Sacagawea Gold Dollar coin question

Here is another pick-your-brain type question (maybe 2). My husband has
saved all the gold dollars he's gotten in circulation, which is not many-
maybe 8. I'm keeping them just to have them around, I think I am going to
try to get a roll of uncirculated to save for my daughter in the future. I
notice that these coins show a lot of wear, the ones we have from
circulation. A few of them look like the gold finish is wearing off, almost
as though someone who had them before tried to clean them. It really looks
like that to me, someone cleaned them. I don't think their condition being
that they should still be plentiful to obtain makes them very desirable to
keep and thought about just spending them later. I really think it looks
like the finish is ruined. So, would you keep them or just spend them? I am
thinking of keeping them for a while and then ditching them. I suppose I
could just save them and know that 30 years from now someone will be handed
some bad looking Sacagawea dollars. Oddly, each of the 8 or so looks very
different, and they are only a couple years old. But the finish looks very
different on each of them, with the ones I guess to have been cleaned
actually looking silvery in the center. Others look darker.

Also I am not clear on this- a couple of banks I checked with don't have new
(uncirculated, not necessarily NEW) rolls of them. The US Mint sells them in
uncirc rolls for $34.95. Why don't banks have them? From the mint it'd be
probably $40 to order a roll. Can a bank truly not get them? Seems absurd.

1) Tons of info and virtually all of your questions answered he
http://home.earthlink.net/~smalldollars/

2) They are not "Gold", they are "Golden" and they do not have a 'gold
finish' - the outer clad layers are quite thick and a uniform metal
alloy. It is shiny when new and as it tarnishes it gets darker (called
a "patina").

3) 2007 Sacagaweas are being made to go along with the 4 different
2007 Presidential Golden Dollars.


On Apr 4, 12:17 pm, "blue" wrote:
Here is another pick-your-brain type question (maybe 2). My husband has
saved all the gold dollars he's gotten in circulation, which is not many-
maybe 8. I'm keeping them just to have them around, I think I am going to
try to get a roll of uncirculated to save for my daughter in the future. I
notice that these coins show a lot of wear, the ones we have from
circulation. A few of them look like the gold finish is wearing off, almost
as though someone who had them before tried to clean them. It really looks
like that to me, someone cleaned them. I don't think their condition being
that they should still be plentiful to obtain makes them very desirable to
keep and thought about just spending them later. I really think it looks
like the finish is ruined. So, would you keep them or just spend them? I am
thinking of keeping them for a while and then ditching them. I suppose I
could just save them and know that 30 years from now someone will be handed
some bad looking Sacagawea dollars. Oddly, each of the 8 or so looks very
different, and they are only a couple years old. But the finish looks very
different on each of them, with the ones I guess to have been cleaned
actually looking silvery in the center. Others look darker.

Also I am not clear on this- a couple of banks I checked with don't have new
(uncirculated, not necessarily NEW) rolls of them. The US Mint sells them in
uncirc rolls for $34.95. Why don't banks have them? From the mint it'd be
probably $40 to order a roll. Can a bank truly not get them? Seems absurd.

"blue" wrote in message
...

*snip*
Also I am not clear on this- a couple of banks I checked with don't have
new (uncirculated, not necessarily NEW) rolls of them. The US Mint sells
them in uncirc rolls for $34.95. Why don't banks have them? From the mint
it'd be probably $40 to order a roll. Can a bank truly not get them? Seems
absurd.

Banks *can* get them but they are often too pig headed to bother ordering
them for you. If you have had an account at your patricular bank for a long
time I would explain to the bank manager that he/she better order them for
you or you will be having a conversation with their district manager about
why you are closing your account and putting your money in another bank
because their brank bank managers can not be bothered to do their job.

"PC" wrote in message
...
"blue" wrote in message
...

*snip*
Also I am not clear on this- a couple of banks I checked with don't have
new (uncirculated, not necessarily NEW) rolls of them. The US Mint sells
them in uncirc rolls for $34.95. Why don't banks have them? From the mint
it'd be probably $40 to order a roll. Can a bank truly not get them?
Seems absurd.

Banks *can* get them but they are often too pig headed to bother ordering
them for you. If you have had an account at your patricular bank for a
long time I would explain to the bank manager that he/she better order
them for you or you will be having a conversation with their district
manager about why you are closing your account and putting your money in
another bank because their brank bank managers can not be bothered to do
their job.

