PROSPECTING for 90% SILVER!!!

[glockngold]

fire a couple shots into the ceiling (gets everybodys attention), and say I want all your half dollars or this old lady gets it.

Ok Thanks for the pointers!

I'm going to get my piece & practice in front of the mirror like in the movie Taxi.

[PhucilliJerry]

Noob here. Got my first 3 rolls and loose half dollars on Friday and went back for 4 more rolls today, after reading through this entire thread this week. Nothing....... But I'm hooked. I've tried 7 banks so far, only one seems promising, although another had loose halves but told me he didn't and then gave them to a woman 2 people behind me, not cool. So I guess that will be a dump spot since he was rather rude about it too. The promising one told me he always has a box on hand in case people ask, but said it is rare. Think I'll build up a relationship with this bank for a little bit (already have an account but there is a branch closer to work) and then ask to order a box. That and I need to free up some funds for this. Don't know how happy the fiancee will be if I "raid" the wedding account, even if it will be replaced shortly.....

A few questions for the pioneer's here:

Do you have accounts with all of your pick up banks?
For ME Co. specifically, do you carry around $3-4k in bills all week to buy these boxes/bags or just do it as a withdrawal from the bank?

Most importantly. How do I know what I'm looking for? Is there a master list somewhere of all of the coins that I should be watching out for? Years? Markings? etc?? Quarters, dimes and nickles included....... I've never collected coins or anything so I'm VERY new to this. But I love PMs (silver especially) and have been accumulating as much as I can through APMEX and ebay.

Any link/info would be greatly appreciated.

I'm probably very late to the game here but it is exciting, brings me back to being a kid and opening the baseball card packs I just blew my entire allowance on.......

Thanks all,
Jerry

[ME Co.]

I do have accts at all the banks- as long as they are free. And since cash is king I do carry a wad, most don't hunt like I do so would only need little wads. I am always mindful of my surroundings and what is in my pocket.
As to the fiance- you won't be spending, just exchanging.
Now to the bank that always has a box, the sooner you buy it the sooner they will get another.

HH Mark

[glockngold]

Went through my 3rd week's box today. (1 a week is my trial $3.00 service charge)
Then I was at another bank cashing a check & asked for some halves.
I got 4 rolls there.
All skunks, but this time very few were sharpie marked.

[ME Co.]

All we can do is keep plugging along, and hope for better luck next week. HH Mark
BTW its just as easy for ME to pick up 2 boxes as 1- that would double your odds.

[ME Co.]

Still plugging along. Passed 100 oz for the month the other night. HH all, Mark

[PhucilliJerry]

I do have accts at all the banks- as long as they are free. And since cash is king I do carry a wad, most don't hunt like I do so would only need little wads. I am always mindful of my surroundings and what is in my pocket.
As to the fiance- you won't be spending, just exchanging.
Now to the bank that always has a box, the sooner you buy it the sooner they will get another.

HH Mark

Damn, don't think I could carry that kinda cash around.......
She's on-board, although she thinks I'm nuts. We'll see what she thinks when I find something.
I tried, he'll only give out what he has up-front, 4 rolls max a day. Found another one that gave me half the box they had (no silver) and ordered another for me, should be here tomorrow or Monday. Found a local bank with a free coin counter as well, opening an account this weekend. This should be interesting.

Still plugging along. Passed 100 oz for the month the other night. HH all, Mark

Awesome, gives me hope I might actually find something, although I won't be turning over anywhere near the coin you do.......unless of course I get lucky often enough.......

[ME Co.]

She thinks your nuts now? Wait till you can't get enough halves to satisfy and you start going through a box of dimes for that one lil sliver to get your fix, she may get you a straight jacket next Christmas haha. Good luck to ya, Mark

[glockngold]

Went through my 4'th box of halves this weekend.
no nuttin.

I'm having a lot better luck prospecting on craigslist. (just have to pay a little more)

[ME Co.]

Went through my 4'th box of halves this weekend.
no nuttin.

I'm having a lot better luck prospecting on craigslist. (just have to pay a little more)

We all have our lil niche. Around here I was late to the craigs list party so I stuck with the banks. HH Mark
BTW try a different branch of your bank and see if they will give ya some dimes without a fee- at least you should find something. My theory is your in a heavily hunted area or your boxes are coming from one and 1/week isn't gonna get you anywhere. Volume is the only way to change things, when I'm in the good stuff I try to get them all before my competition, when I'm in the bad stuff I plow through them trying to get back to the good.

