Interesting story...
This happened to my family.
20 yrs ago my wife worked as a teller at a branch bank in Lincoln, NE. One day this older gentleman comes in and cashes about $150 in old silver coins. My wife waited on the gentleman and told him his money was worth more than the face value..... He would hear nothing of it and requested his change in bills. When the branch supervisor arrived, my wife was told to call his residence to again tell him that there was more money in the silver and that the bank would be willing to give it back to him for the value on the coinage.
Again, he was not interested. As it turned out, my wife and her coworkers purchased the coins at face value. We still have it locked up in the safe.
We have often wondered why the old boy didn't want the larger amount.
MFO
My dad was a small time coin collector. In the 1950's one of his co-workers happened to mention that he had just taken a bunch of rolls of nickels to the bank to exchange them for bills. His grandmother had given them to him when he was a boy and they were all brand new buffalo nickels.
Dad almost had a heart attack.
"As it turned out, my wife and her coworkers purchased the coins at face value. We still have it locked up in the safe."
Yup, I work "retail", part-time and my co-workers and I are always on the look-out for silver coins and notes. We still come across them more often than one might think. :)