You would actually go through the hassle of closing out all your bank
checking and savings accounts, screwing up any automatic deposits, applying
to a different bank for new checking & savings accts.,etc. just because
your old bank doesn't want to get rolls of new coins for you? Why not just
try another bank?

Bruce

"Bruce Remick" wrote in message
...

"PC" wrote in message
...
"blue" wrote in message
...

*snip*
Also I am not clear on this- a couple of banks I checked with don't have
new (uncirculated, not necessarily NEW) rolls of them. The US Mint sells
them in uncirc rolls for $34.95. Why don't banks have them? From the
mint it'd be probably $40 to order a roll. Can a bank truly not get
them? Seems absurd.

Banks *can* get them but they are often too pig headed to bother ordering
them for you. If you have had an account at your patricular bank for a
long time I would explain to the bank manager that he/she better order
them for you or you will be having a conversation with their district
manager about why you are closing your account and putting your money in
another bank because their brank bank managers can not be bothered to do
their job.

You would actually go through the hassle of closing out all your bank
checking and savings accounts, screwing up any automatic deposits,

No automatic deposits for me. Allowing automatic deposits is to allow
withdrawals from the same source. No thank you!

applying to a different bank for new checking & savings accts.,etc. just
because your old bank doesn't want to get rolls of new coins for you?
Why not just try another bank?


Exactly. Try another bank that wants to give me the service I expect.

Practically speaking it is merely a threat but if I did not get satisfacton
then, yes, I would consider changing banks if my current bank condones
having managers lie to customers. Would you tolerate that?

"PC" wrote in message
...

"Bruce Remick" wrote in message
...

"PC" wrote in message
...
"blue" wrote in message
...

*snip*
Also I am not clear on this- a couple of banks I checked with don't
have new (uncirculated, not necessarily NEW) rolls of them. The US Mint
sells them in uncirc rolls for $34.95. Why don't banks have them? From
the mint it'd be probably $40 to order a roll. Can a bank truly not get
them? Seems absurd.

Banks *can* get them but they are often too pig headed to bother
ordering them for you. If you have had an account at your patricular
bank for a long time I would explain to the bank manager that he/she
better order them for you or you will be having a conversation with
their district manager about why you are closing your account and
putting your money in another bank because their brank bank managers can
not be bothered to do their job.

You would actually go through the hassle of closing out all your bank
checking and savings accounts, screwing up any automatic deposits,

No automatic deposits for me. Allowing automatic deposits is to allow
withdrawals from the same source. No thank you!

Never had that happen, or heard of anyone else experiencing it in almost 30
years of automatic payroll deposits. A bit of paranoia, perhaps?


applying to a different bank for new checking & savings accts.,etc.
just because your old bank doesn't want to get rolls of new coins for
you? Why not just try another bank?


Exactly. Try another bank that wants to give me the service I expect.

That's what I would do, too, if I were simply looking for a roll of new
coins. But I certainly wouldn't changing all my personal banking activities
to another bank over something as trivial as my bank not being responsive to
my coin collecting interests.


Practically speaking it is merely a threat but if I did not get
satisfacton then, yes, I would consider changing banks if my current bank
condones having managers lie to customers. Would you tolerate that?

If they truly "lied" about something significant. Yes. But can you imagine
any major bank actually instructing its managers to lie to their customers,
what with all the competition for customers out there? Sounds like more
paranoia.

Bruce

"Bruce Remick" wrote in message
...


No automatic deposits for me. Allowing automatic deposits is to allow
withdrawals from the same source. No thank you!

Never had that happen, or heard of anyone else experiencing it in almost
30 years of automatic payroll deposits. A bit of paranoia, perhaps?


Maybe I am a bit paranoid *shrug*. I *have* heard of it happening but
certainly not to me. Ever hear of a service called PayPal? I bet some
people in this NG have had experiences where PayPal took from their account.

