Dean’s finds

News: Welcome to the Canadian Paper Money Forum.

  Now I have to make a trip to a different bank branch to deposit those disgusting ratty old $1 & $2 (except perhaps that beat-up DF $2)

Hi WTTW:

I sent you a PM...

Jan 18th find:
My friendly teller saved this $1000 note for me.

Dean what kind of branch(es) are you visiting? Urban? Suburban? Neighbourhood? Downtown business district? Are you more successful at one than at another?

Dean what kind of branch(es) are you visiting? Urban? Suburban? Neighbourhood? Downtown business district? Are you more successful at one than at another?

All of my branches are urban...Downtown Toronto.
I have had ZERO luck at suburban branches in Scarborough, North York, Etobicoke and Thornhill.  That said, all of my finds are from FOUR branches of two banks.  (two CIBC branches and 2 RBC branches).

I've had no luck with Scotiabank whatsoever.  The tellers are very nice at Scotiabank, but they never have old notes (or aren't willing to let me look through them.)

The four branches I frequent have tellers who know me very well and I have been going to these branches for years.

When I do a "cold call" at a bank, I only score old notes maybe once out of every 10 tries.

Good questions "Seth" and enlightening answers "Dean."

I have had ZERO luck at suburban branches

& I just thought it was me!  This is also reassuring as I live in the "burbs" & find my TD branch very frustrating 90% of the time (considering my history with them/including paying out on a hefty mortgage).  On a few occasions a couple years ago, I visited my home branch after I contacted the head teller (for a # of bundles) & while she was icy with me, I was just happy to finally get the type of banknotes I was trying to search.  I started a system of canvassing 3 branches so I wouldn't be bothering any one more than once/week. (I never dumped the denomination I was searching back to the same branch I got them from).

I also had a good experience with BMO but that was because I met a nice teller who was interested in helping me out. If I went there without him present (& served by someone else) I got much less cooperation.  Even so, he once tried to sell me old bills from the old/damaged purse and the head teller cornered him & said "no-can-do."  I also had tellers try to dissuade me from getting bundles of Tens since they "had so few" after I set up requests for them (when I was after the 2018 Commemoratives).  They were so quick to be uncooperative that they'd lie about what they had (& didn't have).

I opened a CIBC account & tried my luck (in another burb near my workplace) & had prickly staff from the get-go. I eventually closed my account & told the manager what I thought of their borderline rude service. He didn't seem to care.  I often dumped my dud bundles at the branches with these "poor service" branches (recycling up to a higher denomination).  All branches seemed to prefer exchanging cash rather than taking out (withdrawing) bundles from an account so I needed to have thousands on hand to do this.

All these -ve experiences were part'n'parcel to why I stopped trying to search bundles. Last week was the 1st time that any branch sold me old notes from their old/damage purse (so that's why I posted my DF find).

All these -ve experiences were part'n'parcel to why I stopped trying to search bundles. Last week was the 1st time that any branch sold me old notes from their old/damage purse (so that's why I posted my DF find).

The lesson here is to keep trying and also when you find a friendly teller, DO NOT let them go.
Try to get their work emails so when and if they move branches, go to see them there too.  Gifts of appreciation also go a very long way to getting on the good side of the bank tellers.

That being said, here are my finds for January 19th, from one bank.

Highlights include a 1954 $2 O/G asterisk note, a 1979 516 replacement note and 39 UNC centennial dollar bills.

- MORE great finds Dean! The 1954 *O/G $2 & 1979 $20 replacement are amazing. I also like the looks of the condition of many of them (the higher grade $2.00, Journeys & centennials).

Gifts of appreciation also go a very long way to getting on the good side of the bank tellers.

-Absolutely.  I have come back with either 1 or 2 dozen donuts for the TD & BMO branch where that 1 friendly teller helped me.  I gave him an old Chartlon GPM catalogue but have lost track where he went (they were always moving him around to different branches).

you find a friendly teller, DO NOT let them go.

- I wish!  I guess that's been my weakness as I never have been able to get a teller's contact email or see many who last long at these branches.   
I will have to dig up my TD contact cards & see if I can find "Ms. Icy's" phone # & buzz her at my home branch one of these days.

Well, after a couple of days without any finds, I got lucky today.
From one bank, the teller said “I only have two old notes, but you probably won’t want them because they are really folded.”
I asked to see them anyway and...out came a 1937 $50 and a 1954 $20!

The next bank I visited near closing time and I asked the teller if she had any paper money.  She said
“I have a few old $100 bills...do you want them?”  They turned out to be 1975 $100 notes in nice shape...except one note has a tiny bit of a teller stamp on it.😠

I also got three 2017 $10s...all in all, it was a good day!  When a teller offers you a 1937 note, don’t turn it down!

Finds for January 25th:
Centennials, a 54 $1 and $2 and a 1937 $1 note too!
The $2 is almost a radar and the F/P is a short run prefix.

January 27th finds:
Well, there’s a first time for everything...like getting a chartered bank note for face value from a friendly bank teller (and some 1937 notes, a couple of devil’s face $1s and some other nice notes as well!)

Keep trying to rescue these notes...can you imagine these beautiful documents being shredded?  I know I can’t!

Jan 29th finds (part 1)
Two banks emailed me today.
The first bank had a bunch of bird series notes.  All are in AU/UNC except for the $2; there are some consecutive $5s notably two non test GOG notes.
And the teller also gave me a 1979 $20 to top it off!

Jan 29th finds (part 2)

The second bank yielded five 1979 $20 notes which included two replacement notes! There was one CBN and one BABN replacement each.
Add in a couple of birds $10s and some journey fives, and it was worth the trip!
The teller said to me that he “only had a few 20s...no big deal”.  Any time I can get replacement notes for face value, I think it IS a big deal!

Jan 30th finds:

One bank emailed today and gave me a few notes.
I never turn down 1954 notes!

Feb 1st finds
I used my lunch break today to pick up some notes from one of my banks.
The teller had much more, notably some 1975 $50 and $100 bills that I would have taken, but they all had writing on them or had the planchettes removed from them.   

Nothing too special today, but I did get another 1954 $1000 note.   

Feb 1st finds part 2:
Another teller called me and said that she got “an old note” and that I needed to come in right away because she was going to ship out all of the mutilated bills today.
I went and retrieved this 1975 $100 note.  It’s nothing special, but it is important to keep those contacts alive, especially when they call you!
If you become too picky about the notes you take, then the tellers will stop setting things aside for you.

Happy hunting!