Newbie question

[tucker810]

I Just recently started CRH and am addicted, so far, i have only been doing pennies, as I heard it is the highest payout. Is this true or are half dollars a better coin to do. How many rolls does it take y'all to get a silver half dollar? I have been getting 25-33% copper and 1/3 of rolls have a wheat. Is this above or below average? Thanks for any help.

 

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[Dozer D]

First of all, WELCOME to the TN & the hobby of CRH. The hobby becomes what you want to invest into it, time/money/ and most of all patience. If you are in it to make a profit, SORRY BUT TRY SOMETHING ELSE. If you want to hunt for silver, there are guys out there hunting halves that can go thru 4-8-12+boxes before they find a 40% or 90%, and some find silver AG in every box. I myself prefer dimes, mostly because they are very liquid (some banks don't like to carry halves or order, or be stuck with them), lighter in weight, my avg/box is running a little over 1.3/box (a box is $250/50 rolls, halves are $500 box/50 rolls). Your copper % is very high, I run about 12-15%, and only about 10 wheats per box. If you really want to have fun in the hobby of collecting, stay with the cents, just never know what you will find. The HALF DOLLAR guys will be filling in the best info from their experience on searching halves. Suggest that you stay away from quarters, very DIFFICULT to find however. Start out small, depending on your bankroll, and time avail. It's always the THRILL OF THE HUNT, in whatever coins you eventually get into, and good luck, and HH (Happy Hunting), DozerD

 

[Megalodon]

Excellent advice from Dozer!

Inspired by this site, I bought my first box of halves last week. Out of 1000 coins, I found five 40% silver, two of which were in the same roll - which might be beginner's luck? Its not about making money but the thrill of the hunt and the feel of silver in the hand, especially when it is too hot to go metal detecting or fossil hunting, etc. The only problem I had is that my wife saw me going through them with a big smile on my face and just had to jump in and help herself so I went through them quicker than I expected. Might have to get her a box of her own...

 

[Rosco53]

Welcome to the hobby, it's a great thing. Best part, no wrong way to do it. If ya wanna do cents, do cents. Wanna try halves, give it a try! Reading on here made me wanna do dimes, 3 bags later I'm not a fan. Was neat to find silver, even lucked out and pulled a mercury one, but I find pennies more fun. Try it out and see what you like! You have some good ratios, I found around 26% copper, and averaged high teens for wheats per bag, so great job so far! Just wait til you pull an Indian head, then you'll really be addicted! The only real limit is your bank account and free time. Enjoy, and best of luck!

Also, don't listen to Dozer, after 248,000 pennies I've pulled 8 nickels and like 17 dimes, so that's a profit of nearly $1.85! Though I've also pulled 513 canadians, so thats a loss of like $1.23, so plus $0.62!!

 

[Dozer D]

Rosco: Hahaha, I enjoy reading your logic on PROFIT, you all know what I meant. Keep at it.

 

[barneyb71]

Rosco, you do know Canadian penny’s are copper too! Do a little research on them, you might as well keep them too. I would think you could move Canadian penny’s easier then US ones, they stopped making them a few years back and I think they can be melted down. Not 100% sure on that but research it.

 

[tucker810]

Thank you all for your input, I seem to be pretty lucky with pennies in terms of copper and such, one last question. If i were to buy one roll of halfs, whats the chance of finding a silver or 40%? Thanks again.

 

[Hawks88]

Welcome to tnet.

 

[galenrog]

If you are going to be serious about searching coins, you should also check for errors. While most errors will never be worth more than a buck or two to a collector, some modern errors can command much, much more.

Finally time for coffee.

 

[rcs]

If you are going to be serious about searching coins, you should also check for errors. While most errors will never be worth more than a buck or two to a collector, some modern errors can command much, much more.

Finally time for coffee.

What Galenrog said. I sold a cud cent i found for $27.50 last week along with a die crack nickel for $30.00. Definitely don't ignore errors.

