Newbie with a few questions

[tinykin]

Hi Gang

I have been following for a while and was fascinated by the hobby. This weekend I thought what the heck and got a box of quarters. Now let me explain a few things: I am in Canada so dollars (aside from the new "loonie" dollars) are pretty well unheard of and 50 cent pieces, while minted, are never seen in circulation so that seemed to leave quarters as my best option.

Well it went pretty well, I got 10 silver and 10 American (non-silver)

1937 - 1
1944 - 2
1947 - 1 (maple leaf)
1951 - 1
1956 - 1
1967 - 3
1968 - 1 (50% silver)

Canadians are a bit luckier as even a non-silver American quarter is (about) a 10% bonus due to the exchange rate.

Now the questions and I apologize first as some of these could be just looked up but I thought I would try here first.

1) What are key non-silver dates and mint marks for American quarters that are worth looking for? I figure I better check before I just trade them it.
2) This may be harder but does anyone know any key dates for non-silver Canadian quarters. I have done some research but haven't found any that seem really valuable.
3) Is there a good place to sell silver coins (for melt) as the coins I am seeing are in very poor condition? The obvious places are local coin shops but I am wondering if anyone has found a place that pays top "dollar".

Any info is helpful and thanks for the interesting posts.

 

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[STDevil]

Welcome. Responding to your question #3: If you have large quantities, then bullion direct or Tulving are probably your best shot. I personally have had great luck with Craigslist.

I wonder if you might have luck ordering a box or two of Canadian Half Dollars from a bank. I am not sure if CRH is any more prevalant up in your neck of the woods, but it might be worth a try.

 

[golden silver]

Finally a Canadian! We have always speculated on this forum how CRHunting is on your side of the Continent now I guess we will find out. Good luck to you. As for your first two questions....

"What are key non-silver dates and mint marks for American quarters that are worth looking for? I figure I better check before I just trade them it.
2) This may be harder but does anyone know any key dates for non-silver Canadian quarters. I have done some research but haven't found any that seem really valuable."

1) I don't believe there are any key dates for non silver quarters. The ones to look for are errors. Like the extra leaf on the cornstalk of the Wisconsin state quarter. Etc. All 2009 issue U.S. coins are bringing a premium on Ebay if you can get yourself a roll of them.

2) I have not idea about the Canadian non-silvers.

A bit of advice. The fact that Canada minted tons of half dollars but they don't circulate should not deter you it is the same with american halves but we can still order them. This is where we find most of our silver. They are there and they are full of silver waiting for you. Do your research and see if you can get some of the banks to order you boxes on the regular basis. I cannot imagine that too many are doing this in Canada. You could be one of the few. If that is true and you order these boxes you could bring in dream boxes of silver canadian halves on the regular basis and make a freakin killing. Do it and let us know how your kickin butt.

Golden Silver

 

[coinmojo]

Finally a Canadian! We have always speculated on this forum how CRHunting is on your side of the Continent now I guess we will find out. Good luck to you. As for your first two questions....

A bit of advice. The fact that Canada minted tons of half dollars but they don't circulate should not deter you it is the same with american halves but we can still order them. This is where we find most of our silver. They are there and they are full of silver waiting for you. Do your research and see if you can get some of the banks to order you boxes on the regular basis. I cannot imagine that too many are doing this in Canada. You could be one of the few. If that is true and you order these boxes you could bring in dream boxes of silver canadian halves on the regular basis and make a freakin killing. Do it and let us know how your kickin butt.

Golden Silver

I agree GS

Mojo

 

[65gt350]

A bit of advice. The fact that Canada minted tons of half dollars but they don't circulate should not deter you it is the same with american halves but we can still order them. This is where we find most of our silver. They are there and they are full of silver waiting for you. Do your research and see if you can get some of the banks to order you boxes on the regular basis. I cannot imagine that too many are doing this in Canada. You could be one of the few. If that is true and you order these boxes you could bring in dream boxes of silver canadian halves on the regular basis and make a freakin killing. Do it and let us know how your kickin butt.

Golden Silver

The problem is that the Canadian halves that are silver are bigger than the non silver ones so they would not fit in the rolls. My guess is that hitting the banks will be the only way to do it unless he can order in bags instead of rolls.