I take the same attitude that I took when I got fingerprinted in order to
gain access to a major bank building when I was contracting there. I was
told my fingerprints were going to be sent to the FBI and remain in their
database, presumably forever. I highly doubt that the FBI is going to abuse
this information but, now that they actually have my fingerprints, the
possibility exists. No thank you. In the fingerprint case I relented since
my job is in the computer security side of the business and it was likely to
come up again. And I have nothing to hide. Still - the possibility now
exists that my fingerprints could be abused. That is not paranoia - just a
fact.


applying to a different bank for new checking & savings accts.,etc.
just because your old bank doesn't want to get rolls of new coins for
you? Why not just try another bank?


Exactly. Try another bank that wants to give me the service I expect.

That's what I would do, too, if I were simply looking for a roll of new
coins. But I certainly wouldn't changing all my personal banking
activities to another bank over something as trivial as my bank not being
responsive to my coin collecting interests.


Practically speaking it is merely a threat but if I did not get
satisfacton then, yes, I would consider changing banks if my current bank
condones having managers lie to customers. Would you tolerate that?

If they truly "lied" about something significant. Yes. But can you
imagine any major bank actually instructing its managers to lie to their
customers, what with all the competition for customers out there?

Of course not. *That* is precisely the reason I would go to a district
manager.

Sounds like more paranoia.


You are really confusing what I am trying to say. It may be my fault. Let
me try and explain again.

Step 1: Bank manager absolutely refuses to order coins, end of story.
Step 2: Inform the manager that you will be explaining to their manager why
you are closing your account, etc.

Presumably this threat will cause the manager to rethink their position. If
so, go to Step 6.

Step 3: Visit the next manager up the ladder and explain politely why you
are having problems securing coins from his/her bank.

Presumably the manager, in the spirit of customer service, will fix the
problem for you. If so, go to Step 6.

Step 4: Manager is not helping. Go to step 3 or follow through with your
threat and go to Step 5.

Step 5: Find a new bank that will help you.
Step 6: Enjoy your coins!

So, in reality, I would be really averse to closing my account too but at
some point you have to follow through or you will be laughed at next time.
Now of course you don't have to immediately jump to threats about closing
your bank account. A reasonable person can be talked to. Maybe set up a
deal to take a hundred or two hundred dollars worth each paycheck. But at
some point if the pig headed branch manager will not budge, which has been
my case, then you have to do something.

Sure, you can just find a bank who will be willing to get them for you even
though you have no account with them. Not an easy task in my experience.
If you can find one, great! Keep your account and good will and have at it.
But realize you just let your bank treat you more poorly than another bank,
that is not *your* bank, did. I will not accept that. The bank that
treated me well gets my business.

Maybe I am just an unreasonable kook in that I demand customer service.

"PC" wrote in message
...

"Bruce Remick" wrote in message
...


No automatic deposits for me. Allowing automatic deposits is to allow
withdrawals from the same source. No thank you!

Never had that happen, or heard of anyone else experiencing it in almost
30 years of automatic payroll deposits. A bit of paranoia, perhaps?


Maybe I am a bit paranoid *shrug*. I *have* heard of it happening but
certainly not to me. Ever hear of a service called PayPal? I bet some
people in this NG have had experiences where PayPal took from their
account.

I have indeed heard of PayPal, and had been reluctant to sign up for it,
mainly because I didn't understand how it worked and worried about how
someone might be able to tap into my credit card or savings account. Sort
of paranoid, you might say. A few months ago a situation arose where it was
much to my advantage to use PayPal, so I signed up. I'm still a little
overwhelmed by it and don't advertise that I accept it or will pay with it
on eBay. But, hell, I'm still overwhelmed by the cell phone my daughter got
us, too.


I take the same attitude that I took when I got fingerprinted in order to
gain access to a major bank building when I was contracting there. I was
told my fingerprints were going to be sent to the FBI and remain in their
database, presumably forever. I highly doubt that the FBI is going to
abuse this information but, now that they actually have my fingerprints,
the possibility exists. No thank you. In the fingerprint case I relented
since my job is in the computer security side of the business and it was
likely to come up again. And I have nothing to hide. Still - the
possibility now exists that my fingerprints could be abused. That is not
paranoia - just a fact.

I've been fingerprinted, polygraphed, photographed, and investigated many
times during my career. Rather than worry about any misuse of this data, I
feel secure that maybe someone could use it to help find me if I suddenly
disappeared (I HATE that stupid "went missing" phrase!)



applying to a different bank for new checking & savings accts.,etc.
just because your old bank doesn't want to get rolls of new coins for
you? Why not just try another bank?


