Half dollar coin roll hunting question.

[JimieSitu]

Yesterday my fiancée and I went to the bank to pick up $500 in half dollars. This is 1000 half dollar coins. We sat down spent about 2 hours looking and rolling the coins. We didn't find a single silver half dollar out of 1000 coins. The coins were pretty much all from the 70's and 80's. Needless to say I was a bit disappointed, but I didn't lose anything, as I put the money back into my account.

Does anyone else ever get half dollars in large bulks? Do you have success?192.168.0.1 routerlogin 192.168.l.l

 

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[silveraddict]

Yesterday my fiancée and I went to the bank to pick up $500 in half dollars. This is 1000 half dollar coins. We sat down spent about 2 hours looking and rolling the coins. We didn't find a single silver half dollar out of 1000 coins. The coins were pretty much all from the 70's and 80's. Needless to say I was a bit disappointed, but I didn't lose anything, as I put the money back into my account.

Does anyone else ever get half dollars in large bulks? Do you have success?

Hate to break it to you but the last few years have been pretty much like you just found.
It used to be about 1 in 10 was a skunk box (No silver) but now it is at best 1 in 10 that you might find a silver coin.
Not a lot of fun or profit anymore.

 

[Oquario79]

It's really more like luck or good timing... Sometimes you can go thru several boxes before finding a silver half or something worth keeping.. Besides boxes always ask for loose halves or rolled halves that other customers bring and you might have a better chance... Good luck and keep on searching.

 

[Dozer D]

It's a case of being at the right place at the right time to get CWR's., and the possible collection dump. Machine bags are the best chances, but also someone else's dump.

 

[blueberra]

Yesterday my fiancée and I went to the bank to pick up $500 in half dollars. This is 1000 half dollar coins. We sat down spent about 2 hours looking and rolling the coins. We didn't find a single silver half dollar out of 1000 coins. The coins were pretty much all from the 70's and 80's. Needless to say I was a bit disappointed, but I didn't lose anything, as I put the money back into my account.

Does anyone else ever get half dollars in large bulks? Do you have success?

I get a box of halves each week.

2021 : 5 out of 19 had silver (26%)
2020 : 10 out of 37 had silver (27%)
2019 : 25 out of 47 had silver (53%)

Draw your own conclusion -- COVID or something else (or just small sample size)?

 

[galenrog]

If you are only looking for silver, you are not looking for the money. My current list of potential buyers have requests for every error and variety known in Kennedy halves. Granted, most are inquiries for full rolls of particular varieties, and silver is much easier to sell, but coin searching is not a get rich quick game. It is a game of margins, and fairly thin margins, at that.

I honestly do not do much with halves. Most of my work with coins is with cents, nickels, and small dollars. Keepers are getting fewer with all coins, in my estimation.

Time for more coffee.

 

[CJ9]

I don't search boxes. The few times over the last 25+ years that I have, I never found anything. CWR and loose coins from tellers work for me. Even the last few years have been relatively good to me in halves (I also search dimes and nickels). I think this is because I live in a large, densely populated area - even if you travel 20 miles from where I live, it is still densely populated - so that means there is massive turnover of coins and there are tons of banks around. Also, this area has been settled for centuries (so people have been here circulating / collecting / saving coins for a long time) - which means that older coins tend to be turned in to banks over time (people move and clean out their house, people pass away and the heirs turn in coins that were left). Finally, and I don't know why, but I find that a lot of tellers around here either don't know, or what I believe is that they just don't care that they hand over coins they know are silver (in the case of loose halves). Don't get me wrong, there are many that do, and what I have tried to do over the years is to make those my dump banks (usually places where I have never gotten any silver halves over many many years).

 

[TheWalrus]

Too many people hunting halves, it is closer to casino odds these days. The hope is to hit someone's collection dump at this point, most of us who have been coin hounds for years agree the lucky, silver filled, old dusty bags in backs of vaults have all rotated out already. The lack of fee free dump banks and machines in my area has hindered what little searching I have done. I know silver is in the mix, I see the bags come off the machine at the local grocery store, and have watched the Loomis guys carrying the bags to the truck with visible silver in the half, quarter and dime bags. With customer turn in rolls, a lot of tellers are sniping the rolls, both of my local branches I have accounts with have multiple tellers searching the rolls and bills, I saw the lead teller at the local coin store selling off his finds when I went for supplies. It seems the luck of hitting the right box of machine rolled right from a coin counter is all there is left.

 

[Megalodon]

Consider yourself lucky to even have a bank that will order a box of halves for you. My two pickup banks have informed me that they will not be ordering more boxes of halves for me "due to the latest coin shortage" - about which I have not heard and even if true, should not apply to halves since they don't circulate.

Your results are typical. Most boxes will be skunks.

And welcome to tnet!

 

[Megalodon]

I don't search boxes. The few times over the last 25+ years that I have, I never found anything. CWR and loose coins from tellers work for me. Even the last few years have been relatively good to me in halves (I also search dimes and nickels). I think this is because I live in a large, densely populated area - even if you travel 20 miles from where I live, it is still densely populated - so that means there is massive turnover of coins and there are tons of banks around. Also, this area has been settled for centuries (so people have been here circulating / collecting / saving coins for a long time) - which means that older coins tend to be turned in to banks over time (people move and clean out their house, people pass away and the heirs turn in coins that were left). Finally, and I don't know why, but I find that a lot of tellers around here either don't know, or what I believe is that they just don't care that they hand over coins they know are silver (in the case of loose halves). Don't get me wrong, there are many that do, and what I have tried to do over the years is to make those my dump banks (usually places where I have never gotten any silver halves over many many years).