[Rusty Shackelford]

Bummed. Picked up $500 in loose halves at my local CU. Teller told me that they had just got them in over the last week. I figured that they were already sorted, but since it was a high reward NO risk venture I took them all. Intuition was spot on. Came up empty.

[newmisty]

Thats a bit of a let down.

I got skunked on two boxes yesterday. Going to have to try again soon.

[glockngold]

Broke even yesterday.
My 5th box & found (2) 40%.
At today's melt the (3) total I've found = the $15. service charge for the 5 boxes.
I had been looking at the face of each coin "just to be sure" but that seems like a waste of time now.
The white edge stands out enough that just looking at the unwrapped roll gives em up.

In your experience, looking at dime rolls & quarter rolls, is just viewing the edge of the unwrapped roll good enough, or can you miss some?
If I have to look at each coin, it might just be faster to put each one on my scale & weigh.
(too old to see & too proud to wear glasses)

[newmisty]

These last 2 boxes I did, I used a counter that was above waist high and while standing, took a utility knife and scored rolls in groups and then peeled the wrappers of the roll as I checked the edges. I would pull out very new looking ones or suspect ones to get a better look and then dumped em into a small bucket. Took me about 15-20 minutes to go through the two boxes. There were only a few marked ones in that batch btw.

[ME Co.]

OK time to add up the chips. Thanks to that monster score a few weeks ago I had a really good month. Cheers to next month. HH all, Mark

Here's the totals:
Dimes 88
90% Halves 86
40% Halves 544

[newmisty]

Wow! Nice numbers. What are you averaging per dime box?

[ME Co.]

Wow! Nice numbers. What are you averaging per dime box?

I usually average about 1/box but last night a box had 6 and 2 skunks so I averaged 2/box. HH Mark

[Rusty Shackelford]

WOW!! Great work!!

[newmisty]

I usually average about 1/box but last night a box had 6 and 2 skunks so I averaged 2/box. HH Mark

You are a glutton for punishment by going through that many dime boxes for a fix! Damn silver junkie!

[wallywest]

After about 6 or 8 straight skunks, I have picked up seven 40% halves in my last two boxes. Here's hoping I am on a new trendline .

[ME Co.]

You are a glutton for punishment by going through that many dime boxes for a fix! Damn silver junkie!

I just love them cute lil Buggars though LOL. HH Mark
Besides I used to do dime bags and not have anything to show for it. Much better now that I switched to boxes.

[PhucilliJerry]

Well I finally got my first box of halves, well most of it, they ripped out 10 rolls for another customer, but added 6 customer wrapped rolls for me. Got 6 clad proofs, but no silver. Disappointed but can't expect too much in under $1k worth of halves so far. 4 of the halves were marked in 3 different colors/symbols, so these waters are well fished I imagine. Found a 2nd source bank as well, should have 2 boxes to go through next Thursday.......

[ME Co.]

Lots of goings on here lately- I know yous all thought I hit the mother lode again and retired but that is not the case, yet haha. I am going to go out tomarrow and try to find a few junk bags for FV- I can dream can't I. Anyways I got a guy from the coin club that I been doing some swapping with, he wants a roll of every year and mint mark of every coin for each of his 4 kids- personally I would just stock the silver for them but to each his own. Now he's down to the half dollars. Few weeks ago he mentioned buying my 40% for spot a few rolls a week since I had just sold that last hoard to APMEX. Spot at the time was like $84/roll and he was short but would buy them next week, next week came around and spot was around $100/roll and I told him I wasn't interested in selling till I see what spot was gonna do. Met with him today and he asked ME if I would be willing to trade spot for spot, 90% dimes for my 40%ers- call ME a happy F'n camper cause I'll do that all day long, wish he had more kids haha.
Had a Numismatic Society meeting today as well, a guy I know had 22) 40%ers (one a Proof '69S- which I get more for). Anyways he says whats these worth? I say about $5 apiece (APMEX buy price), then jokingly I said I'll give ya $90 for em. He rolls them up and put them back in his pocket, I say you can't sell them in your pocket. Few minutes later he asked if I had the 90 on ME- there's another roll be turnin into dimes haha.
I'll try to post more but had work come along and trying to do all that and all my coins ain't leavin much extra time. HH all, Mark

[newmisty]

Better to be pullin silver than chattin' with us!

