Bob CollinsWhen’s the last time you actually walked into a bank?
Banks have made it fairly easy over the years to make humans unnecessary.
ATMs were the leading weapon, but of late so is the smartphone app. Need to deposit a check? You don’t even need to go to an ATM anymore. Just snap a picture of both sides and, voila! Banking, as they say, made simple.
One exception is the change that accumulates on the dresser over the years, although the cashless society has made even that a rare thing.
But if you have a milk bottle full of pennies and dimes and quarters, there’s no way to get rid of it except trudge to the bank to use the coin counter machines.
Until today.
The Star Tribune reports that Wells Fargo is getting rid of the coin counters because the contract with the vendor is up.
“We understand that a small group of customers use and enjoy the coin counters,” John Hobot, a Wells Fargo spokesman, tells the Strib’s Paul Walsh.
Small, indeed:
What will take the place of the machines? A step back in time. Coin rollers. Just like the old days.
You take them to the teller, who opens them up and dumps them in a — wait for it — coin counting machine.
Or do they?
A comment to the Strib’s story from someone in the business reveals the coin roller secret to wealth:
When I was a teller all coin from customers required the account number and we would count each roll as opened and debit or credit the account as needed. Customers would sometimes pull rolls back when told this. We balanced our cash to the penny daily – our neighbors – who are prominently mentioned in the story had a much looser limit to balance to. Perhaps it saved on time balancing but one could easily get lunch money every day under their system.
Who says it doesn’t pay to read the comments?
(h/t: Paul Tosto)
