How many Coin Roll Hunt For A Living?

[1960texan]

Is this a hobby or a career? Depending on your area, and the size of your initial stake, I think there are folks out there that could (or maybe already are) making close to a six figure income from coin roll hunting. What are your thoughts?

1960Texan

 

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[DrDetector]

six figures? Seems to be a little high if you ask me. Even if you found say 2,000 90% halves in a year that's only $10,000 profit if you sold them all at $5.50 apiece. Tack on a massive 10,000 40% silver halves sold at $2.00 apiece and that's only another $15,000 for a total of $25,000 profit in a year. To make $100,000 you'd had to quadruple those results (negating silver dime and quarter finds since they are inevitably going to be much less significant in quantities found). However...$25,000 a year is nothing to shrug off.

 

[1960texan]

08 Bank Fishing Totals:
65 Wheat
41 Pre60 Nick
4 Ag Roosies
1 WL
2 Ben
16 64 Kens
126 40% Kens
1 Pr 50c

Dr Detector,

How many rolls/hours did you go through so far this year to reach your current totals? Now imagine spending about 30 hours per week CRHing.

1960Texan

 

[Codes]

This is a hobby for me. Its a good reason not to study for classes.

 

[GMan00001]

six figures? Seems to be a little high if you ask me. Even if you found say 2,000 90% halves in a year that's only $10,000 profit if you sold them all at $5.50 apiece. Tack on a massive 10,000 40% silver halves sold at $2.00 apiece and that's only another $15,000 for a total of $25,000 profit in a year. To make $100,000 you'd had to quadruple those results (negating silver dime and quarter finds since they are inevitably going to be much less significant in quantities found). However...$25,000 a year is nothing to shrug off.

That assumes that there are no expenses..Gas/Time/Fees/Other.

Just for fun assume you find a very good average of 20 silvers/$500 worth of halves and the ratio is 4 - 90% and 16 - 40%. At the above mentioned prices, the idealized profit from each box is worth (4 * ($5.50 - $0.50)) + (16 * ($2 - $0.50)) = $44

To get to $100,000 you would have to search through $100,000/$44 or approximately 2273 boxes or a little under 43 per week.

Now assuming you hunt alone as to not have to share your profits or pay and wages. Assume each box takes 30 minutes to edge search. Just to search the boxes would take 1136.5 hours over the course of a year (essentially 40 hours a week for 28.5 weeks) and that doesn't include the time to pick up and dump the coins which I am sure will add more time (depending on the speed of the counter at the bank). Of course you have an armored service to get that kind of volume drop off/pick up, but then you would have to pay for it and subtract that cost from your profits as well which I am guessing is not cheap. By the time you are done calculating all the time spent and expenses, the profit will probably have dropped and the time increased from the original estimates I listed above such that working a good full time job will pay more without all the hassle.

For the record the average I listed is at least double what I usually end up with per box, so for me I would have to "work" more than 40 hours per week just in the searching component just to get to the point were the # found would equal the gross number when subtracting the face value of the coins only. And all my dump time and gas money would essentially be overtime.

The one other key assumption in this is that the silver find rate in your area will not decrease as a result of you pulling out that volume. Since the find rate will likely decrease as the year goes on, the number of boxes will likely also need to increase, which will increase time and effort.

All I say is good luck to anyone who thinks they could do it.

 

[CLZinTX]

1960,

I have not given it much thought about doing it as a means of supporting myself. I do it because I enjoy the excitement of the "Hunt" and of finding things. Same reason I like to Metal Detect and Gamble, (course gambling most of the time takes more than it gives)

I think it would really depend on the area that a person was in and if the area was large enough to support a concerted effort on finding coins.

From reading the posts I see that there are some areas where it appears the finds are dropping off. Could be that the coins out there in circulation are not being replenished quickly enough. Could also mean that more and more people are entering the hobby thus dividing the "spoils" over a larger number of people.

I think if a person had minimal expenses, a steady income of some other sort, and a dedicated approach, then they could make a decent living doing this.

In my opinion, in order to make a 6 figure income you would have to get lucky and find a fair share of coins with Numismatic values that far exceed that of the spot price of silver.

I'm not ready to give up my day job, but it does have its own appeal, much like going out west and doing some serious "Nugget Hunting" in Arizona and California, or maybe in Colorado during the time of the WWATS hunt in Durango.

CLZinTX

 

[1960texan]

DrDetector, willypurdue, GMan00001, and CLZinTX,

Thanks for all the great responses! I won't pretend to speak for anyone else on this forum, but I've always wanted more to life than the steady nine-to-five grind that most folks seem to need (or settle for). CRHing is just one more possible way to supplement an out of the mainstream income, and it is thrilling to see that glint of silver when going through a roll.

Keep the replies coming!

1960Texan

 

[DrDetector]

I put a good amount of hours into this hobby every week however I know there are more folks who do this a LOT more than I do. GMan took a pretty mathematical approach to answering, but I'm just saying the MOST I believe hearing about in recent years was Oldred who claimed to get a little over 10,000 silver coins last year but I can't remember the exact total or what month he surpassed that goal. He also claimed to search 30 boxes a week. I'm not saying it's impossible to make a living at it, but I've pondered it myself and it just seems that if you are doing it for an income it really could only supplement an income rather than be a sole income.

 

[vegasmtl]

I for one think that CRH'ing alone won't quite do it. I do think that if you have luck MD'ing the beaches like Crackbadger, and CRH, and look for nuministic valued coins as well as silver...it could be done. At least I would hope so. For my sake.

HH
vegasmtl

 

[LJ]

Personally, I think anyone who relied only on CRH'ing to make a living would starve to death.

It is a limited source......sure more keep coming into the system but at a much slower rate than required to make a living.....no insurance.....eventually your going to pull all silver out of your area requiring travel to obtain more thus more cost to acquire it.......I could go on & on........................

For me.....just a fun hobby.......

ENJOY

 

[Silver_Fox]

Very profitable hobby for me.

 

[Trezurehunter]

I'd be starving, but then again I dont search as much as most of you. I only started 2 yrs. ago & go through about 4 - 6 boxes a month. Some of you do that in a week or even a day. Just a hobby for me in the winter months when I cant be out with the metal detector. Ron

 

[jewelerdave]

Treat it as a hobby that if you ever need to get some cash in a rough time...its something to fall back on. For most a years searching can add an extra month of income. this can be used to just horde. Sell to pay debts, or to buy something nice for yourself, go on vacation etc.
Just take it for what it is. Some times you hit major scores...but most often its a few coins here and there if that. Its not dependable. But savor every bit you get!

 

[TxTim]

Personally, I think anyone who relied only on CRH'ing to make a living would starve to death.

It is a limited source......sure more keep coming into the system but at a much slower rate than required to make a living.....no insurance.....eventually your going to pull all silver out of your area requiring travel to obtain more thus more cost to acquire it.......I could go on & on........................

For me.....just a fun hobby.......

ENJOY

10-4, LJ