The day the silver died-- RIP --Southern Arizona

7up2000

Sr. Member
Jul 6, 2014
469
1,019
Tucson, Arizona
Detector(s) used
Currently use Garrett AT Pro, Previously used the Fisher F2 for one year
Primary Interest:
Metal Detecting
Loomis has now calibrated their sorting machines to reject the silver nickels. This is a recent event. Therefore, all silver is being removed from Wells Fargo bank coinage(and other banks contracted with Loomis). All silver halves, quarters, dimes, and nickels are being eliminated at the Loomis distribution point. Yeah, it sucks. I am thoroughly bummed out. One of my favorite hobbies is gone. Wonder which area of the country will be next? The hobby is ruined for hundreds of people here in Southern Arizona. :sad10: RIP
 

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mxh5891

Hero Member
Feb 27, 2013
956
514
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All Treasure Hunting
Loomis has now calibrated their sorting machines to reject the silver nickels. This is a recent event. Therefore, all silver is being removed from Wells Fargo bank coinage(and other banks contracted with Loomis). All silver halves, quarters, dimes, and nickels are being eliminated at the Loomis distribution point. Yeah, it sucks. I am thoroughly bummed out. One of my favorite hobbies is gone. Wonder which area of the country will be next? The hobby is ruined for hundreds of people here in Southern Arizona. :sad10: RIP

Is this just your guess, or do you have a reliable source?
 

OP
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7up2000

Sr. Member
Jul 6, 2014
469
1,019
Tucson, Arizona
Detector(s) used
Currently use Garrett AT Pro, Previously used the Fisher F2 for one year
Primary Interest:
Metal Detecting
I wouldn't say it is a guess. Others(on this site) have hypothesized that this is what's happening in Southern Arizona. And for my part, as an avid coin hunter for the past 1 1/2 years, have experienced it first hand. There still needs to be a little more research done. But when you think about it, it's the only logical explanation for why all silver has dried up. If anybody out there in Tucson or Phoenix has had a different experience then I'd like to hear about it. The more information the better.
 

mxh5891

Hero Member
Feb 27, 2013
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I wouldn't say it is a guess. Others(on this site) have hypothesized that this is what's happening in Southern Arizona. And for my part, as an avid coin hunter for the past 1 1/2 years, have experienced it first hand. There still needs to be a little more research done. But when you think about it, it's the only logical explanation for why all silver has dried up. If anybody out there in Tucson or Phoenix has had a different experience then I'd like to hear about it. The more information the better.

Silver is never dead anywhere. Instead of getting boxes from the bank, you just need to get all the CWR you can get. Loomis can't get it all.
 

ceeemeee

Jr. Member
Jul 25, 2014
33
17
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Loomis has now calibrated their sorting machines to reject the silver nickels. This is a recent event. Therefore, all silver is being removed from Wells Fargo bank coinage(and other banks contracted with Loomis). All silver halves, quarters, dimes, and nickels are being eliminated at the Loomis distribution point. Yeah, it sucks. I am thoroughly bummed out. One of my favorite hobbies is gone. Wonder which area of the country will be next? The hobby is ruined for hundreds of people here in Southern Arizona. :sad10: RIP

Presenting theories as fact?
 

baddbluff

Bronze Member
Apr 22, 2011
2,366
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vegas
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MXH is right: grab the CWRs. That's where a lot of the best scores come from anyway. And you won't have as much dumping to do.
 

NHBandit

Silver Member
Feb 21, 2010
3,470
3,279
Formerly NH now East Tennessee
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You don't suppose it's just because Silver coins haven't been produced in 51 years and CRH has been extremely popular for the past several years do you ? Guessing and posting it as if you have real honest to goodness inside info is wrong..
 

ThePt78Gamer

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Apr 28, 2014
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I remember there being a member on here that lived in Arizona and was on a 100 box skunk streak or ssomething like that. Within the last few weeks someone whom I believe to be that same gentlemen finally found a 40% in a MWR. I don't mean to be so vague in my post but in my time on this site I've heard other people posting about Arizona being completely dry besides this guy. Wether they still log on here and can confirm is anyone's guess. In regards to the OP though, can you not still find wheats, and buffaloes? I mean that's better than dropping the hobby entirely... right?
 

SFBayArea

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Aug 28, 2009
2,256
31
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For those who have joined here in recent years. jrf30 was the member that posted that southern Arizona was dry many years ago. We had a full thread talking about it back then. He was the one that ordered something like 98 boxes of halves and got something like one 40%er. He did his own research and found out that the machines there was sorting out all non-clad coins. He stopped searching halves period. If the machines sorted out non-clad, why did it miss a few or one coin? My guess was that a facility employee that didn't know better, saw the sorted out 40%er and threw it back to be rolled.

