Trouble buying bricks?

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For my birthday, my brother gave me a large sum of money in cash.  He had hoped to get a brick of uncirculated bills, but was out of the country in the weeks leading up to my birthday.  So my mother went to local banks in her town, and she said that she felt like a criminal asking for bricks because of the reaction of the banktellers.  She tried three different banks (none affiliated with each other), and got the same immediate reaction in each one.  Has anyone found it difficult to purchase bricks in smaller locations?  Her town's population is just under 10,000 people.  I just thought it was strange that they reacted with suspiton to her request...

I got a quick shoo-off from my bank too, but that was 2 years ago, and I haven't tried since. They look at you funny and call the manager for other things too, like when I tried to deposit a Cashiers cheque for $9900, then told me it had to be held to clear. I asked why then would anyone bother buying the cashiers cheque for $25 if its no better than a regular cheque. They regard bank wire transfer  the only secure vehicle these days. I also got my account frozen after doing 2 withdrawals  trying to get to a radar. I had to go to the branch and show them my card wasn't stolen. I thanked them for being diligent, but asked them to not freeze it in the future  as I'm likely to do it again.

Yes.  I completely understand what you are saying your mom went through.  It took me some time to find a bank that even new what a brick was.  Often they looked at me like I was making this up. 

Check out this topic (Where is the uncirculated money?) for other info on bricks.

As someone who works for one of the major financial institutions here in canada, and having dealt with cash on a daily basis for the first 16 years or so of my career, people coming in to ask for large sums of cash is not something that happens everyday.  The other thing to remember is that we do not store massive volumes of cash in any form, bricks or not. Generally you would have a daily supply for your customers needs UNLESS someone specifically ordered something.  But we cannot guarantee what state the cash is going to be delivered in, esp in smaller areas that most likely recieved recycled cash from the local walmart or what ever the major store in your area. we dont always get our cash straight from the bank of Canada.  in order to get brand new notes a bank has to pay extra to do so. Most don't bother becuase of the cost and at the end of the day to 99% of consumers cash is something you use, not collect.  Every branch ive worked in (like 15 or 16) always has at least one guy in every few weeks asking for "old bills" and quarters with silver in them. I can only remember one guy in Newfoundland asking me for a brick of new 5$ bills.  (which we didnt have).

Bricks cost money and are specially ordered in from either the BoC or from your bank's main cash repository (head office). Most bank carry cash that is recycled and will rarely hold new bricks unless ordered in.

As for cashiers' chqs or drafts etc, yes you did pay for the fees however you gotta realize that if they are unable to verify the funds are good (either by calling the issuer or faxing a copy over to be verified) there's no way in hell that they will just let you take all the money. They are a business and they are not in the business of giving away free money, therefore they will protect themselves. Because if you deposit a large sum and then take off, its their loss.