got rejected again so they leave them on top. So far no silver for me, only foreign coins.

19Lyds · November 1, 2009 5:55AM

Me!

I constantly check the return coin slot. Last week, I scored 11 cents!

laserart · November 1, 2009 5:59AM

I never find anything. Sounds like the best thing to do is try to jam the machine.

Barry · November 1, 2009 6:06AM

I've never seen a Coinstar machine.

ricko · November 1, 2009 6:12AM

I always check, but have never found a single coin to date. Cheers, RickO

hrlaser · November 1, 2009 6:13AM

<< I've never seen a Coinstar machine. >>

Barry.. they're kinda hard to miss.. the things are screaming green, and about the same size as a freakin' phone booth!.. remember phone booths?..

FindOneNearYou

tbarreca · November 1, 2009 6:16AM

<< I never find anything. Sounds like the best thing to do is try to jam the machine. >>

Don't worry. My experience is that you don't have to try too hard. I haven't used them much in probably 3 or 4 years now, but they used to jam all the time!

ctf_error_coins · November 1, 2009 6:19AM

My Coinstar story..............

So I have a bag of bison nickels (I thought that I had previously searched, but apparently not) and dump it into the coinstar machine and what gets ejected ....

a 100% Improperly Annealed Planchet / Copper Wash Error as the coin is 100% copper in color (not not a cent planchet)

So Coinstar gave me a 200 dollar coin, that was mine to begin with.

nickel · November 1, 2009 6:22AM

most of the times I check , the return slot is empty .
Any finds are modern foreign , sticky lincoln cents ,
an occasional silver dime , but never quarters
or halves . Seems like there used to be more junk
in the return tray about a year or more ago , and
much less recently .

JedPlanchet · November 1, 2009 6:22AM

<< I always check, but have never found a single coin to date. Cheers, RickO >>

I check too, never get anything

Maybe I should stuff some cotton up into the return

CarlWohlforth · November 1, 2009 6:30AM

Great place to find coins! The rejects are the most interesting anyway. I have found silver dimes and Mexican coins. I never, every, found that many quarters though, great score!

hrlaser · November 1, 2009 6:47AM

<< Great place to find coins! The rejects are the most interesting anyway. I have found silver dimes and Mexican coins. I never, every, found that many quarters though, great score! >>

As I scoped out the nine quarters (and other coins).. this morning, I wondered why the machine had rejected them.. none of them were Silver, none of them were bent.. just yer run of the mill, circulated pocket change.. maybe the machine just couldn't handle whatever was getting dumped into it, and just spit some of them back out!?..

I did get a blank planchet a few weeks ago from the return slot.. it has upset rims, but no reeding.. it's brass-colored, smaller than a Sacabuck, but bigger than a quarter.. I can't figure out what it is.. I put it on my electronic gram scale and it weighs less than a Sacabuck and more than a quarter.. I thought maybe it's a D.I.Y. car wash token, but those are usually exactly the same size as quarters.. maybe a blank foreign planchet?.. There's absolutely NO hint of any design elements on either side.. so I'm stumped.. It looks just like JedPlanchet's Avatar, but brassy-yellowish.. not Copper-colored.. I was musing about sending it into a TPG but I figured it'd probably come back as "cannot identify"..

BXBOY143 · November 1, 2009 7:38AM

<< I always check, but have never found a single coin to date. Cheers, RickO >>

same here

Barry · November 1, 2009 7:42AM

Barry.. they're kinda hard to miss.. the things are screaming green, and about the same size as a freakin' phone booth!.. remember phone booths?..

Harv - I did a search and there are 15 Coinstars within 5 miles of my zip code. Most are in supermarkets, one in a WalMart and one in a Credit Union. I just don't visit those places. Conversely, I was glad to get rid of about $3.00 in change earlier today at Home Depot.
BTW, I remember that R.C.C. post, too.

Oh, and phone booths - never liked them. It's very hard to walk when attached to my belt clip.

AJ2525 · November 1, 2009 7:55AM

I used to always check.

