Canadian Roll Hunting

Don't forget that in my neighborhood, we go DOWN (south) to Canada.

The coin club in Windsor has a coin show next month so I'll bring all of my Canadian coins there to use for purchases, then maybe go to the mall and buy a few things and maybe have lunch before I head to the Currency Exchange. Oh, I'll also use them for the tunnel again ($5 doing and $4.75 coming back).

I got a few 'specials' yesterday. Of the loonies, I found the 1995 Peace-Keeping, the 2005 Marathon of Hope, the 2012 Grey Cup, and the 2014 Olympics. I got a 2015 MacDonald twonie also. Unfortunately, I had bought all of the special loonies before (for around $3 US each), but the MacDonald was in great condition and definitely a keeper.

I was going to say finding a 1922-26, or any KGV penny for that matter.

But nice score on the double 40's

I grabbed a bundle of dimes last week. Nothing until the last roll spilled out a 1959 and 1962. Any silver is good silver.

How much silver is left? I started roll hunting about this time last year and quickly got discouraged. Now I live in a different part of the country and I got the itch again. I realized two things: 1. A year goes by in a blink, and; 2. you have to be lucky to come across anything unique.

In the early 80's my dad drove a cab and one day he came home from work with a 1944 quarter. He explained to me how some coins used to be made of silver and that if I see anything '68 or older to hang on to it. I've been checking my change for 30 years (and him too, I imagine. That was the only silver quarter I'd come across until I started roll hunting and I got a '56 in my first box. I did a few more boxes and found nothing so I gave it up. This spring I got a '54 in my change from a McDonalds in rural Nova Scotia. 30 years between circulation finds. Now that I live in a city I tried again and pulled a '58 out of a box.

So what have the other hunters been finding and at what rate? How much is really left?

It's really hard to say how much silver is out there. It is very hard to find silver in circulation, so congratulations! It's all about increasing your odds. More volume is usually better. Like Wolfman, I would agree that individual rolls have a higher chance for silver. My theory is that people are more likely to deposit a stash of coins (maybe from a very old coin jar) to the bank than spend them slowly.

I took your advice and tried to get "a bundle" from the TD the other night. The teller was a med student working at the bank part time and didn't seem to know what I was talking about. I was also trying to get some uncirculated rolls but he didn't understand. I'll have to go when the old guard is working. I ended up getting machine-rolled stuff and found nothing... and I have to spend money to re-roll to boot.

Ace is right., They are not bad to unroll. There is a thread on that topic. Also you can get the coins out and back into shrink wrapped rolls if you are careful. You don't want to buy rolls to take them back to the bank at all. I make my own tubes from paper in my recycle bin if I break one.

and to limit confusion, always ask for a specific amount of rolls, they normally have them in tens for easy counting.