How Can I Increase My Odds of Finding Silver in my Half Dollar Cases?

I've been ordering cases of half-dollars from small banks around Philadelphia and am finding zero-3 silver halves per case (1,000)... is there a better way to increase my odds?

 

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Try expanding your radius of searched branches and try opening accounts with banks you haven't used before. Know too that you are following several years of a bull market and increased searching. Try branches in another city... small and large if possible. Trenton? Dover? Baltimore?

 

Good Ideas, krispy, thanks! What I cannot figure out is the actual mechanics of how these coins get from all these coin-machines to the FED, rolled up there and then shipped out again to the banks. I keep imagining that there's a "cage" at the Philly FED where the first seven-feet of this room are where all the activity takes place while way in the back at the bottom of the pile is a slew of silver sitting in cases that haven't moved for years! My bank-people tell me that it's policy for banks to "rotate" everything from coin stock to bill stock; so they're surmising that the FED would "rotate" their coin stock as well... I seem (?) to have better luck ordering cases from smaller banks, rather than big national banks; but maybe there's no rhyme or reason to any of this? Maybe it's just luck of the draw, pure and simple?

 

You could search for "silver cases of half dollars" on ebay, and I bet you find plenty!

 

They don't get back to the Fed. They only get to the company handling the bank's coin delivery and recount/re-rolling , such as Guarda, WF, String, etc. The coins these companies get from the fed are usually shipped in huge ballistic bags and rolled at these companies to deliver to the banks. About your only chance is from customer wrapped rolls, hoping some collectors needed cash and missed a silver. If your banks all use the same service, you will see the same ratio over and over.

 

Why persist in an activity so near to being utterly pointless that, unless your transportation and your own time are are completely cost free, must be losing you money?

I can understand the thrill of the chase, the excitement of the hunt but the keenest hunter who always comes home with no more than a couple of cockroaches for his dinner might consider doing farming instead.

You'd get more hunting pleasure and more results from combing dealers odds and ends boxes for unnoticed coins of some modest value, and you'd broaden your knowledge in the process.

You say you find a maximum of 3 coins per thousand. I doubt if there are many dealers who'd claim an accuracy in spotting any possible value was as high as 99%. So not only would you chances of reward rise, it would be less mind numbingly boring.

 

Afantiques, it's Coin Roll Hunting; it's not supposed to make any sense!

 

Thx DesertGem: So none of the cases come directly from the FED but rather from these CoinDelivery/ReCount/ReRoll companies. What FED District Are You IN? Could there be different procedures in different FED Districts? For example, here in District 3 (Philly) all the banks tell me they go "on-line to order coins from The FED" ... or did I assume "from the fed"? I did notice that Santander's order was rolled in Brinks wrappers... everybody else (National Banks and Regionals both) have been delivered in the same yellow, no-logo wrappers. Some halves come in long, flat cases (one roll deep)... others come in square cases (two rolls deep).

 

Thx JWitten, word on the street is Ebay's a sure-fire way to pay big-premiums for silver... the idea is to buy six bucks worth of silver for fifty cents and then over time watch the price of silver go up.

 

Afantiques, it's Coin Roll Hunting; it's not supposed to make any sense!


Somehow I suspected as much.

 

If it's not supposed to make any sense, then how can any logical method be incorporated into the search to improve results?

Chris

PS. Our emoticons suck!

 

From my experience, you should go to the less fortunate (poorest) parts of town, and ask them for the rolls they have on hand. You will find more silver halves in these few rolls than in a box-full ordered from your local banks, that come from the sorting/rolling companies...

 

Halves, as mentioned, don't come from the federal reserve. The boxed halves are madeup of coins that have been brought into the banks by customers. Once the bank has $500 worth in their vault, they ship the coins back to Brinks, Garda, Wells Fargo, etc. (Just a note : The name STRING that you seeon the wrappers is the printer of the wrappers and not a counting company.)

The halves sit at thecounting company getting mixed with other halves from other banks until they have a sufficient number to run a counting/boxing operation. Some companies have a clause in their contracts that does not allow them to sort the silver out.

So, if a customer brings silver into a bank and the bank passes them through without checking for silver, some silver can get into the boxes of wrapped coins.

It's mostly a matter of luck.

Bill

 

I've never ordered a case but do pick up the occasional roll or two from a few local banks. There is one bank near my work place that has been very good for me as I tend to find at least one silver half per visit!! I would say getting a few rolls as opposed to boxes may result in better finds simply because rolls may be turned in from customers not knowing any better (I once obtained a CWR that contained all 40% silver halves!!).

 

The only way to up the amount that you find is to up the amount that you search. I liken CRHing to clear cutting a forest.

 

Buy more boxes! I've gone through 5 boxes once hitting zero silver & swore I was done!
Until the first of my next 5 boxes yielded 42 silvers including a commemorative!
But yes, use different banks that use different armored car services.

 

Thank you so much for sharing your hunting stories... I am new to the journey. Love coins and need a hobby that I can do with an ailing mother. I am in a busy area with about 20 different banks within a 3 mile radius. I am considering walking into each bank and requesting to trade out all their rolls of half dollars. I'm concerned that they will think I'm crazy...but it's about the chase, right? Do any of you get grilled by tellers for the reason you are asking for rolls? And what do you say?

 

How increase the odds?

Easy -- buy the rolls from a coin dealer