Got a box of Halves. Now what?

I picked up 35 rolls of halves yesterday and opened them all last night. My finds: one 1964, one 1964-D, one 1968, and one 1969. Four coins . Oh well, I've had worse pulls. Gotta keep on keepin' on!

 

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I'm on my way to the bank for half dollars. Hope I'll have some luck.

Fifty years of collecting and I've never found a proof in circulation.

Maybe someday.

 

Just back from the bank. They had $120 worth of halfs, which I took.

Those I found which I may keep, include the following.

1-1966P(?) AU, may have error in that the mint mark is obscured by a metal bulge.
1-1967P AU
3- 1976S BU
1-1996D BU
4-1999D BU

 

Gary,
Those 1976-s halves may have given you your first proof pulls from circulation. Are they clad of silver? If clad, they are proof strikes.
Only the 1976-s silver were issued in regular stirkes

 

What was I thinking when I hit the "S" key? Must have been wishful thinking. Sorry about that. The 1976 JFK's are Denver mint.

 

Your enthusiasm prompted me to go to a different bank during my lunch hour today and grab another 15 rolls. These look like they've been sitting around for a while too- I like that!

 

I can't wait until Monday. I found a bank that will have 30 rolls waiting for me at lunch time. I had to promise not to return them to that bank though.

 

I go for 50 more rolls on Tuesday. The ones I picked up yesterday had practically nothing. Now I've got about $1,000 in clad halves that I need to return and exchange for "new" rolls. Half will go on Tuesday, another $250 on Thursday, and some unsuspecting bank branch might get the rest on Friday!

Returning the picked through coins can be problematic sometimes. In the past I have asked the tellers up front: Did they mind sorting my returns? Sometimes they were happy to do it, other times they made a face. Also, ask them if there is a better day or time of day to bring them in. You can build a nice rapport with some tellers, and it goes a long way with them if they see you making an effort to fit your schedule to theirs.

 

Got my 30 rolls today. The end coins have nothing. Hopefully I'll find a few keepers when I get inside of them.

 

New member, but doing this for quite some time now. Yesterday, received a very unusual bag, a least for me. Supposed to be all halves (2,000). Contained the following: ..................


edited


Willie - there is no need to make the same post twice. You already made this exact post in the Found in Circulation thread.

 

Thanks GDJMSP, and no problem. I will not double post again. Just so you will know, I was trying to address two separate issues.

The one on this thread was the coin marking. Several premises:

(1) Someone out there is doing some serious coin marking. Recently, I have received a number of boxes (1,000 coins) and bags (2,000 coins) with every single coin marked. I'm not against that because those coins can go to the scrap heap quickly. Just seems like it would slow down the one doing the marking, unmercifully.

(2) Based on my experience in the deleted message that is referenced to another thread, which I should have done in the first place, it looks like the Fed, armored car/coin suppliers, and local banks are simply rebagging the same coins in more than a few instances. As Cave_Troll referenced, I do not see how every coin in large quantity lots are marked if supposedly counting and dispersion takes place in the banking system.

(3) If (2) above is true, how do they know the dollar amount in a sealed box or bag.

Any thoughts out there.

Willie (The Ghost of)

 

willie- good questions--

Marking is VERY slow work and that is why I stopped!


The banks that I use to return coins just dump them into their cointers and once it fills a bag then it shuts off and they install a new bag ($500 face). That way the armored car company knows what they are getting. If you are getting missfilled bags it is an error with the counting machine that was used.

 

Thanks Cave_Troll,

Although I'm not that familiar with the various coin counters, believe there was stuff in that bag that could not have gone through any counter. For example, a medal containing a small loop going in the opposite direction, a dime securily cemented to the back of a half, plus all sizes and thicknesses of coins???

Willie (The Ghost of)

 

Marking coins? bad idea.

I have no idea why anyone would go through the trouble to mark all their searched halves, unless they're doing some type of experiment/research. Anyone worried about getting their own halves back again should simply return the coins to a different bank from the place they originally got them from, preferably a bank which uses a different armored car/ coin wrapping service. Problem solved. Perhaps the biggest reason not to mark your coins is because of the old saying, one man's junk is another man's treasure. I'd be VERY upset to find a bunch of otherwise nice XF/AU 1978, 1982, or 1986 clads that someone carelessly ruined with a marker or something. I LOVE nice better-date clads, and would take any of those over a common, boring 40% silver-clad any day.

 

rbf-

I understand your horror at the prospect of people marking coins but I must provide an example of why I have thaought about marking. In my town there is no coin wraping service. Each bank has there own rolling machine. I have also determined that there is only one bank in town that carries any decent amount of halves. Infact they will collect $1000.00 in halves every 2 to 3 months. I mention this only because no other bank in town comes close to this rate of collection.

What I believe is happening is the back with the halves is collecting them from everyone else. This way the banks can share the cost of returning the coins to whoever they return them to. In a situation such as this it would not matter which bank you returned the coins to, you may get them right back the next time you go in.

 

Morgan,

Believe you would have the head vault teller at one of the banks special order for you direct from the Fed or an armored car/coin wrapping company. I have strong reason to believe the "unusual" bag I described earlier came through both.

Also, you should specify as part of the special order you did not want the $1,000 in halves circulating locally where you are located.


Say you wanted to order more than $1000 in halves, would they turn you away, or order them up for you?


WillieSutton (The Ghost of)

 

I understand what you are saying, but the boxes I was marking were TOTALLY DEAD! That means no silver; no proofs; and no 1978PD, 1979D, 1982PD, 1987PD, 1991PD, 1993PD, 1999PD, 2000P, or 2001-2005PD. Those are the dates I was pulling and there were NONE, so I wanted to see if I was getting the same coins back. In fact I always follow your instructions for returning coins. I buy at one bank and return to a different bank, and the banks use different Armored cat companies (in fact one rolls coins in paper and the other rolls coins in plastic shrinkwrap). It's just that the sorting was so unbelievably bad that I wondered if I was sorting my own coins over again, so I ran a short term experiment and marked 2 or 3 boxes. Thankfully I haven't gotten those coins back yet, so hopefully it was just an unusually unlucky run that I had.

 

For the first time ever, I might get a box of halves. What will be the likelihood of finding any silver? I'm also filling in a kennedy whitman folder. Will it be easy to find all dates after 1971?

 

Wheatpenny,
The odds of finding silver (including cald 1965-1970) in one box of $500 face value is typicaly 1 coin per 5 rolls, or 10 cons per box. This is pretty much the average from my experience. However, I have seen as many as 80 in one box of $500. This is the reason I keep searching. Good Luck on your search!

 

I agree with jimmy-bones's numbers. About 8-12 coins per box is my average, sometimes much more and on a couple of occasions none at all

As for filling your album, the odds are good that you will find all of 1971-2000 (excluding 1987) p & d in your first box. The 2001-2005, 1987, and 1970D will probably have to be purchased (although I have found all of these in circulation) individually. Now as for condition, the coins from 1978-1988 can be TOUGH to find in uncirculated condition, but it CAN be done with patience and persistence.

Have fun, the GOOD boxes are out there and they make the search worth while!