ways to find valuable coins

pulltabfelix

Bronze Member
Jan 29, 2018
1,050
1,714
North Atlanta
Detector(s) used
Currently have XP Deus 2
Primary Interest:
Relic Hunting
Here is what I have tried or have seen others I know to work.

coin rolling for qtrs and 50 cent pieces. observation: labor intensive for very few silver coins.

being friendly with tellers to get their silver coins, star notes and other valuable bills. (I have used this successfully)

coinstar reject tray: ok, if you just do when you shop and pass by constar machine. But would not be profitable if pursuing a daily route: too much gas and time. Done this but only when I shop at the store.

looking at the pavement under the money window at fast food restaurants by accidentally dropping change and picking up other coins: profitable when visiting fast food restaurant. used to do this, but too lazy now.

never giving exact change for purchase and looking at change: 1-3 wheats per month. I always do this.

developing a route of bars to check parking lots for bills the next early AM on sat and sun mornings. probably most profitable use of them. At least used to be 10 - 20 years ago. Never id this but knew a guy who did it and got an average of $200 per weekend. I figure with keyless ignition systems in use now guys leaving a bar at night don't dig in their pockets anymore to open their car door.

Quick trip and race track parking lots: - 5-10 years ago you could count on at least a dollars worth of dropped change. Now, virtually none due to keyless entry and ignition cars.

if you have the balls to do it:
dress up like a homeless person with a hand scrawled cardboard sign: lost job need to feed family of 4 and panhandle at Interstate Exits. Never done this but see them often in Atlanta and one reporter tracked a girl doing this going to the bank every afternoon after begging and back to her nice middle class home and late model SUV.

establish a friendly network of bar tenders and waitresses:

My late neighbor Marine Bill did this. Yes he was a Marine in Vietnam. RIP Bill. Bill was a consistent coin collector since he was 12 years old. At his passing he had a wheat penny collection of over 225,000 wheats and many complete sets of dimes, quarters, morgans, 50 cent pieces.

He was a very friendly and social guy and loved to visit bars in North Atlanta every afternoon. Thus he knew lots of bartender and waitresses and friends he met in bars.He probably had 50 people saving wheats, indians, old coins, silver coins for him. It was the damnedest thing I ever saw. He sorted and cataloged his daily collections in his garage in the evening. That is where I sat with him and shot the sh*t most evenings. Lots of the coins his friends and waitresses just gave them to him outright, some he paid them red book value. In any case, he would often end up with a double handful of valuable coins every afternoon. No he didn't collect from a bar or restaurant or convenience store owner or clerks or waitresses daily but rather weekly or every two weeks depending on what he felt doing at the time. So sad at his passing several years ago. RIP Bill W.

Always thought about establishing a route of gumball machines. But considered to much work for my limited amount of available time since I still was running a business of my own.


this information is provided for all and hopefully useful. If anyone can reveal their unique coins sources or collection techniques that are effective, please reply. Remember what works in one location will often work in other locations so I feel it is ok to share since we are all in different states, cities.
 

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Pulltab: nice ideas, whatever it takes, and if it works then DO IT.
 

A while ago, someone posted about cleaning out the vacuums at gas stations and car washes, found lots of money and jewelry. Also, going to junkyards and prying open seats.

HH
-GC
 

A while ago, someone posted about cleaning out the vacuums at gas stations and car washes, found lots of money and jewelry. Also, going to junkyards and prying open seats.

HH
-GC

I read an article about the loose change left in cars (whether as a trade in or junker... I think the article was about a junk yard that crushed cars) and it mentioned as a quoted estimate from the owner that the average car had something like $3.00+ left in it. They would pay someone to scoop up all the loose change and were doing like 100 cars a day and making bank from spare change on top of their scrapping efforts.
 

I haven't done it in about 50 years - but hunting under bleachers the morning after the big HS football game was always productive.

One thing I have continued to do is to hunt areas where snowpiles in parking lots have just melted. I learned as a kid in the early 1960's that coins and rings would stick to the snow of a parking lot and the plow would deposit it all in in nice convenient piles. This is also a good way to embarrass the wife ("what if someone sees you doing that?" hahaha)
 

. . . hunt areas where snowpiles in parking lots have just melted. . .

I do this. I've found lots of coins, a few bills (FRNs), and 1 ring (inside of a glove finger). The ring was worthless, but fun to find. It helps keep the anticipation up.

The variety of trash in these melt areas is fun to observe. Every melt pile has hair brushes, cheap sunglasses; disposable lighters; and, believe it or not, every single one has at least 1 toothbrush.
 

