What a day, Pics and story!

jewelerdave · Sep 4, 2007

Well i had a feeling today would be a good day and sure enough.

First off I got a check, I sent in the floor sweeps from my work shop to be refined after a bunch of gold dust had piled up after two years and that was a treasure in its self.
Total was 5.4 oz gold, 23 oz silver, 1.5 oz palladium and .13 oz Platinum. Not a bad haul for cleaning house. I took the $4300 from that and decided to do some CRH.

Since I cleared out all the banks in town last week I headed to some of the near by towns to wipe them out too.

Fortunatly the small towns wanted to get rid of them, apperently they cant send in to the federal reserve untill they have at least $2000 in halfs. First town had $875, small farming town. It gave up a few 40% and in one roll Ben said hello with a 62, well maybe it will be a good one! Funny thing though, While I was waiting and they were counting out the bag the lady at the teller said how she would pick silver as it came though,
After searching the bags they pulled out 2 one peso coins and a Canadian $2 coin. to count, they were not taking the silver as they went, COOL!
So I ended up with a nice pile and some forgin. They were greatful to get rid of it all.

Next I went to another small town, got there rolls and they had been "searched" but one roll gave up 3 %40s out of $300

Next town had a lot of banks. So I hit em all. Few and far between most did not have halfs. And someone else does CRH in this area as they were taking the time to re seal up the fed rolls on the end. Very intersting, and some were home rolled. So after going though several banks and searching though who ever did this's dumps, I ended up finding a 1987 and still ended up with several %40s

WORD OF ADVICE. IF your going to dump at a bank, dumb in increments of $2000 so they send it into the feds, Otherwise the dumb stays there and you have to go though more rolls to sort out what other customers bring in!!! Going though 5 rolls is a lot easier than going though 90. either way the searched rolls still paid off with the extra deposits I got that were with them, Again, tellers greatful to get rid of them.

All totaled this town gave up $2600 in halfs. And poor guy at the wells fargo bank had to change them all in as I used them for a dump, They asked "where you get all these half dollars"
I replied " I have an underground casino" and chuckeled.
"no really??"
I just smiled back in silence and took my cash.

An ok day but not steller, On my way back I hit another bank and got a plated coin out of $50 and then hit a bank that I decided to order some boxes from as they last box I got gave up a lot of 64s last time.
I went in and even though it had been just a couple days they had a new one, same company and sealed, I said I would take it for $500 and I asked them to order 8 more for me and they will be in in a few days.

I opened the box and to my delight I could see silver %40 upon opening it.
I opened a roll, got a %40
opened another and another and more and more, then under the first layer I looked down and to my delight I saw a walker. WOW! heck yeah.
I then went though the box one roll at a time plucking and pulling as I went. They I saw someting really beat up and worn. wonder what it is...HOLY CRAP ITS A BABRER 1910 S
Went though and I found a few more walkers and one more Baber and some bens. And a lot of %40. yet no 64's to my supprize.

Anyway the days totals came out too.
about $3300 searched, most coming from $500
32 %40
3 Bens 60 50 62 all D's
3 Walkers 34 35 45d
2 Barbers 1904 and 1910S
1 1987P
3 proofs 05s 01P and 00D
another plated 74
a couple peso coins and a $2 Canadian coin.

So not a bad day, and I cant wait till I get the other 8 boxes from my good bank. Dont know why they have so many but I will take care of that.
Today was quite profitable too, even though I drove over 70 miles I only used about a gallon and a half of gas. If you like road trips I strongly recommend a prius

this CRH thing is paying off very well so far.
Its almost a shame I am going to eventually melt down a lot of the 90% into rings. But thats what the really crappy ones are for right?...dont worry, the Walkers and Barbers are safe

64 kens I buy and melt often! someones gotta make em rare

2007 CRH Total:
War Nickels - 0
Sil Dimes - 0
Sil Wash Qtrs - 0
90% Kennedy - 9
40% Kennedy - 63
Franklins - 3
Walkers - 3
Barber - 2
Comm. Sil Halves – 1 1992 columbus
Prf Halves - 6
Morgan Dol- 0
Peace Dol-0

Ikes - 35

coincollector101 · Sep 4, 2007

Gotta Love Good Days Like That I cant wait to go on a chr road trip.

CC

utah hunter · Sep 4, 2007

Sweet haul and great post. I have a Honda civic hybrid so gas costs don't eat up my profit. My wife has a suburban so between the two of us we even out

. A barber half with mint mark is a great find, maybe my 2 boxes tommorrow will have a nice surprise for me. Hopefully the surprise isn't a black mammal with a white stripe down its back

. Keep the faith...Ryan

LJ · Sep 4, 2007

Kudos on the Barbers JD!!! Actually on the whole day but especially the Barbers...they are so hard to find and you found two in one day!! Very, very nice day.

