Halves : 2020 Off to a Very Slow Start -- a Blip or a Harbinger of Bad Times?

blueberra · Jan 30, 2020

4 half dollar boxes so far this year : 3 skunks and one 40% silver.

As of the end of January, 2019 I had searched 5 boxes and found 6 90% and 16 40% silver with only one skunk box and no fewer than 3 silvers in the other 4 boxes.

But in 2019, the next 9 boxes only produced a single 40% silver.

I kind of expected a bit of a January silver rush in 2020, but it did not happen.

How have my fellow CRHers done YTD 2020 vs. 2019?

Avago · Jan 30, 2020

Too small of a sample size to know for sure.

smokeythecat · Jan 30, 2020

I have nothing from the last few trips...

JJDEMARAY · Jan 30, 2020

Quite frankly, this year and last year have been very bad here in Minnesota. In 2018, I averaged about 2.5 silver halves per box. It's down to below .5 per box.

Getting a little frustrating to be honest.

Happy Hunting, JJ

Megalodon · Feb 1, 2020

I had a very good January in 2019 - but such a statement is not very useful as those results were not representative. My "good january" was almost entirely the result of two boxes that produced 99 silver halves on 1-12-19. Of 153 boxes searched in all of 2019, 101 were skunks. Six of those 153 boxes produced over 50% of the year's total of 393 from boxes.

2020 has been bad and I have cancelled my standing order of two boxes from my local bank. The dunbar wrapped rolls in those Brinks boxes have produced just four 40%ers in the last 40 boxes.

CJ9 · Feb 4, 2020

This year has actually started off well for me compared to last year which started off real slow. So far this year, searched $194.50 in halves (389 coins). $80 CWR, $40 MWR, and $74.50 loose from tellers. Found 18 40%, 4 90% JFK and 1 Franklin. All of the finds were from loose coins that tellers handed to me. Nothing found in the rolls so far. I didn't keep monthly totals last year, but I remember clearly that it was slow in January and February for me.

I find this hobby to simply being in the right place at the right time.

Megalodon · Feb 5, 2020

So far this year, I have found more 90% silver (one quarter) in the reject tray of the free (for customers) coinstar at my credit union when dumping two skunk boxes. So the bright side is there is a chance of finding silver even when the boxes are skunks.

A2coins · Feb 5, 2020

I do quarters trying to find a west point no luck. Someday you'll get that box of lots of 90 percenters some old lady dumped I'm still hoping for that day. Good luck my friend...

Megalodon · Feb 5, 2020

A2coins said:
I do quarters trying to find a west point no luck. Someday you'll get that box of lots of 90 percenters some old lady dumped I'm still hoping for that day. Good luck my friend...

How many boxes of quarters have you searched? The half dollar skunks chased me to quarters three weeks ago. I've only searched 4 boxes + 20 rolls, but have found 5 W's so far - including 2 tonight. Keep at them - you're due for some W quarters!

toorude89 · Feb 6, 2020

Avago said:
Too small of a sample size to know for sure.

I agree. 1 40% isn’t great but it’s no skunk. I used to go 10...12...20 boxes with nothing. Then bam all at once a 50 silver box. All you can do is give yourself a chance and enjoy the hunt.

blueberra · Feb 7, 2020

toorude89 said:
I agree. 1 40% isn’t great but it’s no skunk. I used to go 10...12...20 boxes with nothing. Then bam all at once a 50 silver box. All you can do is give yourself a chance and enjoy the hunt.

Another skunk box again this week.
I ran into a guy (I don't think he's a member of this forum) who was dumping two boxes of halves today and he mentioned that he had had the typical sporadic luck but had a box last year which contained 2 Walkers, 4 Franklins, and 50 (!) 90% Kennedys.
So I'll keep on plugging away.

toorude89 · Feb 7, 2020

blueberra said:
Another skunk box again this week.
I ran into a guy (I don't think he's a member of this forum) who was dumping two boxes of halves today and he mentioned that he had had the typical sporadic luck but had a box last year which contained 2 Walkers, 4 Franklins, and 50 (!) 90% Kennedys.
So I'll keep on plugging away.

My 50 keeper box probably only had 16 90%