Beware: Pink 40%ers; Almost dumped silver yesterday!

[Weaselbrott]

Yesterday was a wake-up call for this novice half-box searcher, and should serve as a warning to not always depend on edge checking for silver (as many have stated on here before). I was doing my first box of the day yesterday, and I found one measly 40%er that was very light pinkish and worn, as if the copper edge was showing like it was clad. I only had one; or so I thought... I dump my bag of halves at my bank, and I notice two rejected coins (1967, and 1968). How the heck did that happen?! Turns out, they looked JUST like the other post-70 clad, and were quite beat up. It made me think if I had dumped other 40%ers in the past without realizing, but then I remembered that my bank's coin counter rejects silver, so that is very unlikely. Woohoo!

So the lesson is: Don't always depend on the edges of the coins to be silver, they might be a light coppery pink color. Also, if you only edge check, your coin counter might do the hard work for you when it spits out the silver you missed (but don't always count on it!).

Happy Tremendous Treasure Tuesday, guys!

 

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[Rushfan]

Yup... I always date check ...! Great advice!

 

[GarouLady]

I checked the dates on my halves, but I only do that because I have the time since I only get one box at a time. Found a way to get more silver though. As my mom's caregiver, (I mainly drive her around to appts and get her meds for the week together), I can get paid for all the mileage. That would be sweet since because I take care of her I can't get a second job. (Though I would totally do it for free, but hey if I can get paid for it, why not). I told her that the checks we can take them and buy silver with it. One week for her, one week for me.

Wish I could get enough money to buy more halves boxes. But I am thinking about switching to dimes. At least that way it would make dumping easier.

Congrats on the find!! I am keeping my 40% for the moment.

Hugs and Smiles,
Garoulady

 

[Senor]

I checked the dates on my halves, but I only do that because I have the time since I only get one box at a time. Found a way to get more silver though. As my mom's caregiver, (I mainly drive her around to appts and get her meds for the week together), I can get paid for all the mileage. That would be sweet since because I take care of her I can't get a second job. (Though I would totally do it for free, but hey if I can get paid for it, why not). I told her that the checks we can take them and buy silver with it. One week for her, one week for me.

Wish I could get enough money to buy more halves boxes. But I am thinking about switching to dimes. At least that way it would make dumping easier.

Congrats on the find!! I am keeping my 40% for the moment.

Hugs and Smiles,
Garoulady

The interesting thing about looking for silver in dimes, quarters, or 90% halves is that the silver value is the same percentage relative to the face value, which right now is about 24 times or $2.40, $6.00, and $12.00 respectively.

 

[sheepdog_tx]

Keep in mind there was a time when 40% halves were not worth culling as the silver price was too low. Because of this you will sometimes find 40% there were enders that were painted, marked, etc. Dont assume because its marked its not worth checking.

 

[BlackOut]

Casino coins are the hardest to tell from edge checking, I've had a few almost slip by. If I date checked each one, I couldn't do the volume I do. I just have to accept that I MIGHT miss one every now and then. it is definitely a beneficial trade off.

 

[TimZim]

I only edge check. And sound check. Some times coins are dark so i do check some coins. When you do 60 plus boxes theres no way to date check.

 

[sagthegreat]

if your machine rejects silver, why not just dump your box without checking and let the machine do the work

 

[44_Dimes]

if your machine rejects silver, why not just dump your box without checking and let the machine do the work

I agree. Especially if you get bags of dimes or halves

 

[thripp]

Since I don't re-roll I just check the faces of the coins. Sometimes I look at the edges too, but I don't flip them over to look at the date if they land tails up. The key is listening to the sound. I unwrap them on a glass table so 99% of the time I hear or see all the 40% halves immediately.

I did find a 1964 half a couple weeks ago that was pink and did not look like silver at first glance.

 

[Generic_Lad]

Its unlikely that a machine rejecting silver will reject ALL silver. It is quite possible some will slip through the crack, particularly if you are dumping a box or two at a time. Machines are not perfect. One only needs to look at how often you get magnetic coinage in bags and if you ever play with the magnet of the coin machine you know its quite strong. Coinstar branded machines tend to reject silver fairly consistently so if its one of those it should be easy to dump a couple boxes in there, but if its another I'd be quite cautious against dumping boxes in hopes for silver.

 

[FormerTeller]

As Blackout and TimZim said, it depends on your volume. If you have the time to date check, you'll find more silver than if you edge check only. I've found literally dozens of 40%'ers and a few 90% that I wouldn't have if I had edge checked only. That being said, I don't do really high volumes. It's a trade-off.

 

[mleblanc138]

Even in the unlikely event that I did miss a few 40%s by only edge checking, it would still be grossly inefficient to date check everything. Keep in mind that I also date check any odd colored, overly dark, or otherwise unusual edges. Such edge checking turns up Clad Proofs, tarnished 40%s that make me go "how the heck did I spot that?," and enough regular 1971s for me to come up with the phrase "1971 frown."

 

[SilverForBrains]

yea I know I miss some too, it's all about the tradeoff. I'd rather pump through boxes looking for that dream box than finding a couple extra silvers here and there. That being said, if Im checking CWR and I start to find an obvious collection dumps spread throughout a lot of clad, I then date check because in this case it's worth my time.

 

[conleytheking]

Date checking is such a waste of time.. I wouldn't hunt if I had to do that lol. Edge check is fine.. And I left the coins fall into the bag about half a second apart so I can hear if for some weird reason I missed one. That's all you need to do.

 

[GarouLady]

I found a 1964 dime in our local credit union counter. so I guess our counter spits out the silver too, which worked great for me. A free $2.50 is always nice. I turned in all my halves, making a loan payment, sticking an additional 60 bucks into our propane refil account and I still have about 250 dollars on hand. I swung by my LCS and picked up 4 halves for 50 bucks. and got two quarter tubes for free. With my upcoming paycheck I will have an additonal 250 and I am hoping to get two boxes of dimes and really really hopeing that I can find some silver.

Hugs and Smiles,
garoulady

 

[Catcake]

Couldn't you just run a metal detector over your coins to detect silver?

I saw this site on 10/17/12 and didn't believe some of the stories on here. So I went to the local credit union on Thursday and bought $300 in halfs. The first roll had a 1967 and I couldn't believe it! I found another 1967 and a 1970 in that first batch. As I write this, I'm looking at $490 in halfs. Now ya'll have me worried that there is more silver in there. Would a metal detector work or would that take all the sport out of it? Also, could you just use the detector to search the rolled coins?

 

[namster]

Ill throw this in...

I just went through a box that had 40x40% and 2x90%, ill be rechecking the bag tomorrow for stragglers.

 

[sagittarius98]

Couldn't you just run a metal detector over your coins to detect silver?

I saw this site on 10/17/12 and didn't believe some of the stories on here. So I went to the local credit union on Thursday and bought $300 in halfs. The first roll had a 1967 and I couldn't believe it! I found another 1967 and a 1970 in that first batch. As I write this, I'm looking at $490 in halfs. Now ya'll have me worried that there is more silver in there. Would a metal detector work or would that take all the sport out of it? Also, could you just use the detector to search the rolled coins?

The MD would be thrown off by all the clad coins around it. The 1970 was not issued for circulation, so it's an even cooler find.