Calling all coin markers (esp. halves) do you mark 'em all?

[Ben Cartwright SASS]

I have been finding a lot of marked halves. I was wondering do people tend to mark them all or do they mark a few or a percentage of the dump?

I am finding about 20% marked coins in a few boxes, but the rest could be virgin, or not...

I belong to 10 banks and they ALL use Loomis! Trying to find someone who doesn't at least for halves. There is a new Chase bank nearby, just opened, does anyone know what courier they use?

 

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[TxAg]

Chase uses Brinks and Loomis where I live, mostly Loomis. But Ben, Loomis boxes are the best for me in my area!

 

[Ben Cartwright SASS]

I have had two dumps in the last year with Loomis, but was on an 18 box skunk streak, just broke it last night with a 1967 40%, still have a box and a half to go through

 

[blueberra]

I have had two dumps in the last year with Loomis, but was on an 18 box skunk streak, just broke it last night with a 1967 40%, still have a box and a half to go through

Wow, Ben -- I'm also from Massachusetts and get Loomis half-dollar boxes and currently I'm on a 3 1/2 box skunk streak. I was going to poll the forum and ask at what point should I be concerned, but an 18 box streak ... ouch.

 

[Ben Cartwright SASS]

What part of Mass are you from? I am down by Gillette

 

[cyberdan]

I belong to 10 banks and they ALL use Loomis! Trying to find someone who doesn't at least for halves. There is a new Chase bank nearby, just opened, does anyone know what courier they use?

It all depends where the bank is. I am sure every bank negotiates on their own with the couriers. My main bank is Chase and they use two curriers. Loomis and another but they will not give me the name. The only reason I know one is loomis is based on the flat box below. I have no choice on big flat box or smaller double stack. I do not buy a lot of boxes any more but when I get loomis most of the time they look like below.

 

[Ben Cartwright SASS]

One way I can often tell before I order a box is to get a roll of dimes or quarters, they will usually have Loomis on the roll if their courier is Loomis. There are two Loomis locations in Mass/RI one in Taunton covers the entire state of RI and Cape Cod and SE Mass and one around Worcester.

Ended up with 3 1967 40%ers for that box so my streak is over and hopefully for a while

 

[Tommybuckets]

I rarely mark my halves but if I get a bad batch I will mark them if I first inspect every coin in a roll for die cracks, cuds, 1987s etc . Then I just mark the edges of the whole roll. Then I can determine where my spent coins are ending up. If i find one someone already marked on the face I'll mark it on the reverse just for kicks. I have been going through both couriers in my area though there is a third I have a hard time getting. I got on such a skunk bender (its still a skunk if I get one 40% in my book) that I dumped unsearched coin rolls at a popular pickup bank so others can at least find some halves to look at.
Switching courier brands I finally got a Franklin so I got another box from them. Meantime I found a box down the street that another hunter ordered weeks ago and didn't pick up. It looks pretty bad so far at $150 open. We'll see what happens. Ramping up my pickup schedule seems to be unproductive too with many of my dump banks having closed or taking out their coin machines. So many searched boxes are getting dumped in my area I think we are simply outstripping the influx of silver trickling in resulting in fewer finds for more hands and more work. I need to ramp down my compulsion to CRH i guess.

 

[Dozer D]

Sooner or later we WILL dry up any and all silver coins that are still floating in circulation on their own ( these are finds that we might catch in our pocket change from a cash register transaction ). It will only be WHEN a collection is turned in because of death in the estate that there will be a small influx of silver, and then it will be restricted & limited to either bank BAGS or in a very few boxes that are filled at the couriers location from that silver dump. If you will notice, practically all of our findings are from bank boxes or bags, none from general circulation. We should in all likelihood create a separate posting log of GENERAL CIRCULATION FINDINGS, and not to include those that we find in boxes or bags. This will be a good indicator of silver still out in the open. I would like to start this posting as soon as I (or anyone else) find a silver coin out in the open. Your comments.

