The Straight Facts for Half Dollar Silver Seekers

[DustDevilMarc]

Half Dollar Silver Seekers - Don't be disappointed in all of those skunk boxes and here's why:

Between 1964 and 1970, 1,278,000,000 (that is 1.278 billion) silver Kennedy half dollars were minted.
Between 1971 and 2001, 2,786,000,000,000 (that is 2.786 trillion) clad Kennedy half dollars were minted.

Therefore, if you are hunting for silver half dollars, and if all minted coins were in circulation, you would expect to find about 1 silver coin for every 200 clad. That would be about five silver coins per $500 box of half dollars. However, a much of the silver is out of circulation (and so is some amount of the minted clad), so the rate of silver coins available per box is significantly less.

Even with all of that being said, the 1.278 BILLION silver half dollars can not all be hidden in closets across America. They are still out there, in those silly coin rolls waiting for you to find them!

So keep hunting, and good luck!

P.S. A question, about how many silver half dollars are you finding per box?

 

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[Zero]

Nice numbers. I have two sources, one not so good and the other pretty good. Bad source is 7/53=0.13 per box, good source is 59/36=1.6 per box. Put the two together: 66/89=0.74. Most of my keepers come from CWR's.

 

[BuffaloBoy]

i am averaging less than a silver per box of halves.. I've been hammered with skunks for a while now.

 

[starkizzle]

I did the rough math a few weeks ago lol, and it does look good in our favor... but how do you REALLY get a good idea of the odds, because most of whats put back into circulation is clad, most of the time... everytime one of us picks up a couple boxs and dump them we are putting clad back and keeping silver... not to say that one day my son wont take some of mine and buy candy with it or something... but over all the odds are good

 

[ArkieBassMan]

Half Dollar Silver Seekers - Don't be disappointed in all of those skunk boxes and here's why: Between 1964 and 1970, 1,278,000,000 (that is 1.278 billion) silver Kennedy half dollars were minted. Between 1971 and 2001, 2,786,000,000,000 (that is 2.786 trillion) clad Kennedy half dollars were minted. Therefore, if you are hunting for silver half dollars, and if all minted coins were in circulation, you would expect to find about 1 silver coin for every 200 clad. That would be about five silver coins per $500 box of half dollars. However, a much of the silver is out of circulation (and so is some amount of the minted clad), so the rate of silver coins available per box is significantly less. Even with all of that being said, the 1.278 BILLION silver half dollars can not all be hidden in closets across America. They are still out there, in those silly coin rolls waiting for you to find them! So keep hunting, and good luck! P.S. A question, about how many silver half dollars are you finding per box?

Now you must subtract from this the number of silver halves that have been melted. I'm sure TONS of them were melted just during the Hunt Brothers runup ~1980.

I typically found 1 40% per $1000 searched from boxes.

 

[Omega]

I'm finding silver, it may not be a lot, but it does fluxuate greatly, and I'm making money, so thats all that matters.

 

[mAGma]

No halves are "left" in circulation. They are being put back into circulation. Any silver we are finding is from someone taking it to the bank within the last few months

 

[starkizzle]

can you explain what you mean by nothing is left? there still has to be some "left" untouched over the years.... we are talking about billions here... i dont think we can even really imagine what a billion halves would look like

 

[Spizzerinctum]

Try imagining a trillion next to a billion. That would be 1000 billion!

can you explain what you mean by nothing is left? there still has to be some "left" untouched over the years.... we are talking about billions here... i dont think we can even really imagine what a billion halves would look like

 

[unclehuckelberry]

Since we're comparing billions to trillions shouldn't the ration be 1.278 to 2,787.278? That would mean 1 silver for every 2787 clad which in turn would mean 1 silver out of every 3 boxes...

 

[ArkieBassMan]

Since we're comparing billions to trillions shouldn't the ration be 1.278 to 2,787.278? That would mean 1 silver for every 2787 clad which in turn would mean 1 silver out of every 3 boxes...

