What is the deal with being so secretive about CRHing anyway?

[Weaselbrott]

Let's face it, it is a tedious hobby that is not for the weak of heart. Don't get me wrong, I love it, and I will COINtinue to CRH, but for me, personally, it is intensive. If you are serious about silver, you are dedicating time and energy to finding it (of course, making the occasional dream find that makes it all worth it), but I don't see why people are threatened by revealing the hobby. Most people that know I CRH, even when they do see me make a decent find, are amused, but don't go and CRH. Sure, maybe you might create some competition, but I think spreading the knowledge of silver and it's value is good karma, as it makes people think about intrinsic value, and opens their eyes to some truth about sound money, but back to the point. Most people don't want to dedicate their time to this hobby, only a select few. Sure, educating tellers means you might not get silver from them, but it also might mean they will give you more silver. I have tellers that know about silver give me coins fairly often, and they know the intrinsic value as well, not just "I know its worth a lot." So I just feel like it is not the biggest deal to be truthful and informative to bankers. Just my 2 Lincolns...

 

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[Diver_Down]

Finds have definitely decreased over time due to more competition. Fifteen years ago, you tossed back all 40%'ers. You couldn't sell them. Refiners wouldn't pay, and the LCS wasn't going to pay and tie up his capital. Heck, even 10 years ago, 40%'ers weren't kept. As early as 2 years ago, I was averaging $40-$60 fv of keepers every week out of 8k. Now, I'm in the same boat as everyone else. It is partly to blame in not sharing the enthusiasm for others finds when they post a score of 10 40%'ers.

 

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[sagittarius98]

I completely agree.

i disagree. Theres still alot of baby boomers out there dying leaving bags, rolls, drawers, etc full of silver coinage that thier kids are to stupid to know what it is. Thats went down a little with the estate sale companies but as a rule if it goes into someones hand one days its got to come out cause no one takes it to the other side. There will also be silver in circulation, even if the big boy MWR companies cull because there will always be CWRs. Will the ratio be good enough to warrant it? Thats a personal opinion but chances are the ratios might be much lower but still there.

The ratios will be lower, but the coin processing companies may purposefully add some silver into circulation to have business from ordering coin boxes.

 

[ArkieBassMan]

If you were to inform everyone you met for the rest of your CRHing "career" about CRH, you likely wouldn't create 10 serious CRHers in your lifetime. The majority of people that I know don't have the free cash to give it a serious try. Several might give it a go, but would quickly become disinterested after a few skunk boxes of halves, dime boxes that produce about 1 per box, etc. It takes a rare breed willing to go to the time, trouble, and expense to CRH with the meager finds that most of us have. I'm still convinced that at least 90%+ of us would come out several dollars ahead in the long run by just buying the silver outright.

However, it pays to be smart. When I first began serious CRHing a few years ago it was not uncommon to find CWR rolls of halves that had been in the banks' vaults for a year or more. Now they rarely last a week. Nearly every bank I visit now says that they have at least 1 person that comes in regularly looking for halves, and this was definitely no the case just a few short years ago. How did that happen? Sure the rising price of silver had something to do with it, but word of mouth is the main culprit. Even this very forum has undoubtedly cost most of us silver we would have found otherwise. It was this very forum (more precisely Rich Hartford's finds) that caused me to start the hobby. I had known about CRH my entire life, but I had no idea some people were finding the amounts that they were, especially the 90%ers. The fact that people were finding Walkers with regularity shocked me.

The reason I don't talk about it locally, is that I don't want any local competition. Call it greed or whatever, but I already have enough trouble just finding halves to search in my area, let alone silver. Plus, I have a very limited supply of dump banks. Two good ones to be exact. Some newbie might not be nearly as courteous to them as I am and get us both cut off. No dump banks = no CRHing. Not everyone is nice and will "play by the rules." You can find several examples of that right here on this forum.

