The Best Rolls To Search?

Two questions - Silver and better dates.

Silver. There is no question. Halves. Go to the bank and start roll searching Kennedy halves. I have NEVER found a silver dime or quarter. So don't waste your time. Get rolls of halves.

Better Dates........ Hmmmmm I'm a roll searcher and a cheap skate.... I will also say that I'm not into "errors" or "variety" coins.

This is going to be the most strange advice you get - but buy rolls of Roosevelt's. They're so small that you can actually find BU quality coins that date back to the 80's and 90's in rolls that you get from the bank. As far as I'm concerned, you can find MS-xx quality Roosevelt coins in bank rolls.

My second suggestion would be to buy rolls of nickels and save all the Full Steps that you find. You may have to buy 5 or 10 rolls before you get a couple of real "Full Steps". They are rare, but if you have the patience, you can get them for face value - can't beat that!!

Full steps are very rare. even for 2007 nickels.

On the back of the coin - check the steps on the building. My eyes are terrible, so I need a loupe. ALL SIX steps should be visible and unbroken. If there is even a small crack or break on ANY of the steps, they are not Full Steps.

Like I said, you're lucky if you get one every couple of rolls.

And you're REALLY lucky if it's from the 1980's or earlier!! But that will almost never happen - so buckle up!

I started roll searching halves but lately I do way more pennies. Halves are hard to find unless you have $500 to spare and order a box. You can get a full box of pennies for $25 and find all sorts of neat stuff. I find wheaties, foreign, stamped coins, Cuds and other errors & varieties. I also seperate all of the copper cents and sell them for a profit at 1.5cents each in $50-$75 face lots. I then use that profit to buy coins for my date sets & type set.

I have 23 vending machines that take quarters only . . . in 3 years I have found less than $2 in silver quarters!

No doubt that halves are the way to go for silver. I think nickles are good if you are looking for older coins. You can still find dates from the 30s and 40s, plus pick up some silver War Nickels. I think you get more old ones that if you search pennies.

Phiney asked, "Has anyone found anything significant in a roll of pennies?"

Significant: hmmm...not really...interesting and semi-collectible? yes. Yesterday I went through 16 rolls of BU 1972 cents that were purchased in that year...zero, zip, nada. There were about five coins with sheared dates, not collectible.

Today, I'm working on BU rolls of 1960 D...I hope to have better luck. I'll keep you all posted.

Jim

Try checking with your banks for bags of cents rather than rolls. Rolls are usually coins that have been recently turned in, looked through numersous times, run through counting machines and then rolling machines. Many times bags of cents have been laying in a banks vault for someday when needed. A bag is $50.
Always return coinage to a different bank or you'll wer out your welcome.

Thanks for following up . . . Yes, most modern machines look at a coins electromagnetic signature. My little machines however are mechanical, and unfortunately still free of silver!