half dollar people - I need help

Hang in there, this is a long read....

4 weeks ago I started reading through this site and decided I'd start going through halves. So i get my mom to ask the bank for half dollars when she takes my paycheck there(I'm 19). They didn't have any, but they suggested she call other banks to see if they have halves. So she does. she brings home about 18 rolls of halves. 14 were from a bank in a small town where the person said that someone brought in their collection. I found 6 40% silver halves. The 4 from the other larger city bank yeild no silver. So I get my dad to bring me home some halves from a bank in another small town where he works. They had 1 roll, it yeilded 1 40% silver half.

At this point I'm excited because of how easy it was to get silver. So I get my dad to order $1,000 in halves from the bank he got that 1 roll from. While I'm waiting for them to come in, I go to a smalltown bank near where I work and get $70 in halves - no silver. Then the $1,000 comes in - now 2 weeks ago. I spend the saturday going through them. The first box yeilds only 1 1964 silver and the dirtiest 1982 - S Proof. The only reason I saw the "s" was becuase I stopped to look in wonder at the amount of black filth on it. So after that first box i'm not very excited anymore and take a break. After the break I open the second box and the first roll I open has 5 40% silver's. Now i'm excited again - thinking maybe this box came from a different machine or something. So I go through 15 rolls before I stop finding silver. I now have 12 silver halves from this box. Then I go through the rest - 35 rolls - and find no silver. All these rolls were tightly wrapped in BRINKS rolls.
Now I'm thinking "maybe brinks gets all the silver they can out of the halves they roll up." And decide not to get more halves from that bank.

So today I FINALLY get some time to get to town (a large city - 45,000 people and several banks) and I visit 2 banks to get halves. The first one is probly the biggest in the city. I get $60 in halves. Not a single silver and not a single bicentenial. Due to no bicentenials, I'm certain someone else goes there to turn in their "extras". Its now off my "to visit" list. The next bank is a decent sized bank that has a couple displays trying to sell packs of 2 state quarters. I get 8 rolls of halves. The teller whips out this plastic box from under her desk that has about 13 rolls of halves in it and picks out 8 for me. I thought this was strange because every teller I've visited has to go to the back to get some. They yeild: no silver. This makes me think maybe that teller goes through them before she rolls them up or someone else goes though them and turns them back in there. I didn't have more time to visit other banks cause I had to get back to work.

Now I sign up here to get some advice and encouragement cause I'm certain someone else in this city is going around to banks doing the same thing i'm doing. I'm still going to go to the other banks in town when I get the time, but for now i'm pretty tired of "bumming out". I'm afraid to order more from that bank where my dad works because I don't want to spend several hours going through halves just to get a couple more.

So, if you've managed to read this far, what do you suggest I do? Any tips, or questions I should ask the tellers? Any encouragement?

 

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Dude, on my first attempt at searching halves I found 9 64's, 32 40%'s, 2 Franklins and a Walker. It came out of 4 rolls. You just have to be lucky.

 

I don't think your results are unusual. Hunting down silver coins after people have been hoarding them for decades isn't easy. It is a labor of love, and not a way to get rich. There are definitely silver coins out there, but not very many. You may want to expand your objective and try putting together a date and mintmark set of Kennedy's while you're at it. At least you'll have more "successes" in each roll.

 

Wheat has now found all the silver coins that were out there, so you guys should all quit looking.

Willie

 

searching halves is all about averages. Some people get lucky in the short run (Wheat for example) but for every four rolls like Wheat had there are untold hundreds of boxes that will yield nothing. I have found my average to be about 1 silver coin per 5 rolls. If you are ahead or behind that number, don't worry, it will average out in the end if you sort enough coins. Just keep ordering boxes whenever you can, the coins will come.

Keep going to new banks, too. I have always had those great finds when going to new banks and asking for what they have on hand. People bring coins into banks and they end up with a few rolls that regularly have silver in them, so that makes it worthwhile to keep going back to different banks all the time.

Have fun, the joy is in the search. You will NOT make a lot of money doing it, but it is fun anyway. If you are doing it for the money, stop now, you would make MUCH MORE money by getting a job; it is just too time consuming to make it worth your time if you are in it for the money only.

