I do it for the hobby and if I happen to have minor monetary gain along the way...great.
By the time I add all of my time and expenses if I was in it purely for monetary gain, I wouldn't have much to show for it.
Now, I hunt all denominations and not just half dollars.
I usually end up driving a little less than extra 20 miles a week to pick up and dump 0 or more bags of pennies, nickels, and dimes. Sometimes I get 1 bag total. Sometimes I end up with 5 or more. Typically, I average around 1.5 bags of pennies, 1 bag of nickels, and 0.75 bags of dimes per week.
My car gets about 23 mpg. Let's just say I burn 3 gallons of gas in a month to search 6 bags of pennies, 4 bags of nickels, and 3 bags of dimes.
in 2013, I had a few good hits, so my averages are considerably higher than my typical averages have been, but in 2013 I averaged about the following:
44 wheaties/bag
0.4 buffalo nickels/bag
22 pre-1960 Jefferson Nickels/bag
0.85 war nickels/bag
4.6 silver dimes/bag
So in a typical 4 weeks period (rounding up the fractions):
264 wheats (at $0.05/each that's $10.56 above face)
2 buffalo nickels (at $1/each, that's $1.90 above face)
88 pre-1960 Jefferson nickels (at $0.10/each that's $4.40 above face) <--- just a guess at the value, may be high
4 war nickels (at $1.14/each, that's $4.36 above face)
14 silver dimes (at $1.47/each, that's $19.18 above face)
silver values from todays rate at coinflation.com
Total value above face $40.40
Subtract the cost of 3 gallons of gas at $3.30/gal (probably actually more) ($9.90 in gas)
what is left $30.50
Now let's take time into account: 30 minutes (pick up and dump per week...conservatively low)...total 2 hours for 4 weeks
search time roughly 30 minutes/bag (again probably low)...total 6.5 hours for 4 weeks
so 8.5 hours to gain $30.50....an hourly wage of $3.59
And that's using my substantially higher than typical find rates from 2013. Numbers from most recent years would subtract 6 silver dimes and half the wheats for every 4 weeks (which would subtract $13.50 from my above face value). My hourly rate for those years....$2/hour.
And even that rate ignores all other expenses if truly treated as a business. It also assumes a value for wheats, buffalos, and pre-1960 Jefferson nickels that was intentionally on the high side and may not be realistic.
So yes, I like the slight monetary gain from my hobby, but if I was in it "purely for the money" and not as a hobby, I could find numerous other ways to spend my time that would be much more profitable.
