How often does one person actually get a big find roll hunting?

Discussion in 'Coin Roll Hunting' started by heuvy31, Oct 28, 2014.

  1. Dougmeister

    Dougmeister Well-Known Member

    I found these before while roll searching.

    I was a little surprised... and kind of scared.

    tp.jpg tootsie-roll.jpg
     
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  3. FmrFiatFollower

    FmrFiatFollower Note-orious & Numismatic

    I have found 500 silver half dollars in the past 3 weeks. I took a hiatus from roll searching for a short while and started back up again recently. I sort 8 boxes of halves once a week and do my coin deposit and buy on the same day. This haul (from Monday) totaled 138 40%ers and 13 90%ers as well as 4-5 nice S mint proofs. They are out there.

    I've searched in many different cities and states and I've found none as profitable as home sweet home...so I think location, population size, and age-demographics come into play quite a bit.
     
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  4. Ruben

    Ruben Member

    Although I have pretty much given up on roll hunting (returns diminishing to near zero), I have found a few good nickel roll finds over the last few years:
    1907 Liberty
    1936 Buffalo
    about a dozen war nickels
    and.... a 1950 D
     
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  5. joecoincollect

    joecoincollect Well-Known Member

    That's pretty good. It's still fun when those kinda things turn up. And I find it more believable than 500 silver halves in three weeks
     
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  6. FmrFiatFollower

    FmrFiatFollower Note-orious & Numismatic

    Evening, joecoincollector: I encourage you to look at the detailed counts and photos under "Roll Searchers Post Your Results" and "Early Birthday Present Courtesy of BofA".
     
  7. rockyyaknow

    rockyyaknow Well-Known Member

    My best finds were:

    Halves $38 in loose halves from a teller as half were 40%ers. She even said when she was counting them that a lot were silver.

    Nickels: Found 4 Wars in 1 box which isn't odd, but 3 were in the same roll where they were fed rolls.

    Also found a 1925 Canadian Nickel which for those who don't know is one of the rare years in that series. It was in excellent shape and found in a CWR which was an odd find, however my best find to date. I believe I sold it for $42 and threw that towards a small gold coin.
     
  8. wgpjr

    wgpjr Collector

    Best score for me was getting a whole roll of 40% halves from a local bank. Not too shabby for $10!
     
  9. joecoincollect

    joecoincollect Well-Known Member

    Tremendous finds guys. I can't believe more people don't know about this. It's basically free silver to profit from, or collector stuff to profit from like that Canadian nickel. Another similar thing I do is go to certain coin shops and cherry pick them. This one shop sells quarters and such for near bullion. He told me the only key dates are only the 32 d or whatever they are. There's also some semi keys he had but sold for 3.50 like the others. I think it was a 36 d Washington that's worth around 50 in xf. Little finds like this add up, and there are plenty out there if you are willing to look. It's a labor of love I tell you
     
  10. sshafer11

    sshafer11 Head Research Assistant - Coin Show Radio

    Back when I was deep into roll hunting I once had a box of halves give up 44 (40%), and another box than gave up 9 (90%) Opening those boxes was like Christmas morning as a kid..silver in almost every roll. The vast majority of boxes I did however were skunks, or had a few 40%. I never had a dime box give up more than 5, and nickels about the same. I enjoyed the thrill of the hunt enough to keep me going but I never got the true "dream box".

    At my highest volume I was doing about 4-5k, a week. I was rolling my harbor freight cart into the bank, depositing coinLok bags, recylcing my boxes outside of my living area, the whole 9 yards. In two years of searching and god knows how many hours of time spent on it I came away with about 70 ounces of Ag. I don't think I regret it too much looking back because it is what really got me into numismatics but it really was a time sink. So many hours of driving to the bank and dumping coins. I think CRH is a great hobby, and a great entry into coin collecting but I think for most the big finds will be forever "elusive" and it may lead to addiction as was my case lol. I told myself for two years that I was finally gonna get the "big one" it never really happened. The one box of 44 halves was great but 2 rolls of 40% pales in comparison to some of the finds I witnessed on forums like this and treasurenet.
     
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  11. Miko W

    Miko W Active Member

    Sounds like if you value your time at all, you're better of just buying junk silver.
     