HH,
65GT350

 

[golden silver]

Oh, yeah that could be a problem. But you know he might be able to find a bank that orders half dollars and perhaps he could get lucky and get a bag or maybe some of the old rolls. I mean those old silver canadians have got to be somewhere just sitting around. He just has to do some homework. I would be going nuts trying to figure out a plan.

Golden Silver

 

[coolpix9]

Hey GS, I was in Victoria and Vancouver a couple weeks ago. The banks I tried to get halves from all told me I was dreaming. At least they were nice about it when telling me. I never found any silver while I was up there. JP

 

[Shake-N-Bake]

Hey GS, I was in Victoria and Vancouver a couple weeks ago. The banks I tried to get halves from all told me I was dreaming. At least they were nice about it when telling me. I never found any silver while I was up there. JP

I too have asked for halves in Canada, the teller actually said "you must be from the US because we dont have halves any more". I live about 3 hours away so it isnt a bad drive but I just dont have the time to really get to the bottom of the halves in Canada. Your right Golden Silver the silver halves have to be somewhere, BUT... I can't get enough time the find the right teller to butter them up and find them.

Tinykin - I would do a lot of research on where to get halves, if you are strike that many silver quarters in a box you should hitting the halves real hard.

Good luck, Make sure to keep us posted. Also try to find a buyer for your copper pennies, yours are 98% copper campared to our 95% copper, they also carry a good premium.

Happy Hunting,
Jason

 

[Rich Hartford]

Welcome and good score on the silver quarters I'm one of those people that was wondering about CRH in Canada.
How many quarters did you go through to get that silver ?
I get plenty of Canadian dimes here in Connecticut but only a few silver. Ever try searching dmes?

HH
Rich

 

[tinykin]

Back again. I have read all the comments with interest and appreciation for the advice.

To comment on some of the questions. I went through a box of quarters ($500, 2000 quarters) to get what I posted. It was better than I expected. I did do the research and as was mentioned above silver halfs are bigger than nickel halfs (by 2 millimeters (about a 1/10")) and, perhaps, wouldn't fit in the "tube" most coins are rolled in. This likely means even if I order a box I won't get any silver. On the optimistic side all the quarters were hand rolled, and about 15 rolls were the "flat rolling paper with the diagonal cut" (I hope you know what I mean). This would mean that size doesn't matter and so, to be neat, a person may roll an entire roll of silver.

I am quite friendly with the tellers and to my advantage they have never heard of coin roll hunting and they are going to save unusual coins for me (they had a couple of silver dollars they didn't know what to do with).

My plan is to get another box of quarters this weekend, order a box of halfs and fit in a box of dimes somewhere.

I will keep you posted.

 

[mistergee]

unless the government recalled them all....those silver halfs have to be somewhere. why not order some boxes if you are able...1/10" is not a big difference. you may wind up with all clad but so what...just dump them and get your money back....on the other hand what if you find a box with mixed rolls....some all clad and some all silver (due to size).....or better yet what about "the perfect box" all rolls of solid silver......ooops just drooled on my keyboard (again). dude...YOU GOT NOTHING TO LOOSE
if this turns out to be a dud....so be it. but you must continue to hunt for an answer......they didn't just fly off the earth or are all sitting in collections.
anyway i would still do quarters as your finds are awesome compared to ours and definitly do the dimes. i feel for you as you cannot edge search in Canada due to all looking silver but you have virtually NO COMPETITION.

 

[tinykin]

Another question: Someone above mentioned saving copper pennies. While I agree that a copper penny is worth more as copper than 1 cent if there is no place to sell them then what is the point? (and it is illegal to melt). I have seen where one website will pay a premium for wheaties but I haven't seen anywhere which will pay a premium for "run of the mill" copper cents. Thoughts?

 

[mistergee]

a while back when copper was over $3 bags of all copper pennies (pre 1982) were selling on ebay for something like $100 for a $50 bag. i think there still are some on there and they are now going for $60. still a profit to be had. don't understand why they demanded a premium, as like you said, you can't melt them, but that wasn't always the case and who's to say they won't let us do it again.