Thanks for the pictures. Keep us posted on the results of the boxes from your good bank.

Silver_Fox · Sep 4, 2007

A Barber is a nice find. I can't wait to get my first.

jewelerdave · Sep 4, 2007

Thanks all,

I was hopeing today to just find one Ben and I got it, I was psyched when I saw the WL and then the barbers...then two. I doubt I will be able to top that for a while but I can dream

I will let everyone know what the 8 boxes turn up in a few days

GPURS · Sep 5, 2007

JD, Congrats on the nice haul! You put the work in and reaped the rewards, especially the Barbers! I was just curious about how you melt the Kennedy's down? I know it has been brought up on this forum before, but nobody had a good answer for how to melt these things down without selling them off to some commercial company. Thanks and good luck on the 8! Gpurs...

cyberdan · Sep 5, 2007

GPURS said:
I was just curious about how you melt the Kennedy's down?

I think he has a jewelry company. When I was in my 20's I made a lot of jewelry out of silver coins and sterling spoons and forks. Back then I could get them for about 50 cents at a swapmeet. Doesn't take a lot of equipment (torch & crucible) to melt the coins. It does take a bit more (burnout oven & centrifuge) to do the casting of jewelry.

jewelerdave · Sep 5, 2007

As far as melting coins down they are a good source for someone who consumes silver, we melt a lot of different things down and someday I will do a post on it with pics as its a pretty cool process.
We make wedding rings and do a lot in silver and gold. When it comes to preciouses metals its all about recycling to every annal detail.
Most of the gold we get is either bars or from recycled computer gold that has been refined back to pure, as well as our own shavings and filings. When pure its alloyed down to what ever specs are needed for the job in our manufacturing process.

Now...for the silver. I take a lot of 64's no matter what they are because they made tones of them.
Dimes, Quarters, and halfs all get melted as there is nothing collectible about circulated coins that everyone has scads of uncercs of. However there is the problem of them being 90% and not sterling.

Easy fix. In comes .999 fine silver bars, rounds etc. there are loads of damaged and tarnished .999 fine coins out there that no one wants, but people like me. They are cheap, and for melting it does not have to be pretty. Also old rings, silverware, .925 coins and other franklin mint things all get melted. In order to make it all .925 we just do the math and add what we need together to get our sterling. The sterling is then cast and finished into new jewelry.

As to the 40% they are worthless for jewelry unless refined to pure. However this is a pain to do.
If one must you can dissolve them in nitric acid that is diluted with water, about 3 to 4water to 1nitric acid, concentrated nitric will not dissolve silver well, add water and it goes crazy.
This dissolves the silver and the copper into solution.
To get the silver out you have to use NON Iodized salt, Iodine will cause complications. The result is a cloudy mess of white particles that will settle in the solution. Now you have AgCL and a copper salt water solution. Silver chloride is very easy to filter off and separate, rinse and clean. Once dry it can be melted with flux to get .999 fine silver. This is a pain in the A$$ and I dont recommend it, there are enough people out there who horde silver and buy the nicer coins cause "it will save them from the end of the world" Id just sell em to a coin shop or dealer. If you go out and buy all the equipment for melting and all you would need to have a market for it. There is enough of a market for the coin and most people dont trust slag buttons of metals because they are not marked by a company they dont sell for a premium.
As we use it in jewelry the jewelry is what gets the premium and makes it worth while to do as direct melts and alloying down, its easy to alloy down and mix to up. Going up in fineness requires refining. But its not worth it to do refining of silver even on the scale we do it at. Even if you did get it to fine and sent it too a larger refiner, they would re refine it anyway to make sure its to there standards, and only pay you something below spot for it. Even at the %40 coin its a known and trusted alloy, and has a commodity market value. I am just putting my %40s a side until it gets to a large enough number cashing them out to a dealer makes more sense. or if I am in a pinch, I can also trade them to dealers for gold. And I use a lot of that. So I would recommend hording until the $ temptation gets ya to sell.

GPURS · Sep 5, 2007

JD, Thanks for spending the time to splain all of the process. I was curious about how one would refine the 90%'s in order to get the silver to "jewelry quality". You answered a lot of questions, and your knowledge will be quite an asset to this board. Thanks again, and let us know how the 8 boxes work out. Gpurs..