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

I'm not a Kennedy half hunter but had to share.Went to the Post Office this morning to mail a couple of lincoln WAM's to another member. The clerk knows I ship a lot of coins so she asked me if I wanted a bunch of half dollars...of course I said "sure". Fifty nine Kennedy halves yielded six 40%'ers.Not a bad way to start the day.

2-brink boxes
----------------1-1957 bennie
----------------3-1966

Well thanks to you guys I have started the roll searching. Started small 10 rolls but that was about all my bank had anyway. I think someone had already searched them as the earliest year I found was a 1971. But, I will continue as it is like treasure hunting! I'm sure to find something sometime.

So today I cut out of work and went on a silver hunt.

$300 CWR = ZIPPO
Eventually founf 1 1967
My two Friday boxes didn't pan out well. The first was opened and searched. The second, was an ENTIRE BOX OF 1996!

I did stop by a Pawn shop and bought 5 ASE for $41 each.

A teller sold me two original US Mint rolls of NIFC halves today, one 2008-P and one 2008-D. The rolls are tight and appear perfect, with the end coins showing some light golden tone. I don't particularly want them for my collection and wonder what they might reasonably sell for. Any thoughts? I'll offer them here on the forum or maybe put 'em on the Bay.

Picked this up yesterday. I've found a couple copper-nickel Bicentennial proofs over the years but this is the first 40% silver. I can see a bit of copper color on the rims but the weight is about 11.6 grams, compared to 11.2 grams for a typical business-strike Cu-Ni Bicentennial half. The weight and the bright white color I believe confirm this is a silver-clad proof. Do you agree?

Tough to tell from the Pics. My only 40% proof is also a bicentennial, on mine I can also see a copper edge but it is dull. My clad has a bright orange copper edge. I would lean toward thinking you have a 40% Proof.

Good Find!

Ben,

I hunt at the local parks and schoolyards (when school is out). In these areas any silver coin is tough to find, as detectors were designed to find them, and many people have tried before I got there.

The Walker I found was at a park, in some bushes on a hill that was hard to get to. Since nobody made the effort, it was left there for me!

Typical detecting finds are dirty clad coins, chewed up aluminum cans, and bottle caps. Some of the Lincoln cents (zincolns) are so nasty as to be unrecognizable.

The good part is that, every now and then, I find some gold jewelry in trashy areas that few people have the patience to deal with.

I average a little over $1.25 per hour when targeting clad coins, and less than half that when I am prodding through trash looking for a gold ring. I may get 2 or 3 hundred $ a year, and more if I can turn up any jewelry. I have never found a gold coin; that's like finding a 1909 svdb, or a rare date CC Morgan. Somewhat like the Holy Grail of metal detecting!

As far as covering a lot of area, I don't worry too much about that. I would rather go slow and try not to miss anything. The coins are not going anywhere!

To sum up this windy post, I gain more $ from the detector than searching boxes of halfs. I just had my best 4 box week ever, and that was 1 Ben Franklin and 5 40%'ers. Most of my boxes are skunks!