Then my kids asked me what I was doing. So I explained to them what I was looking for. Now they check it each time we go to the grocery store.

My oldest got three cents today.

Last year she got a 1943 Walking Liberty half.

I've gotten a few silver FDR dimes.

I always check.

TrustNo1 · November 1, 2009 8:00AM

I'm still wondering about the bakery rack near the restrooms.

Weiss · November 1, 2009 8:14AM

I'll go a little out of my way to go to a store that has a coinstar over one that doesn't just so I can check. What can I say? I'm a coin collector and a metal detectorist who searches through my coin-op til every month. It's in my blood.

I've found tons. A little silver, lots of clad. Foreign, and several tokens of various makes and models. Probably every 10th gawk.

Here are just a few of the highlights from the last 5 years. Each image represents one find:

hrlaser · November 1, 2009 8:44AM

<< I'm still wondering about the bakery rack near the restrooms. >>

By law, supermarkets cannot sell out-dated baked goods, or anything refrigerated - meat, dairy, and so on.. the out-dated refrigerated stuff they throw out.. or maybe they give it to a food bank, homeless shelter.. I don't know..

But the baked goods.. and I mean both the stuff Ralph's has trucked in with their own name brand on it, and the stuff from companies like Pepperidge Farms, Sara Lee, Orowheat, Pioneer.. and many other name brands.. 239082938471 different kinds of loaves of bread, pound cakes, boxes of donuts, muffins, buns, rolls, you name it.. everything on the bakery aisle, and at their in-store bakery has a "sell by" date on it.. when you pay full price, say three or four bucks for a loaf of name-brand bread (which in itself is an outrageous price, considering I can remember 25 cent loaves of name brand bread.. but then again, I'm 59, so I can also remember 25 cent a gallon gasoline, and $2000 new cars.. but I digress).. anyway, in some Cities / Counties / States, supermarkets are allowed to have what they call a "day-old" rack.. which is a misnomer.. the stuff is not expired, it expires the NEXT day.. it's just commonly called the "day-old" rack..

They prune through the mile-long bakery aisle for anything that expires "tomorrow", say a $3.50 loaf of premium bread, and put a "Manager's special" sticker on it for $1.00 or even 50 cents.. and put it on this very tall rack on wheels with many shelves.. what's on that rack varies from day to day.. today they had a lot of un-sold Halloween cookies and cakes and such.. along with all kinds of bread, buns, muffins, bagels, you name it.. all dated "sell by 02 November, 2009"..

They perform this sorting / re-pricing act behind their in-store bakery counter.. and load up this huge rack on wheels..

Then, they roll it to somewhere else in the store.. in the case of the Ralph's I go to, that place is a hallway, between the Bakery section, and the Seafood section.. in that hallway, which is maybe twenty steps away from the full-priced, mile-long baked goods aisle, are the doors to the store's public restrooms, a drinking fountain, some store rooms, and other things.. so you're not buying food inside the toilet.. it's on that huge, tall, multi-shelf rack in a hallway, at ridiculously cheap prices..

At the end of each day, whatever's left on that rack, they have to toss.. or maybe they donate it to a charity, or a soup kitchen, or some place.. I don't know.. but by law, they're not allowed to sell the stuff after the "sell before" date.. so this is a daily ritual..

The stuff on the rack is not garbage.. it's not stale.. it's not moldy.. it's perfectly edible..

I've been in Sacramento a few times for conventions, staying at a hotel, went to a Ralph's up there, asked where the "day old bakery rack" was, and they said "we don't have one.. it's against the law in Sacramento." I said "the Ralph's a mile from my home in So. Calif. has one." They said "the laws are different there.. probably varies from County to County"..

