New CRHer introduction and seeking advice

[Sfynks870]

New CRH'er introduction and seeking advice

Hi guys, first post. I'm committed now.... no turning back lol.

Anyways, my name is Michael and I have been watching tons of crh videos lately on YouTube and doing a lot of reading here and elsewhere on techniques and advice. I've decided this is the place I will make my home and settle in for the journey. I am located in Northeast louisiana and want to begin doing some crhing. I plan on doing most of my crhing in halves and dimes (yes, I have the silver bug) with the occasional nickel rolls (for war nickels and buffalo's to keep moral up during my skunks). I mostly want to model my methods after a user here, TheMastermind. Because let's face it.... those results are downright awe inspiring.

Now that the introduction is out of the way, I should mention my current concerns with the method considering my current work situation. I currently work out of state in south texas in the oilfield, however, I am on no set schedule for when I will be home and when I will be away. So, as you can see, this causes some logistical issues. I have a very good relationship with the banks in my area back home since I used to run casinos and did massive amounts of business with them, so I have no doubt I can arrange the coin orders and coin dumps. However, the scheduling will be of some concern. I want to do as much as possible while home since I will be on total downtime for a few days to a week at a time. However, I never know how long it will be and I just don't know what the best strategy for this would be with the orders.

While at work on the other hand I still plan on doing some crhing just not on as grandiose of a scale since it will be incredibly hard for me to get halves since we are always moving towns. However I should still be able to do dimes and nickels that I pick up at random banks. In fact, that is what I have already started doing $100 at a time. I am currently at work and just decided to start this at the beginning of the week so I do not have a large bankroll established for this purpose yet, however that will be fixed next pay check. I plan to dedicate $1000 at first strictlyly for crhing this next pay check and bump it up over the next month or so as needed.

Anyway, while at work over the past week with $100 mini bank roll, I have already done somewhere in the neiborhood of $300 in nickels and gotten 2 war nickels and about $200 in dimes and got 2 silver rosies. I also tried several hundred in quarters, but later decoder what a waste of time that can be.

So, if you guys wouldn't mind, any advice on scheduling my orders or tips tricks would be greatly appreciated.

 

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[vpnavy]

I noticed this is your very first post - so, Welcome Aboard Michael! Take a look at Sub-Forums: Louisiana for information (i.e., clubs, etc.) directly related to your state.

 

[ArkieBassMan]

Talk to your potential order banks and see what they are willing to do. In my area, banks only receive coin once per week. My order banks would happily order as many boxes of whatever that I wanted (so long as they were ordering coins anyway), but they required me to pick them up promptly, as they didn't want the boxes taking up limited space in their vault. I couldn't let the boxes set in their vault for more than 1 day. Coins were delivered by Loomis on Wednesday and I had until close of business Thursday to pick up my order.

Your bank(s) may get coin delivered more than once per week and/or be willing to "hold" your order for weeks at a time. You state that you already have a good relationship with the banks...that puts you "one step ahead" already. Just talk to them and be perfectly honest. Tell them what you want to do, but that you will be out of town for extended, random periods of time. Hopefully they will be able and willing to accommodate you.

 

[Sfynks870]

That indeed sounds like sound advice arkiebassman. I will definitely need to get in touch with each bank when I get home and get the details on how long they can hold it for me. I have no knowledge of how long they will do that from my past business because I always got it immediately, but if they can just hold it for a week or so and just not make me another order if I haven't picked up the previous that would work out perfectly.

 

[Sfynks870]

I'm going to have to find a couple dump banks and get the specifics on the max they are gonna allow as well.... so I suppose I still have a little leg work ahead of me.

 

[Zero]

At my pickup bank, if I let them know on Friday, then they can order my boxes to be picked up on Thursday. Occasionally, they hold them over the weekend for me when I have to work, but I imagine they don't want to hold onto them long.

Also, when you are traveling, you can ask for cwr halves. You might just hit a huge load of silver.

Good luck!

 

[Sfynks870]

Well, just as an update, I picked up a $100 in nickels and $100 in dimes this morning to look through while at work on my downtime. Both were a bust. Guess I'll pick it back up monday.

 

[kingskid1611]

Welcome to the party. Do you have a few days notice before you head home? If so you could get your banks numbers and order over the phone with the idea of picking them up when you arrive. Just a thought. Happy Hunting.

 

[Sfynks870]

Kingskid1611, yes actually, I do get a few days of notice before I head home. The real issue is most of the time there is zero notice for when I'll be leaving back out for work. This creates an issue if I have orders arranged already and won't be home to pick them up. Calling ahead of time and making the orders before I come home is something I will definitely have to do to achieve the volumes I'm wanting. However, I think there is a possibility I can get the issue of me leaving unexpectedly taken care of to by simply talking to the banks when I get home next week. I like to do discuss business in person with banks because I'm apparently much more personable in person lol. I suppose my phone etiquette still lacks a little.

 

[statch]

Welcome to the beginning of the end of your free time

The worst thing you could do is order and not be able to fulfill your pickup obligation. That being said, you don't have to order coin to necessarily be successful. I used to do 20-26 boxes of halves and about $6000 in dimes a week. The funny thing is that although boxes can give a more consistent ratio, my best and most memorable (fun) finds have all been cwr pickups. The rush and gratification seems so much more profound than with box finds. If I were in your shoes, I'd just really plan out some good routes when off work and see what you can find. If you had a more predictable work schedule or a definite off time I would try ordering to fill the gap. Just don't risk ordering and not being able to pick up immediately.