I'm thinking some manager at the sorting facility was in on it. Thinking let's get machines to sort out all non-clad and thus probably personally benefit from all the keepers sorted out. I suppose the only way to get keepers from searching there is to work at the facility. Can you imagine, the manager there that must've gotten buckets of keepers brought in by banks over time. I'm sure the guy or gal (facility manager) must've gotten a nice down payment on a house by now. I'm sure they don't throw them away. LOL


Perhaps the OP should inquire to the sorting company.. ask about the sorted out non-clad and ask to buy them all with foreign coins included. If they don't sell you any, then complain to the company's higher ups that the employees are personally benefiting from the arrangement. It's a long shot, but otherwise you're SOL when it comes to CRHing boxes.

You can still do pennies though.
 

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SFBayArea

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Aug 28, 2009
2,256
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It's called "free money". Most people take advantage of it.

Exactly.. Management there getting keepers under the guise of "oh we're making sure you don't get any foreign, non-monetary, tokens, etc in your rolls!"

I do think it's really petty to sort out Nickels. What kinda greedy SOB would want to go that far to take those out? Perhaps that person reads this forum and read someone posting Nickels are still ok to search, then thinking that since the well has dried up for dimes, quarters, and halves, let's do Nickels next at the facility.

Don't know but maybe the OP can turn in a bunch of flattened out beat up coins at their bank. Perhaps it'll make its way to the facility, jam up the machine, and one day they might replace it with one that don't sort out non-clad. Just a thought. I always wondered how those machines handle those flattened out/beat up coins. We don't have coin counters at banks here so I've always wondered about it but I'm sure the machines have a way of dealing with them.

Yeah, you're in skunksville. Gonna have to ask for CWR or pennies.
 

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SFBayArea

Bronze Member
Aug 28, 2009
2,256
31
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I think jrf30 if he's reading this forum still should chime in. He can discuss and update us on what it's like to CRH in that area.

I think Northern Arizona is still ok. I recall someone from a while back posting getting keepers there.
 

OP
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7up2000

Sr. Member
Jul 6, 2014
469
1,019
Tucson, Arizona
Detector(s) used
Currently use Garrett AT Pro, Previously used the Fisher F2 for one year
Primary Interest:
Metal Detecting
If I were to continue searching nickels, i'm looking at finding 1 Buffalo for every 5-10 boxes. For every 1 V-nickel I'm looking at searching 20-30 boxes. Thank God I was almost finished with my goal of filling 5 Whitman nickel folders. I'm only 6 coins shy of completion. I'll probably buy these 6 from ebay auctions. Once again, this is Southern Arizona only. I don't want to worry others from the rest of the country. Your mileage will vary.
 

mxh5891

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Feb 27, 2013
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If I were to continue searching nickels, i'm looking at finding 1 Buffalo for every 5-10 boxes. For every 1 V-nickel I'm looking at searching 20-30 boxes. Thank God I was almost finished with my goal of filling 5 Whitman nickel folders. I'm only 6 coins shy of completion. I'll probably buy these 6 from ebay auctions. Once again, this is Southern Arizona only. I don't want to worry others from the rest of the country. Your mileage will vary.

I think those numbers are very average for the whole country. I think the V nickels are even rarer here. I have only found one in maybe 75 boxes searched.

So are you saying that you think they are filtering out even buffalo's and very nickels?
 

Liu21

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Dec 14, 2014
829
608
Brooklyn, NY
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If I was managing a coin sort facility you can bet I would find out how to sort out silver from the machines. Then at the end of the year, sell and everyone gets a bonous. Face value silver! Head down to the local pawn shop or eBay... Lol��
 

weighit

Hero Member
Feb 17, 2007
550
242
Northern Arizona
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Whites DFX with a Big Foot coil
Gold Bug 2
Sorry your not finding silver, I'm still getting some silver out of Loomis boxes in Southern Az. Last box just before christmas gave me 23 silver halves, 20 40% and 3 90%. I then left town for Florida for 2 months and have just returned and have boxes coming in next week so will see how they do. Yes I too ran through many many boxes of zip zero nada silver, then they startd producing again, no reason that I know of. This is a hobby, not a business for me, so you take the good and the bad as part of this hobby. When I find nothing in my boxes, other than time, it cost me nothing to hunt. While gone for the two months I was able to order 6 boxes of halves in Florida, finding a total of 16 40% coins, so I had a vacation and still found some silver. Wish you luck and hope your idea is wrong.

QUOTE=7up2000;4862215]Loomis has now calibrated their sorting machines to reject the silver nickels. This is a recent event. Therefore, all silver is being removed from Wells Fargo bank coinage(and other banks contracted with Loomis). All silver halves, quarters, dimes, and nickels are being eliminated at the Loomis distribution point. Yeah, it sucks. I am thoroughly bummed out. One of my favorite hobbies is gone. Wonder which area of the country will be next? The hobby is ruined for hundreds of people here in Southern Arizona. :sad10: RIP[/QUOTE]
 

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