Exactly. Try another bank that wants to give me the service I expect.

That's what I would do, too, if I were simply looking for a roll of new
coins. But I certainly wouldn't changing all my personal banking
activities to another bank over something as trivial as my bank not being
responsive to my coin collecting interests.


Practically speaking it is merely a threat but if I did not get
satisfacton then, yes, I would consider changing banks if my current
bank condones having managers lie to customers. Would you tolerate
that?

If they truly "lied" about something significant. Yes. But can you
imagine any major bank actually instructing its managers to lie to their
customers, what with all the competition for customers out there?

Of course not. *That* is precisely the reason I would go to a district
manager.

Sounds like more paranoia.


You are really confusing what I am trying to say. It may be my fault.
Let me try and explain again.

Step 1: Bank manager absolutely refuses to order coins, end of story.
Step 2: Inform the manager that you will be explaining to their manager
why you are closing your account, etc.

Presumably this threat will cause the manager to rethink their position.
If so, go to Step 6.

Step 3: Visit the next manager up the ladder and explain politely why you
are having problems securing coins from his/her bank.

Presumably the manager, in the spirit of customer service, will fix the
problem for you. If so, go to Step 6.

Step 4: Manager is not helping. Go to step 3 or follow through with your
threat and go to Step 5.

Step 5: Find a new bank that will help you.
Step 6: Enjoy your coins!

So, in reality, I would be really averse to closing my account too but at
some point you have to follow through or you will be laughed at next time.
Now of course you don't have to immediately jump to threats about closing
your bank account. A reasonable person can be talked to. Maybe set up a
deal to take a hundred or two hundred dollars worth each paycheck. But at
some point if the pig headed branch manager will not budge, which has been
my case, then you have to do something.

I understand your point, but I guess I just don't think it's something I
would get that uptight over, any more than I would be apt to refuse to shop
at a particular grocery store because they refuse to carry my favorite brand
of cereal. I'd be embarrassed to go up the bank management chain
explaining that I demand my branch bank order particular new coins for me so
I can spend them, and why circulated examples won't do.


Sure, you can just find a bank who will be willing to get them for you
even though you have no account with them. Not an easy task in my
experience. If you can find one, great! Keep your account and good will
and have at it. But realize you just let your bank treat you more poorly
than another bank, that is not *your* bank, did. I will not accept that.
The bank that treated me well gets my business.

Maybe I am just an unreasonable kook in that I demand customer service.

I look at being able to get a roll of new GW dollars at my local bank as a
bonus, not as something I should expect as a customer service. IMO, all
they should be expected to do would be to make dollar coins available to
customers who wanted or needed them, but not any particular design or
condition.

Bruce

PC wrote:
Banks *can* get them but they are often too pig headed to bother
ordering them for you. [...]

Actually, banks can't get *just* Sacagawea dollars for you. They have
two options when ordering dollar coins:

1) They can order boxes of specific presidential dollars during the
six-week special order period for that design.

2) They can order a mixed box of dollars outside that special order
period. In this case, they'll get whatever the Fed has laying around,
which will be Susies, and 2000/2001-dated Sacagaweas.

Nobody can get 2007-dated Sacs right now without paying extra and
getting them directly from the mint.

--
Jim Seymour

"PC" wrote
Maybe I am a bit paranoid *shrug*. I *have* heard of it happening but
certainly not to me. Ever hear of a service called PayPal? I bet some
people in this NG have had experiences where PayPal took from their
account.


Here's my PayPal experience, and it wasn't really PayPal's fault BUT they
would not fix it when I notified them immediately. I have used PayPal for
years, 2 different times, with just a credit card on file, with no problems
and no inappropriate charges. I wanted to sell something on Ebay one time so
I HAD to get verified. Or it may have been a combo of that, and I was
running into sellers refusing to accept unverified PayPal payments, probably
a combo of both. I did NOT want to link them up to my bank account info.
This was after I married, and I was using a joint account with my husband
but had kept my individual account as well. I moved all money except just
what I needed into my bank account and used that one for PayPal
verification/funds. My credit union is a telecommunications credit union,
and it required only $25 to be in the account in order for the account to be
free/no-fee. So, I would keep $25 PLUS what I needed for a specific PayPal
purchase, but actually, once I got verified, I usually just continued to use
PayPal to make a payment with my credit card unless the seller required bank
account or existing funds only. My understanding is they are charged less
fees for bank transactions than credit card payments- not sure. But some
sellers take PayPal from bank account only.

