Slowly mining silver out of half rolls....

AJ2525

Hello,

I live in a fairly small town on California's Central coast. Every few weeks I cash a check at my bank and ask for halves. Each time the same teller has $60 worth. Each time there is one or two silver Kennedy halves. One time he told me another customer was bringing them in a few at a time.

It works for me.

mkman123

what town are you in?

garsmith

what do you do with the non-silver, spend or re-roll and return?

57loaded

good idea and success, i assume you look for 40% as well???

Norseman88

I've been doing this for years and at first got quite a bit of silver but eventually things started to dry up especially after Silver ran up above $10 on it's way to $20. Lately I've had some luck as the last time I netted 2-90% and 14-40% Kennedies along with a nice AU 74-D double die obverse in $80 face of loose halves out of the bank drive through. Maybe some people are cashing in grandpa or grandma's stash in these tough times.

AJ2525

Hello,

I'm about an hour North of Santa Barbara.

I spend everything I do not keep. I keep all 40% silver as well.

If I did not find the occasional silver Kennedy I would think I was getting the coins I've spent back.

Or maybe the worn 1971-D and 1976-D Kennedies all look the same.

sonde79

this is a great way to get a little extra funding for your other coin habits.

secondrepublic

I looked through about $200 worth of half dollars last summer. In the very first roll, I found a 64 kennedy and a 40% kennedy. All the other rolls were just clad.

I know the feeling, when it seems like you keep getting the same coins that you just spent.

People also sometimes will look at you a little funny when you spend the halves. I tend to tell them up front - let's say the price is $2.79, I will say "here is three dollars in half dollars" and hand them the coins, rather than waiting for them to ask me what these darn things are.

Meltdown

A few moths ago I purchased $500 worth of halves from my bank and found 1 90% and 1 40% in the last couple rolls I searched.
A bit dissapointing, but still kind of fun.
I thought I'd try again so I ordered some more last week and they came in today. I went to pick them up and while driving home, I glance over and see what I think is a 1964 date on top of a roll. I poke my finger through the bag while driving and sure enough, it's a 64 - Cool. I turn the roll over and it's a 1965 on the other side... Now I'm pretty excited
to get home. I'm thinking maybe the whole roll is silver.


So I get home, tear open the roll and am happy to see 4 silver edges. 1- 1964 and 3 40% pieces.
A little bummed it wasn't a whole roll, but still pretty cool considering it's the first roll I open and more than I found from my first attempt at searching an entire $500 box.

I only had $160 cash with me this morning, so I only came home with 16 rolls. I did pretty darn good today, Seems like I was
finding silver in just about every roll I opened. Here's the end result - 1 - 90% and 20 40% silver Kennedies.
I just called the bank and had them hold the other $340 worth for me until I can get back there this afternoon.


UPDATE: I went back to the bank and bought the remaining $340 worth and here's the grand total: I found 42 40% halves and 4 90% halves including one 59D franklin. Grand Total: $97.65 worth of silver at today's closing price.

secondrepublic

Very nice!

Norseman88

That's a good haul, nothing is better than finding silver for face value unless of course you cherrypick a rare VAM out of a junk box.

Norseman88

I stopped by the local bank today to make a deposit, they said someone had brought in $100 in half dollars so I bought them and found 9-40% silver halves. Nothing great but better than nothing.

Meltdown

<< <i> I stopped by the local bank today to make a deposit, they said someone had brought in $100 in half dollars so I bought them and found 9-40% silver halves. Nothing great but better than nothing. >>



Very cool. I look at it like panning for gold... pretty cheap entertainment and sometimes you find a few grains or a nugget.
I took back the clad halves today to my other bank and ordered another $500 box. They told me it should be here by friday.

guitarwes

I bought all the halves that were in the counting machine at my bank this past Tuesday....$43 worth. Struck out this time. BUT, the last time I bought halves from this bank, I bought $639 worth out of the counter. I got 54-40%'s and 12-90%'s out of them. I guess it made up for this recent go-'round.

moonshine

If you do this, you can probably keep an eye on which coins you are getting back - so you don't search your own rolls -- Been there did that, also in a tiny one bank town ....

Roll them up instead of spending them - and 'mark the rolls'. If you don't want to put your name and phone number, etc.... just put a few dots or something. That's how I can tell if the bank tries to give me back rolls that I have already searched!