Close. Just going by raw data (and assuming the mintage numbers are correct, which I did not verify) about 4.6 out of every 10,000, or about 1 out of every 2174 Kennedy halves should be silver. Thats 1 silver per 2.174 boxes.

Taking into account the number of silver halves that have been melted plus the amount currently being hoarded/collected, its a miracle CRHers find any at all.

This doesn't seem right to me. Based on these numbers, our finds as a whole seem too good to be true. Is my math incorrect? Were the stated mintage numbers incorrect? I feel there is a problem somewhere.

 

[starkizzle]

Close. Just going by raw data (and assuming the mintage numbers are correct, which I did not verify) about 4.6 out of every 10,000, or about 1 out of every 2174 Kennedy halves should be silver. Thats 1 silver per 2.174 boxes.

well that makes my last few boxes the exception not the rule..

 

[mAGma]

can you explain what you mean by nothing is left? there still has to be some "left" untouched over the years.... we are talking about billions here... i dont think we can even really imagine what a billion halves would look like

Any halves that are "left" are buried in a warehouse somewhere and we will likely never see. The halves we get from a bank are very fresh. This is just what ive seen.

And for the record, a billion sounds like a really big number...but if every person in the US had 3 or 4 ....that would be about a billion.

 

[ArkieBassMan]

Any halves that are "left" are buried in a warehouse somewhere and we will likely never see. The halves we get from a bank are very fresh. This is just what ive seen.

I wonder if the Fed has a stash of halves like they do of the unwanted $1 coins?

 

[DustDevilMarc]

Since we're comparing billions to trillions shouldn't the ration be 1.278 to 2,787.278? That would mean 1 silver for every 2787 clad which in turn would mean 1 silver out of every 3 boxes...

My bad - please forgive my poor algebra. You are correct. IF ALL of the silver were in circulation, we could expect to find one silver for every 2.2 boxes. But much of the silver is not in circulation, so it will take searching through even more boxes to find any.

 

[50centman]

math

[Your math is way off. Try Billions instead of Trillions. Perhaps a remedial math class might be in order here.

 

[starkizzle]

Any halves that are "left" are buried in a warehouse somewhere and we will likely never see. The halves we get from a bank are very fresh. This is just what ive seen.

And for the record, a billion sounds like a really big number...but if every person in the US had 3 or 4 ....that would be about a billion.

i agree, but it does seem possible that their are boxes sitting in some back woods bank.... sitting for years.. my goal this summer while up north is to hit all the old ones, in the middle of nowhere, im sure its been done, but you never know..
and if everyone had 2 or 3 that would be all of it... but i would imagine the vast majority does not even know that these coins are worth more, nor would they have any intention of trying to get their own... i would be shocked if the total amount of people registered to this site makes up a fraction of a percent of the entire population... meaning unless everyone in america has 2-3 halves they dont know about it, it is unlikely that the fact that a billion COULD be a easy target to get pulled out of circulation very unlikely... sometimes the sheep aren't such a bad thing.... all i do know is that where i am, i think im the only person ordering from my bank, and the pallet im picking from is on fire!!!

 

[1more4me]

On the other hand- If all you guys would KEEP all the Clad and not dump- those ratios would change just a little... Then there would be more silver per box for me. Just a suggestion...

 

[mAGma]

On the other hand- If all you guys would KEEP all the Clad and not dump- those ratios would change just a little... Then there would be more silver per box for me. Just a suggestion...

Haha for real? I went through $100,000 in halves last year, and im pretty small time. I wish i had that much money to tie up in clad lol

 

[Omega]

On the other hand- If all you guys would KEEP all the Clad and not dump- those ratios would change just a little... Then there would be more silver per box for me. Just a suggestion...

Yes, because I have the bankroll of $1,000,000 cash, I would love to sit on that many half dollars, because it would be rational and storeable.