Realcent.org

I've been sorting pennies for almost three years now. I've gone to almost every bank around here and none would sell me bags off their counter. I gave up and figured I was destined to only get boxes forever. Today while depositing my check and picking up two boxes, the teller said she had to make sure they had two boxes for me. She then said someone else got a box of pennies today and another customer picked up a bag of loose coin. I asked how can he get loose coin. She said she just has to order it. OMG, looks like I'll be weening my self off of boxes finally! Hopefully they aren't my dumps from another bank and are 28% copper.

good luck, bags are nice, but boxes are good too.

spacemanX wrote:good luck, bags are nice, but boxes are good too.

I've not yet been lucky enough to find a source for bags of cents. $25 boxes are good (unless you get a minty fresh box of zincs). Stopping by any random bank and asking for a couple bucks in pennies can be interesting when out and about.

In my experience, small volume requests don't require having an existing account, and almost always yield customer wrapped rolls (CWRs). When the teller hands over some obviously old rolls, I tend to drive really fast to get home and see what's inside . An example from this week --

Nice Very nice

Zincanator wrote:

spacemanX wrote:good luck, bags are nice, but boxes are good too.

In my experience, small volume requests don't require having an existing account, and almost always yield customer wrapped rolls (CWRs). When the teller hands over some obviously old rolls, I tend to drive really fast to get home and see what's inside . An example from this week --

OMG! Look at those reddish cents!! Must..... Get..... CWRs....Now!

Got the first bag today!
27.6% Cu
13 Wheats, oldest: 1919 S, 1930
4 Canadian Cu
1964 Kennedy stamped cent

Bye bye boxes!

Just wait until you get a $50.00 bag with 11 CU cents in it

But you are right, overall, it is a little (to a lot) better percentages. But I have also found the bagged cents are much dirtier, and have many more bent pennies in them (i.e. ryedale jams). I have a coin counter now, so I run everything through that first and it spits out 6-10 nasty and bent cents, and the jams during sorting are minimal. I too like getting bags when possible. As long as they do not end up being someone else's zinc dump, they are usually as good or better than boxes. It is rare to get 80% CU box, but I have certainly gotten that on bags (400+ dollars one time).

No boxes this week, all bags!
I got four bags, one more then what I ordered.
The address on the extra bag was that of my pick up bank...and they said they couldn't sell bags off their counter.

dirty fingers wrote:I have also found the bagged cents are much dirtier, and have many more bent pennies in them (i.e. ryedale jams).

I noticed this also.
Did a "pre scan" before they went into the Ryedale, pulled out about 50 crusty ones and ran all four bags without a single jam.
There was also $2.20 in quarters, dimes and a nickle.

RichardPenny43 wrote:There was also $2.20 in quarters, dimes and a nickle.

From one branch I get bags from, every other bag has about 1 to 2 of dimes and quarters in it. The other is pure cents. I think they have a 2-row counter (fills 2 cent bags at one time), and one of them gets some spillage coins. I am pretty sure they are counted. Almost always from this branch, the bags have 4999 'coins' in them, exactly, whether it is one of the pure cent bags, or one that has 12 dimes and 3 quarters along with the cents. Note, I always get an even number of bags from this branch, and this is why I think it is a dual bag counter (dual for cents). When I check, it is always, 0, 2, 4, 6, etc. Never 1 or 3. And the 1 out of 2 has held up every time, so all I can think is that it is fully in setup/tuning of the machine.

dirty fingers wrote:

RichardPenny43 wrote:There was also $2.20 in quarters, dimes and a nickle.

From one branch I get bags from, every other bag has about 1 to 2 of dimes and quarters in it. The other is pure cents. I think they have a 2-row counter (fills 2 cent bags at one time), and one of them gets some spillage coins. I am pretty sure they are counted. Almost always from this branch, the bags have 4999 'coins' in them, exactly, whether it is one of the pure cent bags, or one that has 12 dimes and 3 quarters along with the cents. Note, I always get an even number of bags from this branch, and this is why I think it is a dual bag counter (dual for cents). When I check, it is always, 0, 2, 4, 6, etc. Never 1 or 3. And the 1 out of 2 has held up every time, so all I can think is that it is fully in setup/tuning of the machine.

So you are out .01 on every bag unless you get those pesky dimes or quarters!

[quote="spacemanX"]In my experience, small volume requests don't require having an existing account, and almost always yield customer wrapped rolls (CWRs). When the teller hands over some obviously old rolls, I tend to drive really fast to get home and see what's inside . quote]


Customer wrapped rolls are a dream, a complete unknown in this part of the country (mid-west). All of the banks in my area have counters, and will break open /count any rolls they get from a customer. I've asked - none of the banks will sell rolls except those that they have made themselves or get from the Fed.

Of course, bank wrapped rolls can be short, contain foreign coins, other deniminations, etc. But woe to the customer who does that to the bank....

JD