"the Stash" Game: Coin-Roll Hunting With Others

I coin roll hunt with my three children (9, 7, and 5). We play a game called "The Stash".

"THE STASH"

For all of the machine-wrapped rolls that we get from banks, we separate those with notable end-rollers and put them into a box that we call "The Stash". Over time, the Stash grows and grows. At one point the Stash looked like this:



We write down on a piece of paper a date many months into the future upon which the Stash will be opened. BUT, we have also agreed that the Stash will be opened immediately, before that date, if any one of us finds any coin on a very specific list we have drawn up in advance. In our last round of "The Stash", our list of coins, that, if found, would open the stash looked like this:

-V nickel
-Indian Head Cent
-Any coin from 1800s
-Mercury dime
-a silver 1976 Bicentennial quarter
-Standing Liberty quarter
-Walking Liberty half
-Bicentennial
-2 Buffalo nickels in one roll
-1943 steel cent
-any blank planchet

There is a lot of discussion in our family about what coins are worthy to be on this list. (For example, discovered proof coins are not worthy of opening the stash.) A great coin, if not on the list, will not open the stash; the coin must be on the list to open the Stash. The list of coins can be modified only be addition once the game has begin, and there must be unanimous agreement to add to the list.

RULES FOR DISTRIBUTING THE STASH

The person who found the coin that occasioned the opening of the Stash will pick last. The Stash is opened in rounds. To determine the order of picking the rolls from the stash for each round, unopened rolls of the same denomination of the coin opening the stash are handed to each person, and whoever has the earliest dated coin gets to pick first, the second-earliest picks second, etc. Again, the person whose coin occasioned the opening of the stash picks last. After each person has picked and opened one roll from the stash, a second round is started, and again the order is determined by handing out ordinary rolls, and person with earliest dated coin found gets to pick first, and so on. If there are not enough rolls left in the stash to complete a full round, then the stash game stops and those unopened rolls serve as the basis of the next Stash.

IT WORKED LIKE THIS

Last week I found a coin in a roll that was on the list (an Indian Head cent), so we immediately got to open the stash rather than wait for September 1st, which was the agreed-up final date for opening the stash. Since I found the IHC, I was automatically slated to pick last for each round. Since the coin opening the Stash was a cent, I handed out rolls of cents to each of my children. My middle son found a Wheat cent in his roll, so he picked before his siblings, who had just found memorial cents. We continued each round in this way.

I think all of my children would agree that the game was AWESOME! The presence of a stash adds to the excitement of coin-roll hunting. My kids were more excited about the opening of the Stash than the finding of the Indian Head cent itself!