This is an excellent explanation about the advantages to CRHing in the highly populated areas. By contrast, a 10 mile radius around my main pick-up bank may have about 10k people max - and that is at the county seat. My odds would be greatly improved if I went to banks where I have no accounts. Do you only visit banks and their branches at which you have an account?

 

[CJ9]

This is an excellent explanation about the advantages to CRHing in the highly populated areas. By contrast, a 10 mile radius around my main pick-up bank may have about 10k people max - and that is at the county seat. My odds would be greatly improved if I went to banks where I have no accounts. Do you only visit banks and their branches at which you have an account?

Yeah, I only go into banks where I have an account - I just think it makes for less trouble. I have accounts at all the larger banks around here (i.e., Chase, Wells Fargo, BofA, TD) and at like 1 or 2 of the smaller ones - there is plenty to feed off of with those (which I guess is the benefit of being in a densely populated area - I think there are something like 18 Chase branches within a 5 mile radius of where I live when I looked on their website some time ago). The banks that I don't have an account at, I have never been into.

If I was where you are, I would open accounts at some of the smaller ones if it would significantly enhance my odds. I usually go in and ask for anywhere between $40-$100 in dimes and/or $10-20 in nickels + any halves or dollar coins at a time at any one bank. I find that this is a small enough quantity where it doesn't make trouble for them.

 

[silveraddict]

I have about 100 banks within a 20 mile radius to me.
Big banks, small home town banks & credit unions.
I hit them all. Not as much this last year but pretty regularly.
Doesn't seem to matter if I have an account or not.
I've been going to them for so long that even the banks I don't have accounts at save halves for me.
They don't like counting them every day.
Many of the banks call them
"Funny money"
I think some of them have seen me for so long that they just assume I have an account there.
However, I only dump at banks I have accounts at.
I do have it worked out to where I pick up from banks that use Brinks.
I dump at banks that use Guarda.
Never dumping into my own stream.
Here's to a better year for all of us.
HAPPY HUNTING

 

[Megalodon]

Yeah, I only go into banks where I have an account - I just think it makes for less trouble. I have accounts at all the larger banks around here (i.e., Chase, Wells Fargo, BofA, TD) and at like 1 or 2 of the smaller ones - there is plenty to feed off of with those (which I guess is the benefit of being in a densely populated area - I think there are something like 18 Chase branches within a 5 mile radius of where I live when I looked on their website some time ago). The banks that I don't have an account at, I have never been into.

If I was where you are, I would open accounts at some of the smaller ones if it would significantly enhance my odds. I usually go in and ask for anywhere between $40-$100 in dimes and/or $10-20 in nickels + any halves or dollar coins at a time at any one bank. I find that this is a small enough quantity where it doesn't make trouble for them.

Thanks for the suggestions. We should soon have our first Chase. The building seems like it has been finished for at least two months and I have seen postings on their website for job openings. But the next closest branch is about 40 miles away and not on my way to anything. I generally like to have accounts where branches are along some of the routes I take. I do have some BofA and PNC banks around. Have you asked "If I open an account here, would you order coins for me?" lol.

 

[Megalodon]

I have about 100 banks within a 20 mile radius to me.
Big banks, small home town banks & credit unions.
I hit them all. Not as much this last year but pretty regularly.
Doesn't seem to matter if I have an account or not.
I've been going to them for so long that even the banks I don't have accounts at save halves for me.
They don't like counting them every day.
Many of the banks call them
"Funny money"
I think some of them have seen me for so long that they just assume I have an account there.
However, I only dump at banks I have accounts at.
I do have it worked out to where I pick up from banks that use Brinks.
I dump at banks that use Guarda.
Never dumping into my own stream.
Here's to a better year for all of us.
HAPPY HUNTING

Choices, choices! I've had two pickup banks, one that uses Loomis and the other Brinks. I don't get coins from my two credit unions because that is where I dump (and they won't sell the bags anyway). You are right that I'm also not asked for an account number at branches that I seldom frequent; the fear embarrassment for being turned away for lack of an account is pretty powerful. At one of my non-regular branches, I've met a vending machine small business owner using their free coinstar and he has shared some interesting observations about silver in vending machine change. He certainly finds more silver dimes in his machines than I have ever found in boxes. Perhaps I've gotten boxes where the silver has already been culled out by coinstars.

 

[Tommybuckets]

I once found freshly deposited change from a vending machine service that was not searched by the vending machine tech and it was AMAZING! The machine must have been in a retirement community. I got lucky because one of the bankers is a sniper as well but he hadn't seen the score yet. He's been much more on point now. I didn't tip him off but he must have realized i found something when the frequency of my visits increased. I never had luck there after but I cleaned up on silver quarters and dimes.

 

[fistfulladirt]

Man I miss the early days (2005) when silver halves were plentiful. I knew of two bank managers that were ordering boxes at that time, the 40% silvers were so plentiful and of low value, that they were part of the rejects returned!

 

[Ben Cartwright SASS]

I have been doing half boxes and half bags when I can get them, but now on a 4 box skunk streak. whenever this happens, too often, I start wondering if the effort is worth it. It is not so much the getting and searching and the time for that, it is the dumping of the coins at my various dump banks coin counters.

I am actually thinking of getting some quarter bags to look for W's and dime bags to look for silver. But having other hobbies I wonder if it is worth the time and effort.

It is fun but I guess I am just in a down cycle. My latest bag, filled in a month by 2 dumps, yielded only 1 1964 half

 

[Ben Cartwright SASS]

just dumped $400 of halves and filled the bag as they took it away I could see at least 1 silver half!!!!!