Norseman88

<< <i>

<< <i> I stopped by the local bank today to make a deposit, they said someone had brought in $100 in half dollars so I bought them and found 9-40% silver halves. Nothing great but better than nothing. >>



Very cool. I look at it like panning for gold... pretty cheap entertainment and sometimes you find a few grains or a nugget.
I took back the clad halves today to my other bank and ordered another $500 box. They told me it should be here by friday. >>



Yea, it's alot of fun to find the occasional silver coin for face value it's like opening a present and being pleasently surprised with the contents and as an added bonus I went through the clad halves again looking for double dies and found another 40% half I'd missed bringing the grand total to 10. One thing you have to watch is sometimes when going through halves you look at the edges and what appears to be a clad half is really a 40% half with an edge that has a copper appearance and sometimes what appears to be a 90% half is a 40% half with a totally white edge instead of a dirty looking edge.

Norseman88

<< <i>I looked through about $200 worth of half dollars last summer. In the very first roll, I found a 64 kennedy and a 40% kennedy. All the other rolls were just clad.

I know the feeling, when it seems like you keep getting the same coins that you just spent.

People also sometimes will look at you a little funny when you spend the halves. I tend to tell them up front - let's say the price is $2.79, I will say "here is three dollars in half dollars" and hand them the coins, rather than waiting for them to ask me what these darn things are. >>



It is quite ammusing to go buy a burger or sub then pay for the food with half dollars, most of the time if teenagers are working they look at the coins with a puzzled look wondering whether they're foreign coins and once they've determined what they are they look for a place in the register to put them.

Meltdown

I bought a coffee and muffin yesterday while waiting for the bank to open and paid with $5 worth of halves.
The cashier looked at me funny and said, "these are half dollars, right?" Then she had to triple count them
before putting them into the till.
Next time, I'm going to keep a bunch and spend them for the entertainment.

soty27

I started doin this about three months ago. I usually buy 2 boxes each time from any bank in town that has them. I actually had the cops called on me three weeks ago, they thought I had robbed an armored car when I turned in 1600.00 in half dollars. I have turned as many as 4 boxes in one day. My totals so far are 3 walking liberty's 45 franklins, 87 90% and 107 40 % .
I have done it with dimes, pennies, and quarters. I simply take back everything I dont keep to a different bank. In the last two months Ive gotten a whopping 2 40%. I think I just got lucky when I started and now that silver is going crazy I dont know where they all went. I have even gotten rolls with franklins showing

Norseman88

<< <i>I started doin this about three months ago. I usually buy 2 boxes each time from any bank in town that has them. I actually had the cops called on me three weeks ago, they thought I had robbed an armored car when I turned in 1600.00 in half dollars. I have turned as many as 4 boxes in one day. My totals so far are 3 walking liberty's 45 franklins, 87 90% and 107 40 % .
I have done it with dimes, pennies, and quarters. I simply take back everything I dont keep to a different bank. In the last two months Ive gotten a whopping 2 40%. I think I just got lucky when I started and now that silver is going crazy I dont know where they all went. I have even gotten rolls with franklins showing >>



WOW you mined quite a bit of silver there, I'm finding the pickings pretty scarce but occasionally something turns up.

asheland

I just tried this out today for the first time. I got $90 worth of halves and found 8 40% halves and 2 90% halves.
It's quite fun actually. They were all together in just one roll.

secondrepublic

First roll I ever looking in had two silver halves, one 90% and the other 40%. Since then, all I've gotten is some dirty fingers.

Buffalode

I guess I need to keep trying. I've gone thru $400+ in halves in the last couple of months and not found any silver. Also a few hundred dollars each in dimes and quarters with the same result, although I have found some nice coins to fill album slots so still worthwhile to me.

DrBuster

I got 4 ikes and 3 40% a couple weeks ago for face. Highlight of the Saturday bank year for me so far.

InYHWHWeTrust

In 2003, our family searched $500 and found the ratio of about 1/30 were 40% halves. We rewrapped most, spent some and deposited at another bank in another city closeby. The kids clamored for more, so I ordered another $500 and we again found about the same ratio: 1/30 and 2 1964s. NO walkers, frankies. but we did find a roll of UNC Bicentennials and a BU 1987 D. So we rewrapped most, spent some more, put some in the church offering plate ("not them Soles kids again" was heard muttered in the back counting room LOL) and have great memories what we did when Hurricane Isabel hit us and no power for 10 days.

renman95

Last year I picked up two rolls, they were solid silver...40 coins. They were mostly 40%ers.

I've noticed less silver in rolls since the economy is supposedly getting better.