Update Again ! Silver Halves Cust. Wrapped Exhausted Here

carl - You say you held the bicentennial quarters for well over 30 years, which means you must have just cashed them in within the past few months. I know it's not the premium you were originally banking on, but rolls of bicentennial quarters in BU condition sell for 2-3 times face on ebay. Definitely would have been better than returning them to the bank!

Oh, don't get down. Here's a little story to keep you up...

I myself was starting to get down. In the last 7 or 8 boxes - yes thats $4000, I've found at most maybe 3 40%s. I've picked up an occasional single silver here or there, but its been a long dry spell. After reading this thread last night, I got the itch to hunt for silver. At lunch today, I called two of my banks and ordered 2 boxes each. That'll be 4000 coins to keep me busy over MLK weekend.

I thought that would do it, but it didn't. I wanted some now! So before I left work, I went to the ATM and got $30 out. I had plans of stopping at a branch of one of my banks on the way home. I asked if they had any halves or 2 dollar bills. "I've got 3 and the other teller has $50 in halves." Okay I'll take $30 in halves (that was all the cash I had). As I left, I looked down into the bag and one of the rolls was split open. In the dark it looked like there were a few silvers! I picked up the roll and about half of the coins I could see were silver. I turned the car around on a $.50 piece and went back to the bank. I asked for the other $21.50 in halves and withdrew that money from my account.

When I got home my wife yelled at me that I needed to help my daughter with reading and I could just wait to play with my coins. So my $51.50 in halves with some silver sat on the table while we went over spelling words.

Over and over and over.
We sounded out 'all'.
We sounded out 'ball'.
We sounded out 'call'.
We sounded out 'tall'.
We sounded out 'but'.
We sounded out 'too'.
Are you starting to get the picture? It drug on and on and on...

Finally when I got done with the good parent crap, I got to look through them.

Okay, so there were no Barbers, no Walkers, no Franklins, there weren't even any 1964. But out of 103 coins, there were 43 various dates of 40%!!

I just checked my spreadsheet and I am averaging 6.4 keepers per 1000 coins. That is 0.64%. Today I hit over 40% This was a good day!

Don't get down, you'll find some after a while. If you stop looking, you won't find any. If you keep looking, you'll find some.

In my very first box I searched, I found a Franklin. I didn't see another Franklin for the next $15,000.

Well you could be like me and get all 3 rolls my bank had and all of them be 40% silver. 67s on the left and 68D on the right! Me thinks someone found someones hoard and cashed them in!

Bu 86P & D were never really saved, because considered common, so now they are somewhat valueable in BU. 87 P & D were only available in mint sets and are BU, so it would be rare to find them circulated. While the mintage of 87 P & D are low, >95% are BU, while the 86 mintage being higher, but only a scant % are BU. This is my take on it.

UPDATE :
Tood the $100.00 worth of halves to my small branch bank. Then I went to the main branch on the other side of town. I asked for $300.00 worth of halves. They said they only had $180.00 worth and that if I was looking for silver......they'd already been searched. And they will NOT be ordering any from the Federal Reserve for quite some time because nobody wants them.
So, dejected and down, I went to consol myself in a BBQ sandwich and along the way I passed several more banks. I thought, well, I try one of those. I did and got my $300.00 in halves............ one concerning issue........ THEY WERE ALL LOOSE !! None were in rolls (luckily I had a container with me) So.....question...... being "loose" what does that mean for finding silver ? Is this good or bad ? Should I go get more ASAP or go through what I have confirming no silver to be had and try another bank ?

I get them loose sometimes from the teller. I always ask for halves every time and sometimes they only have $5 loose. Sometimes I get a silver clad in the loose and sometimes not.

I have received loose 40% halves before, even right out of a teller's scratch tray