Re: What's Your Best Find
I've been CRHing off and on since I was a kid many years ago but I got back into it on a regular basis about 2 years ago when I had a really nice score at what has become my favorite CRHimg bank. It was Sept '09 and I asked the teller if anyone had any half dollars. She had about a whole roll of lose coins in her tray and one of the drive thru tellers had a roll as well. When I got to my car I looked at the 20 or so lose coins I bought and unfortunately - no luck. It wasn't until later that night that I opened the roll from the other teller and to my surprise the ENTIRE ROLL were ALL Franklins 1959-1963. At the time 90% silver halves were worth about $6.50-$7 each. So the whole roll was worth about $135-$140. Now that same roll is worth over $300 (thank you Federal Reserve).
I've had fairly good luck since then mainly searching for half dollars at the different banks around town. I think it was about 6 months or so after I scored the Franklin roll that I got 10 1964 Kennedy's from another teller at another bank who had the coins lose in her tray - another nice score. Then about 3 or 4 months ago I was at the same bank I got the Franklin roll from and I was asking for half dollars and they didn't have any but that same teller got the Franklins from said she had a few silver dollars which I figured were probably just clad Ike's but to my surprise they were all Morgan dollars - 4 of them. When I got to my car I took a closer look and they were: 1879, 1879S, 1899 and 1901O. I knew at least 3 of these were common date but I couldn't remember for sure the mintage of the 1899 coin so I just figured I had scored $120 in silver for $4 fv. It wasn't until later that night when I got home that I had a chance to research the mintage and value of the 1899 coin. To my surprise again I saw that the 1899 Morgan has a mintage of just 330,000 and is worth about $130 in F grade which is what I believe this coin is. So the numismatic value of this one coin was/is worth as much or more than the intrinsic value of all 4 coins. Nice score again. I didn't think I would ever find real silver dollars at the bank. Now I always try to remember to ask for silver dollars when I'm CRHing. Buying silver @ face value is definitely for me.
About a month ago I had some good luck with nickels from this same bank teller. I bought about $40 in nickels and about every other roll had a buffalo and I think I even got 2 or 3 silver as well. I think I even had 2 nice buffaloes and 1 silver nickel IN ONE ROLL. I think I totaled 6 or 7 very nice mid grade common date coins fro the '30's all with full dates and full liberty and 3 earlier partial dates: 1929, 1924 and even a 1918.
I'm going back to this same bank teller in the morning on my way to work to check for more halves, dollars and buy more nickels. She has definitely been my lucky teller.
