Road trip.... 01-02-2009 Even got a......plus pics

GMan00001

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Dec 19, 2006
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Twin Cities, MN
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So I had the day off today...company holiday...plus I didn't have my kids or anything else to stop me....so I deicded to try a road trip to an area I had never been to before....mainly small 1 bank towns....

My day started off a little slow as I was up a little late last night planning my route and getting bank info...think I finally went to bed around 5 AM....Nonetheless I set my alarm for 8. I ended up sleeping in just a wee bit and instead of getting to the first bank at 8:30 like I was hoping to pull out the remainder of the cash I planned to bring with I ended up getting there closer to 9:30....so I was running about an hour behind schedule.

I started out with about as much cash as I have ever had for a road trip not knowing what to expect...plus about $800 in bills I planned on keeping ($100 and $50 star notes) that if push came to shove I would spend to get halves if the right situation arose....my buffer fund... :)

It was a nice balmy 7 degrees this morning when I started according to my car's temp sensor...

Here is the play by play of my day...

Bank #1
---------
Cashed in some misc change from last year and took as much cash as I could out of my account.

Bank #2
----------
$0 in halves...someone had just bought the coin machine bag recently...hmm...late start and someone apparently had been hunting in front of me

Bank #3
----------
Had been to this hole in the wall bank one other time a year or two ago and got the impression they never had halves, but I stopped anyway....
Ended up with $23.50 in loose halves and the teller took my phone # if they ever get a bunch in as they just sit there.
2 - 40% Kennedy (1967(2))
Feeling a bit better

On to the next town, one of the few with multiple banks in my trip...
Bank #4
----------
Grocery store bank on a whim....didn't pan out...$0 in halves

Bank #5
----------
Picked up $100 bag that had just come off the coin machine....apparently ahead of someone who they "hadn't called yet"..so they sold them to me.....skunk anyway...oh well.

Bank #6
----------
$0 in halves....I should just stop stopping here...they have never had a single half dollar.....

Bank #7
----------
I was hopeful here as I had bought the coin bags off the machine a few times in the past and had decent luck...well not today....they had just shipped off their half dollar bag a couple weeks ago....what a downer...

Bank #8
----------
$4 in loose halves....skunk

Bank #9
----------
Phone call to a tiny town bank confirmed they had $0 in halves no reason to drive the extra 20 miles to check



At this point the day was starting to look like it might be a long road of nothing......

Bank #10
----------
Phone call confirms that this tiny town bank had $80 in loose halves so I decided to head over.
Turns out I could have skipped the stop....skunk, but it was on my way to the next tiny town bank

Bank #11
-----------
Phone call confirmed that this tiny town bank had $50 in loose halves.
2 - 40% Kennedy (1968-D(2))
Nothing special, but double my numbers for the day

At this point I was at $257.50 searched and had 4 - 40% halves...was around noon....
I was searching as driving mainly as I was pretty much the only one on these little back roads.


Well time to trudge onward...
Bank #12
-----------
A call to bank on the other side of the next town I was about to drive through said $0 in half dollars (saved 12 miles and some time)....


Bank #13
-----------
My first stroke of luck....they had $100 bag of halves off the machine
They hand counted it in front of me and saved me $2 (got rid of the junk) and gave me a free foreign coin (Ghana, 50 Cedis (1997))...I also spotted a couple silvers as she was counting.
As she was counting I asked about bags of pennies and nickels....figured since I wasn't having much luck with halves..I might as well start getting something for later...she said she did have a lot of excess right now and would be willing to part with some....
Ended up picking up 6 - $50 bags of pennies and 3 - $100 bags of nickels as well.

The $100 in halves produced
4 - 40% Kennedy (1968-D(2))

Doubled my total again... now up to 8 - 40% Kennedys...


Bank #14
-----------
Asked about half dollars and chatted with the second cute teller while the first one went to see what they had....turned out to be zero...so I asked about the coin machine and finally convinced the first cute teller to take the bag off and let me exchange a half for a half if there were any I wanted in teh bag....about $50 in the bag, but nothing worth trading for...oh well.. kept the $50 in my pocket.

I then asked about penny or nickel bags and ended up with another $50 bag of pennies and another $100 bag of nickels


Bank #15
-----------
Had $160 in hand wrapped halves off their coin machine...didn't think they would be too promising with the age and attitude of the first teller, but took them anyway and as I was driving across old dirt curvy, snowy dirt roads in country opened the rolls and ended up scoring my first 90% of the day (a 1964-D). Also ended up with 3 more 40% Kennedys (1966, 1967, 1969-D)


Bank #16
------------
Literal hole in the wall bank in no man's land....$0 in halves


Bank #17
-----------
Another Literal hole in the wall bank in no man's land....$0 in halves, but she did call ahead to another branch 10 miles or so away...they had at least $300...hmmm...I was thinking....maybe..finally....something worthwhile..

