So I have calculated (based off of my experience) that it takes roughly 4-10 pennies to find 1 pre 1982 penny. So on average 7 pennies. Thus out of 100 pennies we can assume that about 14% of pennies are copper (still in circulation) however, as anyone had any luck recently finding those precious silver quarters, dimes and even the war silver nickels in circulation, and if so, how many rolls do you recall having to go through to find just one? I have thought about taking my pay check and getting 1 box of quarters ($500) just to try my odds, but what I want to know is, Would I be waisting my time?
Ouch I figured it was a low average what other than wheat & copper pennies is good an easy to find inside rolls of coins??
I have a metal detector and never found any coppers or silvers. I would go out detecting and not find anything and then, I receive a wheat cent or 1946 nickel in circulation. Throughout the years I have collected, the oldest coin I have found in circulation is 2 1939 and 1 1938 Jefferson nickels. I found the 1938 just a week ago.
In the past two years (since I got my job) I've gone through thousands of dollars of quarters, dimes, nickels, and pennies. I've managed to get ~200 wheats, 5 silver quarters, 7 silver dimes (four of those in one week), a couple silver war nickels, and a bunch of 1940's-1950's jeffersons (with the occasional '39). Its worse than a pretty dismal average (on the silver side, plenty of copper still out there). There was a thread on here where somebody had figured out the percentage. You might want to search it.
I have only searched halves and dimes, but I gave up on the dimes when after 3 $250 boxes I found 3 silver dimes. Found a couple canadian coins and one asian don't remember what. But with the halves I usually find 1 or 2 40%ers per box, with the occasional 90% here and there. I have found a few 1974D ddo and one incomplete planchet, so I still think it is worth it. About one in 3 boxes is a complete shutout though with no silver.
This is strictly a non scientific observation but: My wife is a salesperson in a retail store and as christmas approaches each year she finds more silver, dollar coins, 2 dollar bills, etc. My thoughts are that some people have put these aside and now put them into circulation in "spending season". On a whole she averages 2-3 star singles, 10 wheaties and a couple of euro or foreign coins weekly and perhaps $5 face silver annually. She is up to just shy of 1000 star singles, when she hits the magic # I might put them on e bay as a bin @$1500 (or not, just might hoard them)
The Safeway stores out here in California use automatic change dispensing machines. This year I have received a 1944 penny and 1912 penny, and a friend received a 1945 dime.
I've never found any silver in circulation...although i have gotten wheaties infact thats how i started coin collecting. Roll searching isn't that good either...out of 2 hours in dimes you might only find 1-3 dimes if lucky. I believe quarters are a waist to search i doub't there still left in circulation.
This entire year I have not found a single Silver coin by roll searching. No Halves, quarters, dimes or War Nickle. Perhaps Las Vegas has a great number who search coins for Silver ? All I am saying is for me it's been impossible. So now I just do Cents, unless I just need a break. I could not even find anything but 4 normal variety Wisconsin quarters in the last box even.
I had my mom get me a box of halves from her bank in Vegas and the teller asked her if she was looking for silver. I found 7 40% halves in that box.
Since I began actively searching (15 months ago), I have averaged about 3.34 silver halves per box ($500). I also have found in the past year 45 silver Roosies searching 10 boxes and 7 bags. I have found one silver war nickel in what amounts to about 2 boxes. I have found one silver quarter searching a friend's manual car wash take.
It depends, do you like looking at coins, or are you more interested in making money? You could probably make more money and look at lots of coins by getting a job at a gas station then by searching boxes from the bank.
Man, that is cool ! I have been working 3 different banks, and can only get halves through 1. I have been eying a new bank that was just established and going to open an account after the first of the year. But I may be looking at the same coins over and over ? I try and mix up my dump sites too ? Maybe the box your mom got had been at the bank for some time ?
no they had to order it. Same with the bank I use here in CA. I ask they order and I dump at a different bank. I am sure eventually if not already I am looking at the same coins, but the coins go to a central branch get mixed with all the other halves deposited (some by people who don't know any better and dump the inherited collection in the coinstar or buy a pack of smokes at the liquer store) then they get machine rolled and boxed. I don't know enough about how they banks work to figure a turnaround time on coins getting back into circulation, but it works good enough for me. I also put some into circulation here and there.
