When you least expect it,

[thurmownator]

......expect it.

Picked up a Fed box of halves today, I had ordered, from a local bank. On my way home, stopped at another local bank, and bought what they had in the coin counter bag for halves.

The Fed box proved uneventful. I don't save NIFCs like I used to (there were about a dozen), there were no pre '71 halves, but I did pick up a 2018-D I didn't have yet.

On to the coin counter bag from the other bank.

They said there was $26 in it and they didn't mind that I didn't have an account.

So should I have been upset that there was only 51 halves in there (not 52)...and a key ?

First of all, no, for that's the inherent risk we take in this hobby. Think of it as the cost of doing business.

............and the other reason I wasn't upset was that of the 51 halves in the bag, 40 were 40%ers. ('65 x 3, '66 x 3, '67 x 10, '68-D x 20 and '69-D x 4).

So, an unheard of 78% success rate and almost 6ozs of Ag.

So, when you least expect it........

 

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[TheMastermind]

Nice score!

 

[weighit]

Great post, you did well in picking up that bag.

 

[FormerTeller]

Nice bag. I wouldn?t be surprised if the tellers cherry picked the 90% halves, not realizing they made 40% too.

 

[blueberra]

Nice bag. I wouldn?t be surprised if the tellers cherry picked the 90% halves, not realizing they made 40% too.

I think there are a LOT of people who don't even know that silver coins were minted, and of those that do, a very small percentage (5% maybe) are aware of the 40% silver Kennedys.

One would think that bank tellers would be a more cognizant of silver coins than the general population, but I haven't seen it to any extent.

Maybe it's because one typically doesn't witness the tellers poaching when they do it, but it just seems that tellers at the banks I use don't bother searching coins.

I enlightened a teller recently about the "W" quarters. Until recently, the bank was open by appointment only and the tellers had a substantial amount of dead time. You'd think they'd be on the lookout for West Point quarters or any other interesting coins in their drawer -- you would be wrong.

One other data point. A couple of months ago, a different teller asked if I wanted any $2 bills because someone had brought in a bunch (over 50) of them. She knows I'm interested in 'odd denominations' like Ike dollars and halves (and $2 bills). I said it take 20 of them and I noticed there were several red seal United States Notes in the batch, so I grabbed all of those. They were well-worn, so not worth anything more than face value, but they're unusual enough so that if any tellers were looking to line their pockets, they probably would have taken them.

BTW, I don't believe my bank has any policy forbidding the tellers from 'buying' coins / bills that they handle. I believe I've read that some banks do prohibit that behavior -- that would be good to know.

 

[scruggs]

You did well!

 

[Buchsy]

No surprise if Tellers picked the 90% and left 40%'s. A few years ago, I bought out a rural bank's stash of halves, $130 worth. The tellers kept on saying to me, "the family took all the good stuff (i.e. the 90%'s), you're wasting your time." When I got them home, I realized they gave me $130 worth of 40%'s. It was my best score ever, still chasing the dragon!

It happened a few times after that as well but not to that level.

 

[enamel7]

No such thing as a Fed box.

 

[fistfulladirt]

A few years back, I visited a rural bank while on vacation in Michigan’s upper peninsula. I asked for any halves, and the nice middle-aged tellers snickered as they scraped up all they had, the amount being about 50+ 40%. Thank you ladies.

Back about 2006-2007 or so, my wife being in banking but having no interest in coins, told me that several managers were ordering boxes of half dollars. Boxes were loaded with 40%’ers but they were only keeping the 90%. That, along with rising silver prices is what got me started again (since 1979).