Bank #18
-----------
On my way to this bank to pick up the $300 I had to decide which route the rest of the day was going to be....I had a list of banks in two different directions from here and it didn't look like I had time to do both....so I called one of the banks in the next town on my preferred direction...they had a $500 bag of halves....I guess I'll go that way :)

Well, the $300 ended up being $380 in hand rolled halves off their coin machine....the tellers must have picked through them because my edge search while driving turned up ZILCH....another skunk... blah...


Bank #19
-----------
Stopped by the bank that I had just called that had the $500 bag. They had re-run it through the machine and found it was off $1 after I had called, so they had put a $1 bill in the bag and sealed it to make it $500. Although I didn't do a close inspection yet, there appears to be silver showing through the plastic so I am hopeful... (I have yet to search this bag....)


Bank #20
-----------
Same town as the last bank....just a couple blocks over....I asked about half dollars and if I could buy what was on the coin machine so the teller went back and said sure....there are $239....I said I'll take 'em....well as I was doing that transaction, the vault teller practically sprinted out and said..."We have another $500 bag of halves do you want that too??" Ummm...Twist my arm.....PLEASE!!!!!!
I asked if they had been there long....oh yes these have been here forever....cool sounds like I am in Vigin territory....and I could hear silver in the bag.....another good sign... :)

So from this bank I ended up picking up $739 in half dollars....but I decided to finish searching the $380 from Bank #18 first since I was already most of the way through them....(back to this $739 later...)

Bank #21
-----------
Another tiny town bank, that I finally reached after driving on what seemed like dirt windy roads..they may have been paved, but if so they were full of potholes....

Turns out this bank had $670 in half dollars....at this point I am starting to run out of cash as all these banks are having hundreds of dollars worth of half dollars back to back to back....like I said....felt like virgin territory.....

Well, after counting what I had left on hand in cash..I needed to break one of the hundreds that I had planned to keep to get the $670....well the conditions seemed favorable, so I took a shot at it..... (still have yet to even begin to look through these yet)...


On the way to bank #22, I finished searching the $380 from the Bank #18 and started searching the $739 from Bank #20....upon quick inspection of the first couple handfuls these bags appeared to have a bunch of silver and NIFC mixed in...tougher to search while driving, so the search slowed to a crawl while I was driving...hmm...reached bank #22....pause


Bank #22
-----------
Although almost out of cash except my buffer, I stopped anyway as this was another hole in the wall type town...turns out one tell had $34 and the coin machine had $31.50 in halves...perfect I had $70 left in cash....

Saw the couple of silvers from the coin machine halves, so did a quick search of those....
1 - 90% Kennedy (1964-D)
1 - 40% Kennedy (1968-D)


Since I was out of cash now completely, I pulled to the side of the road and searched through the remainder of the $739 and set the keepers aside, when I got home here was what I pulled from the bags (most were in the $500 bag)...

5 - 90% Kennedy (1964(2), 1964-D(3))
32 - 40% Kennedy (1965, 1966(5), 1967(17), 1968-D(7), 1969-D(2))
1 Proof Kennedy (1983-S)

14 - 2002-D
27 - 2003-P
18 - 2003-D
15 - 2004-P
16 - 2004-D
3 - 2005-P
2 - 2005-D
95 NIFC Kennedys

2 Foreign (Mexico, 1 Peso (1980), Portugal, 50 Escudos (1986))
6 Quarters
1 Nickel
1 Good Luck Token from Alexandria, MN


Bank #23
-----------
Finally got to a town that had a bank I had an account at, so I cashed in the halves I had already searched through as well as the other change I had brought from home to cash in eventually to get more cash (since I was out...now was the time).

Well the first half dollar bag filled up after I put $700 in it...meaning there was $300 in the bag already.....hmmm....since they are clear plastic bags I asked if I could see the bottom of it to see if I wanted to buy it back......well lo and behold...I spotted a Walking Liberty at the bottom as well as another silver....Good enough for me...so I bought that bag back

I also bought 3 - $50 bags of pennies and 1 - $200 bag of nickels.....

well because of buying the bag back, I still didn't have a lot of cash and since there were two other branches of the bank I had an account at not too far away.... I pulled into a parking lot and did a quick edge search of the bag I had just bought.....

Turned out, buying the bag back was a good investment....
1 Walking Liberty (1945)
1 - 90% Kennedy (1964-D)
11 - 40% Kennedy (1965, 1966, 1967(4), 1968-D(3), 1969-D(2))

2 Pennies
1 Good Luck Token
1 Free Drink Token for Georges Lounge

So although I went to cash in there... I ended up carrying out more than I carried in....always an entertaining phenomenon


Bank #24
-----------
Stopped in to a credit union....although the teller was really nice and was willing to sell me whatever was in the coin machine....they only had $1..so I said skip it...


