Pennies

We have a customer that wants to order a large amount of pennies every week (over $1000). He will sort them (looking for rare/collectable pennies) and then bring the rest in to run through our coin machine.

We do not have a centralized cash vault- we order directly from the FRB and it is delivered to us via armored courier.

We are wanting to charge the customer for the shipment (just his portion) since this is very unusual and puts a lot of strain on our employees and coin machine.

Since this is a one-off situation, what disclosures are required for the fee? Do we have to give him 30 days written notice? Would a letter stating our agreement and the fee be enough?

I used to do this as a kid, but after a dozen rolls I got tired of it. 100,000 coin examinations per week? Does this guy have a life? Rather than charge him, why don't you save the re-rolled coins in a special spot in the vault and give the same ones back to him the next time he comes in? After he looks at a couple hundred thousand losers you may never see him again.

The coin doesn't get re-rolled. Our armored courier picks it up in a bin and then takes the bin to the FRB. Since this is our practice...it will always be new coin he is seeing.

I don't understand it either. Looking for silver quarters would be more lucrative. But we usually do whatever our customers want...

I'm surprised he's not melting them down and selling the copper. A 1909 - 1982 penny is worth 2.4 cents.

http://www.coinflation.com/

The precious metals hoarders are out as the "doomsday" predictions regarding the American economy circulate. Rather than stealing copper pipes from forclosed homes as I've seen reported on the evening news, your customer may be looking for old pennies that contain copper. (The new ones are made out of mostly zinc.)

I get a chuckle out of this because if the world gets that bad, people won't want gold, silver, platinum, copper or whatever. They'll want clean water. Time to start filling my crawl space with Evian.

We have grilled him about his hobby and he assures us he is not melting the pennies (illegal from what I understand). His dad is retired and this is their hobby...

Silver quarters are getting more and more difficult to find as more people are looking for them. As a person who goes through a roll+ per week on laundry, I can say that I've gotten 2 silvers in the last 6 months!

He obviously has an abundance of time, and every wheat penny is worth about $.025, and can be sold by the pound to many coin shops, and those are still relatively common to find in a roll. As far as fees, I would start by simply having a conversation with this specific person. Inform him that it is a strain to accomodate the volume he is requesting, and that you have fees associated both with getting the rolls of coin, and returning the loose change. Many people seem to believe that $$ is just traded around and don't consider that every time you're selling them a roll of coin, you're likely losing money on it.

I'd bet he's tried this elsewhere and had fees associated, just like a business paying a fee for a cash order. Unless he's told that this is a problem and may result in a portion of the transportation fees being passed on, he will surely keep doing it. Otherwise, by continuing to make concessions and express no issue with this behavior, you're just enforcing it.

Thanks for the suggestion, Matt. As far as you know though, there is no requirement to provide the fee (once we determine it) notice x amount of days before we begin charging, right? We would just need to let him know what the fees would be and see if he wants to continue?

I took a look at this thread and think Randy's comments will explain it.

As I'm seeing it, you shouldn't need to disclose it as it's not an account related fee, but the purchase of an "item" that could be done by a non-customer as well.

If someone else would comment on this to agree/disagree, that would be helpful!

Richard - you crack me up! That's a riot.

Absolutely not an account-related fee for which you are required to provide notice. Quote the fee and either collect it or watch the back of his head as he leaves to find a place that will do it for nothing.

Thank you! I appreciate all the help!