I was curious as to whether it is really worth my time to obtain bank roles in hopes of finding something. What are the chances of making any good finds, and have any of you ever found anything good? I would guess that most coins in circulation have been picked dry.
One of our members found a dime from the 1870s roll searching. I just did 6 rolls of cents, found 8 Canadian, 1 1929, 1 1936, and a rotated die error 2008. Nickels are probably the best bet because pre-50s coinage is not uncommon...usually 1 or 2 a roll. I've even found 38 and 39s.
I found 2 84 double ear cents, a wide AM cent (don't remember the year), 2 1999 rotated rev nickels and about $40 worth of silver clad halves over the last year.
Depends. Do you like to spend your time looking through piles of coinage, examining every minute detail in search of a double die or a separation between microscopic letters? OR do you prefer to spend time with friends and family, have other interests that make for a well rounded individual? True you might find a keeper but do the math and see if the time spent hunched over coins is worth the time away from other activities. I tried it for a month but in a moment of clarity ... I chose life!
In the old days that was a really great way to find coins. Then not to long ago this coin colleting craze made it so everyone tried the roll searching stuff and found everyone had already been there. Sort of like those adds for Unsearched rolls on ebay. Then as the economy went down hill, many people with those old jars, cans, boxes of coins laying around for a rainy day took them to banks for money for food. In addition to that, numerous home invasions took coin collections and dumped them into coin counters and bank counting machines. So to sum it up, roll searching now produces some really nice coins again.
I'm not a roll searcher myself, so for you roll searchers what are the odds of finding something worth the effort and the time?. Cheers,
Read the thread (post #2) to see what has been found. As far as it being "worth the effort and the time," I would say only if you enjoy it. To me, it is cheap entertainment. I enjoy looking through rolls. I'm not risking anything since I can turn back the money for exactly what I paid for it. In the meantime, in less than a year, I've found a WAM, 10 74D DDO halves, some cool struck through/lamination errors, a buffalo nickel, silver nickels and dimes, and several hundred 40% and 90% silver half dollars. But there are dry spells where you don't find anything for a while, so, to continue, you need to enjoy it. To me, it beats watching the crud that is on TV....
