Hi All,
Being new to Noodling, figured I would start a threading asking for advice and tips from the experts on this forum. I can also understand not everyone will want to divulge their secrets and that's also fine.
Now what I am currently doing is going to my local bank 1-2 times a week and asking for $30 in change (a bag of $1's and a bag of 50 cents) and then I look through it and spend what I don't want on coffee or lunch. It's worked okay for me, but I do feel that it's a bit limited.
I also bank with a smaller bank so it doesn't have a coin machine etc.
I do work in a fairly large CBD west of Sydney so I do have a number of banks I could consider signing up to and there is also a local CBA in my suburb.
I guess my first question is, which bank would you recommend for an additional account for Noodling?
With hopefully no fee's or is this a bit of wishful thinking?
Thanks in advance for any advice.
Hello,
Clubs, Pubs and a Tab branch's are all good places. Many people have a " sure thing " and will use any part of a collection. Un-circulated Coins turn up. Same as a Milk Bar. I often ask for change at a Club, got some Coronation $2 that way. ( pokie or vending machine ) In a well to do area, people can afford to hang onto Coins, an area that isnt as well off, the Coins keep moving. My take on it anyway.
Mmmm, well I use to do the small bag like you but then worked up to full bag as in $500 in $1, $200in 50's and others are $100 of the bags and take what I want then make sure they are full bags again and just do a clean swap so it's easier for the banks and there's only a few here that want you to have an account like the CBA but NAB, ANZ and a few other don't have a problem changing and don't need and account. Big banks are good for new coins due to the higher turn over so they get them a bit quicker but the small one's can have some old hidden treasures that sometimes are in pretty good nick early 70's for eg :winkextra:
Now when actually noodling I sort the coins into their years and probably a good idea when first starting because it makes it easier when you've got all the same coin to look at, sort of like spot the difference pic's until you get use to the different designs and then errors start standing right out.
Also get a loupe, doesn't have to be a dear one as I got my first one at the markets for a couple of buck (usually plastic). I started with magnifying glasses but they don't get you in nice and close like a loupe.
Think that's the main points for now and hope it helps and if I think of anything else I'll let you know :winkextra:
Try some searches around here, this has been covered before.
Definitely work with sacks of coins rather than single bags. Much less work overall, and two sacks are easy to carry.
Deliveries are weekly, but not all branches order everything every week. Just about every CBA in the country is a nett coin generator, which is why they're putting in those coin machines.
Try and get friendly enough to work out who gets deliveries when, and from whom. They really don't want to tell you, due to idiotic paranoia (how hard is it for potential thieves to case the join and figure out when their deliveries are anyway?), so build a relationship first.
Teach the tellers how to differentiate UNC from recirculated coins. The triple stripe on the UNC bags, and the fact the entire sack is all the same, whereas the recirc sacks are 50/50 solid stripes and clear bags are a dead giveaway. Also, Armaguard seems to have recently changed their bags dramatically. Should make it easier to spot the UNC sacks.
If you DO score UNC sacks, you need to sit on them unopened until you find out the mintage, which could be 18 months away. Once you know, if the mintage is high, go ahead and noodle them, keeping errors and throwing the rest back.
Assuming recirc sacks, you want to first divide the coins by year, keeping all of the low mintage years. You probably also want to keep anything that's aUNC or thereabouts. Then look for the obvious varieties, errors and flaws. Its worth keeping all of the coins which have hard-to-spot varieties and then do them in bulk. 1999 and 2001 $1 for example, for the rotations and different size obverses.
You should get about 10% keepers overall. Take the 90% rejects to a DIFFERENT bank (CBA is a good candidate here), and swap for $5 notes (or higher denominations if you prefer), and look for keepers. RADARs, repeaters, first/last prefixes, solids, or anything that's UNC (yes, it does happen).
Take the reject notes back to the first bank, swap for more sacks. Rinse and repeat.
Depending how enthusiastic you want to get, and how much time you have, it is possible to do about $10,000 a day this way.
Definitely buy a heat sealer, and seal up your finds. Don't forget bank bags have airholes in them, which will let contaminants in. Also don't forget that LDPE bags are NOT 100% protection from gasses, as I found out the hard way last year.
I use only use the one bank branch to drop my noodled coins back to and I only take coins from that branch if they are clearly in new bank bags or rolls. I also use a few other bank branches to get coins from to mix things up a bit.
Pedro
I've tried to use two banks as my main sources of noodling coins. That way, when I feel guilty of over-using one, I simply go to the other. Both have coin machines, so I don't have to worry about handing back unwrapped coins.
Both banks are happy to hand over noodling material, but I try to only visit when I think they are going to be less busy. Try not to hit them up during busiest times.
Best of luck!
Thanks to everyone for their feedback.
I have been doing a fair amount of reading on the forum so far.
I've also had a quick look at the local club but seeing as I haven't played a pockie for a while I didn't go down that track.
Looks like I just need to work out which branches work best for me and save up some funds for noddling sacks.
Hello,
There are many places to look. I get many in change, but if someone else has saved them, then when they get a " sure " thing they will be happy to spend them. Have a look at the Mint web site, it gives the numbers minted each year. A normal Coin from a low production year may not look fancy, but could be worth quite a bit and not many other people would notice them.
Thanks Chris,
Yeah I have a list of coins in my target list, they are mainly any mintage year that has less than 10 million.
I also sometimes swap coins via vendng machines. Yeah a bit nerdy but it has worked for me, I got the below coins in about 20 minutes of swapping with various machines in my local shopping center.
My first AIATSIS 50 cents, plus a QLD federation and some others
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