[ME Co.]

Better to be pullin silver than chattin' with us!

All about priorities. HH Mark

[newmisty]

So I was dumping two boxes of skunks at my dump bank nd was at the teller completing my deposit at it were. I was eying he teller next to her and she had a bunch of stacks of ike dollars on her counter and a couple odd coins in her tray.

After finishing with my first transaction I stepped over to the ike teller and asked what the deal was. She said a guy just dropped them off and something like, "they are not anything valuable, only worth their face value. She said this while holding up a coin that as a seasoned prospector I realized immediately had a "white" edge. As she put the coin down I saw that it was a peace dollar and said I'd like to buy them! I also asked for the coins in the tray which were 2 1979 SB Anthony Dollars, one in almost AU condition.

There were 98 Ikes and two SBA's so it was an even $100 and the Peace dollar turned out to be the only silver in the bunch.
I picked up the peace dollar and told her that the silver content was worth about $28 and she again said that the guy said they were already picked through and were only worth their face value. I shrugged and said, "Well, it is and I'll take em'!"

A great score I must say, pretty cool to find a peace dollar at my local bank!

[ME Co.]

Thas awesome. I've scored a 40% Ike on two occasions but none of the older silvers. Congrats, Mark

[Sindgefallen]

In 2007 my step dad found a blackened SAE in his teller's tray and got it for a buck.

That was a nice snag misty!

[PhucilliJerry]

Found my first silver last night, 2 1964 dimes in box 1, have box 2 to go through tonight.

Has been hard to get half dollars around here, might get 2 boxes on Thursday but more likely I'll get a call saying they're delayed again.

Is it worth asking for quarter boxes or are silver quarter finds few and very far between???

[ME Co.]

Found my first silver last night, 2 1964 dimes in box 1, have box 2 to go through tonight.

Has been hard to get half dollars around here, might get 2 boxes on Thursday but more likely I'll get a call saying they're delayed again.

Is it worth asking for quarter boxes or are silver quarter finds few and very far between???

Silver quarters are rare. Grats on the dimes. HH Mark

[PhucilliJerry]

Thanks, I'll stick to dimes and trying to find halves then.

[wallywest]

nice score, Newmisty!

[newmisty]

Thanks guys, it feels good to share my score with people who "get it". There's something special to me about these rare finds that only fellow GIMers would really understand.

[Lugnutzpop]

Well, limped in for a measly $300 in halves and $100 in quarters thinking it'd be fun to have the kids go through with me.

Total take was (1) -1968 40% half


Is it just me or are 3/4 of the halves you go through dated 71,74, or bi-centennial? My lord I must've seen a hundred of each!

Off to the dump bank tomorrow.

Happy Hunting,

-L

[glockngold]

Is it just me or are 3/4 of the halves you go through dated 71,74, or bi-centennial?

Yep, that is my experience as well.

And finding a 40% coin in $400 is doing well.

in my last 3 $500. boxes of halves I've gotten only 1 40%.

[Pyramid]

WALKING LIBERTY ALERT!!!
As CRH prospectors, we seem to do well or poorly as a group simultanously for whatever reason. The Walking Liberty halves also tend to be contagious and show up in small bunches scattered amongst us. I got 2 of them this week out of 2 boxes, not a dang thing otherwise unless you include a couple of proofs and a Canada $2 coin. Maybe a Walker on your horizon, but check dates, as 1 of them I would have missed from simple edge-searching...very dirty rim. I haven't posted results in awhile, but it's been slim pickings lately after a lukewarm few weeks in January/early Feb, I'll post next week on the past 2 months. Good luck folks.

[glockngold]

WALKING LIBERTY ALERT!!!
As CRH prospectors, we seem to do well or poorly as a group simultanously for whatever reason. The Walking Liberty halves also tend to be contagious and show up in small bunches scattered amongst us.

Ha Ha Ha!.......

I was just ready to post my last nights find, then there is your post Pyramid!
I had told myself I was going to hang this pass time up since I have to pay $3.00 per box & the few 40% halves even at $5.00 melt value was only at a break even point.
Then yesterday as I was going through my box & after I already had found a 1965 Kennedy, I found this 1945 Walker:

[ME Co.]

Ha Ha Ha!.......