 

[Ben Cartwright SASS]

Silver is still out there, about 2 weeks ago I stopped at the bank and asked as usual if they had any halves. One teller had one, a 40%, he called a dollar I explained it was a half the other had 4 in his tray someone making a deposit just got rid of their pocket change.
It was 3 40% and 2 90% all Kennedy's. I brought them some cookies to say thank you.

 

[Ben Cartwright SASS]

I ended my box skunk streak today with my last two boxes out of 6. all 6 boxes had a huge percentage of marked coins, which is why I was asking.

got 7 40% and 1 90%

 

[Megalodon]

I rarely mark my halves but if I get a bad batch I will mark them if I first inspect every coin in a roll for die cracks, cuds, 1987s etc . Then I just mark the edges of the whole roll. Then I can determine where my spent coins are ending up. If i find one someone already marked on the face I'll mark it on the reverse just for kicks. I have been going through both couriers in my area though there is a third I have a hard time getting. I got on such a skunk bender (its still a skunk if I get one 40% in my book) that I dumped unsearched coin rolls at a popular pickup bank so others can at least find some halves to look at.
Switching courier brands I finally got a Franklin so I got another box from them. Meantime I found a box down the street that another hunter ordered weeks ago and didn't pick up. It looks pretty bad so far at $150 open. We'll see what happens. Ramping up my pickup schedule seems to be unproductive too with many of my dump banks having closed or taking out their coin machines. So many searched boxes are getting dumped in my area I think we are simply outstripping the influx of silver trickling in resulting in fewer finds for more hands and more work. I need to ramp down my compulsion to CRH i guess.

So we have different definitions of "skunk" boxes. I think most of us call a box a skunk when we get no silver of any kind from it.

I agree that dumping is the limiting factor to CRHing and I'm trying to spread out my dumps more among more banks & branches.

 

[Megalodon]

I have not yet seen a good reason for the marking. I'm open minded about the possibility that someone may have a scientifically valid (i.e. fact based) reason to do it but I am skeptical.

 

[Ben Cartwright SASS]

I don't really see the reason other to know that you have gotten some of your coins back, but as I saw today with hundreds of marked coins I still got silver, would you not search a roll if one of the coins was marked?

 

[silveraddict]

I think that most people that mark coins only do it to piss off the next CRH that finds them.
Just my opinion.

 

[Ben Cartwright SASS]

When I first got back into CRH again last year I marked two rolls but have never seen them again

 

[Argentium]

Megalodon -you nailed it ! In a decade on this site I have yet to see a logical support for marking coins . Those who talk about trying to track the routing somehow, are missing the point badly ! There are so many random elements involved in the multiple processes between buying , searching , returning (dumping) and buying again - I find it hard to believe anybody marks coins ...ludicrous !

 

[Megalodon]

Megalodon -you nailed it ! In a decade on this site I have yet to see a logical support for marking coins . Those who talk about trying to track the routing somehow, are missing the point badly ! There are so many random elements involved in the multiple processes between buying , searching , returning (dumping) and buying again - I find it hard to believe anybody marks coins ...ludicrous !

Thanks! As a biologist, now retired, I marked a lot of fish - LOL (many millions in fact), but there was always a good reason to do it. Most of the time, we marked and then did recapture of marked + unmarked in order to estimate population size. That is something that nobody would do in CRH because they would have to mark & release the silver! Another reason was to study the movements of migratory species. This might have some interest to markers of clad coins - but are they sampling randomly along the entire range of the coins? Nope. The other reason why we marked fish was to assess the effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of stocking when restoring populations (it is taxpayer money afterall). Again, doing a cost-benefit analysis would require marking silver and who would do that? There are other reasons for marking animals, either singly or in batches, but the questions to be answered are specific and scientific. I don't see anything with such rigorous thought for marking coins.

 

[LooseChange]

Marking coins is stupid - for many reasons.
Those who say that they've learned something from doing it have fooled themselves - which is incredibly easy to do.

 

[scottw]

My favorite finds appear between marked coins.