Tracking your coins - arent you curious

[rovnrbl53]

Tracking your coins - aren't you curious

whether you're looking at the same coins over and over again. I've followed this board for a while on/off and don't recall seeing any reference made to marking coins to ensure you're not looking at the same coin numerous times. With limited armoured car ops, would think over time the coins are going to reloop.

Does anyone mark their coins? If so, how. I've seen marks on the face or back but that's not very efficient if you've already looked at the coin.

I use a sharpie and run 3 lines down a stack before I reroll or bag. Maybe not terribly efficient but I'm pretty sure I know when these things are coming back around. So far very few reruns unless I happen to drop and by from the same bank system. I buy from one bank system and drop at one of three. Trying an experiment at the credit union with buying/dropping since they have a pretty fast counting machine that actually dispenses a cash payout - how sweet is that?

Be interested in y'all's approach to this.

 

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[ImpurestStewart]

Re: Tracking your coins - aren't you curious

Marking coins is really a dumb idea. Of course you're going to be searching "searched" coins over and over. You are looking for the dumped collection to be in the box with those coins. Everytime you mark a coin it ruins any collector value it has/had. Some little kid may love to collect just clad halves for fun and People who mark coins ruin it for them. What if you mark a proof or two? You may not care but someone out there does!

 

[fistfulladirt]

Re: Tracking your coins - aren't you curious

I figure that I'm getting someone's halves back, based on my results. I've never marked coins and probably never will. I've searched dimes for more than 3 years tho, and have never seen one marked.

 

[Goldmanford]

Re: Tracking your coins - aren't you curious

"Marked coins" is a four-letter word.

 

[Th3Offspring]

Re: Tracking your coins - aren't you curious

you just opened up a can of worms lol. isn't marking coins "illegal" and if it isn't why not?

 

[BuffaloBoy]

Re: Tracking your coins - aren't you curious

Honestly, I'd rather not want to know if I am searching the same coins over and over again. Takes the thrill out of the hobby even if it is a skunk box or not.

 

[47thelement]

Re: Tracking your coins - aren't you curious



but that is just the opinion of a seasoned veteran

 

[BuffaloBoy]

Re: Tracking your coins - aren't you curious

I figure that I'm getting someone's halves back, based on my results. I've never marked coins and probably never will. I've searched dimes for more than 3 years tho, and have never seen one marked.

my last batch of pennies, believe it or not, I noticed 47 pennies out of the whole box marked with a thin black sharpie/marker right across lincoln's head through the date. I do not even flip over the coins to heads or tails, i can tell by the reverse of a wheat or the older date of a penny(1958+older).

Kind of strange. I am assuming the box contained close to 100 of these marked pennies.

 

[treeslayer]

Re: Tracking your coins - aren't you curious

Dont wast your time marking coins. Just search, dump and get more. HH

 

[Stang1968]

Re: Tracking your coins - aren't you curious

I use an engraver and put a serial number across the face of each and every coin I touch including all pennies, nickels, dimes, quarters, halves, and dollars.
Then, I log the serial number in an excel spreadsheet by denomination and current year, and note when I acquired it, where I spent and/or dumped it, and I have another column for when/if I ever see the coin agian. It's an exhausting process.
I have yet to see one agian.

Oh, yah, BTW, Just kidding. I don't mark/deface any coins

 

[enamel7]

Re: Tracking your coins - aren't you curious

I really find it hard to believe you have followed this forum and not seen this dreaded subject come up. Don't mark. As I have said in the past, think OUTSIDE the box. Just because your marks are coming back doesn't mean other coins haven't been mixed in along the way.
HH
enamel7

 

[Generic_Lad]

Re: Tracking your coins - aren't you curious

i wonder if you live on the border of 2 states if you dump the unwanted coins in for instance dump in ohio and get your halfs in kentucky!I wonder if this would help your finds!

Unlikely. Most districts are going to serve larger regions rather than stopping randomly at a state line.


