Calling all CRHers!! (Both older members and new!)

[Laken]

Hey there everyone,

Now that this forum has calmed down a bit and has seemed to go in a new direction, I thought I would try to start a way to bring it all back together! Its no longer the same logging in and not seeing those frequent posts made by our older members (Rileyboy, Apush, Chainchomp, etc.) I miss the good ol' days! However, the new days may very well usher in good days as well! (As proven by Bigheed's amazing CRHing results!)

So, I thought why not start a thread on our personal history of how we started CRHing! I will start with my own....

My first job at the age of 16 was working at a local grocer's market. I had been there for about 6 months and had pretty much developed good relations with all my coworkers. One day, an elderly woman walked into our market with a big ol' plastic bag full of coins and proceeded to dump them in our coinstar machine. I didnt think much of it. Within 5 minutes, the lady comes up to me and asks me to fix the machine as it now down. I ask my manager who then tells me, "I trust you, go see what you can do" and sends me on my way.

The lady explains to me that about 50% of the coins she has dumped in the machine keeps getting rejected and she wants it fixed. I tell her to hold on and let me see what I could do. I started by taking a hand full of change from her bag and dumping it in the tray. They looked like normal quarters, dimes, nickels, etc. The coinstar rejects them! I mumble to myself, "That's weird..." , before grabbing them from the reject tray and attempting to dump them again.

She begins explaining to me that her husband passed away not too long ago and he had all these coins in a gallon jug in their house. She wanted to cash em because she needed the money... Before letting em slide right back into the machine to be rejected again I notice a buffalo nickel. It was at that time that I also notice a couple odd looking dimes with another head besides Roosevelt's. I realize that these coins are pretty old and just by pure gut instinct, I offer her a $20 for a handful of her change. She agrees!

I quickly run back to my coworker who just so happens to be a coin collector and he demands that I go back and buy the whole darn bag! He then exclaims, "Hell! I will just go with you!"

We run back to the coinstar where she was, but instead another person is now there dumping. We quickly look around the store for her ... We almost thought we lost her! We then find her with another younger woman who turns out to be her daughter. The daughter quickly catches on just like us and denies us the chance to buy out the enitre bag... But! we did manage to convince her to sell us another $5 each from her bag of goodies. I still have those coins to date and they constantly inspire me to keep going on back out there to find more! Best coin in the batch? A Standing Liberty quarter.

Sorry for the long story, and if you have read all the way up to this point then that means I have not completely bored you! =D
Now, let's hear some more stories from everyone!

I am hoping to try to bring new members and old members together to share ideas and experiences! Let's make this a great thread!

HSH everyone! (R.I.P Rich Hartford)

 

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[Generic_Lad]

For me (about 2-3 years ago), I knew I wanted to invest in /something/ and so I figured why not silver. At that time it was about $16/17 an ounce and I bought a few ounces of rounds. As I was researching silver I saw the dates of silver coins. I knew that banks had coin counters and that people really weren't that smart so I figured why not search through volumes of coins and find the silver ones. Through researching this I stumbled upon this site.

After a year or so of simply investing, I started moving into coin collecting and British numismatics. Along with some ancient/medieval coins.

 

[ArkieBassMan]

My Dad had me date checking coins as soon as I was big enough to do so. This would have been around the early/mid 1970's. He'd throw his change into a jar, and every so often (usually on a bad weather weekend) he'd dump them out on the kitchen table and we'd go through them looking for wheaties and silver. And no, I can't tell any difference whatsover between then and now when it comes to finding silver in circulation. Its always been scarce. Maybe a few more wheaties back then, but they weren't nearly as abundant as you'd think either. Still to this day, I have searched every single coin that has came my way, and I am yet to pull one single silver coin from my own pocket change. I even had a few jobs back during my college years that had me running a busy cash register. Never once did I crack open a roll and find silver. The only silver I ever found that way was a very beat up '63 Ben that a guy used to buy a soda.

Anyway, Dad purchased a metal detector I'm guessing around 1975-76. As soon as I got big enough to swing it, he upgraded to a Bounty Hunter Red Baron and I got the hand-me-down. My first dug silver was a 1943 Walker. That's probably what hooked me for life. As I got older and discovered girls, among other things, detecting just fell by the wayside. Around 2002 I picked it back up and bought a White's DFX. A few years ago, I decided to to really get serious about it. One day while perusing various metal detecting sites/forums, I stumbled across this site and noticed the CRH section. Rich was in his prime then pulling 20+ each of Walkers, Bens, and '64s as well as over 100 40% for every 16 box batch he searched, and he searched several. I decided to give it a go. I didn't expect Rich Hartford numbers, nor would I be doing his volume, but I expected to do ok. 11 boxes in I had found a lone 40% and was ready to quit. I even called the bank to cancel my standing order. As luck would have it, the branch manager was out sick and I was unable to cancel my order. Box #12 gave up 22 keepers if I remember correctly. 5 90% and 17 40% including a Walker and a couple of Bens. Been at it every since.