  12. sshafer11

    sshafer11 Head Research Assistant - Coin Show Radio

    Yes and No. When I was doing it I really enjoyed searching the rolls. I started in 2011 though when silver was over $40 and finding it for face value definitely seemed to be a bigger reward. Now a 40% is worth about 3x face to a dealer. In one hour of a part time job you could earn enough to buy 3 which sometimes was all I hauled in an entire week of CRH.

    I remember when I found a 1901 V Nickel in AG condition and I was just on cloud nine. Once again, the funny thing is I now know that I can buy one from a dealer for like 50 cents but it was the thrill of finding it for free in a roll that made it special.
     
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  13. joecoincollect

    joecoincollect Well-Known Member

    Yeah there's definitely that thrill that can't be matched by just buying something. I can't imagine searching hundreds of rolls a week. Although it can be fun searching the lower denominations, when I move up to dimes, quarters, and then halves, it seems to be less fun because all there really is to look for is silver coins. There's no interesting dates or errors that regularly come up like you see with nickels and cents to some degree. At least this is how I feel when I get a roll of halves and I always turn up a bunch of crap circulated cu-ni Kennedies
     
  14. Barfly

    Barfly Active Member

    My impression has been that for halves, you'll find one really good box about every 20K you sort. I've found dozens in a single box, but never had a box where I found hundreds of silver halves. I don't do it much anymore because of the time involved, but am looking into ways to make it more time efficient.
     
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  15. My best ever find was a batch of misc change rolls from my credit union. The teller girls know me, and said someone brought in a bunch of rolled change, but in old rollers and newspaper. I ended up with 2 rolls of mercs, 157 40% halfs, 78 90% halfs which most were Kennedys, and there were 6 dollar rolls......but only one lone Peace dollar. That was a good day.

    But i usually search nickels, and i have found tons of war nickels, 1939 Double Monticello, 1942 Double Obv, 1954 DMM, and a stack of proofs.

    So there are goods to be had....but i only try and search bank rolls in nickels, the rest are customer wrapped rolls. Oh....and dropping off you bank ladies a nice box of pastries for the holidays...will give you a 1000% return when they save you stuff!!!

    Happy Holidays
     
  16. eaglepanda

    eaglepanda New Member

    Made $1800 in quarter errors in 2 1/2 months no silver found
     
  17. Snowman

    Snowman Senior Member

    my best latest find was a 1984 double ear Lincoln ...looks in good shape from roll hunting
     

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  18. furryfrog02

    furryfrog02 Well-Known Member

    Love it! :) Been looking and looking for that one.
     
  19. Fish paws

    Fish paws Member

    The results people have been sharing and the volumes searched really amaze me. I search about 1k in halves and dimes per week,and havent come close to any of the bigger numbers.
    I've had a couple boxes of halves give up 3-4 bucks face, and one box of dimes where I pulled out 8 mercs and 10 roosies, but those aren't the norm for me. Usually, its a onesie-twosie endeavor.
     
  20. EagleEyez

    EagleEyez Hoarding coinage since 1974

    I would consider 260 wheats in $5 CRW to be a big score. I've been roll searching for 40 years, and never had a score like that. In all those years, I have only found only a good find on a 1 or two basis, and nothing spectacular that would make sense to profit from rather than retain. It's a numbers game, and luck. The more you search, the more likely you will be to find that lucky roll. When I start buying too many TPG coins, I slow down and sink more into CRH - as a very economical way to continue collecting. Learn all you can about the series you are collecting. If you are only CRH to pull the silver, then you may be missing out on a significant find. My goal this year is to find all Major and Minor varieties (as listed on NGC) of clad roosevelts in circulation. Silver is only an added bonus, but not the goal. Nobody here has yet taken me up on that challenge...https://www.cointalk.com/threads/clad-roosevelt-varieties.258548/
     
  21. HunterOhlsen

    HunterOhlsen Active Member

    I seem to have pretty good luck. I have recently just done nickels and pennies but I seem to find pre-60s nickels in every other roll and 1 war nickel for every 10 rolls. Wheat pennies are common.

    I only have done dimes once and every roll I got was 2014 dimes.. They must have not been circulated yet.

    I think it is the most exciting way to hunt. If you open a roll of nickels and hold the roll and look at the sides it is pretty easy to pick out the war nickels. They are so grimy.

    My brother finds silver dimes by opening the roll and looking at the side of the dimes for the ones that aren't 2 toned.
     
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