Best Coins To Hunt Through?

Here's my 2 cents on the 5 cent'ers

https://goccf.com/t/166172

in 8 months of CHR I have gotten 17 dimes (18 if you count the 50% Canadian) and 15 nickels, no quarters and only one 1968 40% Kennedy half.

Used to be the halves were a good bet because no one used them so they just sat in bank vault until a hunter set his sights on them, they are a dying breed but still out there. Same thing with quarters but even worse because they are heavily circulated, dimes and nickels have been producing very well for me.

No clue as to how much face value I searched to find those but it was thousands every month, just take it back and ask for more

I would too, and remember you are not buying $200 worth of coins you are sorting and returning, if you live 40 miles from a friendly bank that might cause problems, but if you can do $250 on dimes then take them back and get 2 boxes of nickels , then take them back and get a few rolls of halves and quarters, being on a $200 budget only means it takes 5 trips to sort $1000.

Another sweet thing about doing halves is they go quick, 2000 nickels for $100 but only 200 halves, heck lock the doors and sit in the bank parking lot with the halves then take them back in and get something else to take home.




You can expect anything, but you will most likely be disappointed. It's the Thrill of the Hunt, but when you see that first silver beauty you will jump and scream, then open the next roll and find nothing... just keep hunting.

Here is another tip coins are DIRTY the bank I use has canvas bags that they let me take home, I bring it back with loose coins and fill it up with more rolls, but I also use them for sorting, the fabric keeps the coins from rolling off the table and I can wash them when they get too nasty... yeah I have laundered my money bags before and I'll do it again!

As I said a "Friendly Bank" some don't like coin roll hunters and get nasty about it, some demand that you re-roll before you bring them back in, all the banks in my area require they be loose so the change machine can count them. And I have to go to a certain branch to get boxes but loose rolls are at most branches. Make sure you talk to the people at your bank about pick-up, drop-off and general procedures. Unless you have strong fingernails I'd suggest getting a small set of needle-nose pliers works great for opening the paper rolls.

Here's the low-down on each denomination:

Cents
Pros: Lots of wheats and canadians, cheap, about 20% copper per box
Cons: No chance of silver, not worth the time to manually roll once done
I've done maybe 15 boxes of cents, and wheats ranged from 1-20 per box. It was so tedious to re-roll them that I ended up tossing all rejects into a bucket and taking them to a coin counter.

Nickels
Pros: Cheap, good chance of silvers and buffalos, easy to re-roll
Cons: War Nickels are only 35% silver
I did about 50 boxes while I was active (2009-2011), and averaged 1 War Nickel and 1 buffalo per box (Brinks from Bank of America, northwest metro Atlanta), plus about 11-15 "keepers" (1938-1959) per box. I really enjoyed searching nickels, and nearly completed a full set from circulation.

Dimes:
Pros: Better chances of finding silver
Cons: Extremely few "keepers", moderately expensive
I only did one box of dimes (2010?) and got skunked. I found a total of 8 silver dimes while I was a cashier (2008-2011), all of which were from direct circulation.

Quarters
Pros: Good amount of silver per coin found, lots of fun designs to search
Cons: Expensive, silver is almost non-existant
I did one box back in 2010-ish, and found a healthy mix of BU state/territory/ATB quarters, but no silver.

Halves
Pros: Chance to strike it rich, lots of fun NIFC (Not Intended For Circulation)coins to find
Cons: Have to be special-ordered, very low chance of finding anything good.
I did about 4 boxes from 2010-2011, with mixed results. The first box had 4 90% silver coins and a good dozen 40%, plus a couple proofs and NIFCs. The second box had 1 40% and a few other NIFC. Boxes 3 and 4 were skunks.

Large dollars:
Pros: Good chance to find 40% coins
Cons: Good luck finding any, ever.
I think I've seen one Ike dollar in circulation.

Small dollars:
Pros: Slight chance at NIFC coins
Cons: Expensive as heck, and nothing of real value to be had.
I did one full box of small dollars back in 2011 and found nothing. Plenty of rolls yielded exactly 2 NIFC Sac dollars (2004 and 2005).

So, nickels or cents if you want to have fun, half dollars if you're feeling lucky, and dimes, quarters, or dollars if you hate yourself.

Here in Canada, I never find any silver coinage. At the bank I use, all of the dimes and quarters are POST 2001. THIS SUCKS!

Great post here and wonderful ideas, it seems like I have a very good bank, sorry for the problems of the rest of you.


Very good advice thank you, I have been, and the horror stories make me cringe but here is the most basic rule of CRH make friends with the tellers and don't over tax them, when I walk in a few times a week with bags of coins they know me by name, don't worry about asking for ID, and ask if I got lucky that time. They do not require them re-rolled in fact they will not take rolls, you have to have them loose to go into their change machine and be counted, it's different all over the place learn what it's like in your area.
Multiple trips can be a major issue with the price of gas, but if you are out shopping anyway then an extra stop is not really over taxing the tank, if you can make a bank stop at lunch or before or after work with out going out of your way, I know some people have to drive 20-30 miles or more to get to the right branch of their bank to get coins, if that is the case then maybe find a bank with it's change hub closer to home, just open a small savings account and they will be happy to help, hopefully. There are good banks and bad one, find a good one and treat them nice, learn how they do their change, mine rolls their own but also gets some from the mint, so it's a nice mix of local circulated, regional circulated, and fresh from the mint. some times when you ask for $50 in pennies they give a bag with all local, that they rolled, I got a 1929 Canadian cent in fairly good shape, I'll post it for "How far back can we go? Second Edition!" in a few weeks, don't want to dig it out now.


That may be a bit extreme, but again just ask, they may say you can use the conference room and take your time, would you like coffee and a cookie too...


Treat them with respect, once they see your enthusiasm at your first find they will be happy to see you and ask if you got lucky when you hand them a bag of coins, if its a "Friendly Bank". I walked into one branch and they said 'OHHH PLEASE tell me you have quarters!' I did, they were so glad they didn't have to order from the change hub, which costs them for transport and security. Plus they were totally out and needed them.

Good luck and , on with the HUNT!

Edit: Tried to shorten it a bit, sorry long post, just got talkative

Nobody ever finds loonies in dollar rolls?