What Do I Look For In A $500 Box Of Halves?

I just picked up a box of 1000 1/2 dollars and I am wondering what are the special coins to look for. I know about the %90 silver Kennedy's, the %40 silver Kennedy's and the Frankie's and Walkers (just generally). :secret:

Any key coin to watch for? Any rare or common errors to search for?:eat:

I am amassing these coins, plus rolls of "unsearched" wheat cents, and I'm going to take a thorough inventory and catalog what coins I do have and photograph them.

In 4 weeks I'm due for some surgery which will keep me off work for weeks. So, I figured I'd do some roll searching and general cleanup around here.

Please, any suggestions, lists of, you must look fors, anything at all will do.:loud:

Bruce

 

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Bruce, the only advice I can offer is to have fun searching. And also to keep yourself well. I hope the surgery is only minor and that it doesn't keep you away from the forums.

 

1974 D double die
1987 Coins anything after 2001

 

I pull out all BU and some sliders of all dates. Some dates in the 90s are hard to find. 82 and 83 also have a premium. Make sure to flip the coin, some have rotated reverses. You will find strange things sometimes when searching rolls and bags.

 

I'm hoping to find some strange things.

Anyone with more advice? (I know I'm asking for it now!)

Has anyone done this before and are willing to relate their experiences?

Bruce

 

I guess the S mins go without saying. Sometimes I loop them all and have found a 74 I think with an xtra nostril. Wishing you good luck and a speedy recovery. Maybe u will find a commem 50c or barber!

 

I know what your going to not look foward to:

Dirty Hands
Headaches
stress you wont lose any
20 lbs of of rolls you wont be able to get back into
hope you get a coin bag from a bank so you can return all $500 use the merchants booth when you return.

 

What your asking is sort of depending on your surgery. If you have anything like mine, when your recovering, coins have little interest. In fact, again depending on what the surgery is, you may not care about a lot of things.
As to halves, again, all depends on a lot of things. Around me I get about 2 to 10 rolls of halves a week or two. I cmpletely gave up finding anything of value. I do it mostly for the fun of watching peoples faces when I spend them.

 

So far nothing earlier than 1971D with many bicentennial and many beat up coins. Nothing even close to BU 960 coins to go.

Bruce

 

Carl- I hope you're feeling better. I know some surgeries can really knock you on your butt, literally. I'm having some shoulder repair surgery and will be out of work for 3-4 weeks. SO... I figured I'd plan some roll searching (and finding).

Anyway, you get well and I'll worry about the coins.

Bruce

 

Sure glad yours is that. Every time I hear surgery I remember my Cancer stage 4 a few years ago. I still keep my fingers crossed each time I have a CT scan. Sure hope everyone gets checked and as often as possible.
Have fun roll searching. Hope you find all coins Silver.

 

I agree. Everyone should get checked regularly if only to live to enjoy their family and their coins.

Bruce

 

Bruce,

I've done a fair amount of box and bank searching halves. It can be a great deal of fun. Another error you want to keep an eye out for is the 82 P no FG. You'll find a number of 74 D's with strike doubling, but the true DDO you'll recognize immediately.....very pronounced on the R, U, and S of "TRUST". Wish you the best regarding surgery/recovery. Will you be able to drive? It's fun to jump on the road with couple grand in cash and cruise small town banks. I once found 212 40% halves in one bank, 80 or so Frankies at another. Most banks are cordial, some aren't.
Good luck and keep us posted. From November thru April, I searched avg. 2K per week. My bank said the distributor was getting po'd and to lay off for a while. I'll probably ramp back up this coming winter.

 

hawk--I should be able to drive, after a few days, and the idea of hitting up some small town banks is something I'll seriously consider. By the way, My local bank that I got the box of halves from is in a small town of 6200 population. They had to order the box for me which took 3 business days. I don't know if that means anything but I'll find out for myself.

Bruce

 

I've done a lot of roll searching mostly with the half dollars. There are also 1983P coins with no designer's initials. Check 1968D reverses for doubling. The 1987 P and D are worth saving if in nice condition. Also I have yet to find a decent 1998P or 1998D so watch for them. I lucked out and got a nice double head magic coin and a broadstruck Kennedy. Also in rolls I got a 1965 Canada half and a nice 1966 Bahama half with the Blue marlin reverse. Both of those are 80% silver.
Recently I have stopped searching large quantities of half dollar rolls. Mainly due to the banks getting wise and the employees picking out all the silver for themselves.
I think that by seeing me come in and buying all the rolls of halves they had [over and over again] they figured out I was looking for silver. One assistant manager told me if I was looking for silver I was out of luck. She stated she inspected every half dollar that comes into her bank and takes all the silver out for herself.

 

What Do I Look For In A $500 Box Of Halves?


hopefully, #1,000 half dollars.

 

First thing I'd look for is to be sure there's 1000 of them little bugga's there!

 

It;s been a while so now I can report my findings.

This really sucked big time. As soon as I started to open uniformly bankrolled coins from the $500 box I saw a pattern of many of the same coins repeating themselves. Out of 1000 half dollars I got ZERO dates before 1971. NO SILVER. Initially this convinced me that these were gone through before me and RE-bank wrapped. I made a list of all the coins you fellow CT's recommended but NOTHING showed up. This lot was picked clean long before I looked in on them. I pulled all the 72's for the DDs, I pulled at least 75 2001 P & D because they were in excellent condition, but circulated and shiny. Not worth my time.
My ONLY single, lousy break was when I handled this group of coins and I felt a sharp edge to the coin, unlike any of the previous coins. Well, WHOOP-E-DOO, I had found a 1973 S coin, in circulated condition but with a sharp edge to it that I could feel with my hand. Maybe that's what I learned about Half dollar rolls--- the feel of some coins can be significant.

I've turned some into the bank to bring my account balance up a few hundred $$ but I'm spending these Kennedy halves just to see the looks on peoples faces when they look to see if they're real or not.

It has been,in general, real disappointing for me to spend so much time looking and hoping to find something worthwhile within these 1000 coins. But I must have deluded myself into believing I'd find something of value or something out of the ordinary or something "magical" I found out that I should leave the huge searches to those who aren't so inclined to believe in finding the rare coins in unsearched lots that pervade our wonderful hobby.

Bruce

 

If every box had a winner in it more people would go through them. I've had boxes like yours before. You just keep doing it. One day you'll find some thing. I'll be honest, it not worth your time to get the box go through it and return the coins, but that's not why I do it, its a hobby.

 

It eventually gets to the little things. I've never bought a box of anything - the most I do is a couple rolls at a time.

Just the other day I got a small thrill over a roll of one cent coins ( ), over half of 'em were bright and shiny mid 1990's. Obviously someone had cleaned out their change jar after a decade and I was a partial beneficiary.

Boxes of halves. That reminds me of a fellow who was posting on here about 9 months ago or so. I think he got an entire box of silver halves. Sold them on e-bay and then started to buy coins and currency. As far as I can tell, he stopped posting at about the same time he ran out of money from his find!