Best denomination to find foreign coins in

[Rosco53]

Okay, lets try this way! My last post attempt on this didn't pan out but I think I wasn't overly clear on what I was trying for. Wanted to ask everyone, which coins yield the best results for number of foreign coins? I've searched cents, nickels, dimes, and quarters thus far, and have 16 countries to show for it. For these purposes, not going to count Canada though. Break down is as follows:

323,000 cents- 3 Bahamas, 3 Panama, 3 Spain, 2 Poland, Slovenia, Bermuda, Barbados, New Zealand= 9 countries/15 coins= 1 in every 21533 cents=1 in every 4 bags

80,000 nickels- 5 Norway, 5 Japan, 2 Great Britain, Ireland, Bermuda, Switzerland=6 countries/15 coins= 1 in every 5333 nickles=1 in every 3 bags

30,000 dimes- Barbados, Belgium, Panama, Switzerland=4 countries/4 coins=1 in every 7500 dimes-1 in every other bag

8,000 Quarters- Italy-1 country/1 coin=1 in 4 bags

So far my best ratio is Dimes apparently. Just wondering if anyone else has crunched the numbers too, trying to maximize my foreign coins. I feel I'll probably stick to cents mainly though, based solely on my bank account (and the fact that you can find oldies in them MUCH more readily)

Thanks everyone, happy hunting!

 

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[Rookster]

You bet.

 

[FormerTeller]

Not sure what kind of responses you're likely to get. For most of us, foreign coins are a BAD thing, as we lose out on the value of the coin. I've got well over $100 of foreign coins (including Canadian) that I can't spend.

To answer your question though, I've found more foreign coins in cent rolls than any other denomination, though I've searched them more than anything other than halves. Quarters would be second.

 

[Immy]

Ohhhhh, which denomination yields the most foreigns.

I'd say cents, though I never did dimes and quarters much.

In order of results I'd say cents --> nickels --> halves.

 

[baddbluff]

When I find a foreign coin in a roll I get the same feeling as when I find a space-filling nickel in the middle of a CWR of halves - like I got ripped off.
And because I have a conscience, I have to take a 45c loss and roll it back up with a half of my own before I take it back to the bank.
So for me the best denomination to find foreign coins is definitely cents = minimal loss.
The only exception would be finding British 20 pence coins in rolls, because they are worth about 25c. I save those for my next trip to the UK and spend them.

 

[GMan00001]

Since I actually tracked this stat back when I was actively CRH'ing, here were my results for the highest % of foreign coins found while searching.

The data is all from 2007 to 2013, but I suspect it applies equally today. Canadian coins were not included in any of these totals as those numbers would have been significantly larger (Canadian finds averaged about 5 to 10 times these values except halves)

1st place - half dollars (0.0634% or 148 in 233,409 halves searched)
2nd place - nickels (0.0509% or 791 in 1,554,215 nickels searched)
3rd place - dimes (0.0248% or 571 in 2,300,306 dimes searched)
4th place - quarters (0.0209% or 96 in 460,117 quarters searched)
5th place - cents (0.0104% or 528 in 5,058,861 cents searched)

These results are primarily from searching bags of coins directly off the coin machine. Searching rolled coins I suspect would result in different results as there are additional processing steps that can help eliminate the foreign coins prior to being rolled.

I realized I was usually losing money finding foreign coins, but I never minded much in the cents, nickels, or dimes as I found the oddball stuff added a little variety to my searches. For quarters and half dollars, I only liked them when they were >= the value of the US coin they replaced. Ultimately, my cost for the foreign coins mentioned above was ~$200 over the 7 years of data while searching a very large number of coins. Significant yes, but still a lot lower than how much I spent on gas to pick up and dump coins over that same time period.

 

[TxAg]

Rosco, if you are actively seeking foreign coins, ask your tellers and grocery store bookkeepers to save them for you. You wouldn’t believe some of the foreign coins I have gotten for free that way. The other way I get them is to trade duplicates with a coin collecting friend (actually my old boss before I retired in February). I haveso many now, I’ve put together a 3- ring binder with 2x2 cardboard coin holder pages arranged bycountry.Maybe I’ll post some pictures later.....

 

[Immy]

Rosco, if you are actively seeking foreign coins, ask your tellers and grocery store bookkeepers to save them for you. You wouldn’t believe some of the foreign coins I have gotten for free that way.

This is great advice. I did this at my local Smith's for months and got great stuff. Sometimes they include Mercs & buffalos because they think they're foreign too. Until you ask, they're usually thrown into the trash.

 

[Rosco53]

Since I actually tracked this stat back when I was actively CRH'ing, here were my results for the highest % of foreign coins found while searching.

The data is all from 2007 to 2013, but I suspect it applies equally today. Canadian coins were not included in any of these totals as those numbers would have been significantly larger (Canadian finds averaged about 5 to 10 times these values except halves)

1st place - half dollars (0.0634% or 148 in 233,409 halves searched)
2nd place - nickels (0.0509% or 791 in 1,554,215 nickels searched)
3rd place - dimes (0.0248% or 571 in 2,300,306 dimes searched)
4th place - quarters (0.0209% or 96 in 460,117 quarters searched)
5th place - cents (0.0104% or 528 in 5,058,861 cents searched)

These results are primarily from searching bags of coins directly off the coin machine. Searching rolled coins I suspect would result in different results as there are additional processing steps that can help eliminate the foreign coins prior to being rolled.

I realized I was usually losing money finding foreign coins, but I never minded much in the cents, nickels, or dimes as I found the oddball stuff added a little variety to my searches. For quarters and half dollars, I only liked them when they were >= the value of the US coin they replaced. Ultimately, my cost for the foreign coins mentioned above was ~$200 over the 7 years of data while searching a very large number of coins. Significant yes, but still a lot lower than how much I spent on gas to pick up and dump coins over that same time period.

Thank you VERY much. Pretty much exactly what I was hoping to get out of this thread! And yeah, I def don't mind finding foreign coins, 2nd best thing to the old ones I think!

 

[GMan00001]

Glad I could help.

 

[dirtdigginfool]

Most coin shops I go to have a foreign coin "bin or box that they sell by the pound. If you're after foreign coins, that would be the way to go, or feebay, always smoking deals there. Just my .02....Ddf.

 

[TxAg]

As promised, here’s just a few pictures from my foreign coin album

 

[Rosco53]

Most coin shops I go to have a foreign coin "bin or box that they sell by the pound. If you're after foreign coins, that would be the way to go, or feebay, always smoking deals there. Just my .02....Ddf.

I'll admit I've looked on ebay for foreign coins, but I much prefer the idea of finding them "in the wild". If I spend money on a coin, it'll be a flying eagle or something...

 

[Megalodon]

Most coin shops I go to have a foreign coin "bin or box that they sell by the pound. If you're after foreign coins, that would be the way to go, or feebay, always smoking deals there. Just my .02....Ddf.

I haven't been to a coin show in years, but dealers, recognizing they needed to develop interest & future collectors, used to have boxes of foreign coins for kids to grab one or two for no charge. Occasionally, there were ancients mixed in. I used it to try to teach my kids geography. I had far greater success teaching them math at McDonald's with french fries. By the time they started kindergarten, they could divide by 2 or 3 and multiply - a huge head start.