Bank #25
-----------
Being somewhat low on cash, I decided my next stop would be to another branch of my bank...
Ended up repeating the procedure of the previous bank....

The half dollar bag filled after I had put $597 in....meaning $403 were already there....
Asked to see the bottom of the bag....spotted 2 silvers....decided to buy it back as well...

Actually ended up shrinking my cash supply as I cashed in $992, but bought back $1000.... lol

Bank #26
------------
About a block or two over from that bank, I happened to go past another bank....so I swung in....hmmm...4:57....sign on the door says lobby closes at 5:00 pm.....whew...just made it...

Asked about half dollars....the teller was kinda rude, but said she had 8 rolls worth...as I was in the process of buying them I also asked about large dollar coins..she said...oh we can't sell those...they have to go back to the fed to be destroyed....HUH????? really.....okay.....whatever.....I also asked about the pile of coin bags I could see on the floor of the vault behind her and she said..."Oh we can't sell those unless they are verified first"....shucks.....well... another teller popped her head out of the vault and asked what denominations I am looking for...I had mentioned buying the bag off coin machine, but they had already balanced it for the day...so it was a no go....and she says..."I have a $500 bag of halves that has been here forever..." Hmm.....I looked in my wallet expecting to be short....and lo and behold I had $550 left.... cool....I bought the $500 bag as well.....(yet to peak inside)



At this point, I was out of cash and since there was one more branch of my bank, I decided to do another quick edge search of the bag I picked up at bank #25 by the interior light of the car since it was now dark....
Turned out buying that bag back was also a good investment...actually better than the first one in my opinion because out of the $403 that was new.........

I got a barber....yep...great way to start the year off.... :)
1 Barber (1908-O)
1 Walking Liberty (1943)
6 - 90% Kennedy (1964(3), 1964-D(3))
3 - 40% Kennedy (1966, 1967, 1968-D)

8 Foreign
Bhutan, 1 Ngultrum (1979),
East Caribbean States, 1 Dollar (1989),
Great Britain, 50 Pence (2003),
Italy, 100 Lire (1956),
Malaysia, 50 Sen (1984),
Mexico, 1 Peso (1970),
Mexico, 10 Pesos (1998, 2002)

1 Dollar coin
4 Quarters
6 Dimes
4 Pennies

1 Flattened Penny

1 Free Drink Token for the Jailhouse Saloon, Centerville, WI
1 Car Wash token


Bank #27
-----------
Cashed in the just searched bag of halves and although I could have filled the machine....$986.50 did not do it...meaning there was less than $15.50 to start with....not worth the trouble...

I ended up picking up 2 - $50 bags of pennies
$200 in $1 bills (just for the h*ll of it)
and 8 rolls of half dollars.



Then I stopped and had lunch/dinner (I always tend to forget to eat on road trips....maybe it feels likes its wasted time...I don't know) and then I drove home.....


Results to date..through $2454 worth of half dollars
1 Barber
2 Walkers
14 - 90% Kennedy
60 - 40% Kennedy
96 NIFC Kennedy
1 Proof Kennedy
11 Foreign Coins

Left to search $1669 in loose half dollars plus 16 fed rolls of half dollars
13 - $50 bags of pennies
1 - $200 bag of nickels
4 - $100 bags of nickels
$200 in $1 bills

Although I apologize for not bothering to worry about the lighting, I attached a few pics.... :)
 

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GMan00001

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Dec 19, 2006
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Oh and for those that like to know this sort of thing.....I went approximately 243 miles
 

treasurefiend

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Great day after all!!! Looks like you got the first Barber for the year!!! :thumbsup: :thumbsup: :thumbsup:
 

Narthoniel

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Jul 1, 2008
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Good God Man. You are worse off than I EVER imagined! That is a lot of coins to hunt, will you finish by months end? Wow. Therought the halves you have already searched, you have done very very well. I knew you kept good records of your finds, but your trip details are insane. You boggle the mind. Nice finds, nice hunt, and heres to more silver in the rest!
 

BBcardsRI

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May 29, 2008
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Your perserverance deserves an award of its own... I need to think of an award for you for that 2008 award thread. I might as well suggest a "GMAN" award that you win everyyear... since you are one of a kind with your insane number of bank roadtrips, insane bag searching abilities, and your insane statistic keeping. I just don't know about you man...

Grats on the silver and I hope what remains is SOLID silver for you! =)

EDIT to the two posters above me: Do you fellas not remember his post of picking up like 18 or 28 or 118 or whateveit was... bags of pennies? The man is a literal living coin machine!

