ArkieBassMan
Silver Member
Arkie's first road trip
I've been wanting to do this for while. Last night I got out my phone book (remember this is RURAL Arkansas. Wait...maybe ALL of Arkansas is rural). Anyway, there are over 50 "towns" listed in our phone book. Scanned the yellow pages for banks, sorted them by town, got on Google maps and plotted a circle that I thought would be driveable in a day and put me near the most banks for that length of time. The day really went fast. I only asked for halves and big dollars. All the tellers I encountered were very nice, but I ran into a situation at a bank that I think deserves its own thread.
Amazingly I did not score silver until bank #26, and that was 1 lonely 40%er. At bank 27 was a bit of a heartbreak. The bank didn't have any of what I was looking for, but the teller said she knew that another branch in a neighboring town (which would have been bank #30 on my list - I was headed that way) had several hundred dollars worth (I didn't ask halves or dollars, as it really didn't matter). She even offered to call the bank and have them hold them for me! How nice! Of course, someone bought them all earlier today. At bank 28 I noticed they had a coin counter. They had no halves or big dollars, so I asked if I could buy the halves out of the machine. I was told I could not as they had no idea how much was in it. As I turned to leave, another teller whispered something to my teller. My teller then announced that they had "half of a bag, $500" in the back and I could purchase those. I was leary. I mean why would they pull a bag off the machine only half full? My thought was that they saw someone dump a load of silver and cherry picked it. At any rate, they brought the bag out. I scanned it, but didn't see anything. I didn't have time to REALLY check it out as by now its after 4:00pm and I have 5 more banks in 3 small neighboring towns to hit by 5:00. The weight felt about right so I bought it. Nothing to lose I figured. Banks 29-31 were a bust. Bank 32 had $17.50 which yielded 5 40%ers. Bank 33 (got there 5 minutes before closing time) had $90 in handrolls and 5 Ikes (clad). The $90 gave up 7 40%ers with 5 in 1 roll (a new record for me).
I finally get home and run my fingers thru the bag and hear 1 or 2 sweet "clinks" of silver. Not a lot, but at least I knew I wasn't looking thru a bag of dumps. The bag gave up 14 40%ers, a '63 Ben, and a '46 Walker. Only my 2nd Walker CRHing! Also, half a magician coin (the half dollar half), a 1968 British 10 pence(?), 1977 Mexican un Peso, a good luck token from Knot's Berry Farm in Buena Park, Calif., a batting cage token from Salem, Oregon, and some sort of half dollar sized JFK token.
Final tally: (33 banks, 253 miles driven, $674.50 in halves - $590 of which came from 2 banks, and 5 Ikes)
Silver: 27 40%ers, 1 '63 Ben, 1 '46 Walker.
Not a big score at all compared to a lot of you, but thats about half my grand total from the 40 boxes I did earlier this year. I believe I will have to do this again.
I've been wanting to do this for while. Last night I got out my phone book (remember this is RURAL Arkansas. Wait...maybe ALL of Arkansas is rural). Anyway, there are over 50 "towns" listed in our phone book. Scanned the yellow pages for banks, sorted them by town, got on Google maps and plotted a circle that I thought would be driveable in a day and put me near the most banks for that length of time. The day really went fast. I only asked for halves and big dollars. All the tellers I encountered were very nice, but I ran into a situation at a bank that I think deserves its own thread.
Amazingly I did not score silver until bank #26, and that was 1 lonely 40%er. At bank 27 was a bit of a heartbreak. The bank didn't have any of what I was looking for, but the teller said she knew that another branch in a neighboring town (which would have been bank #30 on my list - I was headed that way) had several hundred dollars worth (I didn't ask halves or dollars, as it really didn't matter). She even offered to call the bank and have them hold them for me! How nice! Of course, someone bought them all earlier today. At bank 28 I noticed they had a coin counter. They had no halves or big dollars, so I asked if I could buy the halves out of the machine. I was told I could not as they had no idea how much was in it. As I turned to leave, another teller whispered something to my teller. My teller then announced that they had "half of a bag, $500" in the back and I could purchase those. I was leary. I mean why would they pull a bag off the machine only half full? My thought was that they saw someone dump a load of silver and cherry picked it. At any rate, they brought the bag out. I scanned it, but didn't see anything. I didn't have time to REALLY check it out as by now its after 4:00pm and I have 5 more banks in 3 small neighboring towns to hit by 5:00. The weight felt about right so I bought it. Nothing to lose I figured. Banks 29-31 were a bust. Bank 32 had $17.50 which yielded 5 40%ers. Bank 33 (got there 5 minutes before closing time) had $90 in handrolls and 5 Ikes (clad). The $90 gave up 7 40%ers with 5 in 1 roll (a new record for me).
I finally get home and run my fingers thru the bag and hear 1 or 2 sweet "clinks" of silver. Not a lot, but at least I knew I wasn't looking thru a bag of dumps. The bag gave up 14 40%ers, a '63 Ben, and a '46 Walker. Only my 2nd Walker CRHing! Also, half a magician coin (the half dollar half), a 1968 British 10 pence(?), 1977 Mexican un Peso, a good luck token from Knot's Berry Farm in Buena Park, Calif., a batting cage token from Salem, Oregon, and some sort of half dollar sized JFK token.
Final tally: (33 banks, 253 miles driven, $674.50 in halves - $590 of which came from 2 banks, and 5 Ikes)
Silver: 27 40%ers, 1 '63 Ben, 1 '46 Walker.
Not a big score at all compared to a lot of you, but thats about half my grand total from the 40 boxes I did earlier this year. I believe I will have to do this again.
Upvote
0
You had a great day.Like your strategy.