Some supermarket chains in some locales have them.. some don't.. all I know is the Ralph's a mile from me has one.. they wheel it out every day, you never know what's going to be on it until you go to the store and look it over.. there might be 20 boxes of donuts on it one day, and none the next.. this morning I picked up a few loaves of premium brand multi-grain bread, cinnamon bread, sourdough bread, and sliced pound cake, all of it at anywhere from 1/3 to 1/4 the regular price.. stick a loaf of bread in the refrigerator and it'll last for a couple of weeks.. stick it in the freezer, it'll last for months.. leave it out at room temperature, and it'll start growng green fuzz after ten days or so..

I stock up on the kind of stuff I like at a fraction of what the "fresh stock" sells for, mere steps away.. why throw away money.. it's perfectly good stuff.. it's just not "fresh off the truck"..

So this bargain bakery rack has nothing to do with the restrooms other than at THIS store, they usually put it in the hallway where the doors to their public restrooms are.. obviously, they'd prefer you buy identical stuff at full price from the regular bakery areas.. but if you know the bargain rack exists, and where it is, you can buy the same stuff and save a ton of money.. for coins!..

ponderit · November 1, 2009 8:55AM

I give it a glance. Sometimes there's a coin or two

kevinstang · November 1, 2009 9:31AM

<< 
As I scoped out the nine quarters (and other coins).. this morning, I wondered why the machine had rejected them.. none of them were Silver, none of them were bent.. just yer run of the mill, circulated pocket change.. maybe the machine just couldn't handle whatever was getting dumped into it, and just spit some of them back out!?..

>>

I use the coinstars alot to take back coins I have searched and don't feel like re-rolling- usually pennies, up here in upstate NY we get alot of Canadian ones- the new ones are plated steel so they tend to get rejected. I've noticed that when one of them gets rejected it usually spits out a lincoln or two,maybe three with it- kind of like tag along rejects. I drop them back in and they work fine. Same thing happens sometimes when a Lincoln cent is badly correded- the extra weight or lack of weight gets it rejected and a few of the following coins behind it drop out with the reject. Maybe this is what happened with the quarters, you said there were some foreign coins as well, maybe they piggybacked in. I picked up about 30 or so cents last week from one in a supermarket-all Canadian, a quarter and some pennies. They were left in plastic dish sitting atop the machine- saw them there when I went in shopping and said what the heck when I was leaving a half hour or so later and took them. I think my best haul was about $2 and something Canadian one time, never got a silver coin, however one time I did get a silver dime in my change while cashing in the credit slip from a Coinstar.

MaineJim · November 1, 2009 9:35AM

I love the coin sorters and have had some nice finds associated with them. As for the reject slot I usually take a peak. I've found a few handfuls on occasion. Silver quarters, dimes and tons of foreign stuff. If I'm in a bank and someone is pouring a large bag of coins in the sorter I will occasionally ask to purchase their rejects. They usually just hand them to me thinking it is worthless. Once I saw someone dumping a pickle bucket worth of coins into a sorter. I walked over and noticed the bucket contained a bunch of interesting coins including wheat pennies and some foreign silver that kept getting rejected. They let me pick out what I wanted as they poured it in and sold it to me at face except the foreign coins which they just gave me as they were just going to toss in the trash... I wish I could purchase the bags off the machines but alas have never had any luck with that request.

Maine_Jim

GrumpyEd · November 1, 2009 9:46AM

<< As I scoped out the nine quarters (and other coins).. this morning, I wondered why the machine had rejected them.. none of them were Silver, none of them were bent.. just yer run of the mill, circulated pocket change. >>

Last time I was feeding a jar of cents into a coinstar it went fine until the last few hundred. Then it kept rejecting coins and I kept feeding them back until I realized it started rejecting all coins. To get it to take them I cashed out and printed the reciept then started again and it took all the ones it was rejecting. So that's one trick, if it goes crazy rejecting good coins just cash out and then put the rest in.

hrlaser · November 1, 2009 10:23AM

GrumpyEd.. that makes sense.. Thanks..