Here's an example of how word-of-mouth can totally ruin your activity: I used to fish a lot. There is a small local lake about 15 miles from my house. Way back when I was in high school, nobody fished it. The water stays chocolate-milk muddy year-round. The rumor was that there were no fish to speak of in that mudhole. Well, a buddy of mine and I decided to fish it one day after school. We caught several bass...BIG bass. Most were in the 4-6 pound range with a few even bigger. We hit it every day after school that week, and the results were practically the same every day. Of course, being kids, we were bragging about it at school to classmates, teachers, anyone that would listen. Well, that Saturday finally rolls around and we're excited that we have the whole day to fish our new hotspot. We arrived just after daylight to find no less than 10 boats already in the water. At least 5 more arrived after we did. I got to talking to another fisherman on the water about all the boats and the fact that I had never even seen another fisherman in my life fishing here. His response is that a couple of local kids had really been "tearing them up" on this lake lately. I don't know how many big bass I saw caught that day. But these guys didn't release them like we did. They kept them. By the end of the year, it was hard to catch a fish out of that lake. Also, there was no parking at this particular lake. An old gravel road lead directly to the water, but was surrounded by private property. All the new fisherman parked on the private property and as many inconsiderate folks are prone to do, left trash everywhere. Within 2 years, the private property was all posted "No trespassing" and the road to the lake was blocked by a huge concrete barrier so that no one could get in. I lost my favorite fishing spot because I didn't keep my mouth shut...but I learned my lesson.

Another noteworthy observation: Of all the people that I saw fishing that first day when the word got out, I recognized exactly NONE of them. There were no classmates or teachers that I told. But, the poeple that I told, apparently told someone else, who told someone else, etc etc etc. I certainly don't want that in my CRHing area.

 

[boristhespider88]

However, it pays to be smart. When I first began serious CRHing a few years ago it was not uncommon to find CWR rolls of halves that had been in the banks' vaults for a year or more. Now they rarely last a week. Nearly every bank I visit now says that they have at least 1 person that comes in regularly looking for halves, and this was definitely no the case just a few short years ago. How did that happen? Sure the rising price of silver had something to do with it, but word of mouth is the main culprit. Even this very forum has undoubtedly cost most of us silver we would have found otherwise. It was this very forum (more precisely Rich Hartford's finds) that caused me to start the hobby. I had known about CRH my entire life, but I had no idea some people were finding the amounts that they were, especially the 90%ers. The fact that people were finding Walkers with regularity shocked me.

The reason I don't talk about it locally, is that I don't want any local competition. Call it greed or whatever, but I already have enough trouble just finding halves to search in my area, let alone silver. Plus, I have a very limited supply of dump banks. Two good ones to be exact. Some newbie might not be nearly as courteous to them as I am and get us both cut off. No dump banks = no CRHing. Not everyone is nice and will "play by the rules." You can find several examples of that right here on this forum.

This.

I completely agree with the fishing example too. I've seen that happen firsthand.

 

[namster]

I told my grandfather about CRHing, he is in his mid 80s. His immediate response was BULL@#$%! You cant find old coins in circulation! So I pull out my take for the weekend (3x64s and 4x40s), and he still did not believe it. The next week he goes out and buys 2 rolls CWR halves from a bank local to him (he lives a ways north east of me). Both solid 40% rolls, lol. He and one other person are the only ones I have told about CRHing.

 

[sheepdog_tx]

I completely agree.

The ratios will be lower, but the coin processing companies may purposefully add some silver into circulation to have business from ordering coin boxes.

Why would they do this? I doubt CRHs are even on thier radar first off. Secondly CRHs box orders are only a small part of what a bank already has to order and the company is paid on the delivery regardless of how much is ordered. I think that logic makes about as much sense as saying the government will stop printing money for because they're wonder about using more trees/cotton/etc

 

[FormerTeller]

Granted you aren't likely to get that many people interested in CRH'ing by talking about it, but it only takes one person to ruin it. If the area you CRH in is short on coin counters, one additional person dumping large volumes could effectively kill the hobby for everyone around.

