# Why have some banks gotten pissy about counting coins? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [February 7, 2014, 10:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-have-some-banks-gotten-pissy-about-counting-coins/680794 "2014-02-07T22:23:16Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2014, 11:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-have-some-banks-gotten-pissy-about-counting-coins/680794/41 "2014-02-10T23:11:46Z")
> [@](#): > > I used to use Coinstar machines to get Amazon gift cards, but then developed the idea that this could be unduly influencing me to buy something from Amazon. Well, yeah, that’s why they do it. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2014, 11:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-have-some-banks-gotten-pissy-about-counting-coins/680794/42 "2014-02-10T23:45:25Z")
If you want to avoid Coinstar “unduly influencing you to buy something from Amazon”, make sure to use the gift card only on something you were already going to buy. Or get a gift card from another retailer from which you already planned to buy something. ---
**Author:** ![Keeve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/f07891/32.png) [@Keeve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Keeve)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2014, 2:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-have-some-banks-gotten-pissy-about-counting-coins/680794/43 "2014-02-11T02:44:44Z")
> [@ALOHA\_HATER](#): > > I used to think that Coinstar was a scam. The cut they take is, everything considered, very generous. I might agree with you if they charged per coin. But they take percentage (usually 8% around here) of the total value. That means they charge only 1/12c per penny, and a whopping 2 cents per quarter. There’s no way that I’m going to give them a quarter if all I get back is 23 cents. So here’s what I do when my change adds up: I bring the pennies and nickels to CoinStar, and I’m happy to let them take their cut; but the dimes and quarters go back in my pocket as 100% spending money. No one complains when I pay for a snack with 4-6 quarters. ---
**Author:** ![WhyNot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c77e96/32.png) [@WhyNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WhyNot)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2014, 3:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-have-some-banks-gotten-pissy-about-counting-coins/680794/44 "2014-02-11T03:09:48Z")
To many of us, quarters are precious precious laundry tokens, worth more than twenty five cents, 'cause when you come up a quarter short on laundry day, ain’t all the dimes and nickles in the world gonna help you now. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Rysto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/ecccb3/32.png) [@Rysto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rysto)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2014, 4:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-have-some-banks-gotten-pissy-about-counting-coins/680794/45 "2014-02-11T04:53:47Z")
> [@WhyNot](#): > > To many of us, quarters are precious precious laundry tokens, worth more than twenty five cents, 'cause when you come up a quarter short on laundry day, ain’t all the dimes and nickles in the world gonna help you now. 😉 Heh. In my previous apartment, the laundry accepted only loonies (Canadian $1 coin) and not toonies ($2), so the loonies were significantly more valuable to me than toonies. Toonies only existed to spent on things that would give a loonie in change. My new place accepts toonies, loonies and quarters, so now I sort my spare change into a laundry bucket and a useless bucket each day. Last time I cashed in the useless bucket at my bank’s coin counter I had almost $50. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Kimballkid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/b5a626/32.png) [@Kimballkid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimballkid)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2014, 8:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-have-some-banks-gotten-pissy-about-counting-coins/680794/46 "2014-02-11T20:56:44Z")
The president of the local bank once told me they really like it when people bring in loose or rolled change as then they didn’t have to order as much from the fed and it saved them shipping charges. They also have a machine and the teller gently scolded me for bringing in rolls when she could have just run the change through the machine. I like to do the rolling so I know exactly how much I have. And it isn’t that bad because I bought one of those little battery operated coin sorter machines at Walmart. ---
