An idea for a new way to hunt key dates.

[red89]

So I was thinking, I know some places sell silver coins in bulk in sacks. Does anyone know if people cull the key dates out of the sacks? If not this may be a new way to search for key dates on silver dimes, quarters, halves and so on. My friend was telling me he just bought a few rolls of silver dimes from a pawn shop for a dollar over spot per roll, most were rosies and a few mercs, but he found a 1903s barber in it (redbook says around $85 for g-4). I was thinking I might go pick up a few sacks or rolls of coins from some pawn shops, search it, then sell what I don't keep on craigslist. I can't afford to keep all the silver I buy for spot since I'm in college right now, but a key date for spot price would be ok with me to keep.

Has anyone ever tried this? If so have you had much luck? I'm thinking most places that sell us coins knowing they are silver would know to search key dates if it is just a few rolls, but lets say you buy them by the pound, or even half pound.....would they really take the time to search it all? Especially if it was dimes, that seems like it would be too time consuming for most businesses, but as CHRers we enjoy that anyway. Well, I'm rambling now but I think you guys get the idea....please let me know what you think, any feedback will help.

 

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[unclehuckelberry]

It's called cherry picking. The best I've ever done was find about 30 war nickels in the dollar coin bin at a coin shop. Whenever I go to a coin show or a new coin shop I always check the "dollar coin bin" for any good deals. Here's an article about cherry picking.

 

[unclehuckelberry]

You might want to check and see if you can get wheat pennies in bulk from antique stores or coin shops. A lot cheaper than silver

 

[Generic_Lad]

I do this to some extent. The problem with doing it with silver, especially sight unseen is that even the best dealers will put a premium on even "junk" silver (those with cheaper prices usually don't have the inventory needed to do it more than a few times a year) and even the best buyers will pay under spot, unless you have a good craigslist buyer or another collector.

The dealers with the biggest inventory will always check for key dates, but minor varieties will often pass them by.

The best ways I've found to do this is:

1) Go to coin dealers and sort through their foreign coin bin. Look for things with silver content, since lower silver content is often not worth sending to the refiners due to all the fees, you might be able to score stuff like 50% silver 1968 Canadian, 1920-1947 British 50% silver, some of the more odd silver Mexican coins (such as the 10% silver ones) they can often be found under melt.

2) Know foreign numismatics and sort through the foreign coin bin. There are LOTS of collectors of minor varieties of foreign coins, such as British penny collectors. Similarly there are key dates in foreign numismatics as American numismatics. I'd specialize in one or two fields and know the key dates and major varieties. Some good countries with active collector bases both in the US and abroad:

German coins
Canadian coins
British coins
Australian (and other commonwealth) coins
Chinese coins

If you want to get into foreign numismatics you need to get a better catalog than Krouse, for example, get the Charlton catalog for Canadian coins, Spinks/Coincraft for British coins, etc. And perhaps you might want specialty references even within those fields.

3) Go to non-coin places that have coins. Perfect spots are antique malls, pawn shops, etc. 90% of the time everything will be overpriced junk. However, if you can spot varieties, a penny that normally would be a rip off at $5 might be a $50 coin because you recognize it as having a minor variety.

4) Never stop researching. When you buy bulk lots, I like to set many aside that I don't know what they are exactly or look interesting and research them when I have the time. Recently, for example, I got a lot of Australian coins in with some British pennies I bought. I really didn't want the Australian coins, but after researching them I found I had several key dates and many better dates. Pretty soon they will be put on the 'bay and if they go like the rest of them on there, I should be able to essentially get the British pennies for free!

 

[Merc Crazy]

I have a local dealer that lets me go through his "junk" silver and I've pulled everything from really worn semi-key barbers, to a great '16 WLH, and tons of nice BU coins, some great toners, some nice lowball coins, oh, plenty of Type B Washies... It's fun. I do pay a premium, though, over people who just walk in and buy some silver, because of the time I take going through stuff.

 

[CoinFetcher]

old uncle huckleberry has a cherry to pick

 

[PhattyB]

Pawn shops are a good place to do this, and you can cherry pick thru them and just buy the ones you want. They generally know nothing, and you can just say youre trying to fill a book with certain dates. You can really sell your story with a half full book.

 

[unclehuckelberry]

no unclehuckelberry is poor because he's the only one bringing home a pay check right now. It has really cut back on how much I can coin roll hunt

 

[CRHQueen]

I went to a coin show yesterday and bought $37.50 FV of halves for $750... I had a nice variety of 10 Barber's, 26 Walking Liberty and the rest JFK. Not bad for $10 a coin when some of those earlier halves sell for $12+.
You never know what you will find in those bags... keep searching.