I was just ready to post my last nights find, then there is your post Pyramid!
I had told myself I was going to hang this pass time up since I have to pay $3.00 per box & the few 40% halves even at $5.00 melt value was only at a break even point.
Then yesterday as I was going through my box & after I already had found a 1965 Kennedy, I found this 1945 Walker:

Congrats, she sure is pretty. Almost makes it all worthwhile. HH Mark

[newmisty]

Nice one...it sure does. Reminds you of whats still out there.

[Pyramid]

Not doing well at all here...yuk. Here are the totals for the past 2 months:
Boxes: 16
90%: 2 Walking Liberties + 1 '64 Kennedy
40%: 10
Mephitis mephitis: 7

Good luck folks.

[ME Co.]

Well last day of the month rolls around again. Totals from roughly 115-120 boxes of halves and 60 to 80 dimes.
Dimes= 74
90% halves= 30
40% halves= 167
Cheers to next month, HH Mark

[PM Stacker]

I bought my first box of halves. I didn't find any silver.
Anyway I am going to give it another try next week,
and hope it goes better. If I find some silver I will post my results.

[newmisty]

Good luck PM Stacker~

[Apocalypto]

Yeah, good luck Stacker.

This thread is slowing down and, frankly, it's a little depressing. We need someone to find some silver.

[PhucilliJerry]

Good luck PM. In just under 4 boxes of halves I've come up empty handed with the exception of 7 clad-proofs. 6 dime boxes have yielded 8 pre-65 dimes........ not great return but it is keeping me interested.
I've started sorting pennies as well, just so I can get that high of putting something in the keep pile...... surprised how many wheats are still in circulation.

[PM Stacker]

Thanks for the support!
Yes I would like to see a lot more posts of people finding some free silver.
BTW my bank has a coin machine that is free for bank members,
however if you are a non-member they charge an outrageous 9%.
I couldn't believe they were trying to get $45 for running $500 of halves thru their machine.
As long as I can turn my halves back in for free I will try several boxes.
As it only takes a little bit of time to go thru a box.
So am I right to assume that halves are the way to go vs Quarters & Dimes?
Also does anyone have any better luck with boxes from certain banks?
The box I bought I actually got from Loomis delivered to my job.
So I am not sure if that was a good way to go or not.
There was a wide assortment of dates, 1971 and up, with quite a few 1976.
Any thoughts, or helpful suggestions?

[ME Co.]

Haven't posted individual finds in awhile but this one is noteworthy. 'sides sounds like you all needs some encouragement. My Saturday pickup is out of town- not too far but with gas up a skunk trip is a bummer. Anyways Saturday I got (2) Walkers, (13) '64 and (11) 40%- that was out of 5 boxes, still have 3 more. Looks like I made gas $$$ for a bit and will continue that Saturday trip a bit longer. HH all, Mark
Also this mornin I traded a collector from the coin club (11) '70 halves for (55) silver Roos- more silver for the pile. Hard making these trades with spot up so high, but this guy wants to trade for some more scarcities I've got.

[70cougarman]

WOOHOO !!! my first ben, x2, same roll......a 1953 and 1962 .....total.(6) box's (2) ben's...(1) 64...and (8) 40% not bad compared to my last 40 box's... only found one 90% KEN. NO PROOFS ......just did another 6 box's only (1) 40%..... it's been feast or famine. going to try a different brand.... I've been getting the flat box's with the yellow rolls going to try the square box's with the brown rolls... six more box's tomorrow and 6 more on sat.

[ME Co.]

WOOHOO !!! my first ben, x2, same roll......a 1953 and 1962 .....total.(6) box's (2) ben's...(1) 64...and (8) 40% not bad compared to my last 40 box's... only found one 90% KEN. NO PROOFS ......just did another 6 box's only (1) 40%..... it's been feast and famine. going to try a different brand.... I've been getting the flat box's with the yellow rolls going to try the square box's with the brown rolls... six more box's tomorrow and 6 more on sat.

Feast of Famine is a good analogy, I consider it running in cycles. When the good boxes come around I do good for a bit, when they're bad.......well...... With all the competition the good boxes don't last too long these days, alls I can do is bust a$$ and get as many of them as I can- without pi$$ing off the vault tellers that is. Congrats on the Bens. HH Mark

[70cougarman]

Here's todays totals........

(6) box's
(2) proof
(2) 1987p&d
(7)40%
(2)silver Roosevelts and a 1967 canadian quarter left in the coin return at my dump bank.