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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Barfly, post: 1809610, member: 57721&quot;]Hi guys,</p><p><br /></p><p>I wanted to ask everyone&#039;s opinion about the cost basis involved in coin roll hunting and share my general thoughts and my experience so far. I&#039;ve seen some tangent discussion as I&#039;ve been lurking here over the past year or so, but I thought it might be a good idea to get everyone&#039;s ideas and experiences in one thread. </p><p><br /></p><p>On expenses:</p><p><br /></p><p>I find that coin roll hunting costs me an extra tank of gas, maybe two, every month I make a serious go at it. There is also the cash cost of replenishing your roll when you take out the keepers. This may not sound like much, but it adds up over time. Then, there&#039;s taking money out of the kitty when opening savings accounts at all the different banks you buy boxes from and there&#039;s putting the occasional $20 in them to keep them active. Technically, the savings accounts are still yours but you can&#039;t really use them. </p><p><br /></p><p>On profit: </p><p><br /></p><p>Halves - The halves in my area are pretty picked over. I have had runs of 17 boxes of skunk. I don&#039;t have an overly large sample, but I seem to be running 1 40% per box and about 1/3rd of that for 90%ers. On a dollar return basis, this comes out to about a 0.7% return per box (given the present price of silver). I find that my best rates of return are going on what I call &quot;random drives&quot; where I pick a part of town and spend a day walking into banks asking the tellers for all the halves in their trays. I&#039;ve found many more (especially 90%ers) this way than I have from boxes. Then main drawback of the driving method is that it is gas intensive. And, I&#039;ll eventually run out of banks. </p><p><br /></p><p>Quarters - I don&#039;t really do these. I understand that the return is extremely low, something like 1 silver quarter per 4000 searched, but I have no statistical basis to back that up. </p><p><br /></p><p>Dimes - I understand these are about the same as quarters, but again, I don&#039;t search them. </p><p><br /></p><p>Nickles - These are interesting, though I have never searched them. I read a comment the other day where a guy said he got an average of 1 war nickel per box. If that&#039;s the case, a box of $100 per war nickel valued at ~$1.25 for the silver content would be more profitable to search on a dollar cost basis (1.25%), though you would be getting less silver per box searched than even a 40% half dollar.</p><p><br /></p><p>Pennies - These are very interesting, as well, when considering metal value. I have sorted boxes of pennies, though few by comparison to the number of half dollar boxes I&#039;ve searched. I&#039;ve found that consistently, I run about 10 to 20% copper in a given box. Given a copper penny has twice the face value in metal content, on the low end of the range, you&#039;re getting 20% return per box and on the high end, it&#039;s 40% on a dollar cost basis. Then main drawback here is that it is illegal to melt pennies and since the value of each penny is so small, it takes like a tonne of pennies before you start getting into any significant dollar values. </p><p><br /></p><p>I look at coin roll hunting as trading time for value, really. I&#039;m a stacker, so I see things in terms of accumulating metal. It is a cheap way of acquiring silver, though you can&#039;t really do it in any significant quantities without some heroic work (I think BCArthur is the reigning champion in this category), but it is slow and steady. </p><p><br /></p><p>I&#039;m looking for everyone&#039;s thoughts and opinions. I hope I&#039;ve put enough out there for some good discussion and I&#039;m hoping we can all learn something from each other. If I&#039;m wrong in anything I said, please tell me why you think so. Take it away, gentlemen....[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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