I busted the CoinStar machine

Bagelbites

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I've separated and cashed in my nickels, dimes and quarters at my local Safeway using the CoinStar machine, and have gotten back over $350 in the 1.5 years I've been in the hobby. I also have spent about $50 in dirty quarters for laundry. I never cleaned them, aside from a quick water-down. Let them dry, and straight into the machine. Only a few were ever rejected.

I have maybe 1000 pennies in a container...so dirty, corroded, bent, chipped, etc. Considering my success with the other coins, I decided to give the pennies a shot today. After 57 cents was accepted, the machine told me "we cannot continue with this transaction, please see customer service". I flagged down the customer service guy...he looked right at my dirty gallon jug of horrible pennies, and sighed. He opened up the machine and began cleaning out a bunch of stray coins (and I was able to snag a few foreign coins that were inside the machine). After about five minutes of trying, he gave up and put an "out of order" sign on the machine. I think one of the bent pennies must have clogged it. Oops!

On a side note, I'm in a huge slump. As a gold hunter, I haven't found gold since December. Whatever, it will come. I still enjoy every minute I'm able to get out.
 
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He opened up the machine and began cleaning out a bunch of stray coins

I love this story. I'm glad to find out I'm not the only one...but mine usually clog up the Walmart u-scan registers and not the coinstars! I always feel so embarrassed when the cashier has to come over to open up the register :laughing:
 
I work at the airport parking lot and pay a lot with one dollar bills. Their not damp, but still, I kinda take offense ! We all work hard for those ones !!!
 
I'm not sure the point of this thread. Is it cautionary (i.e., don't put dirty, broken, and corroded coins into a sensitive piece of equipment like a Coinstar machine), or are you proud of clogging the machine, creating work for other people, and added costs to a company that is providing a service? :?:
 
I love this story. I'm glad to find out I'm not the only one...but mine usually clog up the Walmart u-scan registers and not the coinstars! I always feel so embarrassed when the cashier has to come over to open up the register :laughing:

I don't use those self scan checkouts. I was supposed to get $80.00 back in change and it gave me $8.00. Even when a girl scanned my items for me, she scanned some twice. I'll just wait in the long lines.
 
I poured a large coffee can full of clad into one of those counters and the lady had to clear it twice I was feeding it too fast.
 
I know the feeling, Bagelbites. I had a bent quarter jam the machine at my bank. The teller girl opened it up and saw my dark gray coins and dirt in the machine, and promptly blamed me. Even though none of the dirt was mine, I got all of the embarrassment. She didn't let me scoop up the other loose coins inside, either.
That's when I got a tumbler.
Hope you find yourself a goldie soon, bro. You got a gold finder reputation to hold!
 
I clogged the coinstsr twice in one trip. I gave up after the second time due to embarrassment.


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I've separated and cashed in my nickels, dimes and quarters at my local Safeway using the CoinStar machine, and have gotten back over $350 in the 1.5 years I've been in the hobby. I also have spent about $50 in dirty quarters for laundry. I never cleaned them, aside from a quick water-down. Let them dry, and straight into the machine. Only a few were ever rejected.

I have maybe 1000 pennies in a container...so dirty, corroded, bent, chipped, etc. Considering my success with the other coins, I decided to give the pennies a shot today. After 57 cents was accepted, the machine told me "we cannot continue with this transaction, please see customer service". I flagged down the customer service guy...he looked right at my dirty gallon jug of horrible pennies, and sighed. He opened up the machine and began cleaning out a bunch of stray coins (and I was able to snag a few foreign coins that were inside the machine). After about five minutes of trying, he gave up and put an "out of order" sign on the machine. I think one of the bent pennies must have clogged it. Oops!

On a side note, I'm in a huge slump. As a gold hunter, I haven't found gold since December. Whatever, it will come. I still enjoy every minute I'm able to get out.

