JFK Half Dollar Roll Hunters: Silver, Proofs And Other Finds

3 box total from yesterday only found 4 - 40%ers.

Just to show how whacky box search finds can be , today I did just one box and found;

5- 90%ers - 1-64 JFK, 1 61P (BU) Grade Franklin and 3- Solid Silver Proofs (12.50 grams+ on the weight), a 2001S, 2004S and 2005S- all in the same box.

Also: 21- 40%er's .

2 day 4 box total: 5 @ 90% and 25 @ 40%. Nice week!

some of you may know about my frustration with trying to get a box of halves from my bank. Today, the box was supposed to be there, third time in 3 weeks. My teller knows about the box and goes to get it. He tells me they only got a portion of it. I didn't think brinks would send less than a full box. He said they about $300, the rest is scheduled for Tuesday. If I wanted to wait til Tuesday and get it all at once I could. I said I'll take whatever they had now, which turned out to be $350. He brings them out and it's all CWR with 30 loose in an envelope. I didn't ask, but would brinks ever deliver coin that they didn't count and wrap themselves?
I got my load into the car and took a peek, score!
While there was only 1 90%, there were 27 40%s!
Only 1 NIFC in the whole bunch.
I'll post actual counts by year when I get home. There was also a small group of near-MS 1966's in one of the rolls too. I'll try to get a pic of these.

jedi,

ask your teller if they are comming from your banks cash room, or from BRINKS directly.

Nice chuckster, americanmafia and jedichief! 8 solid rolls? Wow!

SD I was a bit on edge the first couple times going into unknown banks but after I did it like 4 or 5 times it just seems to be a chore. Typical conversation goes something like this.

Me: Hi there (or other greeting with a smile to let the teller know you are a friendly individual).
I was wondering if you guys had any half dollars? (The first time I asked for halves I literally asked for "halves" which no one understood until I started using "half dollar" which people do understand)

Teller: (Usually one of like three responses and can be combined)
1. Yea I have 5 dollars here. (pulls from tray)
2. Yea I have some rolls. How many were you looking for?
3. Let me check with the other tellers to see if anyone has any.

or they don't have any. leave and disregard next dialogues.

Me: (Usually the teller asks how many I am looking for and my universal response is)
I will take as many as you guys have.

Teller will then round up all the halves and you pay her.

As a final closing, I usually thank them very much, give a smile or friendly nod, and am on my way.

95% of the time, the tellers are super nice, and will try and find as many halves as they can for you.
The other 5% I would get to the part where I asked for the halves and they would ask if I had an account, and I didn't, and get shut down right there. First couple of times I got shut down, it made me real nervous and flustered because a negative experience just happened in front of , potentially, a bunch of people. I would even blush a bit if it was an younger attractive teller (I'm 20) LOL. After a while you shrug it off or you formulate patterns for which bank you can't go to!

One import note, do not inform tellers as to what you are doing. For instance, if they ask you what you want to the halves for. Just state you are a collector. Try and keep it as brief as possible and don't elude to the silver! They will smarten up.

Any other questions about the process I can answer I will gladly do. I have had my fair share of experiences in this relatively short time doing this.

how much money did you usually bring with you?

When I go around town (usually a weekly or every two weeks) I usually have between 20 and 80 bucks. I have the ATM's that I know of nearby in case I find a place that has an abnormal amount of halves to buy up.

If I take a little trip and go maybe 2 or 3 towns over and around. Maybe 20-30 miles out. I will take larger amounts 500-1000 dollars. Never know if a bank has a box on hand they want to get rid of.

And the slightly larger trips 40-75 miles where I went down south into Connecticut following a single route, I went armed with about 1600-2000 dollars the two times I went. It paid off because a TD bank had a coin counter bag with 753 dollars in it.

I have a bank of america account and I can find an ATM pretty easily though so having the money usually isn't an issue (unless I have no money in the account!LOL)

Another point I would like to bring up too is it is good to bring a lot of money because when the tellers ask how many you want, you can reply "As many as you have". The tellers usually respond with, "well I have like 4 rolls do you want that?". Then you can respond telling them you have XXXX dollars with you and that usually motivates them to find as many as they can find in the bank.

I usually go over prepared though, but I want every half dollar available, and that over preparedness makes that possible.

When I started off, I thought halves were a lot more plentiful than they were. I used to go nearly every day to bank of america. I quickly learned that they are not plentiful after you buy them all up. After I went to banks and scored some rolls I would usually wait the week and hit them up again.

For instance I went to a local bank one week and they had nothing and the next week I went back and they had three rolls which had 3 franklins in the them. Persistence is key.

Also if you go to banks that aren't yours a lot, even the tellers there will recognize you and possibly hold halves for you. I have had banks that aren't even mine offer to order boxes for me. Also note that you also run the risk of becoming a nuisance with some banks. If you get that vibe with the tellers back off to a once every two week or three week schedule. That's happened to me before.

In these last couple of weeks though I have been backing off the CWR method and sticking with the boxes.