Does anyone use a scale to weigh unopened bank rolls?

65gt350

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Mar 6, 2007
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Here is an experiment I did on my last box and I wonder if anyone has tried it before?

I pull the rolls out of the box and put it on a scale. If it is over 226g it goes into one pile and if it is below it goes to another. Out of 1 box I had 5 rolls over 226g. 2 of the rolls had a 90% each and 2 rolls had a 40% each the last roll was a bust. Of the other 45 rolls there was an additional 3 40% found.

Has anyone else done this in order to weed out rolls before opening?
 

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I might consider it if I was only looking for silver, but I also look for die varieties and errors, even with the clad, so it would not do me any good.
 

wayne1956 said:
I might consider it if I was only looking for silver, but I also look for die varieties and errors, even with the clad, so it would not do me any good.

Ditto. You would miss non-silver keepers that way. Just like if you only look at the edges of halves. (see "Next Three" post)
 

I like the way you think!
You could almost guarantee a keeper in an unopened roll like that and sell it on e-bay!
 

wayne1956 said:
I might consider it if I was only looking for silver, but I also look for die varieties and errors, even with the clad, so it would not do me any good.

Same here.
 

TXTim said:
I like the way you think!
You could almost guarantee a keeper in an unopened roll like that and sell it on e-bay!

I think you miss my thinking. I can almost guarantee a skunk box at a bank that looks like a regular unopened box. These boxes may stay at a branch for a long time and out of circulation. I haven't done enough testing on this but I think this has possibilities.
 

TXTim said:
I like the way you think!
You could almost guarantee a keeper in an unopened roll like that and sell it on e-bay!
And if you put it on ebay,how many people would that attract to CRH,who didn't know about it already?

The silver is scarce enough as it is without inviting a LOT more COMPETITION.

Remember the people BUYING your silver halves on ebay are paying you 4-10 times face value for them.

If they get the idea that they can find silver halves for $.50 just by going to a bank or hunting through a box,don't you think they would rather do that than pay you almost $5.00 for one?

MANY people know about CRH,but a LOT more people don't know about it.

This is one of the FEW hobbies you want to keep to yourself.

Take it from me,I've been doing it for 17+ years and in the past 5 years the finds have been slim to say the least.If I were just starting now I don't think I would stick with it considering gas prices and competition.

I have found so many marked coins in the past 5 years,that now it seems like 90% of the halves I check have a mark of some sort.Lines on the edges,letters/numbers/designs on the obverse and or reverse,specific scratches on obverse ETC.

So for those of you still finding them in bank vaults consider yourselves lucky and enjoy it while it lasts,because I haven't had a silver find outside of boxes in a few years.Either the tellers are too savvy or too many hunters in my area.
 

schramm said:
TXTim said:
I like the way you think!
You could almost guarantee a keeper in an unopened roll like that and sell it on e-bay!
And if you put it on ebay,how many people would that attract to CRH,who didn't know about it already?

The silver is scarce enough as it is without inviting a LOT more COMPETITION.

Remember the people BUYING your silver halves on ebay are paying you 4-10 times face value for them.

If they get the idea that they can find silver halves for $.50 just by going to a bank or hunting through a box,don't you think they would rather do that than pay you almost $5.00 for one?

MANY people know about CRH,but a LOT more people don't know about it.

This is one of the FEW hobbies you want to keep to yourself.

Take it from me,I've been doing it for 17+ years and in the past 5 years the finds have been slim to say the least.If I were just starting now I don't think I would stick with it considering gas prices and competition.

I have found so many marked coins in the past 5 years,that now it seems like 90% of the halves I check have a mark of some sort.Lines on the edges,letters/numbers/designs on the obverse and or reverse,specific scratches on obverse ETC.

So for those of you still finding them in bank vaults consider yourselves lucky and enjoy it while it lasts,because I haven't had a silver find outside of boxes in a few years.Either the tellers are too savvy or too many hunters in my area.

How would an ebay-er know it was a CRH roll?

I like to think outside the box - literally.
I'd think the intrigue may get the price bid up a little and make you a real nice buck on ebay.

Sorry about your luck lately.
 

wayne1956 said:
I might consider it if I was only looking for silver, but I also look for die varieties and errors, even with the clad, so it would not do me any good.
same with me
 

On other problem with this theory is foreign coins will throw you off either high or low and you will eventually either miss a keeper or expect a keeper when its just a foreign coin (though the foreign coin "could" be considered a keeper too, depending on your point of view).

Another note, selling a coin on ebay and promising a "keeper", but delivering only a foreign coin (even if it happens only once) would hurt your reputation more than its worth. So if you do try to sell an unopened roll on ebay be careful how you describe your product. Though the description necessary to keep you covered may also drive down the price.
 

65gt350 said:
TXTim said:
I like the way you think!
You could almost guarantee a keeper in an unopened roll like that and sell it on e-bay!

I think you miss my thinking. I can almost guarantee a skunk box at a bank that looks like a regular unopened box. These boxes may stay at a branch for a long time and out of circulation. I haven't done enough testing on this but I think this has possibilities.

I agree, in theory you could take your scale to the bank set it up in front of the teller and say, let me see all your boxes and loose rolls. Just weigh the whole box and you would know immediately if it had silver. Why waste time opening skunk boxes! This sounds like worth further investigation to me. Another thing someone should look into is finding out what Brinks or one of the other companies would charge just to bring and pickup about $20000 of halves a week right to your door. In the long run it might be possible to come out a head! ;D

It is true a couple foreign coins could cause a problem in the scale theory.
 

Another issue is a lot of the walkers (and some franklins) found are quite worn and weigh equal to or less than a clad, so you could also be missing out on some 90%.
 

Thanks for the feedback. I think I am going to try it on a few more boxes and see what happens. I was hoping to find someone on the board that has done this in the past and has more insight than a single box. As of right now I am not too happy about leaving 3 40% coins in the reject pile. The next box I will weed out at 225.8g.

65GT350
 

I tried it with my scale just for S and Gs. All of them weighed in at 226 or 228 g. Mostly 228g. I weighed a full 40% roll and it showed up as 230 g. I found 2 40% out of 45 rolls. So if you do do that you have to have a pretty accurate scale. being that a full roll of 40% showed up as just 2 grams heavier on my scale. One silver in a roll wouldn't even show up.

I would have opened them all anyway.......
 

bigtime400 said:
I tried it with my scale just for S and Gs. All of them weighed in at 226 or 228 g. Mostly 228g. I weighed a full 40% roll and it showed up as 230 g. I found 2 40% out of 45 rolls. So if you do do that you have to have a pretty accurate scale. being that a full roll of 40% showed up as just 2 grams heavier on my scale. One silver in a roll wouldn't even show up.

I would have opened them all anyway.......

I have been using a digital scale that is accurate to .1 gram. Today I weeded out at 225.8 and still left 3 40%. Since 2 of those rolls came in at 225.6 I will try that cut off next time. I'll try a few more boxes before I give up on this.
 

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