Is there any Silver REALLY out there?

Discussion in 'Coin Roll Hunting' started by COINnoisseur, Sep 13, 2012.

  1. COINnoisseur

    COINnoisseur Professional Amateur

    I'm new to coin roll hunting. I've been collecting coins for about 3 years, but have just started coin roll hunting. Myself and a friend have been buying rolls of quarters and dimes from local banks in hopes of finding silver. I have spent $380 in the last 3 days from 3 different local banks. I haven't specifically asked for CWR's but i guess the tellers know what I'm doing and have given me rolls with hand folded ends, not BWR's. My question is: is there just a very small amount of silver coins in still in circulation and I haven't looked through enough rolls or am I persuing a futile effort?
     
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  3. NOS

    NOS Former Coin Hoarder

    No, it is not a futile effort by far. Two weeks ago I found 21 silver dimes within a few days of each other. Eleven of those silver dimes were in the same roll. Last week I bought $450 in CWR dimes and didn't find a thing. When it is your turn to hit, you will hit. Silver coins that are "still in circulation" from when they were released contemporarily are by and far in very small amounts. I think what the bulk of what we find when we find a silver coin in circulation is a coin that was relatively recently released by someone who doesn't know what they have or just doesn't care.
     
  4. clorox

    clorox Member

    It varies based on so many factors: Location, bank, which tellers are on duty, time of day, phases of the moon, the price of hard red winter wheat, who's running in the 4 o'clock race at the Aqueduct, etc. etc.

    That said, $380 in dimes and quarters is not nearly enough to find your average. I'd expect to find about 1.3 silver Roosies in $380 of dimes alone. I'd expect to find about 0.1 to 0.3 silver quarters per $380 in quarters alone (and that's just guess work; I've only found silver Q's from trays). Take a look through the results thread to get an idea of what's a normal yield.
     
  5. sjlund

    sjlund Member

    I search mostly dimes and have found 1.3 silver dimes per box ($250) on average through 2012 searching a total of $38,032.50.
     
  6. chicken_little

    chicken_little Active Member

    Depends how desperate you are. Most people are averaging close to 1 silver dime per $250 box. I would call that next-to-futile unless your banking set-up allows you to handle massive amounts of coins. Here I can do 2.5 boxes a week without causing trouble at my banks. To me that's basically futile, but I do it because I never know what I will find.
     
  7. I was hooked after looking through the first $60 in CWR dimes I found 5 silver. I am not as lucky with the boxes. I'll find one per box on a good week.

    The half dollars have been just as hard to score silver on as the dimes for me anyway. Luckily I am also looking for coins to fill my albums so that keeps me going.
     
  8. scottishmoney

    scottishmoney Buh bye

    Yup. Not a lot of 90% halves, but I have scrounged out 40 40% halves in the past couple of weeks.
     
  9. COINnoisseur

    COINnoisseur Professional Amateur

    Thanks for the responses. I think I've been inspired to continue the hunt. As long as there are some gems out there then I'll continue to search for them.
     
  10. scottishmoney

    scottishmoney Buh bye

    There will be times when you find nothing. Actually you can go through periods of few finds punctuated by moments of sheer excitement and amazement.
     
  11. Zander08

    Zander08 New Member

    I have looked so far this year 16000.00 in quarters and have found one 1983 proof and 2 silvers both in the 60's. That doesnt account for the 2 full rolls of silver quarters and 2 rolls of mercury dimes I got one day with a 32 d and 32 s quarters and 1921 d merc. So yes they are out there but quarters are difficult. Scottishmoney is right tho because they are scarce when you find one its pure joy. Happy HUNTING. Keep going
     
  12. c10ck3r

    c10ck3r Member

    I've found I have best success when TAM-105 sells for $5-5.5/bu.
     
  13. A.J.

    A.J. Member

    When I first started I stuck with pennies and nickels, looking for wheats and war nicks and so on, because I doubted so much that silver would be out there. It is very rare but honestly if you just keep going through boxes eventually you will find one. With silver, one silver coin per box is good, more than one is awesome, and three or more is practically a miracle. I don't do half dollars as much because I am not so crazy about 40%ers, but there are a lot of those, maybe more than there are silver dimes. But I've gotten my best results with nickels, even found a V nickel once, and about 20 common buffs, not including dateless. So if you really want to find stuff with great frequency, nickels are the way to go. But if you want 90% silver, then go with dimes.
     
  14. COINnoisseur

    COINnoisseur Professional Amateur

    This may be a dumb question but do the 40% halves have any melt value or is the silver more of a plating?
     
  15. A.J.

    A.J. Member

    That's not a bad question at all. They are clad, not plated, and contain a good bit of silver.

    You can find the most up to date melt values of silver and base metal US coins here:
    www.coinflation.com
     
  16. COINnoisseur

    COINnoisseur Professional Amateur

    Thanks for the info, I've been trying to figure that one out for awhile but could never get a clear answer from books,they all just said 40% clad and i wasn't sure if clad was another term for plating. I was turned on to coinflation.com by another member of the forum, it is very helpful and useful site, easy to use and navagate also.
     
  17. A.J.

    A.J. Member

    It's a great site. As for the difference between clad and plating, cladding is a sandwiching process where strips of metal are press together on a copper core. Typically it is cupronickel edges, like modern clad quarters, dimes and halves, but in the case of 40% halves the clad sides contain silver. Cladding is a good deal thicker than silver-plating, which produces a microscopic layer of silver on base metal.
     
  18. lonegunlawyer

    lonegunlawyer Numismatist Esq.

    Oh, yes. There is melt value.

    About 9-10 years ago when silver was about $5.00 to $7.00 an oz., I was able to purchase a lot of 40% from my local coin store for a slight premium above face because at the current melt value, it would cost more to extract the silver than the silver was worth. Then in roughly 2005-2006 when silver was about $10.00 to $14.00 per oz., I sold for a reasonable profit back to the same store.

    It is because the cost benefit of melting 40% was not favorable for a long time that these coins went largely unnoticed in circulation (especially compared to 90%) and were spent going from person to person.

    Now, in the past couple of years as silver not only caught up to gold, but surpassed gold in percentage increase, it is very worth it to melt 40%. Another thing to look for as more of this 40% is melted, the number of these coins still around naturally decreases. These may be circulated coins, but who knows what they may bring 10-30 years down the road as collectors need one to complete a set, but they are hard to find because no one valued them numismatically today, but only for their melt value.
     
  19. easj3699

    easj3699 Well-Known Member

    doing quick math on your numbers, so i may be wrong, but i figure you found about 200 silver dimes. so thats about $500 with todays melt give or take. how much time have you invested going through 38 grand worth of coins to get a return of $500. i know you technically only have face value in them but what i think i am trying to ask is this, is it worth it driving to the bank(s), carrying all that weight to and from the bank?
     
  20. sjlund

    sjlund Member

    I'm up to 211 dimes from $39,377. The bank next door to my office has a customer use coin counter, and I pass numerous banks on my way to/from work every day. I make 1 pickup and 1 dump every day. I use minimal extra gas, and I enjoy searching the dimes in the evening.
     
  21. easj3699

    easj3699 Well-Known Member

    then i guess why not.
     
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