Opening half rolls

mercury1

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Mar 9, 2012
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Hi all. Was just wondering how many people cut their halves open with a utility knife. I've only done ten boxes so far, all skunk, and started cutting the rolls open in order to speed up my searching. I notice the knife cut on the coin edges and it doesn't matter on the junk but I'm wondering if I'm going to regret it if I find a nice coin. Any thoughts?
Merc
 

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alligator69

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Aug 31, 2012
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Defintley will decrease the value of the proofs. I look through every half dollar incase there is a proof or a unique half dollar such as 1974 double die
 

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mercury1

mercury1

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alligator69 said:
Defintley will decrease the value of the proofs. I look through every half dollar incase there is a proof or a unique half dollar such as 1974 double die

So do you just tear the rolls open gator? I'm bumping my volume up to 4 boxes this week and I'm trying to decide if I should keep cutting them open.
 

Sirreckless619

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Apr 18, 2012
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I do/wonder the same. I slit them open, check them and tape the side. Usually finish a box in 15-20 mins this way. To me it's the quickest and easiest way. Sure some of my halfs have slight cuts but I don't worry too much. Just another silver for the pile. Good luck.
 

CoinFetcher

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I just tear the paper.

but Machine wrapped rolls tougher, and the knife is a good idea.
 

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mercury1

mercury1

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fistfulladirt said:
Do you mean you are opening half a roll or roll of halves?

??? I'm opening whole rolls of halves. Haven't found a source for the half rolls of halves.
 

Bigheed

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Apr 11, 2011
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utility knife is dangerous....taping rolls is annoying as hell

Use a flathead screwdriver or a dull serrated knife and push under the crimp and pull back towards you, it rips the entire crimp off and you can slide the roll out.

This is better than edge slicing because by pushing the roll out it allows you to see about half the surface of each coin, you will miss some 40% by edge checking only, but not by my method.....I do about 1 million face per year so ya....you can trust me!

Happy "Opening"
Bigheed
 

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mercury1

mercury1

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Well thanks for the input. I think I'll keep cutting them open till I mess up a good coin. Might be a while before that happens.
 

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mercury1

mercury1

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Bigheed said:
utility knife is dangerous....taping rolls is annoying as hell

Use a flathead screwdriver or a dull serrated knife and push under the crimp and pull back towards you, it rips the entire crimp off and you can slide the roll out.

This is better than edge slicing because by pushing the roll out it allows you to see about half the surface of each coin, you will miss some 40% by edge checking only, but not by my method.....I do about 1 million face per year so ya....you can trust me!

Happy "Opening"
Bigheed

Thanks bigheed. I'll try that out. My dumps go in coin loc bags.
 

Bigheed

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i can do boxes in 6-8 minutes this way....I think you'll enjoy it vs. 15-20.

I don't date check or look for errors, so if you do that you're stuck at around the 15 minute range, but this should speed up your searching.

Line up 10 rolls at a time and use my method, I found that its faster do 10 at a time but slice all 50 first and then search vs. 10 search... 10 search... etc to 50.

HH
Bighee
 

BuffaloBoy

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i use a razor blade, but be careful, i sliced myself the other day and have a 2-inch gash on my left thumb... not deep and is healing fast, but hurts nonetheless!
 

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mercury1

mercury1

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Bigheed said:
i can do boxes in 6-8 minutes this way....I think you'll enjoy it vs. 15-20.

I don't date check or look for errors, so if you do that you're stuck at around the 15 minute range, but this should speed up your searching.

Line up 10 rolls at a time and use my method, I found that its faster do 10 at a time but slice all 50 first and then search vs. 10 search... 10 search... etc to 50.

HH
Bighee

Getting 4 boxes Thursday. I'll try it. Thanks.
Merc
 

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mercury1

mercury1

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BuffaloBoy said:
i use a razor blade, but be careful, i sliced myself the other day and have a 2-inch gash on my left thumb... not deep and is healing fast, but hurts nonetheless!

That sucks BB. Got to keep it clean, handling all those nasty, dirty coins.
Merc
 

BuffaloBoy

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yeah, i only use this razor blade specifically to open coin boxes/coin rolls, i use other razor blades for outside work. this razor blade is clean and only touches the outside paper of the rolls. The cut is healing way faster then i expected it to! I put "neosporin+pain" on the cut ASAP after i ran my hand through cold water and squeezed it with a red wash cloth. :)
That sucks BB. Got to keep it clean, handling all those nasty, dirty coins.
Merc
 

BuffaloBoy

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i almost forgot the main reason of the thread, my razor blade puts a minor slice into each coin as i run it down the roll, it is not noticeable unless you look real hard at the edge of the coin, you'll see a VERY thin line of shiny metal(underneath the dirty, worn metal on the surface of the edge)
hh
buff
 

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mercury1

mercury1

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Mar 9, 2012
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Bigheed said:
utility knife is dangerous....taping rolls is annoying as hell

Use a flathead screwdriver or a dull serrated knife and push under the crimp and pull back towards you, it rips the entire crimp off and you can slide the roll out.

This is better than edge slicing because by pushing the roll out it allows you to see about half the surface of each coin, you will miss some 40% by edge checking only, but not by my method.....I do about 1 million face per year so ya....you can trust me!

Happy "Opening"
Bigheed

Hey bigheed, thanks for the tip. Doing it your way speeded things up for me. HH
Merc
 

Seener53

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I crack the rolls open on the corner of my steel work bench. It's super fast kind of like Jimmy Johns lol!
 

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