Before I Bought Silver, I Tried A Little Coin Roll Hunting Experiment
Before I bought my own silver, I tried to see if I could find some for free. I walked to my local bank and asked for all of their half dollars. After they asked a few questions, which I answered honestly, I walked out with their entire supply at the time of $450 in coins. Since they didn't have a box, I was allowed to take one of their plastic trays home to return when done. Below is the evidence...
There are tricks to search through the coins quickly by looking at their sides, but I chose to go one by one for the fun of it, and to make sure I didn't miss anything by taking a shortcut.
So... did I find and pre 1969 silver, especially any 90% silver coins?
NOPE.
I did find an oddly high percentage of 1976 Bicentennials, but that was it.
What did I do with all of the coins when done? Well, I wrapped them up in the wrappers I got from my bank and returned them for cash to another bank. I kept a few and used them to buy some food to confused cashiers who didn't even know it was real currency. That was the best part of this experience... convincing people who'd never seen them that it was real money they needed to accept!
I'll probably do this again in the future, but it'll be for fun. I doubt I'd find more than 1 or 2 in a large set of rolls since banks seem to look out for the silver coins.
Hope you enjoyed. Please share if you found any silver doing this.
Link to my first recent Silver post: https://steemit.com/steemsilvergold/@steemmatt/my-new-silver-stack-story-and-first-post-starting-from-scratch
Yeah, I'm guessing those hunting grounds are getting picked pretty clean. My sister used to work as a bank teller and all the bank employees had their eyes open for pre-65 silver coins. The run-up to $50/oz really got people's attention.
Cool!!!
This is a great post. I would love to beable to do this, i would use it as a way to get my kids into silver. The Uk has changed money denomination since they contained silver so none are out there.
Cool experiment. I've only found one pre-1965 silver coin since I've been looking. Granted, I don't use much change these days
I have had luck with coin roll hunting, seems like it is getting harder and harder. Sometimes I will asked for hand rolled not banked roll, I have been lucky a few times with the hand rolled.
Good point. There's probably a formula to increase the odds by getting hand rolled, and perhaps not going to a major bank in a major US city like I did. I wonder if they have a way to auto-detect the silver coins during sorting and machine rolling. As for an upgrade for future hunting, maybe I'll try a smaller bank in a lower traffic location with an older population.
Now your are thinking
I tried this and I found very little but some is better than none. I also tried this to get some of the old pennies.
I periodically pick up a roll or two of half dollars when I am at the bank. I haven't come across a single coin with any silver in years. I still will ask periodically, and I just think of them as free Lotto tickets.
Pretty neat experiment. I've personally had more luck with quarters and dimes as I think they are less often thought of as silver. Most of my finds come from register at my job anymore but you've resorted my interest in some roll hunting.
Have tried to get 50 cent rolls of coins at my bank but nobody ever has any.
Maybe you can try looking for silver quarters or dimes if they have any old hand rolled rolls.
If I had all kinds of time on my hands, this would be a good hobby of mine. Unfortunately I don’t have lots of time on my hands. 🤗
Well if and when you have kids... maybe they can keep a % of any roll if they find silver in it for you, or a coin per roll they search (once they're done with their homework of course).
I like that your putting some back into circulation. Canada stopped making pennies a couple of years ago, the young people at tills are usually not sure if they're allowed to accept them. Kinda funny.