A story for you Quarter Searchers

[coolpix9]

I was at my dump bank yesterday and while there a man came rolling a 2 wheeler in with 2 orange "Home Depot" 5 gallon buckets. He asked me a lot about halves and I quizzed him about 10 gallons of quarters. He has a vending machine route which takes him through 4 states. He dumps 4-5 buckets of quarters each week. He uses a big stainless steel ice scoop to dig them out of the buckets.
After I finished I hung around to watch the spectacle. He would dump a scoopful into the top of the machine and then quickly grab the silver as it is sliding towards the bowels of the machine. He quickly filled both bags and the attendant was yanking them out and swapping them with empties. When the bag hit the floor, the jingle of silver was unmistakable.
During my quizzing I learned he has over 40 rolls of silver quarters from less than a year of vending. I volunteered to ride shotgun for him on one of his trips but I don't think he wants a new partner.
Cheers to all, The silver is still out there. Jim

 

[ScoobaSteve]

I have about 8 vending machines at my work alone and i always chat with the vending guy. He did say that he pulls silver out on every trip and just dumps em with the rest. He said, " It's just too much to have to worry about searching through all of my coins never mind collecting them"
What should I offer him for any silver he gets? Below spot or melt?

 

[coolpix9]

You can't go wrong offering him a buck fifty each for those quarters. Jim

 

[Silver Stripe]

Might be time to try out a few boxes of quarters. HH Mark

 

[jim4silver]

If all he got out of 4 to 5 buckets of quarter per week for a year (5 gallon buckets) is 40 rolls ($400 face) of silver quarters, that aint too much considering the volume he goes through. 5 gallon buckets are large but I dont know how much they hold dollar wise. I imagine it is quite alot though.

That is less than $5000 worth of silver in todays prices he has accumulated going thru all those quarters. If he was going thru the same amount dollar wise in halves I imagine his take would be much better. Considering the huge amount of quarters he goes thru per week, his 40 rolls does not seem like much to me. Since his CRHing is directly related to his work he is not out anything time wise to do his searching though, which is not the case for many CRHers here I would bet.

Jim

 

[coolpix9]

Jim, did you happen to notice that I said he was missing silver. The bag that came out of the machine had silver in it. His method of grabbing the silver out of the tray as they slid towards the depths is not 100%. My guess is he might not have been telling the whole story to me. When you are driving 3500 miles a week, that doesn't leave you much time to search.
My other observation is he gets a nice paycheck, a really nice truck, and he gets to keep any silver he finds. Thanks,(the other Jim)

 

[cyberdan]

When the bag hit the floor, the jingle of silver was unmistakable.

Did you offer to buy those bags from the bank?

It is hard to find silver quarters now a days, 40 rolls sounds like a lot.

 

[Lucky Jack]

I can attest to the fact that silver quarters are few and far between. I've got coin operated laundry in the apartment building that I own and after 12 years and about $30,000 in quarters I have yet to find even one silver and I go through each and every one, as I roll by hand.

 

[jim4silver]

I can attest to the fact that silver quarters are few and far between. I've got coin operated laundry in the apartment building that I own and after 12 years and about $30,000 in quarters I have yet to find even one silver and I go through each and every one, as I roll by hand.

Exactly. Unless a person just has a bunch of excess time on their hands to search, better to stick to half dollars if your goal is to find as much silver as possible. You may find some silver quarters here and there, but no way close to the amount of keeper halves.

Jim

 

[Goes4ever]

I can attest to the fact that silver quarters are few and far between. I've got coin operated laundry in the apartment building that I own and after 12 years and about $30,000 in quarters I have yet to find even one silver and I go through each and every one, as I roll by hand.

wow that is pretty unreal!!

 

[scrounger d detector collector]

if there is a window for searching the quarters , i would say its now. now that the state commemorative quarter program is complete u can expect renewed interest in assembling a set. then,as soon as a few of the earlier issues start having a premium in circ there will be a flood of folks searching the quarters. this is a big set and will affect collecting prob for forseeable future. at that point u can kiss silver quarters goodby on a pretty permanent basis. one could argue thefact that there already is a clad out there with a premium. the bicentennial drummer boy quarter. i used to look for them years ago. pretty cool design and i like the tricorner hat. but u can;t compare one coin to a series. especially a loyalty series like states. also the cost of keeping rolls keeps falling.due to inflation.dealers who know will soon be/already are saving higher quality circs of the earlier released states.my prediction they will make good on this. 8)