So, one day I won an auction , and I purposely kept my bank account as
little over $25 as possible so I wouldn't worry about bank account fraud. I
planned all along to pay for this auction with PayPal from my credit card.
When I went to pay immediately, I clicked on the payment option and clicked
the button for "Pay with credit card Visa XXXX". And clicked send payment.
As I clicked send payment I noticed my computer had frozen and the button
flipped back up to pay with Bank Account XXXX. In a panic, because the
auction would bounce my account, I tried everything to get it to go back and
send the payment from the intended credit card but the payment sent (my
computer kind of hung up and wouldn't respond, wouldn't back-arrow, wouldn't
refresh etc). In a panic because not only would it bounce, my bank charges
$25 fee for that , I searched all over PayPal help and emailed their
customer service about how to get that payment stopped and resent the way I
tried to send it. I was told "There is NOTHING we can do, we can't cancel
transactions." They wouldn't even cancel it for me and let me resend it.
Even if the seller could have been reached immediately and refunded me, it
would not have gone straight back into the account. So, I called my bank and
told them what happened and told them I did NOT intend a payment by my bank
account, that's why I keep it barely over the $25 minimum so someone can't
wipe me out (I would never have used our main, joint account, with PayPal).
I explained I had a computer problem and tried to stop it right away but my
computer froze up. They pulled my history and saw that I never bounce
payments...they let me move money from the joint account into the Paypal
bank account but they were still insistent that even though this all
happened 15 minutes ago, they were going to charge me the $25 fee.

So, within 15 minutes of this computer problem, I had rectified it by
putting money in the account- and the way my credit union works is they
offer protection for this sort of thing, so the payment would not have
actually bounced, it would have been a fee from my bank though because I
didn't pay the $5 a month overdraft protection fee (because I never
overdraft- still have only had this happen once, and it was the computer).

I was furious that I had tried to correct the error immediately, and had it
resolved within 15 minutes, and my bank was going to charge me. I was
employed in telecommunications and this credit union knew me personally, I
called the location that was on the bottom floor of my highrise office
building and the manager was actually rude on the phone. So rude and
insistent that they were charging me $25, and she had no time to talk to me
further, she was "busy" she said. I was furious, and called back in and
asked to be transferred to another employee who had an office there and I
asked her kindly to get up, walk a few steps and ask Mrs. X (the "busy" bank
manager) if she realized that being rude is not such a good idea. (She had
told me she didn't care what happened). The lady I called explained exactly
who I was- my husband and I had just gotten a car loan from them and she was
sweet as pie that day. The "busy" bank manager got on the phone apologizing
profusely and had suddenly about 15 minutes to talk to me, and told me she'd
redact the $25 fee "due to my history".

I was still furious, although this wasn't exactly PayPal's fault, I felt it
poor that they don't let you cancel transactions once they are sent- had it
been a credit card you can just have you credit card handle it and you will
get your way. I still don't know what happened to make my computer bounce
back to the default bank account selection- I've used PayPal for years and
many transactions with no problems and it hasn't happened since. But
actually, I was more angry at my bank- I mean, I know transactions take a
business day to clear so technically my putting the funds in wouldn't be
available for 24 hours. But the manager was the only one who had the
authority to help me and she would not take 2 seconds to listen to me. She
was known for being rude very often. We found a low interest balance
transfer offer on a credit card we had (1.9% interest for the life of the
balance, no fees) so we transferred our car loan out of that bank and
refused to use them for our mortgage or future car loan. We also opened an
account with another bank and used it as our savings and just continue to
use the credit union for out automated billpay. They did end up immediately
cancelling the $25 fee once they realized they were being rude to a nice
customer (does it really matter WHO the customer is, if they are rude?? Not
to me! Rude is wrong.) Saying "Oh I didn't realize it was YOU" was wrong
too. So, it's not really a PayPal problem except I think it was a website
glitch- my computer never hung up anywhere else, worse was them not helping
me, and even worse was my bank. The bank lost a lot of transactions though.