Is Coin Roll Hunting Really Worth It?

jpsned,
Your question seems loaded to me so I'll ask you some questions to try and understand your perspective. What do you mean by 'worth it'? Are you talking financially, hobby, job, time, effort. Is CRHing the only hobby you see as tedious/boring or do you look at other hobbies with a similar perspective? (ie...metal detecting)

I enjoy coin collecting and have bought collectible coins above face value. Ironically, coin collecting, without the element of finding coins, wouldn't have much appeal to me. We may have to chalk it up as different strokes for different folks.

It depends on how one quantifies "worth it". For me, it is most definitely worth it. Let me paint you a mental picture. I work a pretty high pressure job. On Fridays after work, I head to the bank and get $500 to $600 worth of nickels dimes and quarters, the quantities of each usually determined by what I can see on the cashiers ready trolley. I get home, have a relaxing soak, thinking about what may be in those rolls. Then I sit down at the table with a good bottle of red wine and some relaxing music, and start the hunt. A few hours of this is the perfect decompression for me, stresses melt away and the mind rejuvenates. Oh, and the finds are a bonus! I keep silver, any nickels before 1960, and various lower mintage dates in each denomination, as well as any errors and foreign coins. All U.S. coinage (I'm in Canada) goes into a big bucket, and once a year I make a profit just by driving my U.S. coinage with me over the border on my vacation - currently an instant 10% return! Yes, I'm hopelessly and happily hooked on roll hunting...

I find coin roll hunting very worth it but not necessarily for the financial benefit. Although around this time last year I found a coin which would be considered valuable by anyone. I thought I would have the coin forever until I lost my job unexpectedly and a coin I had found for nothing made my life that much easier. It can be relaxing or it can be thrilling at times. If you're a bit of a hoarder or just OCD it can help scratch that itch as well. On days I'm feeling depressed it gives me a reason to get up and out of the house. Going to the bank to pickup coins and feel like I'm doing something.

O-train; that sounds like good therapy while you were in the in-between. I wouldn't hesitate to part with a find if it meant that the proceeds would go towards a greater need. Well, I'd hesitate just long enough to snap some pictures to remind me of a previous success until the next find.

Even better!

Hmmmm...

There's intrinsic and extrinsic value to CRH. Some may become addicted (a person can become addicted to about most anything I suppose), but I'm reading mostly about the intrinsic value (relaxation, reduced time in front of the boob-tube, etc.). As for the price of gas getting to and from the bank, if all you are after are the easy pickings (mainly low value finds), then extrinsically speaking, you might be better off saving up and going to the local coin shop. That said, I'm sure that many of us plan picks and drops while running errands here-and-there. So gas costs might be otherwise nominal (unless you live in a remote spot without easy access to the bank). Really, there's no right or wrong answer here - just your personal preference in how you obtain pieces for your collection.

So far, about 1/3 through a box of cents and I've 9 LWCs worth about $0.18. I've a few more AU LMCs, 3 2009, and 10 Canadian cents worth about a quarter in all. But I have a 1991 DDR set aside for identification roughly worth $8 to the right collector. So net investment in time (well spent by my standards) and around $0.35 face value, a decent ROI (but by no means will I get rich doing this, extrinsically speaking). Have fun folks!!

This question reminds me of a question my Micro Economics professor asked the first day of class; ‘Would you bend over to pick a penny up off the sidewalk?'

He went one by one around the room to get a yes or no and a short explanation. Maybe because I was twenty years older than everyone else I was the only one to answer in the affirmative. When a young girl on the other said of the room said ‘What the #$%^ for?'
I answered ‘It only takes 100 to make a dollar.'

So is CRH worth it? Well in the last few months most evenings I sit in the living room beside my wife as she chats on Facebook, usually with a dog in my lap, the TV on, a drink and a tray covered in cents. I have found three dimes in cent rolls, over 100 wheat cents, two Canadian cents needed for my wife's collection, numerous misc oddities, and 5 1998 WAMS that I can't find anyone who wants to spend money on them. Oh yea, and I keep all the cents in a hundred year old wooden strongbox with a cool spring loaded latch, so I have about $400 saved that I would most likely have spent on something else.

Yep, it is worth it.