The idea to "buy up" all the change at our local banks probably will never work.

Here's why I believe it won't -

1. The local banking systems don't really rely upon the Fed to make up their coin supply. Most locally owned independant banks rely more upon their own systems to acquire change and as such most of them are unwilling to sell rolled coins in bulk. We have several locally owned banks and credit unions close by to where I work and most of them subsist off of Coinstar type programs. My local independant credit union won't accept rolled change, but has the coin sorter in their lobby.

2. The major bank changes that distribute based upon the Federal Reserve - Wells Fargo, Bank of America, Wachovia and others buy from the Fed to meet their needs, but most are very unwilling to sell bulk quantities. My local Bank of America branch stopped selling bricks to me because they say it costs them a fee to buy them and they have no way of passing that fee through to me, unless I'm a business account holder.

3. The system is flush with the billions of coins we have been making in recent years and the economic downturn has flushed out many a piggy bank in recent days.

So, my take would be we can't buy enough to make a difference and even if we could the banks won't sell enough to make a difference...

Just my half cent worth.

Todd