Don't let anyone tell you there's no SILVER left out there!

Today I dropped by a bank that's located in a supermarket near my home. I asked the teller if he had any Half Dollars and he held up two of them. I could tell from a distance that they were silver (they were a 1965 and a 1966). He asked another teller if he had any halves and he also had two of them. However, his halves were clad - I bought them anyway.

So far, in the last few days, I've spent exactly $1.50 for a 1964 Kennedy Half and two 40% Kennedys... I'm happy!!

Also, Aidan, the Morgan that I left for a tip was a rather common-date worn example. There are several restaurants around town where a tip of $7 or $8 is common. If I decide to leave more Morgans for tips, I'll wait until I see the reaction from the waiter/waitress. If they act like they've just won the lottery, they can keep the Morgan. If they say something like, "Oh, this says ONE DOLLAR on it" and then give me a blank stare, I may ask for it back and leave cash instead. It just depends...

 

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A firey horse with the speed of light, a cloud of dust, and a hearty HI-O Silver! :thumb:

You have to have a system to do these...for sure.

 

I think it depends on the volume of rolls you're talking about. Me, I'll get 2-5 rolls of whatever interests me that day. I only do this about every 10 days or so. At that rate, I just save them in empty CD spindle cases and then take them all back every couple months and deposit them in my account there. They have a coin counter in the vault and they've never batted an eye at me.

Getting the most mileage out of your 11 yr old is a very, very good idea What ticks me off is when I get five rolls of 2007 pennies or nickels or whatever. I just take them but cuss the bank out all the way back to the car.

50 cent rolls are definitely a crap shoot to get, but are by far the most likely to give you any kind of significant monetary gain. I really don't know what's up with that.

 

Thanks all. Let's keep this going. It ain't gonna hurt us sharing experiences...

Coincidently that happened to me when we first started searching cents. I thought, just my luck! It happened at a Bank of America, I picked up 10 rolls, and on both sides of the rolls were 2007s. I opened two because coincidently it's the first time I ever saw a 2007 cent. I didn't want to see that many of them, though, just one or two would have held me just fine. So, here's my tip of the day. Do what I did. Just drive right to the next drive-up bank and redeem the unopened rolls for cash. No problem...they gladly accept them.

 

Roll searching strategy-warning it's long

I was kind of looking around for a thread to share my thoughts on some strategy. So here it is, I found this thread, which isn't a main big searching thread...yet!
One thread I used to post to (Kennedy halfs) got shut down (closed) and I still don't understand that one.
But rather than get mad and quit, I am overlooking that unfortunate decision and moving forward.
Enough politics. This thread seems to be seeking ideas so here are some. I have thousands of thoughts and maybe I'll remember ten or so to share. On May 12, 07 I found a 1984P Broadstruck Kennedy. You may want to visit that thread._ _ _ _
First my rolls of choice are half dollars. Don't be sad if you don't get any silver. Look for keys like the 1987
and choice coins of any year. Don't neglect the 1982 and 1983 looking for no initial reverse. The 1986 and others. You know about the 1974D DDO right? Do you know the 1971D, 1972P,1977D can have the same doubling? How about the 1968D reverse?
East of the Mississippi look for Denver mintmarks. West of the big river look for the P coins.
And do open an account if you intend to return to the same bank more than a few times.
Go to small towns, small banks. In New England the hicks and farmers save coins. Then they come out of the woods with a box or bag full and cash them in. They don't go to big cities.
Go to banks that have been in the same location for years without changing their name.
Use the phone and call customer service. They can tell you how many rolls and what branch has them.
This is probably the most important thing: Clean them out. Buy it all. They usually ask me "Well how many do you want?" Always reply "As many as you can sell me." This is not for the people who order boxes.
Boxes come from the outside. The rolls in the vault, onhand, is what I'm after. Chances are they have been sitting there and have not seen the light of day for years, maybe. If you hit a small bank and buy all they have, you get the bottom of the barrel too. The bottom of the barrel is where the lunkers sleep.
If I didn't buy everything- all $420 worth of halves last Saturday, I may not have found the broadstrike.
If I only bought $400 worth, that broadstruck coin could still be in the vault today and not in my hand.
So clean them out. Buy it all.
Bone up: Know what you are looking for. Read books, search the net, educate yourself.
Don't be too fast returning your rejects and culls. Sort into years. When I got serious, I bought a printer's tray at a tag sale for $4.00 It has compartments that I just throw the different years into at first.
Don't be too fussy examining each coin at this stage. Once you get the lot divided into years, then you can look for the particular intrinsic idiosyncratic peculiararities pertaining to that year.
For example the 1984 Lincoln cents. Go through all your 1984 cents at the same time. Just the 84s.
You know you are looking for the double ear. Just look at ears until you are done with the 1984s.
Stick to the same strategy without changing. If you are looking for RPMs just look at mintmarks for that day or night, or session. Do not stray or get sidetracked. Just look at that one area of the coin for that day.
If you are looking for date doubling, just look at the date on each coin, nothing else.
By having the shape, form, in your mind, it is easy to spot an oddball.
Again, keep all the choice, gem, or AU-58 (or better) coins for now. You can take your time and cash them in later. Before you finally junk the rejects, look at them one more time before you cash in.
Don't return right away to the same bank. Do not be afraid to wait. I wait a month or two before I go back to the same bank for rolls.
Give the Farmers time to cash in their stash.
Ok long enough. There is more but I'll stop now. Happy Hunting!

