i've actually just decided i'd like to see what i could find earlier tonight while researching silver coins and considering searching for silver quarters. it all started while researching a gift (2006 NGC gem uncirculated silver eagle) and considering buying more and some silver bars. i then stumbled onto the fact that quarters from 1964 back were 90% silver, that led me here and now im thinking it may be fun to search for other things. i dont really plan on collecting alot of coins for keeping but more for the hunt, sort of like a new age treasure hunt. in all honesty pretty much anything i'd find that wasnt super interesting to me would probably be traded off for silver. i really want to put silver away for a while as a form of savings. i chose silver because its affordable and still has kept going up in value. i dont have alot of spare income so more expensive medals like gold or platinum are out of reach for me. if i could have fun searching through change and possibly add to my silver collection in the process im all for giving it a try. i've always loved "treasure hunting" weather it was looking for fossils when i was a kid, or searching for old fishing lures when they drained most of the the local lake for winters it was always something. with all that said, im not sure which rolls i'd be most likely to find something good in that would set the hook on me and get the addiction started. originally i wanted to start with quarters and dimes looking for the silver years but i read something here earlier that pretty much sound like thats slim pickins since everyone else is doing the same thing. i'd want something that is easy to spot when i get to it but not so common that its still only worth face value. if i cant find silver finding something that would be easy to trade off for silver would be a bonus even if i need to find a good bit of them first. also i cant really afford to start out going through boxes at a time, at most right now i could probably spend about $200 to get started searching.
personally i'd stay away from quarters period unless some little old lady just brought them to the bank... and considering your situation i would consider doing nickels .. they are $100 a box so you could get 2 boxes , i haven't searched nickels but its sounds fun to look for v nickels, buffalos, war nickels,errors, and anything pre 1960 is something i would consider keeping ... a war nickel is almost worth $2 now a days and you may have a good chance of finding a few ... but definitely do it for fun and silver is just a bonus ... also i hear a lot of people have luck with loose halves so keep that in mind too if you don't wanna get boxes
i might try to pick some up tomorow. im a bit excited. already raided the house of change in the past hour. sadly nothing but about half a roll of pre 82 copper pennies.
picked up 50 rolls of pennys, 25 rolls of nickels, 5 rolls of dimes today. so far im 6 rolls into the nickels with no major finds. about half a roll of pre 64 nickels which im not sure if i should keep or not since theres no silver and some say they are worth keeping and others say not. the best so far is a 1939 s. i have only been looking for pre 64, buffalo, v, and the likes. i dont know enough yet to search for misprints and things like that.
well so far after sorting all the nickels i got about a roll and a half of various pre 64's nothing very interesting. nothing in the dimes. made it through about 12 rolls of penny's so far and only found 2 late wheats and a crap ton of the pre 82 copper. are the pre 82 copper ones worh keeping around?
some hoard copper in the hopes they will legally be able to melt it sometime in the future. right now that is not allowed. I have a little. I think if you tight on funds I wouldn't keep the copper. it is going to be easy to find for years to come so put your money back to work for you on your silver hunt! I hold the same opinion on the older nickels. they are neat but not likely become very valuable in the near future other than buffalos and v, like you mentioned. BE SURE TO WATCH FOR THE SILVER WAR NICKELS THOUGH! years 1942 -1945 with a large mint mark on the back are 35% Silver. check out the FAQ. It's exactly what you need right now. http://www.cointalk.com/t202337/
They drain the lakes in the winter???! Where on earth are you and how do you drain a lake?! Also, in nickels, I keep 1953 P,D,S and earlier. I've decided on that based on mintage numbers. Those later 50's ones are plentiful. I've heard others save 1962 and earlier because of the date range on the first Whitman Jefferson nickel folder (kids picking out 1962 and earlier to fill their Whitmans, etc.).
its very small. not even sure its really a lake. its foster joseph sayers dam in howard pennsylvania. they drain half of it every winter.
Weird. Never heard of such a thing. Maybe it has something to do with the ice expanding against the dam or something.
nice job on the silver you've found!! some people pay crazy amounts for toned coins,toning like that isn't really a bad thing unless it is artificial toning and i can't really tell the difference ... either way that is a cool looking coin ...
that penny isnt actually the one. that is a photo i found that looks as close to mine as i could find for the example. sadly i've been into photography for about 8 years now but recently sold my macro lens and flash so im having a bit of trouble getting good shots and need to practice a bit more when it comes to coin photography.
That 67 cent looks ATed to me, but I'd hang on to it. AT or NT, it's not something you see super often. And I highly doubt it's maliciously ATed, but probably accidentally ATed. It really is sometimes a thin line, however.