Just my 2 Lincolns.

 

[Zomotion]

If you travel for work and drive from NE Louisiana to south Texas you may have a favorable dump situation. Take the coin with you when you leave and dump in a completely different area than you order in. It may tie up funds for a little bit but keep things fresh in your pickup banks. I'd probably just recommend this for your halve orders.

Good luck! HH!!

 

[Sfynks870]

I agree zomotion. I won't be doing as much volume while at work any way, so tying up the funds wouldn't be that big of an issue. Also, I've created myself an inventory and progress spreadsheet in excel. It should come in handy, I set it up to calculate how much volume I need to do daily based on previous find rates to reach a daily goal based on a yearly goal spread through a predictable amount of active crhing days. It will also let me know my yields of each denomination and a recommended bank roll adjustment based on the previous month. It should make the process fairly streamlined. I will probably add a sheet to keep up with pick up locations and dates as well as dump locations.

 

[Sfynks870]

Sorry statch, I almost missed your comment since we have started a new page. I completely agree with that point of view. The last thing I want to do is ruffle feathers at the bank and burn bridges with reliable pickup locations, so I will definitely try not to miss my obligations. That being said, that's kind of why I started this thread, to get an idea of what my options might be to avoid just such a situation. And your advice will be taken with open arms. However, last night while contemplating the situation, I think I came up with a fairly reasonable solution. I mentioned before my connections with the casinos in my area. I still have many friends in the business and they regularly arrange for coin orders. I could do several orders through them and have them hold them for me if I were to have to go to work on short notice. This wouldn't be as much of an issue with them really because the amounts I would be ordering would be highly negligible in their eyes and it would not hinder their business in any way. Also, they know me and know I make good on my commitments. They also know my current work situation since I left that line of work to come directly to what I'm doing now, plus I still keep in touch on a regular basis. Anyways, I don't know if this is a perfect solution, but I have yet to see the downfall for any parties involved. And if I decide for some reason not to do that, I could always use it as an alternate source for rainy days.

 

[norcalsteve]

Also, I've created myself an inventory and progress spreadsheet in excel. It should come in handy, I set it up to calculate how much volume I need to do daily based on previous find rates to reach a daily goal based on a yearly goal spread through a predictable amount of active crhing days. It will also let me know my yields of each denomination and a recommended bank roll adjustment based on the previous month. It should make the process fairly streamlined. I will probably add a sheet to keep up with pick up locations and dates as well as dump locations.

As good as this sounds in theory. I do not believe that there is any way to predict that if you search this much coin you will find this much silver. You are ALWAYS at the mercy of relying on the random chance that someone is dumping a collection into your stream at any given time. It is all just being in the right place at the right time. There is no way to predict what someone else that you do not know is going to do. The only thing for certain is that the more you search the more chance you have of finding some silver.
That is part of the excitement of this hobby. You never know when it is going to show up. And, part of the frustration is going through long skunk streaks where it looks like you will never see another silver coin.
Have fun with it and good luck. It sounds like you have the possability of setting up a very good system of pick-up and dump.
Looking forward to hearing about your progress and finds.

 

[Zomotion]

I agree with norcalsteve on this. It is just a very unpredictable hobby... And thus why it's so much fun, And can be so frustrating at times. Don't take the fun out of it by getting to detailed, but some of the tracking of finds and which banks produce more are great things to track.

One factor, which I believe is a real indicator of how much you might find is knowing how many other coin roll hunters are in the area. Which is almost impossible to determine. If your in an area where there are fewer hunters this can correlate to more finds, especially in boxes. Less hunters grabbing customer wrapped coin means more silver making it to the boxes.

 

[Sfynks870]

Norcalsteve & zomotion: I absolutely agree with you guys on the unpredictability of the hobby. I don't plan to follow the spreadsheet religiously, just to use it as a reference for comparisons. Just another tool thats all. I figure, the more reference points I have the better off I'll be, regardless of predictability.

 

[Sfynks870]

Ok, so I have been out putting in my work today. Been to 9 banks so far and had no luck on bulk but have been getting a few loose and a couple rolls. Got 3 40% so far and found a bank that stocks them, so that's one less bank I'll have to have order for me. Anyways, just stopped for lunch and to give an update, I'll give you guys a full report this afternoon.

 

[Sfynks870]

Well, I decided to come on home and chill for a little while since most of the banks are doing lunch hour now.... so I'll go ahead and post some progress shots. The first picture is of the three 40%ers I found today. A 68D and 2 67 with no mint marks.

Also, the second picture is of a few silver coins I already had put up in the safe. A 64D quarter in rediculously good shape, a 1921 silver dollar with no mint mark, and a 1922D peace dollar.

The third picture is of last week's silver finds while I was at work. 2 1964 dimes one with a D mint and one with no mint mark. A 1942P war nickel and a 1945P war nickel.

And the final 2 pictures are of a dime I just thought was cool. It came out of one of the dime boxes I did while at work last week. It is a 94D dime, but it is copper. I don't know how that happens, an error maybe?

 

[ArkieBassMan]

Your '94 dime looks as though it has spent some time in the ground. Its probably a metal detecting find.

 

[Sfynks870]

Definitely not a ground find arkie. It's WAY to clean to have ever seen the dirt. The pictures really don't do it justice. I'll have to take some better ones later.