# Do businesses pay a premium on rolls of coins? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [December 17, 2004, 11:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-businesses-pay-a-premium-on-rolls-of-coins/280438 "2004-12-17T23:16:40Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![qubed](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/f07891/32.png) [@qubed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/qubed)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2004, 10:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-businesses-pay-a-premium-on-rolls-of-coins/280438/21 "2004-12-18T22:15:18Z")
Ok, I guess I must pretty much concede defeat. Thanks guys. ---
**Author:** ![EvilGhandi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/f17d59/32.png) [@EvilGhandi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EvilGhandi)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2004, 6:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-businesses-pay-a-premium-on-rolls-of-coins/280438/22 "2004-12-19T06:41:15Z")
Don’t concede just yet. You may be right, if only by accident. See I have a business account at a local bank, two actually. It costs me money per transaction to do business. My personal account is at the same bank and I pay a flat monthly rate on it. So if I walk into said bank and say, hello, I’d like $100 of my own money please. They would say sure Mr. Evil how would you like it? I say in pennies. The teller then looks at me as if I was the embodiement of satan himself, then checks if the bank has that many pennies on hand. If they do some guy comes out from the back with these huge canvas bags containing 50 bucks\* worth of pennies each and tosses them into the back of my pickup, trying to dent my bed in the process. Were I to check my statement this transaction cost me 13c, the same as it would cost to transfer $100 from my business to my personal account. - Not sure if it was fifty or twenty but a bag O" pennies is heavy. ---
**Author:** ![EvilGhandi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/f17d59/32.png) [@EvilGhandi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EvilGhandi)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2004, 7:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-businesses-pay-a-premium-on-rolls-of-coins/280438/23 "2004-12-19T07:03:07Z")
After re-reading the OP I see the question involved rolled coin. While I can see the bank might charge a fee to roll them, I have never had the balls to ask for that many rolled pennies. As a side note, the bank did charge me a deposit on the bags that I could have gotten back, if I returned them, but I kept them cause they are way cool strong-ass bags. ---
**Author:** ![iamthewalrus\_3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/258eb7/32.png) [@iamthewalrus\_3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iamthewalrus_3)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2004, 7:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-businesses-pay-a-premium-on-rolls-of-coins/280438/24 "2004-12-19T07:05:39Z")
\Since many major banks don’t charge per transaction, why are all you people who bank with banks that charge per transaction staying with such crappy banks? Do the tellers give blow-jobs or something?\ ---
**Author:** ![EvilGhandi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/f17d59/32.png) [@EvilGhandi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EvilGhandi)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2004, 7:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-businesses-pay-a-premium-on-rolls-of-coins/280438/25 "2004-12-19T07:53:06Z")
Walrus, My bank does not charge my personal account per transaction. I made that point very clear. Do you have a business account at your bank? I shopped around and 13c per transaction for business service is pretty reasonable. ---
**Author:** ![Doctor\_Jackson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/doctor_jackson/32/32_2.png) [@Doctor\_Jackson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doctor_Jackson)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2004, 6:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-businesses-pay-a-premium-on-rolls-of-coins/280438/26 "2004-12-20T18:13:27Z")
When a commercial bank orders coins from the Federal Reserve Banks they come loose, in bags. When a bank deposits coins at the FRB they must be sent loose, in bags. All of the rolling, unrolling and boxing is done either by the commercial bank itself or, more likely, an outsourced vendor like Loomis Fargo. In either case, the bank bears the not-so-trivial expense of putting the coins into more manageable packaging. Make no mistake, the bank recoups those costs. If it’s not through a specific charge for coins ordered/deposited, then it’s built in to the monthly account fees. ---
**Author:** ![RayMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e495f1/32.png) [@RayMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RayMan)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2004, 6:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-businesses-pay-a-premium-on-rolls-of-coins/280438/27 "2004-12-21T06:15:25Z")
It is true that when banks turn over excess coin to a [Federal Reserve Bank](http://www.federalreserve.gov/) for credit, they do so loose, in bags (_very_ heavy bags). But banks, so far as I know, rarely receive loose coin from the Federal Reserve. (NEVER, in my experience. But my only experience is with the FRB Chicago.) Coin orders come pre-rolled and boxed. This is practically a necessity for any bank that handles commercial coin orders. Can you imagine the nightmare that would ensue if a fast food restaurant asked for $1,000 in several denominations of loose, unrolled coin? No one has the patience to count out that much loose coin, and no business would put up with a bank like that. Instead, the Federal Reserve contracts with “coin terminals”, usually armored car services, to roll coin and process individual banks’ orders. This saves a lot of time and hassle for everyone involved. [This website](http://www.federalreserve.gov/boarddocs/testimony/2000/20000328.htm), pretty interesting all around, has some info on the Fed’s coin distribution system. It states that coin terminals handle “nearly 80 percent” of their coin volume. ---
**Author:** ![gouda](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/c77e96/32.png) [@gouda](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gouda)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2004, 9:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-businesses-pay-a-premium-on-rolls-of-coins/280438/28 "2004-12-22T09:24:13Z")
This is only anecdotal evidence: Once, at a supermarket ATM in Ingolstadt (Germany), the machine charged me a premium for changing a 10 Euro note into coins. Had I actually read the notice by the side of the ATM, I wouldn’t have availed of the service :smack: ---
**Author:** ![Doctor\_Jackson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/doctor_jackson/32/32_2.png) [@Doctor\_Jackson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doctor_Jackson)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2004, 2:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-businesses-pay-a-premium-on-rolls-of-coins/280438/29 "2004-12-22T14:55:24Z")
> [@](#): > > But banks, so far as I know, rarely receive loose coin from the Federal Reserve. (NEVER, in my experience. But my only experience is with the FRB Chicago.) Coin orders come pre-rolled and boxed. All coins enter and leave the FRB system loose, in bags. FRB branches do not have rolling equipment nor boxes. As a matter of fact, they doen’t even count incoming coins. Coins are weighed on huge, very sensitive scales. Outgoing coins are counted, by machine, as they are fed into the bags. It’s a process worth seeing. > [@](#): > > Instead, the Federal Reserve contracts with “coin terminals”, usually armored car services, to roll coin and process individual banks’ orders. {snip} It states that coin terminals handle “nearly 80 percent” of their coin volume. This is exactly what I meant when I posted “All of the rolling, unrolling and boxing is done either by the commercial bank itself **or, more likely, an outsourced vendor like Loomis Fargo** ”. Loomis Fargo is the nation’s largest armored courier. Sorry if that was not clear. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-businesses-pay-a-premium-on-rolls-of-coins/280438.md?page=1)