Newbie first time out

[Nullers]

After lurking on the forum for a few weeks and seeing all the silver y'all been finding, I decided to try my hand at the fun. Ordered my first two boxes of halves at my local credit union, the poor teller looked at me like I was some sort of loon... I guess this is a good thing

Spent the evening sorting. Dang, that's a lot of change LOL. By the time I got to the last half box, I was just cracking the rolls open and searching the edges for silver.

Long story short, I found a few keepers and I'm planning on ordering a couple more boxes next week

1 '06D proof
1 '04D proof
1 '02D proof

6 40%
1 90%

1 1970 'Gold Plated'

 

[coolcash2004]

Nice finds!

I hate to break it to you but those 2002, 2004, and 2006 D half dollars are not proofs. They are coins that were not issued for circulation, but there still worth saving. A proof will typically have an "S" mintmark.

HH!

-CC

 

[Pennyworth]

Congratulations on the silver halves. I know it's a lot of coins to look through but you should look at each halve because you can miss silver and other important halves by just looking at the edges. If it seems to be to much, only do half a box and leave the rest for another day.

 

[schramm]

HI Nullers,You got pretty lucky finding a 90% in only your first 2 boxes,I used to find 1 90% per every 3rd or 4th box and sometimes 6 or 7 boxes between each 90%.

You even did well with the 40%,I would get 1-2 per box with many boxes with no silver at all,you got 6 with just 2 boxes.

I can't tell from your photo what the mintmarks are on the 02,04 and 06,but if they are "D"'s like you wrote then they are not proofs,they must have an "S" mintmark to be proof-for future reference.

Some people on this forum keep the '02-'07 because of relatively lower mintages to other halves,but I quit keeping them because I would find so many and found out that no dealers near me would buy them for more than face value,so I just retrun them with the rejects.

It is unusual to me that you found more silver than my averages but far less '02-'06 than I found per box ,but that is good for you because the silver halves are the valuable coins you will find in a box.

And lastly when I read your post saying you found a '70 half in your first 2 boxes my jaw dropped,most on here search through many thousands of dollars worth of halves before they find one,I have been searching for over 17 years and have yet to find one.It is the single rarest jfk half.

Not an extremely valuable coin(about 15-30 times face)(which is great for a 40% half),just very difficult to find searching through boxes,if 1 is found in a box it means someone broke it out of set.

The gold plated halves are fairly common finds from my experience and the fact that it's a '74 and not a '70 makes it a reject,unless you like it for your collection

By the way I like the fact that you put your total amount of halves searched in your sig line with you silver totals,it gives a great perspective.

Some on this forum just put their silver totals found but no one can tell if they found 2000 40%er's in one shot or if they searched through $500,000 worth of halves,which is about the amount I would have to search to find that many given how many I find on average(2 per $500 searched).

 

[LJ]

Welcome aboard Nullers. Glad to see you jumped in. Congrats on the silver on your first boxes.....wahoooo. Ain't it fun

I hope you ordered more boxes when you picked those up. Thanks for the post and the pictures. Keep em coming buddy......

 

[prizm II]

Sounds like your on your way with this great hobby, keep the pics coming of your finds and Good Luck with the silver!!

 

[fiatboy]

Is that line in the '74 from a die crack? I don't know much about errors, but it looks like something. Anyone have any clues?

 

[Nullers]

coolcash2004,
Thanks for the tip on the 02, 04 and 06. I'll hang on to them

Pennyworth,
Yup, you're right. I decided to re-search the whole mess SIGH. Down to the last half box right now and all I have to show for it are black fingertips LOL.

schramm,
The 02, 04 and 06 are all D's guess that makes them uncirc's and not proofs, they're awfully shiny so I'll hang on to them for a bit LOL. The 70 was a typo, it should have been 74. I'll hang on to it as well, just cause it's odd. I saw that another member of the forum was including their dollar amount and thought it was sort of cool, so I added it to mine. It does provide perspective as far as how much you have to search to find the goodies.

lejeuene,
Have not ordered more just yet, figured that I would start slow since I'm new to all of this LOL. But I think I may have to get some more, that silver is durn pretty!!

prizm II,
Thanks for the well wishes!

fiatboy,
The line on the 74, between the 9 and 7, is just a scratch.

Thanks all for the warm welcome and the advice!

N