 

[BuffaloBoy]

my local coin shop owners are cheap ...innapropriate word for this website...

i went in asking if i could search their bulk and swap out coins 1 for 1 in the bin... that didn't turn out very well, let's just say a big NO, NO!
I have been a customer for over 10 years and guess who's not going back there ever again? me.

i would have loved to trade a nice 1964 kennedy half dollar for maybe a walker which is worn to begin with... in the end, they might have gotten a few extra grams of silver out of the deal due to wear, but no, they just send their coins to the scrapper.
I am rambling on now, hope everybody has a good one...
hh
buff

 

[red89]

I've heard about people going through the coin buckets at coin shops and looking for silvers from other countries, but I really only know about US and Canadian currency. The coin shop I go to normally doesn't deal much with other currency, mostly just U.S. He does have a few european silver or gold coins and he gets maple leaf rounds in every once in a while but its almost all American stuff. I might have to try out pawn shops, I know of one that has quite a bit of silver us coins that they sell by the rolls for slightly above spot. I might buy some from them and then resell on craigslist or something. Anyway thanks for the input guys! I knew about people cherrypicking from coin bins but I didn't realize how many people search us silver lots for key dates. Anyway, good luck this week guys!

 

[Bigheed]

you probably could but the bulk of what you find in "junk bags" is circulated and no where near numismatic quality. As stated by others you would have to float the premium somehow as well by hoping that the spot prices goes up before you sell.

You might find something but it sounds like a bad slot machine to me.

 

[jerseyben]

my local coin shop owners are cheap ...innapropriate word for this website...

i went in asking if i could search their bulk and swap out coins 1 for 1 in the bin... that didn't turn out very well, let's just say a big NO, NO!
I have been a customer for over 10 years and guess who's not going back there ever again? me.

i would have loved to trade a nice 1964 kennedy half dollar for maybe a walker which is worn to begin with... in the end, they might have gotten a few extra grams of silver out of the deal due to wear, but no, they just send their coins to the scrapper.
I am rambling on now, hope everybody has a good one...
hh
buff

Are you kidding me? You sound so entitled in your post...
They are not cheap, they are trying to run a business. I think you guys in the CRH world need to step back into reality from time to time and remember that the world does not owe you silver coins and that YOU yourselves are trying to make a buck off other people's backs.

 

[diggummup]

my local coin shop owners are cheap ...innapropriate word for this website...

i went in asking if i could search their bulk and swap out coins 1 for 1 in the bin... that didn't turn out very well, let's just say a big NO, NO!
I have been a customer for over 10 years and guess who's not going back there ever again? me.

i would have loved to trade a nice 1964 kennedy half dollar for maybe a walker which is worn to begin with... in the end, they might have gotten a few extra grams of silver out of the deal due to wear, but no, they just send their coins to the scrapper.
I am rambling on now, hope everybody has a good one...
hh
buff

So you've been going there for over 10 years and now your not going back because they wouldn't let you go through their bulk coin bag and swap JFK's for Walkers?
But first you stated "my local coin shop owners are cheap ...innapropriate word for this website."
Let me ask you... if they are such cheap mfingsob's then wht did you continue to go there as a customer for more than 10 years? That doesn't make a bit of sense. Your contradicting yourself there BB.

 

[minkybodl]

I like to check through the Pawn shops bulk silver every once in a while. They usually sell them for a dollar over spot but most of what they have are in single cases so they are in good shape. I have a collection of the Pandas and have found them in silver and gold, one that I bought for 25 was selling for 127 at the time I bought it. I don't think he even knew it was a coin and just threw it in with everything.

 

[Generic_Lad]

I've heard about people going through the coin buckets at coin shops and looking for silvers from other countries, but I really only know about US and Canadian currency. The coin shop I go to normally doesn't deal much with other currency, mostly just U.S. He does have a few european silver or gold coins and he gets maple leaf rounds in every once in a while but its almost all American stuff. I might have to try out pawn shops, I know of one that has quite a bit of silver us coins that they sell by the rolls for slightly above spot. I might buy some from them and then resell on craigslist or something. Anyway thanks for the input guys! I knew about people cherrypicking from coin bins but I didn't realize how many people search us silver lots for key dates. Anyway, good luck this week guys!

Easy list:

Canadian pre-1968 and some 1968 (bring a magnet if you are unsure, but just by looking at the coin you should be able to tell the difference between 100% nickel and 50% silver)

British, pre-1920, sterling (.925) silver, 1920-1947 50% silver, 1947-now base metals. Britannias have a good numismatic value regardless of spot, so I'd pick some up if you can find them around spot, the values of the years varies depending on demand and how many were minted.

Australian, pre-decimal up until 1946, sterling silver. Australian pre-decimal 1946-1963 (last year for pre-decimal coins) 50% silver. The only decimal coin intended for circulation that has silver is the 1966 half dollar which is 80% silver.

Swiss coins: the 1/2 Franc and larger coins are silver until 1968 when they switched to copper-nickel.

For German and French coins you'd have to examine each coin because there are multiple "cut off" dates because of the economic history of the two countries.

For Mexican coins you pretty much have to memorize a list (such as this Mexican Coins: Type Collecting ) before you really go buying Mexican coins because Mexico has weird silver content (ranges anywhere from sterling to 10% silver and just about everywhere in between)

 

[BuffaloBoy]

ok i'm sorry for that post= it may have offended some folks... it's been a long day, up at 0430 working out in the sun all day come home at nightfall posting at 11:30pm...