CRH in Upper Peninsula Michigan

[Buchsy]

A question for the group-- Any insight to the following would be greatly appreciated.

Has anyone CRH at Michigan's Upper Peninsula? I was there on vacation a few weeks back. While there, I found lots of halves at a number of small banks there, but was limited by time in what I could process. My sample of $400 obtained from Macinac Island yielded a skunk. But in calling around to other banks, some of them in the Upper Peninsula proper seem to have large reserves of their own (up to $1K each) that they roll themselves and sell to non-customers; they don't order anything from the Fed. There are local Native American tribe casinos located near the banks that use halves themselves, and I initially attributed the bank half dollar reserves to that. But I can't know for sure.

Has anyone scored in Michigan's Upper Peninsula? What results have anyone had there? I'm curious to see if I missed out on some potential.

 

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[goldencoin]

Yes, I've stopped at the banks in Mackinac (few hundred, skunk). I stopped at the banks in St. Ignace (skunked) and once in Mackinac city (40% someone missed). There's so much traffic that goes through there, everyone stops to CRH. In my opinion, the scenery is more worthwhile than anything you'll find by the bridge. I've stopped at some places on the way to Wisconsin, but most don't have halves. However, grabbing big hauls of dimes can get lots of silver Canadians

HH
-GC

 

[kcm]

However, grabbing big hauls of dimes can get lots of silver Canadians

Only Canadians I've had were LOTS of cents, and 3 Canadian small dollars that came in a bank-wrapped roll. Have yet to find a Canadian dime. ...I think there was a quarter once, and maybe a nickel or two - but no dimes. And only 1 silver U.S. dime!!

 

[fistfulladirt]

Vacationed at Curtis (Big Lake Manistique) two years ago, hit a small town bank there. Asked for halves, and the tellers handed over a few rolls while snickering. Thank you ladies for the dozens of 40% halves!

Also visited a bank in the town of Newberry. Scored some 40's there too.

 

[Buchsy]

Nice "collector dump" score at Curtis, Fistfulladirt - and thanks for the info. I'm glad I didn't spend too much time searching at the eastern part of the Upper Peninsula. From my reckoning, it makes sense that you would score at Curtis and for that matter Manistique may be equally productive on your next visit. That area wasn't part of my route so I had to bypass it; same with Newberry.

However, I did pass through Escanaba and their banks had significant half dollar reserves too, ostensively "from businesses that deposit them." One of the banks made mention of a $100 deposit by a customer that they considered "unusually large." I didn't have time to properly explore that vicinity and it was a bit regretable. Yet they had Indian Casinos near-by too, and I was wondering if they, as well as other CRH activity would have contributed to the silver being "circulated out." Also, near-by in Mennommee and Marinette WI, they had no halves and were serviced by the Fed.

Has anyone CRH Escanaba's banks? What results did you get?

Ironically, the only results from the entire trip were two Ellis Island proofs I retrieved from a Teller Tray when I cashed in my dumps in Milwaukee.

 

[Buchsy]

Also, the Munising area seemed to have potential. Has anyone gone there to CRH?

 

[Buchsy]

BTW, the score at Curtis is reminiscent of one I got while driving through California around 3 or 4 years ago. We stopped by a small town off the Interstate, where I went to a bank and bought $250 in halves. The Tellers were snickering "they have already been searched, there's nothing there." In the mix were 4 rolls of MS bicentennials which I kept along with around 5 rolls of mixed 40's and 90's. Total score value was around $300 -- a good day.

Fistfulladirt, do you remember what the counts were for the Curtis score? Just curious.

 

[gordon and tanner]

I have a cabin in Michigan's U.P. (Near Naubinway) and my in-laws live in St. Ignace. I am up their a least a dozen time a year. I also get work up there about 5 times a year. It has been good hunting.

Tanner and I had one bank that we nick named, "The Happy Bank" we had one of our best scores there 63 silver halves from a bag of $500. This bank has dried up since then.

I have stopped at most every bank along US 2 from St. Igance to Menominee. There is one bank that will sell non customers bags off their machine. (last time I scored a bag of $95 in halves, it was a skunk).

One of the problems in hunting in Northern MI. Is you can run out of funds to keep going. The casino along US 2 in Manistique will count your halves and give you cash. Do not mix them with other coins.

Keep on Searching
Dad and Tanner

Attached is a photo of Tanner and his brother hunting in the U.P.

 

[Buchsy]

Thanks for the input, Dad and Tanner.

It seems that like anywhere else, luck has a lot to do with it to get a cache of silver. But, I believe there's a lot of halves in play because of the casinos. Because they circulate as a result, one has to buy more of them in order to glean the good ones (from collection dumps) from the mass (from the casinos).

When I go on a "hunting trip" (i.e. CRH), I "buy first and sort later." I make sure I am well provisioned to buy out as much as I need to in order to have a "clean sweep" of an area. I always have enough cash to "get the job done." This time, I had to limit my activities because it was a family trip with a compressed schedule. I had limited time in the UP to cover the "tourist things" and I was flying in and out of the area. Knowing there's a casino in Manistique that can cash in halves is good to know for the future (though it is unlikely I will be returning there anytime soon).

How productive is the UP? Do you remember what the distribution of 90's and 40's were at the "Happy Bank?" Do you recall checking out the banks in Escanaba? If so, how productive were they? They seemed to have a lot of halves that came locally than the other areas.