Newbie Needs Help Finding Better Source For Silver Half Dollars

Well, it's really more luck than anything else... the banks typically use one of three vendors for their coins: Brinks, Garda, or Loomis... Usually, in my experience, you get the Dark Brown wrappers with Brinks, the light brown/yellow (String&Son) wrappers with Garda, and Light brown/yellow wrappers from Loomis with their name on it... That said, it doesn't always work that way. I get most of my halves through Wells Fargo... they use Brinks, and while they usually get the Dark Brown wrappers, they occasionally also do get the others.

I like to spread things around... My best advice is to have two or three different banks order halves for you... it helps avoid the big "skunk" runs as you usually end up getting coins from multiple vendors/sources.

You're welcome...

Statistically, there hasn't been much a difference for me based on wrappers. I typically do two boxes a week. For instance, last week, I got a the brown "cube" box and got no silvers and 12 NIFCs... My other box a LOOMIS "yellow" one had 4 40%-ers and 12 NIFCs. The previous week, Brown box gave me 2 40%-ers, 4 NIFCs, and 1 Proof... Other box that week was a LOOMIS box and had 1 90%-er and 6 NIFCs. Week before that I got 1 Brown box which yielded 2 90%-ers including a Walker, 3 40%-ers, a proof, and 4 NIFCs. A yellow String&Son box yielded 3 NIFCs and no silver. Not too long before that I had a Brown box with 1 90%-er, 4 40%-ers, 9 proofs, and 30 NIFCs.

I guess what I'm trying to say is it's VERY random where I'm at.

The gold plated coins were for a promotion a company did in 1980 and 1985... they aren't too uncommon.

As for the not getting the rejects from other CRHs, your best bet is to order boxes from as many different banks weekly as you can. I liken it to investing... the more you diversify, the lower your risk...

There is really no foolproof way to avoid getting your own rejects, nor those of others for that matter. Most banks in the major cities use large, central coin processing plants. And the vendors usually get their coins from them. I know most of my coins come from the plants in Los Angeles regardless of which vendor is supplying them. Customer wrapped rolls of halves are almost always searched through... though I did find a very impaired 1971-S proof recently in one.

You may want to consult other members and also ask some of the big time half dollar hunters on the main half dollar CRH thread such as jack_jeckel... They have studied it more in depth than I have. I'm more an expert in nickels than halves. Hope this helps.

Berto I'm so glad you said 1 silver per box. Not that I want us to get only 1 per box, but I see all these posts of 30 and 40 and 50 coins show up over and over and over for a few people and I begin to think I'm the only one getting 1 or 2 a box. I have done better than that for my first year but thats basically because of 2 great boxes. I'm on week 50 of CRH this week at 1 box a week and I have found 64 90s and 83 40s in that time with a total of 28 skunk boxes as far as silver goes. Some of those boxes had proofs and NIFC which keeps me goin. I only get brinks from the bank that I buy at and dump at a family owned bank that uses yellow wrapping on there halfs. One of the cool things is a great customer of my is a big time coin nut and he cant believe that any silver is still out there. He has seen what I have found and says I bought them. Thats ok with me, more for us! Berto John 54321 Keep findin those treasures we all want even if its only 1 or 2 at a time.

Just as others have said there's no way to prevent getting your own/someone else dumps. I search 6 boxes of halves a week. Some weeks are great others not so good, it all depends on what coins have been dumped into the system that week. I've had two pretty good weeks so far this year (2017), but I've also had a couple of really slow weeks. First week of the year I think I found 2 pieces of silver out of 6 boxes, one 90% silver proof and one 40%. Last week 6 boxes got me one 40%. Last year (2016) was a great year for me with a total find of just under 155 oz. of silver, but I think I had 3 boxes last year that held somewhere between 25-30 oz. each. If you remove those three very good boxes I got last year from the equation you'll see my other silver finds were pretty low considering the number of halves I search. One of the banks I get coins from I've had a couple very good boxes from in the past. For the last few weeks I haven't found a single piece of silver out of that bank, but who knows this weeks boxes from that bank may hold 100 or more pieces of silver. In all that I've said, there's no way that I know of to increase your chances of finding more silver other than getting as many boxes as you can. Eventually you'll hit it right and get a great box, but it's best to go into this willing to accept whatever you get even if it's nothing. I've been doing halves for close to 2 1/2 years in that time I think I've had 5 great boxes that were 25-30 oz. each, but I've also had a few stretches where I'd get skunked 10-20 boxes in a row. You have to remember it's been 47 years since the last of the silver halves were minted (with the exception of silver proofs and commemoratives) so we should consider ourselves lucky that there's any silver out there to be found at face value. I also think the area of the country you're in plays a roll in what you find, some areas are heavier searched than others. The more people there are searching for silver the more that's pulled out of circulation therefore less to be found.

@Rockit you sure you found a 1944 Franklin half?
AFA searched out, gotta be the N.E. for sure!

Here's the link to the half dollar roll searchers thread. http://goccf.com/t/22710 If you haven't already visited this thread thought you might be interested to see what others are/are not finding. If you're really looking for excitement wait until you find your first Barber half. I've found one since I starting searching halves. There have been a few Seated Liberty's found within the last year.

Nice finds, RockIt54321!

More nice finds, RockIt54321!