Maybe it was that Bermuda dime that caused the machine to go into cat mode.. choke and spit up a hairball.. and reject all those normal quarters.. I can always use quarters.. especially free ones ;-) .. I'd prefer a hand full of Silver, but I'll take over two bucks of free clads.. where else can you find free money just sitting there for the taking?.. At this Ralph's, the CoinStar machine is in full view of the checkstands, and literally next to the front Manager's desk.. no one has ever said "keep yer grubby hands outta there" when I reach in to check the reject slot.. and I NEVER leave the store without checking it.. I pulled a Standing Liberty Quarter out of the slot once.. it's a 1925, but worn down so much, the date is *barely* visible.. I look at that coin now and then and wonder what kind of hard life it had.. how many hands and pockets and purses it must've passed through during the Depression to get worn down to a Poor.. or even below Poor.. maybe, "Pathetic -1"..

Speaking of free money.. this reminds me of the time I was in a Las Vegas casino, and someone had walked away from a Video Poker machine and left nearly $100.00 worth of quarters in the coin tray.. I think they had hit a Royal or quad Aces or some other jackpot above the threshold of coins the machine could barf out, so they got hand-paid, and were so jazzed, they forgot about the coin tray as they trotted off..

I stood there staring at it, wondering if I shoudl just fill a bucket and keep them.. then a girl walked up and saw them, and she said "are those yours?".. And I gave absolutely the wrong answer.. to this day I don't know why.. I said "No..".. so SHE filled a bucket with them and walked away..

The laundry machines in this dump.. err.. apartment building ONLY take quarters..and the lovely knuckle-draggers who own this dump.. err.. apartment building have NEVER, and probably WILL NEVER put in a bill-changer.. or dispensing machines, or a soda machine.. ad nauseum.. they're not real big on ameneties.. guess they expect everyone to keep a bucket of quarters laying around all the time..

And Thanks to whoever mentioned that CoinStar INTERNAL reject bin.. I had no idea the machines had one.. this kind of begs the question as to why it has a hidden reject bin INSIDE, and also a reject slot on the OUTside.. I have to wonder how it decides whether to reject them internally or externally.. and why..

Interesting thread.. fun to compare experiences.. keep 'em coming..

MrSpud · November 1, 2009 10:25AM

I check out the Coinstar slots all the time. I've found everything from silver dimes to tokens to foreign coins to just lots of coins. Sometimes I also reach my hand under the cusions in those overstuffed chairs in some Starbucks and in Borders book store. I never found any silver or foreign coins, but you'd be amazed at the number of coins, mainly quarters, that end up under them

keepdachange · November 1, 2009 10:35AM

I joined a credit union for the sole purpose of using their NO FEE coin counting machine to return half dollars from roll searching. I usually go through $1500.00 worth per week and then dump the clads at the credit union. It never fails that I miss some silver in my sorting and luckily they always come back in the return bin. Gotta love that sound of silver when it gets rejected

InternetJunky · November 1, 2009 10:46AM

I think this depends on how new the CoinStar machine is. After reading about this topic months ago I made it a point to check mine at work. Nothing ever. I then once needed the service for myself so I decided to try it out. But, at the end of the process is reminds you multiple times to check the slot before you leave. My guess is older machines do not do this.

pocketpiececommems · November 1, 2009 10:47AM

I think that you guy must be hitting the Coinstars in the stores that I go to because I am batting zero so far. I do better at the car wash machines.

MaineJim · November 1, 2009 10:50AM

I've watched them empty the CoinStar machines and they are much different than your traditional sorters in banks. They don't use the plastic coin bags, just one large box. They wheel in an empty box and switch them out. I also noticed they used a standard box truck rented from u-haul and the guy moving the coins appeared to be unfazed with hauling such a large quantity of coins outside and up the street about a block. The box looked like it held about ten gallons of coins.

Maine_Jim

Bah1513 · November 1, 2009 10:51AM

I always check and on rare occasions I find some coins usually foreign.

Here"s a good QUESTION......are we stealing from the store? The original owner leaves the coins. Do these coins now become the property of the store or owner of the machines? Any lawyers out there?

RenoTommy · November 1, 2009 10:55AM

United Airlines reported that in an average year, the cleanup crews will find $25,000 to $30,000 worth of change left on the seats of the planes. The proceeds usually go to charities.

