ResearchKeeping an Eye Open for Coins and Currency
I once worked at a bank at the same time that I was heavily into currency collecting. It was quite handy to have one's paycheck automatically deposited so on payday you could hit the lobby ATM and pull what cash you needed on your way home! But one day, I got cash that I wasn't going to spend: the ATM was coughing up star notes!
Star notes are made when a Federal note is retired for being too worn-out. When they have all of a numbered series back, they reprint the series using the same number, only with a little star printed after the serial number to show that the number was "recycled". Since I was getting the notes in numeric sequence and they were mint condition, I could cash out ten dollar bills, run around the corner to the currency shop and sell them for twelve dollars apiece, run back and pull more tens out... that was a fun day!
It goes to show, there's never any telling what people will hand you. I've gotten Ike and Susan B Anthony dollars, Franklin halves, Mercury dimes, and wheat-ear pennies back as change several times. Usually coins and currency in circulation have been handled quite a bit, so the condition is worn down and isn't worth as much. We don't expect miracles, but even a coin that is worth a dollar over face value is worth the trouble to look at before you dump it into your pocket to spend.
I lived in Las Vegas for awhile, and though I'm not a gambler a lot of my friends were. So if I got dragged to a casino I simply took along my Red Book and a magnifying glass, and would put a bill into a slot machine, hit "cash out" and collect a bucket of change, which I would then sit down in the Keno lounge and go through looking for winners. I always said this was the only way to gamble! While slot machines are rough on coins, putting lots of dents and nicks in them, I'd occasionally find a silver quarter or good condition Kennedy half that was worth the time. At the very least, I always did better than my friends did, on average.
It never does any harm to let it be known that you're a collector. After a while, you have friends finding interesting items and saving them for you to look at. At stores where I'm a regular, over time I would have the cashiers setting aside anything interesting, too. People who don't collect don't mind at all; to them, it's a hobby of somebody they know. I was always careful to be ethical; if somebody brought me something very valuable I'd tell them, and offer to split profits with them or at least offer a finder's fee.
Banks are the best source of all. It never does any harm to walk into a bank with a $100 bill and ask for change in $2 bills! They actually have things like that on hand sometimes, and they don't mind at all accommodating a collector. though if you make a pest of yourself, you should at least do regular banking business there.