Question about quarters

[Dodeskaden]

I've been reading this forum with great interest in the last two weeks and am very grateful for all the insider tips, insights, and positivity found here. The post for new guys was particularly helpful. So thank you, from a new member and a new (or maybe former, with a two-decade layoff) CRH.

My question...
Does anyone mainly search through quarters? I'm thinking of switching to them mainly for reasons of practicality. Living in an urban area, I'm on foot or taking taxis, so buying & transporting boxes and dumping is a big challenge for me. I like finding beautiful coins (I get a thrill from finding a BU nickel from the 40s-60s, even if it's worth .06 on the generous side) and of course I love finding silver. I also must confess that I'm not very fond of Kennedy halves as a coin -- in my very limited experience I find very few nice, eye-catching specimens, and I feel like I'm sorting through 99.9 percent garbage rather than finding 2-3 coins per roll that maybe-sorta have keeper potential. I don't much care for the design of the coin (no offense to JFK or FG) so it's uninspiring. I feel the same about Roosevelt dimes (though would love to find a mercury or barber, naturally). So...I tend to hunt nickels (mainly nickels) and pennies since I get more pleasurable hunting for the money/weight, and I find them to be easier to get (and a little easier to return) than halves.

I'm thinking of switching to quarters for three reasons -- there's the possibility of finding silver, the occasional BU/AU state quarter (and the very, very occasional proof) is nice, and I can spend & dump them a little easier. From everything I've read on this board, however, quarters don't yield much. There's not much love for them. Just wondering if there's anyone on here who mainly hunts quarters and finds it satisfying/fruitful at all, and, if so, if they have any tips.

Thanks very much.

 

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[ramjet2187]

The likelihood of finding silver is almost nil when searching quarters. The 25 cent coin is among the most circulated, and thus most silver has been culled from circulation. Read a few older posts regarding the few instances of finding silver quarters vs. the number of boxes searched.

As for searching for and keeping state quarters, just about everything that's advertised as a collectible isn't worth much, and the same is true with the state quarter set. A few valuable errors exist, but spending time and effort, not to mention tying up valuable CRH swing, the state quarter program just isn't worth it. YMMV.

 

[coolpix9]

DIMES ARE WHERE YOU WANT TO BE !!!!!

 

[synapse]

You'd be surprised how many mercury dimes are still out there for the taking. I find them at about 1 mercury:10 silver rosies ratio. I think a lot of "younger" people don't recognize them as US coins and just spend them without a thought when they come across them (that's my theory at least...and I'm sticking to it!).

As stated above, quarters are fun to look through for the full state/territories/parks set and hope to find the extra leaf on the wisconsin corn. But in terms of silver, quarters will definitely bum you out quickly.

Good luck at your return to the addiction...errrr i mean hobby!!

 

[Dodeskaden]

Thanks for this great advice, much appreciated!

 

[SFBayArea]

Tried quarters for a little bit.. a while back. Not great.. 1 per every 5-6 boxes. Although, they are easy to dump. That is a plus. I suppose if you got a lot of spare cash and a cart for hauling off all those boxes of coins you ordered, then yeah why not.

 

[spjegues]

I do about 2000 a week in quarters. I find more silver Canadian quarters than US silver. I am averaging 1 silver per $3000 searched. I do enjoy finding all sorts of foreign quarter sized coins- mainly from the Caribbean.

Good luck
Spjegues