CHR, from the past to current.

[Dozer D]

From you ol' times that have doing CHR for many years, please enlighten us newer hunters what it was like say 5, 10, or even 15 years ago .

 

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[GlenDronach]

You'd be mad if you only found a 90 or a 40 in a box. You'd throw 40%'s back. You could build a decent collection of Bens, Walkers, or Mercs. Higher ratio of copper and wheat cents.

 

[BuffaloBoy]

40%ers were tossed back less than 10 years ago. in the past 5 years silver has been about the same except for dimes the average dropped quite a bit.

 

[Diver_Down]

Like the others chimed in, 40%'ers were not kept. There was no market for them. You could keep them, but they would tie up your capital until you could find a buyer. They were plentiful and just weren't worth it.

Hunting just 5 years ago, I would routinely cull $40-$80 face of keepers per week of $8k searched.

 

[Coincrazed]

Aaaah. Four years ago was when I started, in June of 2009. I was 14. In $120 in Half dollars, you would almost always find at least one 40%er, and often more. Dimes really shined. In $250 you could find 2 easily, with machine wrapped boxes giving up 3, sometimes 6 Silver Roosevelts in one. Nickels were about the same as today as they were four years ago, as are Quarters. Cents used to give up 5-10 wheats per box. Aaah, those were the good old days. How it has changed since then. Half Dollars are almost always skunks, Dimes you're lucky to get 2 per box, and Cents productivity has diminished with high copper prices and CRH pressure. Hope this paints a picture.


CC

 

[ugotit22]

I started hunting about 5 years ago. I kept everything but 40 s where barely worth over face. I would regularly get at least 20 keepers per box of halves. Dimes where alittle better to. They would always give up at least 2+ dimes per box

 

[Omega]

So what this means is 5 years from now there wont be any 40% or dimes left 0.0

 

[fistfulladirt]

I find more today than I did in 1980. Lots of roll hunters then, not to mention a recession, high unemployment, and high interest rates.

 

[Omega]

^ Interesting fistfulladirt

 

[fistfulladirt]

We had no internet in 1980, I discovered roll hunting on my own. I'd been searching for silver for a few years, on a teenager's budget.
I remember all the full-page ads in the newspaper offering upwards of $40-$50 oz.
The Hunt brothers wanted pure silver, quite a different scenario driving prices back then. 40%'ers weren't in demand even at those prices.
Then everything crashed. Many personal silver hoards dumped back into the system, and silver sat in vaults for 25 or so odd years, until the value of ag rose to make it worthwhile to begin the search again.

 

[FormerTeller]

We had no internet in 1980, I discovered roll hunting on my own. I'd been searching for silver for a few years, on a teenager's budget.
I remember all the full-page ads in the newspaper offering upwards of $40-$50 oz.
The Hunt brothers wanted pure silver, quite a different scenario driving prices back then. 40%'ers weren't in demand even at those prices.
Then everything crashed. Many personal silver hoards dumped back into the system, and silver sat in vaults for 25 or so odd years, until the value of ag rose to make it worthwhile to begin the search again.

This. No internet. No Youtube. Very few people knew about CRH'ing, and VERY little word of mouth. I hunted when I worked at the bank, but not after I left, as it just wasn't profitable.

 

[mark1982]

seems to me like the people that have been doing this hobby for 20+ years is its up and down. I cant see how 40% coins were worthless. Your still adding ounces of silver weather its 90% coins or 40% coins. Silver is silver as a lot of CRH say.

 

[Diver_Down]

seems to me like the people that have been doing this hobby for 20+ years is its up and down. I cant see how 40% coins were worthless. Your still adding ounces of silver weather its 90% coins or 40% coins. Silver is silver as a lot of CRH say.

I'll repeat again. There was no market for them.

