My friend and I are considering searching through boxes of coins from the bank or mint sometime when we get a break from school. I was wondering if anyone could provide any insight as to where to start, what denomination to get etc. We are really more concerned with getting a denomination that will have more desirable pieces in them such as key dates or pre-1964 silver coinage or war nickels, or just non-modern types of coins. For those of you who have done something similar, please post your stories! Any kind of information or suggestions will be greatly appreciated. Thanks!
I've been searching alot of boxes lately. Lincolns get a few wheats but never a key. As for Roosevelts I've had some descent pulls. From 1 box pulled 4 silvers and 2 mercs. So with current silver prices it may not be too bad to search for silvers.IMHO Happy searching
It has been my experience that cents and nickels yield the most interesting results. Dimes and quarters are rather lean on silver these days, though you can get lucky if persistent. Boxes of both run $500 so its a bit to spend all at once. Halves, if you can find them, are worthwhile for silver. On the cents, besides pulling the wheaties, there are many RPMs in the 60's and various other varieties right up to last year. The key is to spend time inspecting each coin. Nickels are fun just because you can almost put together a full set of Jeffersons from roll searching, war nickels are not that uncommon, and there are still buffalos to be found.
Really about anything but quarters. With halves you have a decent chance of finding silver and with Lincolns you can pull a few wheats (and look for varieties). Dimes are small enough people overlook the silver on occasion and you may run across the stray wartime nickel. Quarters seem to be pretty well picked over.
I think I'd go about it in a different way. Make friends with some local bank tellers, and ask them if any customers have brought in anything interesting.
I would say to pull wheats in penny rolls. Usually get quite a few. Nickels are fun. I dont really recommend anything else. Maybe halfs, I have never roll searched with them though. Good luck hunting!
Make friends with cashiers... always a plus for banks.. also, make sure you reward good finds I like cents for roll searching, but so does a billion other folks, so i have never fond a key date ... or much else worth noting lol
Just finished searching $500 in halves I recently got $500 in halves and as far as I'm concerned it was a bust.I found 3 -40% silver halves and not one 90 %. I'll stick to dealing with pocket change.
Just finished searching $500 in halves I recently got $500 in halves and as far as I'm concerned it was a bust.I found 3 -40% silver halves and not one 90 %. I'll stick to dealing with pocket change.
Not worth the time IMO. Stuff has been picked over and further diluted for decades. Pennies might have a chance to be interesting but then again, they've produced so many billions of them, they're the most diluted denomination out of all of them. If I was going to do it, I'd try nickels and dimes. Nothing more.
I have searched everything besides halves. Nickels have probably the best variety. In one box, I have found a 1942 silver, a 1913 buff, and 25 pre-1960. Cents are pretty good too, but I also have never found a key date. Best was a 1909. In 2 boxes of dimes, a total of 5 silver rosies and 3 mercs. Quarters are pretty bad. I found one 1954 and an Indiana proof, but I believe that both were fairly lucky. I have never searched halves, but I have heard they yield some interesting finds such as silver kennedys, franklins, or even as far back as barbers.
You will probably find a fair amount of wheaties in the cent rolls, but I too have had the most luck with nickels. One wartime (real bad shape), 25 or so pre 1965 nickels, about 3 canadian dimes and 4 quarters out of about a billion rolls of them. Not sure what you and your friend plan to accomplish out of it but its costly and time consuming. I roll search mainly because it is relaxing and rewarding to come accross a hard to find coin. Nothing I have found yet has been a rare though. So in reality, just from what I have found roll searching for the last 2 months, may have gotten me $5-$10 had I tried to resell them. I would say that has been roughly $800 in quarters, $200 dimes, $60 pennies and $100 nickels. The best thing I found was from BP as I was buying my morning junk food. It was 2-90% halves and 4-40% halves.
So... general opinion seems to point toward cents, nickels and dimes. I would agree that quarters would be the worst since people don't overlook them as much as dimes (as far as filtering out silver is concerned), but halves seem to be hit or miss. I have another question though; is there anything worth searching from dollar coin rolls?
No edge lettering on dollars is one thing to search. Also, sintereed planchet. Just went through1K in halves and got a couple mint set only coins and a couple no FG's. No silver at all. Still have another 1k to go through.
I knew about the edge lettering, but figured that people freaked out so much over those that they would all be gone by now...
I find it hard to believe that you could find a Barber half in circulation or in a roll. Or even a walker for that matter. Not impossible, but about the same odds as hitting the lottery for big bucks or a million dollars on the slots.
I mostly do cents and I have pulled 11 wheats this week the oldest a 1917 in real good shape, a few 20's and the rest 40's/50's. I average about one wheat per $5 worth although I did pull 5 out of $5 last week. Nickels are hit and miss here in MI.. One roll I found a buff and then searched for weeks before finding anything worth while. I guess the good thing is that after you search you take them back to the bank and get most if not all of your money back.