 

[AgentX]

My father always collected coins and I can remember playing with some of the piggy banks full of coins when I was a kid. This developed an interest for me in coin collecting. My coin of choice has always been Walking Liberty Halves and Standing Liberty quarters. I've always loved the design of both these coins. I became a father of two kids myself within the past few years and money became tighter than it used to be, no longer had disposable income to buy coins. I decided to get into CRH to get Liberty halves and to come up with a hobby to generate some income to help pay for college expenses. Thankfully, I still have sixteen more years of hunting before I have to start paying tuition

HH

Agent

 

[AGBlex]

last august my father had a heart attack and was on a ventilator for 2 months in a medically induced acoma. A few things i remembered about him growing up were the 5 gallon jugs he had of wheat pennies above the shelf's in his office. his tattoos and the story of his father: my grandfather. having a peace dollar in his wallet for 40 years wearing it down to just a silver disc. Now after going to EMT school and searching through pennies with my girlfriend I am a member of TNET my father is awake and working at his practice again in georgia and my girlfriend and I are Emergency Med Tech's. Its been a year but its been a good one

HH

 

[namster]

I have been buying junk silver since the mid 90s. Once I learned you could buy it at face I never looked back.

 

[CubanHunter]

My story

I have been always collecting stuff since I was a kid. I have collected, stamps, coins, insects, bottles, and the list goes on and on. As my name implies I am from Cuba. Due the political situation we have there it was very difficult for me to find foreign coins, actually the us dollar and any foreign coin except those from the Soviet Union were prohibited during my childhood. I left my country 7 years ago and when you arrive to this country at the beginning you don't have much time for hobbies, it is just work and work and more work to make up for all the time lost. Last year I started collecting coins again. One day a fellow countryman show me the coin you see in my picture he took out when he left our country inside his shoe, I new it was made of silver. I started watching videos of the silver bug community on YouTube and got interested, then I find a guy explaining how to coin roll hunt at the banks and the rest is history. I went to my first coin show a few months ago and got hooked. My research took me to this forum. I want to take this opportunity to say thank you to the people of this forum, the information in the posts I have found here is very instructive and has help me a lot. I am sorry my English is not very good. It is difficult to practice here in south Florida.

 

[jarlbartar]

Much like CubanHunter, growing up I collected everything; cards of ALL varieties, coins, stamps, comics, beer bottles, and on and on. When I was about 12 years old, my uncle's father bought a new house and I got to tag along and clear out some of the property. My uncle and I were clearing out a small wasp's nest out of a bus waiting house when we found a small piece of paper rolled up with riddles and clues that led to other hidden instructions thgoughout the rest of the property, eventually leading to digging up an actual treasure! It was one of the coolest moments of my young life and we got quite a haul too; several walkers, 4 silver quarters, a few wheats, some jewelry, and a bunch of other goodies. I split the findings with my younger brother (who I'm pretty sure has since lost his share) but I still have mine stored away safely. Ever since then I have been keeping whatever wheats and silvers I find in my pocket change and throwing them into a big pilsner glass over the years. I recently read about some of the penny hoarders on Yahoo and did a little research and found this site and an addiction was born! I started with 1 penny box, but now I'm up to about 5 a week. I just started doing nickels with minor success, halves seem to be fairly lame in my area, but I find enough to keep looking. At first, I was just collecting the copper in hopes of turning a quick profit, but have become addicted to the chase, I have purchased books for just about every coin and the bank tellers are starting to know me by name after doing this for only 3 weeks.

 

[fistfulladirt]

I was 17 years old in 1980, and silver prices were going thru the roof! I started buying rolls from the bank, didn't really have much luck at the time, as everyone had the same idea as me.
Of course, I didn't have the buying power that I have now. I sold a lot of my silver in the mid-1980's to pay for school, I also sold my proof sets and practically gave them all away after the market crashed.

 

[BuffaloBoy]

I have been a coin collector since I was 6, a long time ago, but I started CRHing pennies around the age of 10... yup. 10.

Never a big one, maybe 2-10 rolls here and there, I have since upped my volume dramatically.

I have no regrets starting this hobby!

 

[tmjones550]

I started 2 years ago after walking into a bank and seeing a 90% half sitting in the teller tray.I asked the teller do you see the "white edged" ones alot she said all the time.So in my thinking after buying silver for 10 years at spot it did not occur to me to ask for them in the banks.Coin roll hunting was a new term and never thought in a million years I could find it in the bank.So its been on since.I have always bought silver for years at spot but now this has turned into a awesome hobby!!!!

 

[Laken]

Great stories everyone! Let's keep em coming! =D

 

[brendan1414]

I started last summer when at the age of 17, i was just browsing the internet, and found this site through metal detecting interests. I had an interest in coins, and i knew pre 64 coins were silver, so when i read about how halves are good to find silver, i decided to try my luck and the FIRST bank i went into had 10 rolls. i decided to buy 2 rolls (even though i had $100) and the first roll had nothing. i didnt expect to find any silver so i crack open the next roll and SURE ENOUGH 2 bens! then another day i went to a bank and i hit two solid rolls... crazy how easy this was i thought! I did dimes here and there, and hit sure enough another almost full roll from just $60! I figured it was always like this, easy to find silver... but i havent seen another silver half SINCE... its been atleast a good 7 months.

