OK, after my initial find of one silver coin in my first 16 half dollars on my first try, I gave it another shot today -- and ended up going a little overboard.
I stopped by my local bank BOA branch today to deposit a check. While I was there I asked for any halves. They didn't have any, so I asked for
Eisenhower dollars. They didn't have any either, but the clerk said she used to work at another branch where they used to keep some in the vault. That other branch was on the other side of town, about 20 minutes away, so I almost didn't go. But I didn't have too much going on at work, so I decided to give it a shot. Unfortunately, after driving all that way, the teller at the remote branch said they no longer had the dollar coins.
However, as I left the parking lot, I spotted another bank down the road. I thought I would stop in before heading back to town. There, I asked the teller if she had any half dollars. I was expecting to hear "no," so I was prepared to turn around and leave. But she said, "How many do you want?" I said, "How many do you have?" (I am guessing some of you have had that conversation before.) She said "$470 dollars worth, back in the vault." I was stunned for a moment and said something like, "Wow, that's a lot. Are they the bank wrapped kind or did people bring them in?" She said, "Some of both." I only had $110 dollars on me and this was not my bank, so
I had to make a decision. Then I asked, "Do you happen to have any of the
Eisenhower dollars, too?" She said, "We have about 100 of those." Being slightly more interested in the dollars, I said I would take all the dollars and whatever in halves I could get with the rest of my $110. She went to the vault and brought back four rolls of
Eisenhower dollars, $80. Then she went to another teller and picked up $30 in customer rolled halves. I thought that was strange since she had said the halves were in the vault.
Anyway, I went back to my pickup truck and opened the three rolls of halves. Nothing special in the first roll. But in the second roll, a string of 10 straight '68s. Then nothing special in the third roll. But I figured I should go back for the rest. So I hit an ATM for $500 and went back. I got the same teller and asked if the other teller still had more rolls. She said she had 10 more rolls (customer wrapped). She said again that there were $470 more in the vault. After I asked, she said some in the vault were customer wrapped and some were bank rolls. So I handed over my $500 and said I would take the $100 from the other teller and $400 in rolls from the vault.
All in all, about 2/3 were customer wrapped and 1/3 were Brinks rolls. At the end, she gave me a garbage bag to put the coins in and I left to strange looks from the other customers. (The $70 in rolls I left behind appeared to be unopened Brinks rolls, so I didn't go back for those.)
Turns out most of the silver was in that one roll. But there were 7 complete rolls of 2005 halves and 6 complete rolls of 2006 halves. So the tally for the day was:
1-66
1-67
10-68
1-73-s (extremely shiny and unscratched -- my wife said, "it looks like someone just took it out of the mint machine and gave it to you.")
1-76-s (I think it's not silver.)
1-87-s (shiny)
70-05 (most very shiny)
60-06 (most very shiny)
So are the 05 and 06 coins worth keeping? I see there were not too many made those years, but don't know if that is significant.
By the way, my wife thought I was crazy when I walked in the house with a garbage bag full of half dollars, but she has softened somewhat after seeing the silver.
I am going to keep all the
Eisenhower dollars, maybe spend some. But I will deposit the halves other than those listed above.
Sorry for the lack of proper technical language. I know there are probably better descriptions for some of these things.
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Posted 06/30/2010 02:47 am
