new/small scale CRHers! whats your strategy?

chrissm14

Jr. Member
Apr 28, 2013
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Ive been Crhing for about 3 months now and its pretty addicting. I only get about 50 $ worth of rolls every few days, so I was wondering if anyone else does it on a small scale like me? I usually get dimes and nickels but occasionally quarters and pennies. So far I've found 3 silver quarters and 2 silver dimes. I found one quarter in the vending machine at work, and I also found a war nickel in another vending machine. Usually I will open a roll, rim check a few then go through each one and look for anything unusual and put them in a small jar and reroll the rest. I keep nickels dated 1959 and earlier, and any coins that have errors. Does anyone else collect errors too? I usually look at the unusual ones with my loupe later and decide to keep it or not. I do find that I have trouble identifying double dies from machine doubling, does anyone have any tips? My loupe is 10x should I get something stronger? Please share your thoughts /strategies everyone!
 

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BoredBankTeller

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Jun 28, 2012
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I think that you'd be best served looking through pennies and nickels if you're doing about $50 per clip. In my experience I have found a silver quarter in about every 50 rolls searched or so, so I would imagine that you'd be getting skunked a lot if you were going through a handful of rolls at a time.
 

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chrissm14

Jr. Member
Apr 28, 2013
28
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Usually what I do is get like 6 rolls of dimes and 10 nickel rolls, but sometimes I get a roll or 2 of quarters. I keep the ATB quarters andterritory ones that I find. With dimes tho I've Been pretty lucky the last 2 times I've gone to my bank I've found a silver dime each time. I plan on buying a box of pennies at some point that should keep me busy for a while lol
 

Thorne

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Dec 5, 2012
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Best thing for a small scale hunter like you would be find a spot with two banks really close and check one denomination from one bank and cash in.for another denomination at a different bank. Most banks won't give you grief for such little money.
 

Codes

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Feb 28, 2007
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Small scale hunter here. My funds are limited so I usually get 10 rolls of each denomination each week. I stay away from quarters because I've never found a silver quarter in my 6 years of CRH'ing, plus it ties up a lot of funds.

The way I see it is it doesn't matter how much you search as long as you have fun. Of course, if you don't hunt much you won't find much but as long as it is fun that's all that matters!
 

gmrestoparts

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Mar 6, 2013
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Its funny...I consider myself a small time CRHer and I do $4000 in halves a week plus about $2K in dimes and $500 in nickels
 

gmrestoparts

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Mar 6, 2013
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If your looking or silver, go with DIMES with your limited funds. I always mark my rolls with a red crayon so I don't get the same rolls back. I do all Member Wrapped Rolls and usually get1-2 dimes per $100 searched. Although last week I had a roll with 3 silver dimes in it and my best score was an entire roll of 1955D dimes
 

Bad Wolf

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I've done a little bit of everything and had been concentrating on dimes, but now I'm finding nickles are more fun. With nickels you get not only warnics (just 35% silver, but bigger than a dime and therefor worth almost as much in terms of silver content), but buffalos (my first was an almost BU 1937 D), proofs, cameo proofs (found my first last week), lots of errors (12.5% rotated die just yesterday), and V nickles, though I have yet to find one yet (but I will!). Anyway, at $100/box they don't break the bank, and the fact that you can't edge-check them makes you have to slow down and inspect each one, one at a time, which I really enjoy.

Happy Hunting!
 

Thorne

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Dec 5, 2012
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Nickels are almost half the silver content as a dime. Roughly 10 dimes is an ounce of silver where it takes you 18 or 19(can't remembrance exact) to get an ounce with the nickel.
 

mr.landpirate

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Dec 29, 2012
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For me nickels and halves.the halves mostly for the AG but I am filling 2 books to pass on too my sons. The nickles becuse there just so much fun, lots of finds. And then there is Mr.Lincoln I've collected these sense my dad showed me how to collect coins. Five more and I'll finish what he and I started. I need to find lots of AG becuase there the 5 big ones! LP
 

BuffaloBoy

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Feb 16, 2011
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You are wrong... A silver dime has 0.07234 oz of silver in it... a silver war nickel has 0.0563 oz of silver in it. A war nickel contains 0.01604 oz less than a silver dime(or only $0.38 less) nickels ahve the most silver in them in terms of silver-per-face value.


$1.00 in silver dimes has 0.7234 oz of silver (or $17.36 in silver)
$1.00 in war nickels has 1.126 oz of silver (or $27.02 in silver).

Nickels are almost half the silver content as a dime. Roughly 10 dimes is an ounce of silver where it takes you 18 or 19(can't remembrance exact) to get an ounce with the nickel.
 

BuffaloBoy

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Plus a silver nickel contains only 22.2% less silver(not 50% less) than a silver dime, but there are more silver war nickels out there than silver dimes since not as many know about them.
 

Thorne

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Dec 5, 2012
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Well ill be damned. I always thought a Buck of each denomination was close to an ounce. Ie 4 quarters 10 dimes.
 

silas1128

Jr. Member
Feb 13, 2013
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I pick up customer rolled halves when I find them, maybe dimes if im bored. I've never ordered anything.
 

thripp

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Jun 21, 2012
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My average with both nickels and dimes was about 1 silver per box. Of course a box of nickels is only 2000 coins compared to 2500 with a box of dimes. Halves are still the best if you can find a bank to order them.
 

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chrissm14

Jr. Member
Apr 28, 2013
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Does anyone search for errors or just silver? If u do do you examine every coin with a loupe or just some of them?
 

TimZim

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Aug 3, 2011
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I have cut my## Down my work is so busy. If I were going to do $50 per week I would do dimes. silver only for me!! I do dime but only bags $1000 at a time. I only do them to fill in here and there.
 

minkybodl

Sr. Member
Aug 19, 2011
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Does anyone search for errors or just silver? If u do do you examine every coin with a loupe or just some of them?

I look for everything that I can see with the help of readers and a magnifying glass, silver, errors, dates + mint-marks. Doing your coins on a small scale, you may as well take your time and look them over for anything good. I found a capped die cent which a LCS offered me 35 dollar for but I didn't sell it. Some errors can be worth quite a lot of money, certain errors are only on certain dates and other errors can be on any coin. There are several online websites that list what to look for on which dates. Finding 3 silver quarters while searching small scale is pretty good because they are hard to find so you may as well keep getting a few here and there as long as they keep producing. I don't think I would just keep all pre-60 nickels with your limited funds maybe just the key dates and ones in better condition. I have slowed down on my cent boxes lately because they produce so many keepers that I was losing 10-15 dollar of my CRH funds with every 25 dollar box I got. Basically by getting a few different rolls here and there should over the long term tell you what is the best in your area. As long as you have enough money to afford to keep saving your coins without needing to sell any of them then the only thing that matters is what makes you the happiest to own. Good luck and happy hunting.
 

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