~Dave
 

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GMan00001

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Dec 19, 2006
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I think this is the second most bags of pennies ever in my car at one time.....$650 worth....

My high was $750 last year...but that was at one stop.. :)

when I am done searching the halves....I'll have search just over 10,000 this year....my total halves searched for last year....15,XXX
 

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GMan00001

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Dec 19, 2006
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Twin Cities, MN
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Narthoniel said:
Good God Man. You are worse off than I EVER imagined! That is a lot of coins to hunt, will you finish by months end? Wow.

The pennies will take about 6.5 hours...the nickels another 3 or so...and the halves I will probably error search so be a couple hours for those as well.

so maybe 12-15 hours total to search it all....probably be done with most of it before the end of the weekend...unless I do another road trip tomorrow.....hmmmm......
 

mistergee

Silver Member
Jan 8, 2008
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Pennsylvania
insane was exactly what i was thinking before i read the responses and 3 of you used it already...another comes to mind after reading this.....machine...243 miles...27 banks...bags and bags of coins....and then you break them down by denomination...and figure out all sorts of ratios...i am in awe of you Gman...i agree with Dave....there should be an award just for you....WTG :thumbsup:
 

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GMan00001

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Dec 19, 2006
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Finished the half dollars that I brought home with me...

The $499 from bank #19 wasn't as good as I had hoped....the silver I spotted through the bag..was almost all of it..
3 - 40% Kennedy (1967(2), 1969-D)
1 NIFC Kennedy (2005-D)

The $670 from bank #21 was not great either...though I am not surprised as the one teller was very protective of the halves in the coin machine and wanted to only do the ones already pulled....even if I filled the bag...I suspect she searched them herself. Still got a couple..
1 - 90% Kennedy (1964)
1 - 40% Kennedy (1966)


The $500 bag from bank #26 however.....I liked... :) Maybe it really had been sitting there for a little while...(but no more than 2.5 to 3 years....2005 in the bag)
3 Franklins (1956, 1960-D, 1963-D)
11 - 90% Kennedy (1964(3), 1964-D(8))
7 - 40% Kennedy (1965, 1966, 1967, 1968-D(4))
130 NIFC Kennedy (2005-P(62), 2005-D(68))

Note: the 1956 Franklin is a first time in my life find....down to needing only a couple franklins to complete the set from CRH alone.

Also completed the 8 rolls from each of banks #26 and #27
From bank #26
1 - 40% Kennedy (1969-D)
1 - 1974-D DDO

From bank #27....skunk.

Half dollar totals...
Searched: $4283
Barbers: 1
Walkers: 2
Franklins: 3
90% Kennedy: 26
40% Kennedy: 70
NIFC: 226
Proof: 1
Foreign: 11

102 silver halves and a decent 90% to 40% ratio.... I would say it was a pretty good day and a good start to the year...and now I just need to search through the pennies and nickels.
 

treasurefiend

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Awesome job!!! :icon_pirat:
 

coinmojo

Bronze Member
Mar 18, 2008
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Michigan
As I was reading your update I said to myself wow that 56 Franklin is kinda rare.

Well the next paragraph confirmed what I was thinking.

I Had an old friend over and was showing him what I have been up too, and asked him what year he was born. I told him I would give him a Half from his Birth Year. He says 56. So I start searching through my stash of Franklins, and to my suprise I got multiple copies of every year just about, but only found the lone 56 in my stash.

He did not get the birthday coin....

Mojo
 

davest

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Nov 5, 2007
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you certainly do deserve whatever you found :thumbsup: :thumbsup: What would you have said to a State Trooper if he would have pulled you over as you weaved down the road looking at the coins? That would have been a magic moment, don't ya think.

Anyway........You did good.
 

Pennyworth

Bronze Member
Jan 1, 2006
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ROFL @ Twist my arm!! I laughed so hard when I read that. :D

WOW, what a day of searching, UNBELIEVABLE!! :icon_biggrin:

BIG CONGRATS TO YOU


I love reading about your bank trip adventures,wonderful details. I'm with you, why eat while hunting you can do that later! Love the pics too! Thank you
 

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GMan00001

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Dec 19, 2006
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Twin Cities, MN
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davest said:
you certainly do deserve whatever you found :thumbsup: :thumbsup: What would you have said to a State Trooper if he would have pulled you over as you weaved down the road looking at the coins? That would have been a magic moment, don't ya think.

Anyway........You did good.

I was worried more about going in the ditch than being pulled over....I tend to go slower when searching...especially on some of the windy back country roads I was on...probably not many if any troopers on them.
 

goldencoin

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Sep 27, 2005
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Wow, excellent finds...wish I cold buy halves

HH
-GC
 

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