Why can't I find a silver coin???

What year were the !0 dollar bills? and I wish I was born in a different time were coins that had silver in them were well circulated oh well back to looking through boxes lol

 

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Silver change still exists but it is slowing down. A friend refreshes the coin boxes for a car wash franchise. He then runs the quarters through a counter. Because the silver makes a different sound when it falls, he is able to extract those coins and replace them with the current quarters. He gives me the silver he finds. For a while he was getting a handfull every week. Now, a couple of years later, it's closer to a large handfull per month. He goes through thousands of quarters a day to find the few silver.

It's been a good deal, I've got a few piggy banks full of silver and it's still coming in but it's sad to see the slow decline. So far I haven't found any exceptional coins but I have only just started going through them.

 

I've only found maybe 5 or 6 silver Roosevelt dimes. That's it. Have yet to find a pre-'65 quarter... but I'm not holding my breath.

 

I've worked at a grocery store in a backwoods town in NE GA for the past 2 and a half years. Found plenty of silver. I've probably picked out 6 or 7 silver quarters and 10+ rosies plus a couple mercs and a no date standing liberty quarter. Also found 8 40% halfs and maybe 8 war nickels. That nothing compared to my 5 rolls of wheaties though haha.
edit: speaking of which, found a 1946 rosie night before last.

 

I live in a farming community and visit my little bank in "town" where I check for goodies every now and then. Last week when I asked if
they had any odd coins they wanted to get rid of, they passed me some half dollars, some Ike's and another large coin. I looked at it and
said I would take it all. Outside I looked at the large coin and it was a 1923 Peace Dollar! So there still out there. Hard times has
folks reaching into the jars and cans and spending those "keepsakes" they held for so long. I go back once a week and take
whatever they have.

 

I've been in retail all my adult life, since 1981 (where has time gone?, but THAT is a different discussion entirely! ). Finding Silver coinage in commerce is getting increasingly rare with each rapidly passing year. I have been shut out since late fall. I keep my cash room finds in a piggy bank, unless the coin fills an album hole of course.
Steve
P.S. In a more sad note, somebody alluded to this on this thread, or another thread, some people spend without not knowing what they truly have. Maybe a relative died, maybe an Old Whitman folder sold at a garage sale, or even more sinister, stolen coins. I remember a few times over the years a "mini hoard" of a few silver quarters, or dimes would show up in a cash bag from a previous day's business. This has not happened again in the last 10 years.

 

For some reason those stupid people at walmart alwas give me silver quarters. Ive made so much money off them.

 

I've seen stupid people at wal-mart, but they're never packing around any silver........ lol

 

All I can say to this thread;



Face value 90% silver found this year; ~$35.
Face value 40% silver found this year; ~$85.

 

The possibilities are endless when you work at a pawn shop!!

 

Last time I found silver in my pocket change, was 3 years ago, and they were all war nickles, 2 1943 and 1 1944.

 

A lady came in to where my wife works and paid her purchase with a original bank roll 1964 JFK half dollars. The paper looks like it came from the bank in 1964. All the coins are in unc. condition. Because ever one around me knows I'm a collector, they just save things like this for me and I end up with some nice stuff. You get lucky ever now and again.
Thanks Big Ed

 

I search a box of halves every week and yes last year or the year before it was not uncommon to find 10 or 11 40% and a couple of 90%. Once I found 140 40% in one box. Now it is usually between 1-4. Last week I found 2 40% and a 1953 franklin. This week just 2 40%. But in the last 2 years I have also found 6 1974ddo, 1 1972 no fg(well I cant see any fg with a 10x loupe) a 1982 no fg , several magicians coins (6 or 7) 2 incomplete planchets(one about 10%, the other maybe 5%) and about a roll and a half of impaired proofs. But I think it's that box of 140 that keeps me searching.
Oh and as far as Vegas being dry, I have family get me a box from Vegas every time I go visit and every time they come to Ca. to visit me, and last time I found 7 40% time before skunked. Every other time it's been 3 or 4

 

The ONLY silver found in circulation today is from broken up collections, burglaries, hard-times releases of hoards, kids stealing from parent's collections, etc. The amount of silver that has remained circulating for the past 40+ years is ZERO. Can you find silver today? Sure, but it's only been circulating for a few days or weeks.

 

Add to the list: Children who inherit rolls and deposit them, foreign coins that return, and vault hoards.

If I remember, the Fed had a program to remove silver from circulation (similar to Canada's current "Alloy Recovery Program"). It was only somewhat sucessful, as much silver was already removed by individuals.

 

i went through $500 worth of half dollars not a 1

 

Wow, after reading the replies I feel good about finding the two silvers I did. Took $370 and got some halves. Found one 1969 40%silver. Took the rest and got dimes and only found one 1964 silver dime. It does seem that volume is the key? Also the area of the country you are in? So, is it better to buy the silver or do the CRHing thing?

 

LOL!! Is that so!? I'm shocked! All kidding aside, you're a little late to the game. People started hoarding them in the early 60's to start because they knew they were going to be valuable some day. Then every time silver goes up, more people think they're going to do what you're doing and get a bunch of silver for face. You might be roll searcher # 1,580,467,389 at this point. To be honest, I'd bet more silver coins get spent from people's coin collections and accidentally put back into circulation, than original silvers left out there.

You also have to understand that the coin supply overall, is diluted with 'B'illions of new coins every year. Which reduces your chances drastically with each passing year. I did a writeup over this a while back concerning silver Washington quarters. You probably didn't know that if you could take every silver Washington quarter from 1932 through 1964 EVER MINTED and evenly mix them into a huge pot with (only) every 1965 through 1967 Washington quarter ever minted, and you were then blind folded.... you would have LESS than a 50% chance of pulling out a silver quarter. Just to give you an idea of the scope of the problem. This is why you're finding 1965s. They made tons of them, nobody wants them, so they're still circulating. I get a 65 on about a weekly basis. I've never gotten a 64 or earlier.
There's only been a mere 44 years and billions of quarters minted since 67 on top of it. Most silver quarters are sitting in albums or individual 2x2s for $8.50+ now. If you decide to bring home $100,000 worth of change, I wouldn't get your hopes up.