Cash paid in at the bank: why separate the coins?

[eteb3]

Trivial in the scheme of things, but interested what people say here

Twice recently a young cashier has told me to separate a mixed 1p and 2p bag, and a mixed 5p and 10p bag, so they can weigh them to check the value.

But those coins are deliberately half / twice each others weight: it’s the same answer on the scales mixed or separate

Obviously banks can tell me what to do if I want them to accept the pay-in, but this seems unnecessary.

Have I got unlucky with junior cashiers who don’t know this, or is it standard practice?

 

[Newchodge]

Trivial in the scheme of things, but interested what people say here

Twice recently a young cashier has told me to separate a mixed 1p and 2p bag, and a mixed 5p and 10p bag, so they can weigh them to check the value.

But those coins are deliberately half / twice each others weight: it’s the same answer on the scales mixed or separate

Obviously banks can tell me what to do if I want them to accept the pay-in, but this seems unnecessary.

Have I got unlucky with junior cashiers who don’t know this, or is it standard practice?

If you mix the coin in the bag the bank will have to separate out the different denominations when handing it out. Customers ask for a bag of 10p, not a bag of muxed 5p and 10p coins. It is cheaper for the bank for you to do th separating.

 

[DontAsk]

Every bag I have ever used says no mixed coins.

 

[eteb3]

Every bag I have ever used says no mixed coins.

Same here. I must be dim, because I’ve always read “5p or 10p” to mean that kind of mixing was no problem (and so on for the other weight-pairs)

Otherwise why pair them like that? And why engineer the weights?

If it’s what everyone does, it’s what everyone does - at least Newchodge’s reason makes sense - whereas the cashiers’ stated reason doesn’t

 

[johndon68]

It was standard practice 35 years ago when I was a bank cashier, we would never take a bag of mixed coins.

 

[ecommerce84]

It’s definitely for the reason @Newchodge states - the bank doesn’t want their staff picking apart a bag of 1p’s and 2p’s and then have to wait for other mixed bags to rebuild them into a full bag so that they can hand them out.

 

[eteb3]

Then presumably somewhere in their processes it’s useful to be able to weigh coppers all together, and silver, and pentagons, and brass?

Or are the weight pairs for vending machines or something?

 

[fisicx]

I thought it was a note on the bag to say either 5p or 10p. In other words: the bags are for the listed denominations which is not the same as saying you can mix them up.

 

[eteb3]

Yeah I do get that now, just not sure why the Mint goes to the trouble of making 1p weigh exactly half 2p, 5/10, 20/50, etc

 

[IanSuth]

Yeah I do get that now, just not sure why the Mint goes to the trouble of making 1p weigh exactly half 2p, 5/10, 20/50, etc

more than likely "because they always have"

Can you imagine the cost of converting all the vending machines (again) for no real reason.

I guess when they spec a new set of coins (like when 5 & 10p coins shrunk) they must have a bunch of meetings to try and work out the cheapest way to do it securely. Likely someone said "we always have done it like x" and someone else said "would it save money to do it another way, as if not let's keep it the same just in case it causes problems for someone else"

 

[alex@mia]

I am surprised that the bank prefers to trust the customer to separate their coins accurately instead of trusting a separation machine (as can be seen in many supermarkets), where the user dumps a load of coins, and the machine separates them and counts them. "Because they have always done so".

 

[JEREMY HAWKE]

So where is this bank you talk about
One is assuming that your not talking about a grass bank