 

[Megalodon]

What Galenrog said. I sold a cud cent i found for $27.50 last week along with a die crack nickel for $30.00. Definitely don't ignore errors.

Did you sell errors wholesale to a coin dealer or on eBay?

How's western KY , hot & humid this week? I lived in Murray over 40 years ago as a grad student in the basement of the Hunter Hancock biological lab and left after my faculty advisor died in a jeep crash. Fond memories of BBQ in Paducah and lifelong friends made.

 

[tucker810]

I have been looking for errors, just found off centers so far

 

[rcs]

Did you sell errors wholesale to a coin dealer or on eBay?

How's western KY , hot & humid this week? I lived in Murray over 40 years ago as a grad student in the basement of the Hunter Hancock biological lab and left after my faculty advisor died in a jeep crash. Fond memories of BBQ in Paducah and lifelong friends made.

I sold them on ebay. It is beyond hot and humid haha. It's going to be 95 tomorrow with through the roof humidity. I ran at 5:30 this morning and it was still brutal. My wife went to Murray, she really loved it there.

 

[LooseChange]

. . . If i were to buy one roll of halfs, whats the chance of finding a silver or 40%? . . .

The chances of finding something from a single roll are slim, but they are infinitely higher than if you don't get a roll at all.

If you can't swing getting a box of halves, visit some banks and ask for loose coins from the teller trays. I've found dozens of silvers from pickups just like that. Just say "I was wondering if you have any half dollars that I could buy?" If they say "how many", you say "whatever you have loose, up to $30 worth (or whatever cash you have)". They almost always have a few dollars worth between them. Sometimes they $15 or so.

 

[Megalodon]

I sold them on ebay. It is beyond hot and humid haha. It's going to be 95 tomorrow with through the roof humidity. I ran at 5:30 this morning and it was still brutal. My wife went to Murray, she really loved it there.

Nice to hear that you won over one of those pretty girls from Murray. Congrats! I opened a door once in the Biology building for Miss Kentucky - who flashed me a big smile and a sweet "Why, thank you sir". Having come there from MA, I wasn't sure if I might get cursed out for opening a door for a lady...

Be careful running in this dangerous heat.

 

[Silver Saver]

A box of half dollars is $500, 50 rolls per box. I've searched through 39 half dollar boxes this year and found 44 silvers. So just over 1 silver per box. 14 of them were 90% and 30 were 40%.

The last 10 boxes I've searched have yielded only 5 of those silvers. 1 90% and 4 40%.

If you're able to get customer wrapped rolls or loose halves off the tellers, they might give better results than boxes would.

 

[Megalodon]

Lots of good advice here.

I just searched my second box of halves (first one last week produced 5 40% - which I thought was beginner's luck). My second box was even better with 7 silvers, two of which were 1964 and one of those was my first ender. This may still be beginner's luck - we shall see.

My wife found the first nice frosty proof and we found a total of three of those. We'll be using gloves next time to prevent oils from fingers from smudging the perfect fields.

 

[sugarcreek]

I get a "nice box" of half dollars, every 6 or 8 or ten boxes. "Nice" means 3, 5, 11 or more silvers and proofs.

 

[Megalodon]

Searching individual rolls today has much lower odds, naturally, than it did back when I started in 1965. Back then, clads were new & novel and many people hoarded them because they were new, something that seems ridiculous now (and back then to me too...). I could cherry pick from rolls for dates, condition, and mint errors, hop on my bicycle, weave through traffic at night and wholesale the day's finds to coin shops. I'd plow back my small profits back into rolls.

Retired now, I just started to do boxes while watching the ball game at night. The old excitement holding that wrapped roll, not knowing what will soon reveal itself, is back.

Your question about averages is a good one - but the silver is not found in a statistically normal distribution. The variance is so high that using averages for this is not statistically useful if your purpose is to have fun. There are too many stories about all-silver rolls. If it was a form of mining then long-term averages would have more statistical significance.

 

[Rookster]

Welcome to Tnet from Mississippi.