I always pull the bent ones out, when I'm cleaning them. Corroded ones with missing parts get yanked, too. everything else can get sorted well by the machines. When I'm done, I typically just toss them all into the trash (after pushing the reject tray once back through.).

Could be the missing Gold is just around the corner! Go find it!
 
You're taking a beating by cashing coins at Coinstar.......some banks and credit unions will cash your coins for free.

Only if you take it out as a 'cash transaction.' You get 100% of your money in a gift card.

I buy something like $4000 worth of stuff from Amazon every year, so it's a no-brainer to put it on an amazing gift receipt... scan it in, on the spot, and the next time something gets purchased from Amazon, I pull the cash from my checking account.

If I'm really hard-up for the cold-cash, I just roll the coins. My whipped topping tub (which is where I keep my coins), always comes up to about $90-$120, so I know I'm in for about $100 every time I fill it up.

Skippy
 
Only if you take it out as a 'cash transaction.' You get 100% of your money in a gift card.

I buy something like $4000 worth of stuff from Amazon every year, so it's a no-brainer to put it on an amazing gift receipt... scan it in, on the spot, and the next time something gets purchased from Amazon, I pull the cash from my checking account.

If I'm really hard-up for the cold-cash, I just roll the coins. My whipped topping tub (which is where I keep my coins), always comes up to about $90-$120, so I know I'm in for about $100 every time I fill it up.

Skippy
My bank and my credit union both have a no fee coin machine so that's where I cash them in. This way I have the cash whenever I want it. To each their own....
 
Sounds like a common occurrence. I plugged one twice myself. This year I fed them in quite slowly and didn’t have any issues. However, I didn’t try to feed in any corrode zincs or our rusty newer clad.
 
I've separated and cashed in my nickels, dimes and quarters at my local Safeway using the CoinStar machine, and have gotten back over $350 in the 1.5 years I've been in the hobby. I also have spent about $50 in dirty quarters for laundry. I never cleaned them, aside from a quick water-down. Let them dry, and straight into the machine. Only a few were ever rejected.

I have maybe 1000 pennies in a container...so dirty, corroded, bent, chipped, etc. Considering my success with the other coins, I decided to give the pennies a shot today. After 57 cents was accepted, the machine told me "we cannot continue with this transaction, please see customer service". I flagged down the customer service guy...he looked right at my dirty gallon jug of horrible pennies, and sighed. He opened up the machine and began cleaning out a bunch of stray coins (and I was able to snag a few foreign coins that were inside the machine). After about five minutes of trying, he gave up and put an "out of order" sign on the machine. I think one of the bent pennies must have clogged it. Oops!

On a side note, I'm in a huge slump. As a gold hunter, I haven't found gold since December. Whatever, it will come. I still enjoy every minute I'm able to get out.

This is actually a pretty messed up thing to do. I think it should be a metal detectorists RULE to never put coins in coinstar that are bent, corroded, or cut & all coins MUST be tumbled prior to taking to coinstar. Those machines were not made to handle a pile of !!!! going down them. Lesson learned, get a tumbler and do the right thing. Even banks won't accept currency in bad condition, I've tried and they rejected it.
 
This is actually a pretty messed up thing to do. I think it should be a metal detectorists RULE to never put coins in coinstar that are bent, corroded, or cut & all coins MUST be tumbled prior to taking to coinstar. Those machines were not made to handle a pile of !!!! going down them. Lesson learned, get a tumbler and do the right thing. Even banks won't accept currency in bad condition, I've tried and they rejected it.

Yes, I'd definitely have to agree here. Plus, screwing up the machines with dirty/damaged coins (which can easily be fixed), doesn't contribute positively to our reputation. Just my opinion...;)
 
Make sure your clad is free of dirt/sand, and dry. Also weed out all the nasty crusty zinc pennies and feed the machine slowly and you should be good to go without any issues...Also avoid feeding it Eisenhower dollars, it does not like those huge disks ;)
 
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