I looked in the reject tray the other day.. NOTHING... Is there a way to have the machine opened so I could look through ALL the coins??? I've seen people pour a few FULL plastic bags of pennies and other coins and I think "Wow, there is probably lots of old, rare coins in those bags and you guys don't do ANYTHING about it..." Thanks, --------- -Andy-
Yes, there are quite a number of ways into a coinstar machine. My preferred method is using a crow bar.
If you make a point of checking the reject tray every time you walk by, you'll find things. I have found a few silver dimes and quarters as well as a war nickel and a ton of foreign stuff. I think my best coinstar find was some late 19th century British silver. But I make a point of checking the coinstar every time and I might find something 5-10% of the time.
OK, I only walk by a Coin Star machine once a week... Tomorrow I'm going to try coin roll hunting pennies.. I'm going to buy two rolls, so Should I expect any wheat or Indian head pennies?
I walk by a few every week and have only found silver once in 2 or 3 years, so don't hold your breath on CoinStar machines. Depends on how many people use it and if any of the employees are watching it, etc. Two rolls? Not to rain on your parade, but don't expect anything. A box might get you 5-20 Wheats. I had to search dozens and dozens before I found a single Indian head. Maybe you'll be luckier than me, though ;-)
Most of the machines have an internal catch for coins that wouldn't pass through the initial pathway to separate the odd piece of plastic , rolled cent, etc. But that requires a key or crowbar ( you know who) to open. I have heard from the manager of the local store that they even found a gold ring, but I am not sure if it is the truth.
I have only looked at the reject tray a few times, one of the times that I did though i found a nice 1977 copper cent with good colors, in ef condition!, worth a solid two cents at the time, now a solid one and a half cents =)
First, does it make any sense to think that coinstar or the store would simply allow anyone who asks to dig through the machine? Do you know of any stores that run on the honor system, or would allow customers to dig through the cash register? I suppose the idea may seem intriguing to the searching type, but to everyone else and especially the businesses, that's money. If every "FULL plastic bag" contained "lots of old, rare coins", do you think such coins could rightfully be called rare? Just questions to answer to and for yourself. In two rolls you could get anything from solid date rolls from the last year or three, to a bunch of corroding Zincoln junk, to mostly pretty 82, to a reasonable mix of the above. You could, depending on your location, perhaps pull a Canadian or two as well, but I wouldn't suggest counting on any wheat cents, and almost certainly not any IHCs.
They are machines that count small change coins and pay out a voucher. But, they charge a percentage fee, round here it's 8%, could be 10%, they do not make it easy to find out. You have to work out if the time spent counting and bagging $100 is worth maybe $10 to you.
I check them practically every day, find lots of Canadian coins, a reasonable number of regular undamaged USA coins, wheats, silver dimes, the less often but still very possible silver quarter, weirdest find lately was some coin from Yemen of all places.
Unless you work for Coinstar there's no way you can look inside any of their machines. You can look though on the ledge of mechant's cash registers as sometimes they place coins there that look out of the ordinary an see if they will swap them out for you. You can also check on ebay as there are vendors online that do offer good deals an deliver. Check their ratings first before you invest. Good Luck.