 

It's great getting a whole stash of coins from the vault, but the problem is RETURNING them.

Several years ago, I bought all the Kennedy Halves the bank had on hand, I collected the few silvers I found and returned the rest - properly rolled.

The teller was none too pleased (they don't mind selling the Kennedys to you, but they sure don't like getting them back)! She placed a sheet of paper over each roll of Halves then took a pencil and ran it back and forth across the paper until an outline of the edges of the coins appeared. Then she counted the lines to make sure there were 20 coins in each roll. She continuted to do this for each roll (possibly around 100 rolls). Afterwards, she gave me a look that would have melted ice.

I had an account at this bank. Instead of running the Halves through their coin-counting machine and deducting any discrepancies from my account (or crediting my account for over-stuffed rolls), she went through this procedure. I calmly stood there with a smile on my face as she did so.

Some may disagree with me, but banks take on the responsibility of handling coins simply by being a bank. If they don't want this responsibility, my suggestion to them would be to get out of the business. If I have an account at their bank, they should accomodate my needs as a customer. They certainly don't mind charging customers interest on loans.

Ah, but I digress... I think that today I will see how many more rolls of Halves they have in stock. Hopefully, they will have some silver in them...

Good luck to all you roll seachers!

 

I fully agree. I'm in Canada, and have yet to find a bank that has an automatic coin counter. I'd have a new account opened up in no time if I did. The one bank who would take my coins back, is the one who looks after me the best. I always see the same teller, and she sets aside anything of interest for me as well. While they will happily take my coins back, they don't circulate that often, and on two occasions, I had gotten rolls that I had already been through. (Only some of the rolls, not all). I'm not paying Coinstar 9.8% just for the privilege of searching rolls either! So, unfortunately for me, I only get about 20-40 rolls a week, and I try to change them up. (pennies, nickels, quarters) I also make sure I take them back to another bank (or another branch) so I don't get them back again. It's about as efficient as I can get without opening up my own account through Brinks.

 

No luck roll searching

In the past 2-3 weeks, I have searched over 100 rolls of halves. I got 43 rolls at one bank alone and all clad I have picked up 2,5 and up to 10 at various banks but lately, no luck at all. My bank has a coin machine in the lobby so I usually buy the rolls, at any banks that have them and then take them to my bank and get the cash back to keep buying rolls.

The last good haul I had was at my bank about a month ago when I asked the teller for any half dollars. She said she had $10 worth and I bought them. They were not rolled but loose in her coin rack. They were all 1964 UNC. Kennedys and I posted a pic on ths site in another thread. I assume someone found a roll at home and took the 20 gorgeous silver halves to the bank for a $10 bill.

I have been buying 2 rolls of nickels and 2 rolls of pennies when I go to my bank (just for fun) and found this penny in a roll about 3 weeks ago. It's very special because it is the year my Dad was born. He passed away in April 2001 so this find, just days after the 6th anniversary of his passing, really made me smile. I felt like he was sending me a message that he still thinks of me often and protects me every day.

*~*Joey*~*

 

Now, THAT'S a sweet story! Things like that make it so fun to collect coins. To me, the Statehood Quarters are fairly worthless. But, when I find one of the new ones in change, I always save it for my book. My mother and I used to save the very first one we'd find, but she passed away in 2003; I'm continuing the tradition until the end of the series. There won't be much monetary value, but they' still be invaluable to me....