How often would you guys say you find silver in a box?

[missouriexp]

So I was kind of curious after reading the forum and got a $500 box of halves. No silver. Maybe 4-5 proofs. I'm using it to build a nice half dollar collection since I have never had one. It was definitely fun to look through.

How often do you guys actually run into silver when hunting boxes of halves?

 

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[blueberra]

I'm fairly new to the game but here are my numbers ...

2019 47 boxes 22 skunks 25 silver (53% boxes had silver)
2020 37 boxes 27 skunks 10 silver (27% silver)
2021 13 boxes 10 skunks 3 silver (23% silver)

Total 97 boxes 59 skunks 38 silver (39% silver)

 

[silveraddict]

Used to find an average of 5 to 25 per box.
It was not a matter of if there was an ender but how many enders in a box.
That was 2+ years ago.
Now, I can not even remember when the last time I found a single silver in a box.
Much less an ender.
I used to hunt 5-6 boxes a week.
Now maybe 1 a week.
I used to find over 1000 silver halves a year and kept a monthly log.
Now I don't even keep track.
My only saving grace is that my Credit Union has a coin machine in the lobby.
They let me buy the half dollar bag.
I pick it up every 2 to 3 weeks.
There is usually anywhere between $100 & $600 in the bag.
I have never been skunked on a bag and many times over 10 silver in a bag.
Best in the last 6 months had 78 silver halves in it.
Definitely not as much fun as it used to be.

 

[TheMastermind]

So far for this year:

1/15 boxes of halves contained silver.

1/12 boxes of dimes contained silver.

In the past I've had long, long, looooong skunk streaks... 70+ boxes of halves with no silver. But I've also had some really great scores a long the way.

The universe ebbs and flows.

 

[port ewen ace]

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[Dozer D]

I mostly do dimes. For 2020 avg of 1.3/box. This year is under .8/box avg. 5 years ago was 2.5 avg per box. Big change.

 

[ThePt78Gamer]

I only do nickel boxes and even war nicks have gone down a bit from when I was into hunting 6 years ago. I only recently got back into the game in early february. Still averaging 1 to 2 of any combination of war nicks/buffalos per box but in 2014 and 2015 two silver nickels a box was average for me.

 

[ArkieBassMan]

I haven't hunted in years, but of the hundreds and hundreds of half dollar boxes that I searched, a full 75% were skunks. Of the boxes that contained silver, about 90% of those only held a lone 40%er.

 

[Dozer D]

It looks like the best and only source in the future will be teller trays or coin star machines.

 

[diggummup]

People are still CRHing huh? Wow.

 

[FormerTeller]

From the time I started keeping records in 2011 until 2018 I averaged at least 2 40% silver halves per box. In 2019 the average took a nosedive, and now it’s closer to 1 silver every 4or 5 boxes. Definitely not worth the time, I just continue more out of habit than anything.

 

[blueberra]

From the time I started keeping records in 2011 until 2018 I averaged at least 2 40% silver halves per box. In 2019 the average took a nosedive, and now it’s closer to 1 silver every 4or 5 boxes. Definitely not worth the time, I just continue more out of habit than anything.

The thing is that the average number of silver per box is usually far different from the 'typical box'. It's like the difference between the mean (average), the median (midway point between highest and lowest), and the mode (most common).

Take 2019 for instance.

In my case, I had the following ...

22 skunks
8 with 1 silver (6 @ 40%, 2 @ 90%)
3 with 2 silver (3 @ 2 x 40%)
5 with 3 silver (2 @ 3 x 40%, 2 @ 2 x 40% + 1 x 90%, and 1 @ 1 x 40% + 2 x 90%)
1 with 4 silver (1 @ 1 x 40% + 3 x 90%)
1 with 5 silver (1 @ 5 x 40%)
1 with 6 silver (1 @ 3 x 40% + 3 X 90%)
2 with 11 silver (1 @ 11 x 40% and 1 @ 7 x 40% + 4 x 90%)
1 with 14 silver (1 @ 10 x 40% + 4 x 90%)
1 with 19 silver (1 @ 10 x 40% + 9 x 90%)
1 with 22 silver (1 @ 14 x 40% + 8 x 90%)
1 with 26 silver (1 @ 26 x 40%)

So, statistically, the median box had 1 (40%) silver, the mode was a skunk, but the median had 3.1 silver (2.3 x 40% + 0.8 x 90%) which comes closest to the box with 2 x 40% + 1 x 90%)

My experience with half dollar boxes is "when it rains, it pours" but it's 'dry' far, far more often than it's 'wet').

