This installment of Roll Search Wednesday will describe a step by step process of how to methodically search through an abundance of rolls. Yes, there is a process because if you attack roll searching blindly, you will find yourself overwhelmed and confused, and most likely missing out on the good stuff.
Know the coin- Before you go to the bank to buy some coin rolls to search, ask your self what your motive is. Are you looking to find older dated coins, coins made of silver, coins to fill up an album? These are questions that you should ask yourself before going to the bank. If your want to find older dated coins, I personally would stick with searching through rolls of nickels or cents. From experience, these denominations seem to possess older coins than rolls of dimes and quarters.
If you’re looking to stumble upon a goldmine, or in our case, silver mine, the half dollar roll seems to be the roll of choice for most roll searchers. Due to the lack of circulation that the half dollar gets, they are less likely to have been scoured for silver. In case you don’t know, 90% silver half dollars are dated 1964 while 40% silver coins are dated 1965-1969.
Pay the price- Once you decide what you would like to accomplish on your roll searching mission, go to the bank and buy some rolls. Rolls of cents contain 50 coins and cost .50, Nickels contain 40 coins and cost $2.00 per roll, there are 50 dimes in a roll and cost $5.00 per roll, Quarter rolls cost $10.00 and contain 40 coins while rolls of half dollars contain 20 coins and are cost $10.00 a roll.
Get geared up- Once you have procured your desired rolls, drive home and get ready to gear up! When I search, I like to utilize a nice, wide open space, preferably a kitchen or dinning room table that is free of clutter. I like to wear a pair of cotton gloves because many coins turn out to be quite dirty and will leave nasty grime on your hands. I also like to keep a loupe or a magnifying glass at the ready just in case I find an odd coin that I’d like to examine further. If you plan on searching for varieties, such as Repunched Mint Marks (RPMS) or any type of Double Die, a loupe is a must have. If I am looking for certain dates, I keep a list at the ready to cross check the coins and cross them off as I find them. Finally, I like to have some 2X2 coin holders or vinyl flips at the ready so if I find a keeper, I can immediately segregate it from the rest.
Just some tips to remember while roll searching-
Patience is a virtue- Your not going to open up you first roll and discover that it is filled with Wheat Cents or 90% silver coins. Don’t lose hope and continue to search.
Be organized- Don’t open all of the rolls at once. Open one at a time, search through it and move to the next one. Keep the coins that you don’t plan on keeping in a separate pile or preferably a container of some sort.
Happy Searching!
A few more tips:
ReplyDelete1) It's easier to buy a box of coins from a bank than it is to make them count out a certain dollar amount. Boxes of pennies are $25, nickels are $100, dimes are $250, quarters and half dollars are $500, and dollar boxes are $1,000.
2) Don't return your reject coins to the same bank you bought them from. They may get annoyed and not be as willing to help you next time.
3) There are two types of rolled coins: rolled by a human and rolled by a machine.
Rolled by a human means they were either sitting in a jar in somebody's attic for 50 years and have lots of old coins, or were rolled by a roll searcher and have nothing interesting.
Rolled by a machine means it was delivered to the bank by a delivery service like Brinks. There are several delivery services of this type. It might be worth your time to find out which one services which banks and find out which of the services provides better rolls to search. Once you find a service you like, return your reject coins to a bank that uses a different service to minimize the chance you'll search the same coins twice.
Back in 1980 when silver went to high I went to the local bank, small town, and bought $500.00 worth of halves. Upon going through them the majority were silver. I took them to the flea market the next weekend where my parents were set up selling stuff. I set up a table and put the silver plus other stuff out for sale. I had a "dealer" come by and ask me about the halves. I made a deal to him and actually sold them below silver value. Why below you ask? He bought all of them so I cut him a deal......and I made a huge profit. It is not all about making the most, it is about the fun of it.
ReplyDeleteI was 13 at the time and used part of the money to buy a motorcysle, dirt bike. I used some to further some of my sets I was working on.
Search rolls, it can be a lot of fun.
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ReplyDeleteI recently started buying coin rolls from my bank to search through which I haven't done since I was a kid many years ago.
ReplyDeleteWhat really renewed my interest was when I bought a roll of half dollars at my bank about 7 months ago. I bought the roll and when I opened them up later that night I was quite surprised to find that the entire roll was all Ben Franklin's between '59-'63. I almost felt like I was stealing from the bank. At least $130 worth of silver bought at $10 face value - not bad. Although I doubt I'll ever have that kind of luck again.
Since then I've been able to find nearly an entire roll (about 18) of 40% silver Kennedy's and two '64 Kennedy's as well.
On one occasion not long after finding the Franklin's I thought I would try my luck and ordered a $500 Brinks bag of half dollars from my bank. But I didn't find a single silver coin so I figured they had probably been searched through before being put into the bags and it wouldn't be worth the time and trouble to try that again.
But then last week I bought 10 rolls of halves from the same bank (different location) that the teller said they had ordered (I assumed from Brink's) and she had rolled herself and I found two 40% silver Kennedy's. So I'm not sure what to think about the ordering process.
On another occasion I bought 8 loose halves (from the same bank location that I got the Franklin's from) that the teller had in her tray and 3 of the 8 were 40% silver. So I always check for any loose half dollars from the bank as well.
I was also curious about the possibility of finding any 2009 nickels after noticing rolls of circulated '09's selling for between $10 and as much as $17 on ebay. So I recently bought a $100 case from my bank.I only found two 2009P nickels in the whole case. But I also found two very worn silver coins, one dateless buffalo and about 30 or so coins between '39-'61.
I haven't noticed any circulated 2009 dimes selling on ebay yet but rolls of unc 2009D dimes have started selling for $40-$50 or more. But since I live on the east coast I'll probably never find one of those in circulation
Wow nice finds!
ReplyDelete