I do this. I've found lots of coins, a few bills (FRNs), and 1 ring (inside of a glove finger). The ring was worthless, but fun to find. It helps keep the anticipation up.

The variety of trash in these melt areas is fun to observe. Every melt pile has hair brushes, cheap sunglasses; disposable lighters; and, believe it or not, every single one has at least 1 toothbrush.

Hahaha. Yup, and the elastic hair bands, single ear rings, disposable flossers and plastic bracelets. The best part is the reaction of my wife when she comes out of the store and sees me. "Hey, I didn't say I'd stay in the car the whole time..." If I really want to annoy her, I show her the scratched up and corroded coins and describe the other junk.

The road salt really eats up those zinc cents.
 

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visit near ATMs on a windy day you might find a 20 down the road a bit.

Also, one rainy morning on the way to work I had to stop in the left turn lane. There were bushes near me and something just didn't look right. I put my car in park and got out. People started staring at me. I went to the bushes and picked up a wet $10 bill. As I went back to my car I held it up and opened my hand two times to brag ten dollar bill.
 

if you have the balls to do it:
dress up like a homeless person with a hand scrawled cardboard sign: lost job need to feed family of 4 and panhandle at Interstate Exits. Never done this but see them often in Atlanta and one reporter tracked a girl doing this going to the bank every afternoon after begging and back to her nice middle class home and late model SUV.

This legit had me dying laughing. :laughing7:
 

If your town has a festival or carnival grounds of some sort, checking after an activity there could be helpful. Especially, if it has been rainy. People will drop change and not bother to check for it. The grounds that our local fall festival are held on are also open for detecting. :icon_thumleft:
 

How about taking on a part time waiter or busboy shift 1 day a week for about 4 hours and net $50-$80. Buy old coins with your daily loot
 

How about taking on a part time waiter or busboy shift 1 day a week for about 4 hours and net $50-$80. Buy old coins with your daily loot

Yup, you'll get further, faster.
Finding is fun, but it is not a cheaper, quicker, nor easier way to build a stack.
 

I just want silver too much work for clad
 

Air and vacuum machines at gas stations. Employees will more than likely dump the vacuum dust container on the ground. When I had a slow leak in my tire I would stop at the machine twice a week, it was a gold mine. Change,jewelry,even drugs some times. I found gold earrings one day.....still in the package brand new. I would find single earrings about every other week. What ever was vacuumed off the floor boards would be scattered around the machine in the dirt and grass. Sometimes I would make all the money back that I used to fill my tires. Just reading this thread makes me want to get up and go check !!
 

I attended a somewhat brutal boys' parochial high school in the late 60's and saw some of my classmates held upside down by their ankles out of second floor windows by a large Franciscan brother shouting "Confess, Confess!". I've always felt a little guilty that I wondered if coins fell from the pockets of those students to the ground below or if the pockets just inverted and sealed themselves. (Does the young mind think these things to avoid confronting the reality of torture?) I never did search the ground below those windows because I never felt comfortable about keeping such coins if I was to find any and also explaining what I was doing would have been awkward. But hey, maybe search below those parochial school windows...

That was far from the worst that I saw there.
 

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Ok... DO NOT dress homeless to get people to give you money.... that is not right. Everything else sounds good though. Thanks for sharing! :)
 

Hi to all I’ve done the vacuum machines at car washes for years I average about $2000 a yearOne day last month I stopped at the car wash and they are cleaned all the vacuums out and put them in one trashcan I dumped it in the back of my truck on a tarp it had rain And all the material was wet got home got my screen out washed it and came up with almost $50.I’m the person that will stop and pick up any coin My motto is a penny down is a penny found.Happy hunting all
 

Hi to all I’ve done the vacuum machines at car washes for years I average about $2000 a yearOne day last month I stopped at the car wash and they are cleaned all the vacuums out and put them in one trashcan I dumped it in the back of my truck on a tarp it had rain And all the material was wet got home got my screen out washed it and came up with almost $50.I’m the person that will stop and pick up any coin My motto is a penny down is a penny found.Happy hunting all

Yup......just found a pair of earrings still in the box. There they were among the lint and clad at the vacuum bag dump site. At my spot they just empty the vacuum right on the ground. nice little pile of clad each week. Lots of cocaine and weed baggies all over the place here too. Never know what you'll find. Gonna have to go check that spot this morning. Had a lot of fun in the Bahamas picking up clad all over the place. We had a contest to see who could get the most coins on our daily walks. Lots of change gets tossed out over here for some reason.
 

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