 

[Tommybuckets]

I topped out in 2017-18 and its been downhill for me since. Due to covid I'm almost fully rehabilitated. I can drive by a bank and not stop most days. The lines, the extra protocols, the short staffing, the lack of cwrs all make me lose interest. I went to one of my honey hole banks today. Lone teller, line out the door so I turned and walked away. I haven't seen much this year to hold my interest. I got a couple skunks, a loose few 90% that the head teller hadn't seen yet and a few boxes with 1-3 40% but thats not enough to make the dumping worthwhile. I went from 2-3 boxes a week to 4-5 so far this year. All I ever see is rewrapped cwrs and dumped boxes. Now when they have $200-400 I say perfect I'll take $40. If theres nothing in the $40 I'm out. When they say they have $500 I run and I don't go back.

 

[CJ9]

I topped out in 2017-18 and its been downhill for me since. Due to covid I'm almost fully rehabilitated. I can drive by a bank and not stop most days. The lines, the extra protocols, the short staffing, the lack of cwrs all make me lose interest. I went to one of my honey hole banks today. Lone teller, line out the door so I turned and walked away. I haven't seen much this year to hold my interest. I got a couple skunks, a loose few 90% that the head teller hadn't seen yet and a few boxes with 1-3 40% but thats not enough to make the dumping worthwhile. I went from 2-3 boxes a week to 4-5 so far this year. All I ever see is rewrapped cwrs and dumped boxes. Now when they have $200-400 I say perfect I'll take $40. If theres nothing in the $40 I'm out. When they say they have $500 I run and I don't go back.

I do same, but not because of COVID. I know the old adage is to always buy them all, but the only way I can dump is to re-roll or spend.

If bank has a few hundred $ of halves, I take $40-50 to sample them. If I get silver, or if I get the sense that they are not CRH dumps (i.e., rolls of lightly circulated coins from the 1970s), I then go back for more. Often I get re-rolled MWR and I am glad I only took a small amount. There have been times when I walk out and find silver and turn around and walk right back in and buy the rest. And like you if they say they have $500, I say no thanks.

I also never search boxes - never had any luck.

 

[GMan00001]

As others have said, the average is usually higher than the typical as when you find silver halves they tend to come in bunches. Everybody will have a slightly different experience depending on what part of the country you live in as some areas have more silver circulating than others.

I would share my numbers, but they are all dated at this point as I haven't searched enough to be statistically relevant since 2013 and what is out there today is lower than it was then based on everything I read.

The one thing I would say is that I always found more in loose halves from tellers, CWR, or when I could buy the bag off a coin counter than I found when I searched boxes. Also note that in some areas which armored carrier delivers boxes can matter as well.

I highly suspect the same is still true today.

I would also guess the loose halves probably have the highest silver % in a few areas:
1) where there is a higher % of older generations as some older folks have had coins that have sat around for decades and either they think of them as worth face value or their children cash them when they pass away as they are unaware of their silver content.
2) in lower income areas (unfortunately some of this is likely due to theft)
3) in areas where the knowledge of silver coins is low, such as areas with a higher immigrant %

note that #2 and #3 are sometimes the same areas.

Of course, you may want to be more careful carrying large amounts of cash into some of the areas mentioned above. Just because they are more likely to have silver doesn't mean that all areas are the same. The only way to know is trial and error. I would also note that if you track what you find and where, you may see a pattern that works best for your area.

 

[Ohiogoldfever]

I was coin roll hunting for a while. I’ve been through over $1000 in quarters and three boxes of halves. Haven’t found a single one.

I gave up. Lol

When I buy bullion I have a 100% success rate.