Really, when it comes to marking coins, it is a waste of time. I don't really care if someone marks coins because they all get resorted and placed into a box with a bunch of other coins. About the only time that "marking" is good is if you have to re-roll your coins and occasionally buy from your dump bank it is good to either use wrappers that few people use or put a mark on the wrapper so you don't end up buying back your own halves!

 

[Th3Offspring]

Re: Tracking your coins - aren't you curious

i wonder if you live on the border of 2 states if you dump the unwanted coins in for instance dump in ohio and get your halfs in kentucky!I wonder if this would help your finds!

About the only time that "marking" is good is if you have to re-roll your coins and occasionally buy from your dump bank it is good to either use wrappers that few people use or put a mark on the wrapper so you don't end up buying back your own halves!

I've only ventured into boxes once and coin counters don't exist in my area. That being said, 99% of my searches are CWR so i mark the PAPER on the rolls as you said in your post. Has worked out so far, i wish more people did that instead of ruining coins.

 

[TheRockDoc]

Re: Tracking your coins - aren't you curious

I never marked, for fear of being ridiculed on this site.
then I actually got over it, started marking them, and it worked out so well, that now I mark approx. 8 boxes per week. I started out using a sharpie, but that was taking to long, and not doing enough to "mark em up". So now I use silver colored spray paint. It works really well.

I would suggest that if you want to mark your coins to see what happens do it. You might be surprised.

 

[dossier]

Re: Tracking your coins - aren't you curious

I picked out about the 30 coins in the worst machine-worn conditioned clad and marked them last week. Says dossier on obverse.

 

[47thelement]

Re: Tracking your coins - aren't you curious

Learn how the 12 federal reserve banks process coin to suppliers( armored car companies) and you will get better understanding of how to your coins travel or not

 

[rovnrbl53]

Re: Tracking your coins - aren't you curious

I don't live on this site but my forays here never uncovered comments on the "marking" question. Guess it basically comes down to whether you fall in the "ignorance is bliss" camp or the "like to know what is going on" camp.

I'm not going to beat this to death but I've found when I mark coins and dump at same bank, it only takes a week or two for the coins to cycle back. Dumping at other banks, it depends. If different banks are using the same armored car service, eventually it appears the coins will cycle back to my "buy" bank. I haven't had coins come back where banks are using different armored car services.

I try to be minimally intrusive with marking - just enough so a quick glance can tell me if the coin is recycling. Really, if junior is collecting halves, I'm sure he/she can find more than enough unmarked halves to go into their collection. I'm not going to be marking a "collectible" half.

 

[rileyboy]

Re: Tracking your coins - aren't you curious

DO NOT MARK COINS!
rileyboy

 

[synapse]

Re: Tracking your coins - aren't you curious

If you want to mark coins - mark them.
If you don't want to mark your coins - don't mark them.

This is as simple as it gets in life, folks.

 

[Generic_Lad]

Re: Tracking your coins - aren't you curious

I don't live on this site but my forays here never uncovered comments on the "marking" question. Guess it basically comes down to whether you fall in the "ignorance is bliss" camp or the "like to know what is going on" camp.

I'm not going to beat this to death but I've found when I mark coins and dump at same bank, it only takes a week or two for the coins to cycle back. Dumping at other banks, it depends. If different banks are using the same armored car service, eventually it appears the coins will cycle back to my "buy" bank. I haven't had coins come back where banks are using different armored car services.

I try to be minimally intrusive with marking - just enough so a quick glance can tell me if the coin is recycling. Really, if junior is collecting halves, I'm sure he/she can find more than enough unmarked halves to go into their collection. I'm not going to be marking a "collectible" half.

But the point is marking is not going to help you find more silver/rare coins which is the point of this hobby. Really, marking individual coins is a waste of time because although you know that you are getting your own coins back, they will be mixed with other coins. Collection dumps can happen at any time, newer batches of halves aren't worse than older batches of halves. It all comes down to luck for boxes because coins are all mixed together.