scams
A confidence trick is an attempt to defraud a person or group after first gaining their trust. Confidence tricks exploit victims using their credulity, naïveté, compassion, vanity, confidence, irresponsibility, and greed. Researchers have de ...
involving coin wrappers (rolls of coins). The scammer will roll coins of lesser value or
slugs
Slug, or land slug, is a common name for any apparently shell-less terrestrial gastropod mollusc. The word ''slug'' is also often used as part of the common name of any gastropod mollusc that has no shell, a very reduced shell, or only a sma ...
of no value, or less than the correct number of coins in a roll, then exchange them at a bank or retail outlet for cash.
To prevent these problems, many banks will require people turning in coins to have an account, and will debit the customer's account in the event of a shorted roll. Some banks also have machines to count coins.
Penny and dime scam
The con will wrap pennies into a dime-roll wrapper and try to exchange it; this is known as "penny rolling" in slang. Sometimes the con will also exchange other legitimate rolls of
coin
A coin is a small, flat (usually depending on the country or value), round piece of metal or plastic used primarily as a medium of exchange or legal tender. They are standardized in weight, and produced in large quantities at a mint in order t ...
s at the same time. Another trick is to put dimes on the visible ends of the roll, and hidden pennies on the inside. This scam can also be done using
nickel
Nickel is a chemical element with symbol Ni and atomic number 28. It is a silvery-white lustrous metal with a slight golden tinge. Nickel is a hard and ductile transition metal. Pure nickel is chemically reactive but large pieces are slow ...
s and
quarter A quarter is one-fourth, , 25% or 0.25.
Quarter or quarters may refer to:
Places
* Quarter (urban subdivision), a section or area, usually of a town
Placenames
* Quarter, South Lanarkshire, a settlement in Scotland
* Le Quartier, a settlement ...
s by placing 2 quarters on the ends and placing nickels in between.
Short-rolling scams
Alternatively, one can place one or two fewer coins than usual in each roll. Half-dollars are a common choice for this kind of scam, for two reasons. First, there are only 20 coins per half-dollar roll, increasing the profit percentage. Also, since half-dollars rarely circulate, most bank tellers are unaware of the proper length and/or weight of a roll. Also owing to their lack of circulation, the missing coins are not likely to be discovered for a long time.
"Unsearched" roll scams
As the practice of
coin roll hunting
Coin roll hunting (often abbreviated as CRH) is the hobby of searching and sorting coinage pulled from circulation for collectible coins. This is achieved through obtaining rolled coin, boxed coin, or bagged coin from banks and credit unions. A v ...
has steadily grown more popular, unscrupulous sellers on eBay and other online storefronts may try to pass off coin rolls as "unsearched" or "original bank wrapped", when in reality the rolls have been opened, seeded with coins that do not belong or are extremely unlikely to be found in a roll, such as
mercury dime
The Mercury dime is a ten-cent coin struck by the United States Mint from late 1916 to 1945. Designed by Adolph Weinman and also referred to as the Winged Liberty Head dime, it gained its common name because the obverse depiction of a young Li ...
s in rolls of
wheat cent
The Lincoln cent (sometimes called the Lincoln penny) is a one-cent coin that has been struck by the United States Mint since 1909. The obverse or heads side was designed by Victor David Brenner, as was the original reverse, depicting two stalks ...
s, or
Morgan dollar
The Morgan dollar is a United States dollar coin minted from 1878 to 1904, in 1921, and beginning again in 2021. It was the first standard silver dollar minted since the passage of the Coinage Act of 1873, which ended the free coining of silve ...
s in "bank wrapped rolls" (these coins were never supplied to banks in rolls, instead being sent in cloth
Euro
The euro ( symbol: €; code: EUR) is the official currency of 19 out of the member states of the European Union (EU). This group of states is known as the eurozone or, officially, the euro area, and includes about 340 million citizens . ...
) are used. Such coins can often be purchased in bulk at flea markets. Some con artists bank on the fact that the typical customer will recirculate these coins, or keep them for themselves thinking they are valuable.
In the
United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...
, it is not uncommon to find
Canadian coins
The coins of Canada are produced by the Royal Canadian Mint and denominated in Canadian dollars ($) and the subunit of dollars, cents (¢). An effigy of the reigning monarch always appears on the obverse of all coins. There are standard images wh ...
in circulation (and vice versa), although the extent to which this is done deliberately is unknown. It will be more unlikely to find 2 cent euro coin, other foreign pennies. Pennies from pre-2010 and nickels minted between 1982 and 2000 are very common because their composition is similar to American coins, so coin counting machines can't tell the difference.
Various currencies, including the 500
Italian Lira
The lira (; plural lire) was the currency of Italy between 1861 and 2002. It was first introduced by the Napoleonic Kingdom of Italy in 1807 at par with the French franc, and was subsequently adopted by the different states that would eventually ...
coin, the 5
South African Rand
The South African rand, or simply the rand, ( sign: R; code: ZAR) is the official currency of the Southern African Common Monetary Area: South Africa, Namibia (alongside the Namibian dollar), Lesotho (alongside the Lesotho loti) and Eswatin ...
coin, and the 10
Thai baht
The baht (; th, บาท, ; sign: ฿; code: THB) is the official currency of Thailand. It is divided into 100 ''satang'' (, ). The issuance of currency is the responsibility of the Bank of Thailand. SWIFT ranked the Thai baht as the 10th-mos ...
coin, are similar to the 2
Euro
The euro ( symbol: €; code: EUR) is the official currency of 19 out of the member states of the European Union (EU). This group of states is known as the eurozone or, officially, the euro area, and includes about 340 million citizens . ...
coin and are sometimes passed off as such, especially to tourists. Even when the Lira was legitimate currency, 500 Lira was only worth €0.26.
Coin bags
In the United Kingdom and, until 2002, the Republic of Ireland, coin wrappers are not used, instead small plastic bags are provided free of charge at banks which are filled by the customer with the appropriate amount of the same value coin as printed on the bag. When depositing or changing, the bags are weighed at the bank to check they contain the right amount. The contents of the clear bag are easy for the bank teller to check.
See also
*
Confidence trick
A confidence trick is an attempt to defraud a person or group after first gaining their trust. Confidence tricks exploit victims using their credulity, naïveté, compassion, vanity, confidence, irresponsibility, and greed. Researchers have ...