**Author:** ![buddha\_david](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ee7513/32.png) [@buddha\_david](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/buddha_david)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2014, 6:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-have-some-banks-gotten-pissy-about-counting-coins/680794/47 "2014-02-20T18:03:56Z")
> [@ALOHA\_HATER](#): > > When you drop a penny on the street, you lose a cent. When I drop a penny, I don’t balance. Loose coin from a customer in quantity means I probably won’t balance. If I were dishonest and took a penny out of my pocket in order to balance, I would lose my job. Loose coin isn’t loose coin; it’s usually US currency and bonus arcade tokens, 20c pieces from a country that no longer exists, paper clips, and (honest-to-god) a couple toenails. A long time ago, I was depositing money at the ATM but didn’t have enough money in my account for cash back – so I fudged the numbers a bit, and added $3-4 when I entered the dollar amount of my deposit. Presumably, I thought, the bank would catch the “error” and fix it by the next day…but, they never did. The $3-4 “error” was _never_ corrected, at least regarding my personal account balance. And now you’ve made me feel guilty that someone at the bank may have lost their job over it. ☹ ---
**Author:** ![ALOHA\_HATER](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/76d3ee/32.png) [@ALOHA\_HATER](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ALOHA_HATER)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2014, 3:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-have-some-banks-gotten-pissy-about-counting-coins/680794/48 "2014-02-21T03:12:26Z")
> [@buddha\_david](#): > > A long time ago, I was depositing money at the ATM but didn’t have enough money in my account for cash back – so I fudged the numbers a bit, and added $3-4 when I entered the dollar amount of my deposit. Presumably, I thought, the bank would catch the “error” and fix it by the next day…but, they never did. The $3-4 “error” was _never_ corrected, at least regarding my personal account balance. > > And now you’ve made me feel guilty that someone at the bank may have lost their job over it. ☹ You can sleep soundly. Nobody got fired for that. I’m not sure how they didn’t find it immediately when the balanced the ATM. Somewhere along the line, that $3 is listed in a ledger and taken as a loss. Poor bankers 😉 I was talking about cash balancing: offages happen. No bout a doubt it. People get fired for dishonesty about their offages (forced balancing) though, not for just losing track of a little cash occasionally. I bet if you called the right person at the bank and said you entered your deposit wrong on whatever date of last year, they’d say “THERE’S that three dollars! I remember those goddamn three dollars!” ---
**Author:** ![svd678](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/53a042/32.png) [@svd678](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/svd678)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2014, 4:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-have-some-banks-gotten-pissy-about-counting-coins/680794/49 "2014-02-21T04:11:03Z")
When I lived in NY a few years ago most banks didn’t have coin sorters - an expensive license fee, or something. I never heard of Coinstar. There or somewhere else the banks wouldn’t handle coins unless they were wrapped. . ---
**Author:** ![ThisUsernameIsForbidden](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b4bc9f/32.png) [@ThisUsernameIsForbidden](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ThisUsernameIsForbidden)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2014, 4:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-have-some-banks-gotten-pissy-about-counting-coins/680794/50 "2014-02-21T04:31:48Z")
I’d bet they count your pennies if you had enough cash in the bank. It’s a room in the back, a man with a towel on his arm will ask you the password, and then he offers you some scotch and a cigar. As you sit in a leather upholstered chair that costs more than your car, he will bring the newspaper, so that you have something to read while your coins are being counted. ---
**Author:** ![ALOHA\_HATER](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/76d3ee/32.png) [@ALOHA\_HATER](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ALOHA_HATER)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2014, 5:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-have-some-banks-gotten-pissy-about-counting-coins/680794/51 "2014-02-21T05:45:07Z")
> [@ThisUsernameIsForbidden](#): > > I’d bet they count your pennies if you had enough cash in the bank. It’s a room in the back, a man with a towel on his arm will ask you the password, and then he offers you some scotch and a cigar. As you sit in a leather upholstered chair that costs more than your car, he will bring the newspaper, so that you have something to read while your coins are being counted. Who told you about the Penny Humidor?! ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2014, 5:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-have-some-banks-gotten-pissy-about-counting-coins/680794/52 "2014-02-21T17:03:48Z")
> [@ThisUsernameIsForbidden](#): > > I’d bet they count your pennies if you had enough cash in the bank. It’s a room in the back, a man with a towel on his arm will ask you the password, and then he offers you some scotch and a cigar. As you sit in a leather upholstered chair that costs more than your car, he will bring the newspaper, so that you have something to read while your coins are being counted. Shhh! Now we’ll have to have you “silenced”. 😃 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-have-some-banks-gotten-pissy-about-counting-coins/680794.md?page=2)