A theory regarding silver in rolls...

Jeff, thanks for all the info. I'm gonna hold onto the coins for sentimental value. Hopefully, I won't need the $$$$.

 

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If your just looking for silver and do not care about any CnClad coins in a bank roll, here's a tip that has never failed me.

Unrolling and rerolling is always a pain in the but unless you find a bank with a counting machine that will count out your loose coins and immediately credit you for either a deposit or cash.

If I am searching solely for silver, I'll order $500 boxes of half dollars and just weigh each roll. Silver coins, both 40% and especially 90% Kennedy's are a lot heavier than their CnClad counterparts. Weigh each unopened roll. If it's between 224 and 228 grams, its all CnClad. If it's 230-234 grams in weight, it's guaranteed to have something unusual in it. Possibly 21 coins insetad of the standard 20.
If it approaches 300 grams - CaChing! There's silver in it so you might as well open that sucker up.

Quarter searches should weigh a roll or two of CnClad Quarters to determine what the base weight should be. Same with dimes. Same with IKE's.

If you understand that Silver coins are heavier than CnClad coins, you'll increase you odds of finding silver int he rolls you open and save yourself the trouble pf having to reroll bank wrapped rolls.

The same is true of hand wrapped rolls as you never really know when someone, some hwere is going to dump those Kennedy's they've been saving. A recent trip to the bank yielded to full rolls of hand wrapped 40% Silver Kennedy's and all I had to do was ask. The person that deposited them there had deposited way more but somebody else got them. Why they didn't take the last tworolls is beyond me as I'd jave scooped every last one of them up.

Weigh your rolls before opening if your only looking for silver. It'll save you a TON of time.

 

What do you use to weigh ? One of those digital scales I see on Amazon or Ebay ?

 

If it approaches 300 grams, somebody slipped in some gold.

A full roll of uncirculated 90% halves, as minted, should weigh 250 grams (12.5 * 20). 90% halves are supposed to weigh 12.5g as minted, 40% weigh 11.5g, and clad weigh 11.34g. You'd need 24 silver coins in a roll to hit 300g.

I haven't weighed a lot of rolls myself, mostly because I like to search for interesting non-silver coins as well, but also because I don't trust the technique. The weight difference between 40% and clad is very small, and it would be nearly impossible to catch a roll with one or two 40% coins, because the weight difference is well within manufacturing tolerance and loss due to wear.

To take the numbers you list, suppose you've got a roll of clad coins that weighs 224g. (Uncirculated weight would be 226.8g, so they would've lost some weight to circulation.) Now, replace ALL those clad halves with similarly-worn 40% halves. The total weight of the roll would increase by .16g for each 40% coin, or a total of 3.2g, bringing the roll's weight to 227.2g. With your guidelines, you'd still reject it.

Actually, it's worse than that -- according to this page, the weight of a clad half as minted can vary by up to 0.454g, meaning a range from about 10.9g to 11.8g. A 40% half can vary from 11.1g to 11.9g, and a 90% half can vary from 12.24g to 12.76g. And, again, any coin will lose some weight as it circulates.

For dimes, you don't have to worry about 40% -- probably not for quarters, either; I've never found a 40% bicentennial quarter in circulation. But those coins are smaller, and smaller coins lose more weight proportionally as they circulate. A clad dime should weigh 2.268g, and a silver one 2.5g, but I've weighed slick Barbers that were under 2 grams. If your dime or quarter roll is peppered with well-worn silver, it simply won't show up in the weight.

I just checked a handful of clad dimes and AG Mercs on my .01g scale. The clad dimes weighed from 2.25g to 2.30g; the Mercs ranged from 2.23g to 2.35g. The Mercs aren't much to look at, but I'd hate to pass one up at face value simply because it didn't weigh enough to trip an alarm.