I've told a few of my friends about what I do. I only tell those I trust, and those who could likely benefit from it. In all cases, I swore them to secrecy first, and asked them if they did start CRH'ing that they don't use my dump banks, or at least to coordinate with me before doing so. In all cases, no one has been interested enough to give it a try for more than a week or two.

 

[Weaselbrott]

This has become an excellent discussion! Some fantastic comments! I am also one of those guys who started watching finds on youtube, but I didn't start really searching seriously until about a year after watching those videos. I also think silver is dwindling from the supply, but I also think there are variables regarding the money supply that are unknown to all but the fed (ie. vaults of old coins that get randomly re-circulated, coins entering the system from foreign countries, etc.).

 

[skelly9131]

I'm not too worried about creating additinoal CRH'ers, but the more you spread the word the less likely people are to dump those silver coins that eventually get into your boxes.

 

[Solid Rolls]

What is the deal with being so secretive about CRHing anyway?

 

[Weaselbrott]

What is the deal with being so secretive about CRHing anyway?
View attachment 683404

I was going to put up a pic of him in my post this morning but forgot, but I am glad you did!

 

[Senor]

There have been more than 600,000,000,000 U.S. coins minted since 1960.

The first year this country minted more than a billion coins in one year was 1940. Probably few on this forum were even alive then.

At 20,000 coins a week it would take all the members of this forum (~46,000 including those not into CRH) 12+ years to go through only 600 billion coins (as those are only the ones minted since 1960) to look for the other ~5% of coins.

We may have to look through other denominations, but I think this hobby will be around for some time.

EDIT: Since its inception in 1991 through 2011, Coinstar has processed 533,000,000,000+ coins. We need to find where they make their deposits.

 

[thripp]

There is simply no way that telling others about coin roll hunting could possibly help you... At worst, it doesn't hurt or help you.

 

[Mrs.CRH]

Although you guys have all made some good points....Skelly is the only one that thought about an important reason not to tell people about CRHing. If they know they could look through their own change at home or change they get back from spending cash & potentially find some silver, they will be more likely to not dump it into the bank which means it will never make it to our boxes or CWR's. We depend on people that don't know to dump it back into circulation & we don't need to educate them. I may be greedy but my husband & I have worked hard for the silver we've found so far this year & it is our savings. It's the reason my debt will be paid off at the end of the year. I don't need others around here interfering with that & ruining it for us with banks that we have good relationships with.

 

[Mrs.CRH]

Also, we are seeing more & more marked coins in the past few months. All different kinds of marks & we're seeing new marks each box which tells us either someone or a few people are marking them different ways or we've got a lot more competition than we'd like.

 

[boristhespider88]

What is the deal with being so secretive about CRHing anyway?
View attachment 683404

I mean, really? Is there like a secret knock to get boxes or something? Do you have to have a code word? Do you tug on your ear or flick your nose to get those silver coins? I mean, really? And don't get me even started on the airline food and those little bags of peanuts they give you...

[Fade to title card...]

 

[namster]

I believe that CRhing halves and dimes will end when silver shoots up again. I am already seeing the foundations crack, its only a matter of time. There are some real idiot CRHers in my area, sadly. Get while the getting is good, these are the good old days.

 

[SilverForBrains]

I believe that CRhing halves and dimes will end when silver shoots up again. I am already seeing the foundations crack, its only a matter of time. There are some real idiot CRHers in my area, sadly. Get while the getting is good, these are the good old days.

great post, no one ever seems to realize the good old days until they're already old days!

 

[sack0silver]

I always approached it as its my personal business and that is it. I have no reason to advertise it, I have no reason to provide specifics to how I handle my finances or why I really do need those boxes every week. There is no need to have those types of conversations with strangers, whether its for security's sake or just plain old trying to prevent silver disappearing from your pipeline. I rather not be directly responsible in costing myself a keeper here and there when there was absolutely no necessity to do so. Just my opinion.

 

[SilverForBrains]

Dead on