Weiss · November 1, 2009 11:04AM

<< I always check and on rare occasions I find some coins usually foreign.

Here"s a good QUESTION......are we stealing from the store? The original owner leaves the coins. Do these coins now become the property of the store or owner of the machines? Any lawyers out there? >>

It's not the store's. It's not coinstar. Neither of them paid for it. It's not the previous owner--they left it. The machines even tell them to check the return slot.

Ethically, I see no dilemma. Technically it could be the store's. But no more than a quarter left in the parking lot.

Ed1840 · November 1, 2009 11:51AM

This is one of the better things about shopping. My wife hates it, and stays a few paces ahead, or behind. I still haven't found anything yet, but it should come sooner or later.

PrivateCoinCollector · November 1, 2009 12:10PM

I have to admit, the other day I walked by and put my hand in the return slot.

CEOGBOSE · November 1, 2009 12:28PM

I never really thought to look but I always say to myself when I see someone dumping them in I wish I could have gone through those first.

08HALA20 · November 1, 2009 1:04PM

Saturday morning I returned my box of halves I searched (No silver) to the bank.
When I finished an elderly lady was waiting to use the machine.

She asked me if the machine counts accurately? Absolutely, it never misses.

I noticed she had 3 bags of nickels, dimes and quarters. I asked her if she checked for silver coins.

What do you mean she said. I told her that the dimes and quarters Pre-1965 were silver.

She says, "Do you mean I have to look through all these? I have $125 in quarters"

I said, "Well, you don't have to you can just dump them in the machine but I will give you at least 10 x's face for them."

"I will give you a dollar for the dimes and $2.50 for the quarters."

We can sit down here at this table and looked through them it will only take a few minutes.

She says, "Da mn, I saw some 1945's in there, I don't have time for this."

I will tell you what, you take them home and go through them.
I am the manager of the gas station next door. You pull out the pre-1965 coins and I will buy them from you.

She put the nickels in the machine and grumpily left with the dimes and quarters.
I guess I ruined her Saturday.

There are a lot of people who have no understanding that there is real silver in coins or NO gold in the Golden dollars.

I too check the Coinstar daily. Once I found the return slot full, my two pockets were weighed down.

Found the usual, Canadian, Foreign, and Wheaties. IIRC there was around $8

Joe

SoCalBigMark · November 2, 2009 4:26AM

Wow, look what I found in the local Ralphs coinstar!

hrlaser · November 2, 2009 4:54AM

<< Wow, look what I found in the local Ralphs coinstar!

>>

Hah!.. that'd be a good trick, since there is only one of those rings in the world, and it's on my hand.. nice bit of sleuthing there.. whoever you are (I know a few "Mark"s.. but none of them are coin collectors.. two of them have Amiga computer histories.. which one are you, eh?..)..

Now if you find my PVHS Class of 1967 14kt Gold ring in a CoinStar machine's return slot.. you let me know.. I lost or mis-placed it probably twenty or twenty-five years ago..

SoCalBigMark · November 2, 2009 4:56AM

It smells like day old bread and obsolete computer components.

morganbarber · November 2, 2009 5:31AM

Ive found darkside and about 3 clipped planchet Lincolns. also some older nickels. No silver.

MVC · November 2, 2009 3:03PM

<< I think that you guy must be hitting the Coinstars in the stores that I go to because I am batting zero so far. I do better at the car wash machines. >>

Same here, every time I check the reject slot it is empty. Only once did I find something. About a year ago the coinstar reject slot I checked was overflowing with change. I could not figure out why. There was not a soul around either.

DBSTrader2 · November 2, 2009 7:06PM

I saw a $20 sticking out of the payment slot of a MAC machine a while back - - more profitable than checking Coinstar!

Barry · November 2, 2009 10:48PM

I saw $1 credit in a slot machine not long ago. Pressed the spin button and the dollar went away.

Who else checks the return slot of CoinStar machines?..

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