First time prospecting

[saleen313]

A friend and I just started stocking up on silver recently. So far I've grabbed 1oz coins, bars and some 90% quarters. Today I figure I'd go to the bank and grab some half dollars. I bought $100 worth (ten rolls) from them. First roll was full (besides 4 coins) of 1968s. Long story short, out of those ten rolls I found 48 40% coins. I wish they had more but that was all they had. I'm officially hooked now.

[samwiii]

I'm officially hooked now.

I'm officially jealous now!

[saleen313]

Well that must have just been a lucky event. I have since searched about 70 rolls and only found 12 40% and 3 90%. Better than nothing though.

[cpthnsolo]

Well that must have just been a lucky event. I have since searched about 70 rolls and only found 12 40% and 3 90%. Better than nothing though.

You're still doing better than most. If you read the prospecting thread you'll see that guys there sometimes go through a dozen BOXES ($500/box mind you!) or more before finding a single silver coin. They ratios have really fallen this last year according to what I've read.

[CopperSilverGold]

Nice finds! Even if you were to sell the 40% halves to a dealer, you would make about $3.50 profit per coin or $168.00. Not too bad for a small amount of work.

[Irons]

Try small town banks in areas with lots of old folks. The further out of town the better the chance some other prospector hasn't hit it before you.

[saleen313]

That thread is what made me go searching. Its like free money, but somewhat irritating.

Ive called and stopped in so many banks as I drove by and you cant imagine how many tellers told me "oh I just sold all of them yesterday". That and half the banks wont give them to you unless your a member. I'm not sure if I will start doing Quarter or dimes yet. Might, since the halves are hard to come by unless you request a box. Watched a video on youtube the other day where a guy bought three boxes of halves and only found 3.

[CopperSilverGold]

That thread is what made me go searching. Its like free money, but somewhat irritating.

Ive called and stopped in so many banks as I drove by and you cant imagine how many tellers told me "oh I just sold all of them yesterday". That and half the banks wont give them to you unless your a member. I'm not sure if I will start doing Quarter or dimes yet. Might, since the halves are hard to come by unless you request a box. Watched a video on youtube the other day where a guy bought three boxes of halves and only found 3.

I tried the half dollar box searching and maybe pulled a couple 40% halves. To make matters worse, some of the boxes had quarters and pennies that made their way so the boxes were short on top of it. I dont bother anymore.

[~BS]

That thread is what made me go searching. Its like free money, but somewhat irritating.

Ive called and stopped in so many banks as I drove by and you cant imagine how many tellers told me "oh I just sold all of them yesterday". That and half the banks wont give them to you unless your a member. I'm not sure if I will start doing Quarter or dimes yet. Might, since the halves are hard to come by unless you request a box. Watched a video on youtube the other day where a guy bought three boxes of halves and only found 3.

That's because nowadays there's too many players. Before, there was far less people doing it because the reward incentive wasn't as high with 90% junk selling at 10x face.

It really depends on your area too. Try checking some of my old posts in this thread. I used to have some rediculous finds, and those were only the ones I actually posted about.

Seems like you've been lucky enough so far, I'd shoot for buying bags of halves.


Edit: nevermind about my old posts. Those were all on the old forum. Some of my better finds would have been things like - buy $100 face from the tellers, $70 face is solid 90%. Or buy a $500 bag, and $100 would be silver. There would be so much silver, the clear bag would be showing white. I still have some records from back then. On one of my better months, I pulled 570 40% halves, 53 franklins, 9 walkers, and 303 90% kennedys. That was when I was pulling bags like crazy. I'd pull halves by bank, and basically order enough to empty the main vaults at each one. Since it's mostly regional banks, the halves just sit in the vaults and not be mixed with the main fed vaults that BOA & the other bigger branches use. I also used to go half hunting by branch. I had maps that had all the branch locations pinpointed by area, and I'm just hop branch to branch so I could cover the most locations in a given area.

[samwiii]

I tried the half dollar box searching and maybe pulled a couple 40% halves. To make matters worse, some of the boxes had quarters and pennies that made their way so the boxes were short on top of it. I dont bother anymore.

Until yesterday, I had never had a Half bag or box that was off. Yesterday's exception was an 1897 British Penny bronze coin that's the same size as the halves. I figure for $.50, I'll keep it. I did offset the "loss" with 3 40%'s and a 1943 Walker.