Banks and credit unions sometimes get unusual deposits.
A depositor might get a gift from an older relative that has a lot of older coins lying around, or someone will clean out their attic and start to earn interest on money that was hidden away for decades in an old coat pocket.
Sometimes, I'll ask the teller if they have any “strange money” — meaning half dollars, dollar coins, rolls of coins brought in by someone, etc.
Other times, I'll ask for strange distributions of bills, like $300 worth of ones.
Once, the teller let me withdraw a 1966A $100 United States Note at face value.
Briefly, a United States Note was issued directly by the federal government and was always a fiat currency — that is, it was never redeemable for a quantity of precious metal. The government was not required to pay interest on a like quantity of treasury bonds, as it would for Federal Reserve Notes. United States Notes are legal tender just as Federal Reserve Notes are. The $100 US Notes were issued only in 1966; the purpose of this printing was to make up the difference between the current circulation and the maximum dollar amount allowable by law ($300 million). The “A” variety bore the signatures Dorothy Elston and David Kennedy.
The note I got has a few small tears on the top and quite a bit of wear, creasing, and marking, so it's probably in “fair” to “good” condition. Notes like this may command a premium of $20 to $40 over face value. Even if it isn't, I can still spend it like a $100 bill.
And all I had to do was ask! 😉
Have you gotten anything interesting in a withdrawal?
As someone who has worked in banks for about 5 years, and 4.5 of those on teller lines or a related function, I can say that I've never seen any strangely dated money or anyone come in with old coin. The weirdest thing I've ever seen was a penny that looked it like it was stamped from the blank that a dime would have been stamped from (it was silvery like a dime). That said, I have witnessed a man cash in over a half dozen five gallon buckets filled mostly with pennies, totaling up to about $1200.00.
I hope that you're not the guy who requests $2 bills. Let me rant for a second. There are always people who ask for $2's, and every time they ask "if we have any" I want to smack them because it's not a currency that is rare. Hell, we still get them shipped from the fed!
I think this is a great idea. Most people will put rare money in the bank not knowing if it is worth more than face value. Never hurts to ask and you may actually stumble upon something really worthwhile.
This reminds me of when I used to be a supermarket cashier. Every now and then we would get a silver certificate bill – an old dollar or ten dollar bill that was issued while we were still on the gold standard. From what I understand you would be able to ask for the silver at the bank in exchange for the bill (before my time though so I couldn't say). I probably have a few of those packed away somewhere…
I love working in the cash office, I get to buy 'silver' money for face value – It doesn't happen often but it is nice. I once picked up a 1909 wheat penny and sold it for $100 on eBay. That was a bonus (since I don't get any from the employer)!
Back in the days I was a teller, we would get all sorts of strange money. I had a $1000 bill cross my window once – we had to send it into the Fed. I bought several real silver dollars and half dollars for face value – I still have them today.
We had one customer who would come in and big $50 bags of pennies on a regular basis – he would go through them searching for wheat pennies and then bring them back to exchange for new ones. Guess everyone needs to have a hobby…
My mom, who worked as a cashier, once got a couple of crisp new dollar bills with no serial numbers in her cash pack. Not knowing what to do, she handed one over to her manager, never to see it again. She still has the other.
Sometimes banks have a fit if you try to deposit 'strange money' like a check from a foreign country. I have an advertiser from the UK who wanted to write me a bank draft, I said that'd be fine…Wells Fargo had a fit over it. Thank God for PayPal.
When I was a young idiot traveling in Germany for the first time, I had a roll of 5 mark coins that (for all I knew) were normal 5 mark coins… they had been given to me as a gift from a family friend. I used almost the entire roll at the grocery store on whatever they were selling – the clerk looked at me strangely but took every one of them with a smile.
Later I learned that they were old and pretty rare – worth 50-100 marks each! I had unwittingly funded part of that guy's retirement annuity with my ignorance… or paid his rent for a few months. Something like that.
I like two dollar bills and dollar coins a lot, but I've never been brave enough to ask for them. You've inspired me to do so the next time I get cash. The silvery penny was probably produced during World War II when copper was in short supply.
If only some of the people above and researched the things just a little you could have gotten a whole lot back. The penny that looked like it was struck on a dime might be worth a couple of hundred. The dollar bills without the serial numbers are worth at least 250 each in crisp new condition and the $1000 bill is worth a couple of thousand.
I know someone who goes tp the bank regularly and asks for rolls of half dollars. Occasionall he gets 90% silver ones that are worth about 9 times face value and early Kennedy halves that are 40% silver and are worth a couple times face value.
Knowledge is power.