Score of a lifetime...

meraxes

Jr. Member
Jun 25, 2017
28
59
Sacramento
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I guess this one deserves a little bit of background.

On Monday I stopped by one of my usual hunting sights, a bank that had been right in my daily commute up until just recently, and still isn’t far out of my way. When I get to the front of the line, and ask the lovely teller if she happens to have any half dollars or large dollars that day, she tells me “no, but we have coin shipments on Tuesdays and Thursdays,” and if I’m interested in coming back I can but some that they have on order. Apparently a lot of people have been asking for halves, so they are ordering them now? That seems kind of incredible to me, but I take her word for it and ask if she can set $100 worth aside for me on Thursday. Funds are low at the moment, so I don’t want to go overboard with the blank check she seems eager to write me...

On my way home today (Thursday,) I didnt even remember this had taken place until I had almost gone too far. Once I do remember, I make the necessary detour, and walk into the bank with a little over $300 in my pocket, which was sadly the majority of my liquid cash right then. Once I got to the front of the line, I was helped by a teller stationed next to the woman I spoke to on Monday, and I explain to her what I had been told. After a moments discussion, the bank manager comes out of the vault carrying a cardboard box, which seemed a little odd, and begins to rummage around in it at a counter I can’t quite see clearly from where I’m standing, while my teller waits attentively next to him. Finally she brings over a hand full of half dollar rolls, but not just any rolls. These rolls were much longer than what I’m used to, holding $20 each, and as she’s placing them on the counter and I’m mentioning the unusual size of them, I see, plain as day. “1968 NEW” written one of them.

Now I’m pretty sure I’ve had this dream before, but I always wake up before I get to start busting them open!

The manager walks up behind the teller then, with a big grin on his face, and tells me thet the rolls are pretty old, so I might find something good. I somehow manage to stammer, “do you have any more to sell?” He hems and haws a moment and asks how much I want, and of course I tell him I’ll take all he’s got, ignoring the finite amount of cash I have on hand. He tells me he was planning on buying a little for himself, $50 or so, but he can sell me $300 more ($400 total.) I peek back in my wallet and admit I can only buy $200 more. Lets see how accurate that label on the roll is before we start thinking about cash advances on the credit card...

Once back to my car, I drive to a parking lot across the street that’s a tad more secluded, and open that first roll I spied.

EA63683F-C31A-43AF-BB68-4AD4A0B83AFF.jpeg

!!!!!! Yeah, that really is a $20 roll of uncirculated 1968 halves. Needless to say, I figured out a way to scrounge another $100 and went back to buy the rest, fortunately before anyone else got to them! Now, this has already gotten way longer than I intended, so I’ll cut to the results:

Total of 30 90%ers
14 x 1964
13 x 1964D
1 x 1963D Franklin
1 x 1962 Franklin
1 x 1944 Walking Liberty!

Total of 522 40%ers!!!
13 x 1965
26 x 1966
79 x 1967
337 x 1968D about 200 of which are uncirculated!
67 x 1969D

Plus over 200 mostly uncirculated 1971s. I guess the original owner of this collection stocked up the year after the half dollars switched to the copper-nickle clad? These coins were likely sitting in those rolls for about 45 years; it blows my mind to think about it.

Oh yeah, and pics or it didn’t happen:

26D7D5F5-3AC8-4D0F-B61D-535BA79D7D27.jpeg
 

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