Put it in perspective. I was 9 when I started. My father that year made $7k in salary. No one had the luxury of stacking. A coin found was either flipped for profit or saved to complete their collection. 40%'ers were indeed worthless despite their silver content. You could not sell them. Refiners wouldn't touch them and coin dealers wanted nothing to do with them.

 

[ramjet2187]

I'll repeat again. There was no market for them.

Put it in perspective. I was 9 when I started. My father that year made $7k in salary. No one had the luxury of stacking. A coin found was either flipped for profit or saved to complete their collection. 40%'ers were indeed worthless despite their silver content. You could not sell them. Refiners wouldn't touch them and coin dealers wanted nothing to do with them.

Which means each one saved tied up $.50 of your bankroll.

 

[Dozer D]

Thanks for all the feedback comments of years past. Worth reading each one. Yes things were different then.

 

[jamesandsons]

This is a really interesting/informative thread. Never would have guessed that 40%ers had no market value for so long, but I guess it makes sense - especially in the pre-internet era where it was harder to match up buyers and sellers for anything but the most commoditized markets. I don't think many people would be saving/selling copper cents today if the ebay didn't exist to match sellers up with buyers.

Overall, do people have the sense that we are currently in the last throes of this hobby, and it is going to catch on / dry up further over the next few years, to the point where the diminishing returns will cease to make it even fun (much less profitable)? Or do you think it will continue to be about the same for a while longer, as unknowledgeable people continue to unwittingly "stock our lakes" with silver and other vintage coin dumps?

I'm torn between wanting to tell people about my hobby and not wanting to kill the goose that layed the golden eggs. Even if it is laying considerably fewer than it was 5 years ago...

 

[Diggin-N-Dumps]

Whats crazy is my Grandma got me into coin roll hunting...She bought me Whitman books when i was about 10 (1989) and we would go to the bank and get bags full of coins..It was great!..I wasnt looking for silver thou..just Key Dates, and Place fillers

 

[Wickaboag]

Whats crazy is my Grandma got me into coin roll hunting...She bought me Whitman books when i was about 10 (1989) and we would go to the bank and get bags full of coins..It was great!..I wasnt looking for silver thou..just Key Dates, and Place fillers

My step moms mother has a huge collection from circulation too! She won't let me buy it though :/
HH
Wicka

 

[Iamrussell]

I'm torn between wanting to tell people about my hobby and not wanting to kill the goose that layed the golden eggs. Even if it is laying considerably fewer than it was 5 years ago...

Ive said it once and ill keep saying it when ever it comes up- I aint sharing info on this hobby with no one- there are too many ways for others to find out about it and take the AG from my stacks

-------------------------------------
just keep stacking, just keep stacking, stacking stacking stacking

 

[GMan00001]

Since I lost over half of my 2007 numbers to a hard drive crash, I'll compare 2008 to 2013.

Denomination	2008	2013
Wheat Cents	9.27 per $25 searched	13.87 per $25 searched
War Nickels	0.74 per $100 searched	0.56 per $100 searched
Silver Dimes	1.59 per $250 searched	2.64 per $250 searched
Quarters	0.29 per $500 searched	N/A
Silver Halves	41.33 per $500 searched	2.28 per $500 searched

Note: I don't believe my 2008 half dollar numbers are representative as my minimal searches in 2008 hit a half dollar collection with 459 silver halves from a $1000 bag which was almost 75% of my yearly total. My 2013 dime totals include a nice 61 silver dime hit which skews the results higher (without that bag my 2013 dimes are at 1.45 per $250 searched.... or about the same)


To compare, my half dollars in 2009 were 11.4 per $500 searched and in 2007 (with my partial year numbers, but much higher volume) were only 10.23 per $500 searched.

My 2007 partial year dime numbers were 1.31 per $250 searched.



With the exception of half dollars which took a visible hit due to CRH pressure, I am doing about the same or maybe even a little better in most categories in 2013 than in 2008.


Also note that with the additional coins that have been minted and circulated in the last 5 years, the find rate should be expected to decrease a little.