 

[kennedyfan]

Last year, I had gotten interested in silver/gold as an economic stabilizer. So I'd already started buying some .999 and 90% silver near spot.

I was talking to a coin dealer I was visiting out of town, and he had brought up both the concept of edge checking, and he also mentioned that the nearby bank was happy to request his weird requests to order large amounts of coins to look through.

So I sort of put two and two together, though it took a long while to really take the next step. I think I must have found a few videos on the Net, but I hadn't really run across the term of CRH. I occasionally asked at my local bank branch for halves, and they even offered to order a box for me, so I tried that - but got skunked. So I didn't think it was worth trying again.

Then I started thinking about it again, and eventually found this forum, and started learning a lot. I ordered boxes more frequently (though nowhere near the volume some of you guys do) and asking around at other banks for halves and "big dollars." And of course now I'm hooked.

 

[TheRockDoc]

Back in April of 2011, I had been reading about the "coming economic crash" and the "inevitable fate of the dollar" yada yada yada... I started watching silver knowing that when it made a correction, I was gonna buy some. I then read about silver coinage, and so I got my loose change bowl, dumped it out in my closet, (it was a huge pile, about $500 bucks worth of change). I went through it piece by piece, ended up finding a silver quarter and a silver dime. That was it for me, I figured if silver had ended up randomly in my pocket change, that there must be silver out there "floating around" in circulation. In effect, I actually started CRH'ing, a few days before I found this forum. When I found the forum, I learned that halves are usually best... The first box I ordered had 25 silvers. That was 10 or so months ago, and even with the volume I do weekly, my best box besides that one was a box with 12 silvers, and its only happened once. So I got hooked that way.... I have since bought a metal detector too... So far have found six silvers with it..(still learning the ropes there-much bigger learning curve then CRH'ing)...

Fun thread.

Chris.

 

[47thelement]

GREAT thread!

I stumbled upon the forum about 4 years ago while looking for a site for metal detecting. I've pulled close to $2000 in face off the street since. Had the time of my life and the wife loves the extra income.

 

[Stang1968]

I began collecting coins and searching my mother's pocket change at the tender age of 7. When I was 16 and had a job, I did not have a bank account. I had to go cash my check in person at the bank it was drawn upon, and one time I decided to ask for old bills, twos, Halves, and dollars. They sold me a few rolls of halves and some red seal twos- I got 4 or 5 90%ers from those rolls. After that, I did it every week until I went off to college. My interest picked back up again recently as I found I did not have time to metal detect after the birth of our second child. I'm not a volume hunter at all. IN 2012, I've only netted a single silver dime from $225 of CWR and about 12 wheaties from $50 of cents. I have 8 Ikes that I picked up last week; I'll hold them till I have about $50 and then sell them online.

 

[JimDon]

I started back in the late 1970's. I collected coins and stamps and would go to the local banks on my way home from school (four) and stop and exchange roles of pennies. To this day I have a mint bag of 1000's of wheats which I have not honestly looked at since the 80's. Just last night I noticed a solid Brinks roll of brand new 1982 copper large date lincolns I kept. I only started hunting again about two months ago. I hit immediate success in my first 3 boxes of each denomination of coins. I hit a merc, multiple rosies and a proof in my first three dimes. I hit a three or four buffalo's, about 4 war nicks and over 100 per 60 jeffersons in nickels. And in pennies I got about 40 wheats, a proof, lots of foreign, a indian and clipped planchet. My luck since then has not been as good and my only box of halves was a skunk. I am getting a little burned out of it now and the running back and forth to the banks is cumbersome. I think it might be less expensive to buy the coins at the bank but nothing can replace the shear joy of the "find". I will continue but not as often as I was.

 

[clovis97]

I got started when I walked into a bank and asked if the teller had any two dollar bills.

"No, I don't" he replied, "but I have some half dollars."

He had two rolls, and I had to go to my bank to get the money to buy them. I left, and had thoughts of not returning to the bank to buy the halves. "This is a fool's errand" I thought.

I went back, and wanted to count the roll before buying them. I tore the wrapper off, and saw silvery colored rims.

What most people can't believe is that I had no idea that they were silver. I knew something was different about them, but hadn't a clue as to what was silver and what wasn't. I really didn't!!!!

I did some research, and even started a thread on another non-CRH forum. Someone there gave me a link to "a forum where some guys are doing crazy amounts of coin searching", which, of course, was this forum.

To this day, that score of 21 silvers, with one being a solid roll, has been the only solid roll I have ever found!

 

[ImpurestStewart]

It all started for me when I was a young boy. My gpaw gave me 4 morgan silver dollars he had been saving and I took a fascination to it. I didn't know about CRHing at this time or I would have been doing it. When I turned 15 my interest just crashed and I no longer cared for coins. Right after I graduated high school I was working with my dad. We went into a parts store to pay a bill. In his change he recieved 3 silver quarters and asked if they had anymore. Yes, someone paid in quarters earlier. I have been giving them as change all day and have 3 rolls left. SOLID silver, all of them. And my interest was ignited again!! I have been doing CRHing ever since that day. Not to the large scale as I do now but I always check my change