 

You've gotten some good advice here. As of today I am exactly one month shy of completing a full year of searching bank rolls of halves for silver. I've found close to 450 coins. A few Franklins and a couple of Walkers have mixed into the lot, along with some proofs and other miscellaneous "junk." I've found maybe 45 1964 Kennedys. The rest are 40% silver Kennedys. The point is that searching is going to yield mixed results. I'm averaging about 1 coin per 8.75 rolls searched. Another poster said his average was 1 silver coin per 5 rolls searched. You can't control what the banks give you or what people turn in. Consistency in your method of searching will pay off in the long run. Find a comfortable number (eg, 50 rolls per week) and keep at it.

Good luck.

 

I search halves when I can get them. I once found 5 unc rolls of 40% silvers. I have only ordered a box of halves once. I got it and cut it open. They had old paper wrappers and had "walking liberty", and "franklin" written on them. I opened them all up and did not find a single silver half. That same day I got some halves from another bank and found 2 unc rolls of 69-D 40%'s. Sometimes you find a lot sometimes you don't. I have only ever found one Franklin when searching halves.

 

Actually I did start doing that...I have a few slots left for the newer stuff, but I pretty much filled it up going through that $1,000. Next job is to put the best ones in the slots.

 

Yeah, i'm definately not doing this to make a profit. As much time as i've spent going through halves so far, noone would pay me enough for as much as their worth to me. Although you guys have spent even more time going through them. I guess I just thought it was too easy to find them.

I also hunt indian artifacts. on average a person only finds 1 per hour. I couldn't even imagine selling those things as many hours as I've walked through fields and our garden.

 

I have $2 and I don't have a job

 

I couldn't agree more with the posts above. I've only been searching halves for about 6 months now, but now that I finally convinced my boss to order them for me I usually go through a box every day. The key is without doubt volume. So far i've found several rolls worth of Franklins, along with 64 Kennedys, 40% Kennedy's (an ungodly number), Walkers, and proofs. But you have to remember, for each box you find thats loaded with silver, there are a whole bunch more that have nothing. Just remember, volume is key. You'll go through a whole bunch of boxes with little or nothing in them, but every once in a while you hit the mother load!

 

It is interesting to hear people mostly concentrating on silver halves. Does anyone look for and put aside error varieties or well stuck halves-minted in the 80’s?

 

I do. I search for the 74 D DDO, as well as a couple of other lesser DD's; also I keep any AU+ coins from 1978-1988. They are REALLY uncommon. Finally I collect anything that wasn't intended for circulation (87's, 70D's, 2002-2005, and proofs)

 

You're right on the money TOLS!! Volume is the key and you can't be discouraged if you go through an entire box of 50 rolls and find nothing. I looked through 1,500 dollars worth of halves yesterday and the first 1,000 dollars worth had little to nothing I needed. The last box had lots of 69's, 68's, 67's, 65's, and some 64's. Sometimes the rolls contain several silver coins and sometimes there isn't a one in the whole box. It's just hit or miss.

SMON - I do look for and put aside well-struck examples of all years. Even if I already have enough in my collection. I save the best for future trading opportunities.

Interestingly, I came across about a half a box of 1998-P's with small but visible die cracks from the bottom of the bust to the rim and from the face to the rim. All examples looked exactly alike and the coins hadn't been circulated. I saved a couple but returned the rest to the bank. I don't know if this is a variety people look for or not.

 

That is a great summary Cave_Troll. I've also been on the look out for missing FG initials. I personally have been finding more silver halves then AU+ 1980’s halves.

Moen1305 - Interesting die crack fines - I sure those halves came from the same die stamp. Can you post a picture?

 

I have read posts by several of you saying that halves from the mid 1980's should be saved (if they are high grades). I do save all the halves from 1987 and 2002-2005 that I find as they weren't released for circulation. Also, I have been saving all of the AU-BU 1986's, both P and D that I find. My question is this. Is there really any market for these coins? I can't say that I've ever seen rolls of them for sale unless they were proofs or in original mint/original bank wrapping.

 

The best pictures I have aren't from one of the uncirculated looking coins but the cracks are in the same place. The crack from the chin to the rim is hard to photograph and the other crack goes from the rim all the way across the bottom of the neck.

 

I have some 1995-P halves with die cracks in the same places.

Charlie

 

TOL196024 – Check you price list for MS grades for 80’s and compare it to other years. You will fine the 80’s slightly higher. All I know is fining 80’s halve in AU+ is challenging and I think the price reflects this. Is there much of a market – probably not. Will there ever be a market- maybe when the mint retires the coin, who knows. But right now, the challenge does make collecting fun.

MOEN1305 – Thanks for the picture. I will be paying closer attention for those dies cracks.