Comments on: Silver Diving Part II: The $500 Half Dollar Experiment

By: J. Money

J. Money — Mon, 11 Mar 2019 10:47:45 +0000

In reply to Kevin Shinn. Bet you had fun searching, though :)

By: Kevin Shinn

Kevin Shinn — Fri, 08 Mar 2019 21:43:20 +0000

Oh I seen this post half way through my endeavor, was a good thing

By: Kevin Shinn

Kevin Shinn — Fri, 08 Mar 2019 21:40:20 +0000

Hey mar 8 2019
Just went to bank this morning and it was my first time asking for full boxes of half. They had 1 I paid 500 for it took it out to my truck, opened it up, it wasn’t sealed but it was full of bank rolls. I looked at all the enders, didn’t see 1 silver year. You are right could have filled 80% of my books with most of the enders dates, but no silver, so took it back into the back and got my 500 back. All was still in orginal rolls

By: MeanPuppyDog

MeanPuppyDog — Fri, 07 Dec 2018 03:50:57 +0000

I hate to tell you this, but the odds of getting SILVER half dollars is almost nil.
This is why.
Many years ago, the COINS STAR machines that took your change and charged you 11.9 cents per 1.00 to do this for you accepted ALL U.S.A. coins.
Now, the coins start machines REJECT silver coins and they go in the reject bin that you have to collect.
The same with the machines at the Federal Reserve.
They get millions of coins that they auto roll. SILVER coins are rejected and the mint takes those coins, and they do not go back out.
The Mint Sorters go through them, and I bet a million dollars, they keep the VALUABLE Silver coins.
Hence, all boxes of half dollars, for example that go back out to banks will not have anything of value for the coin collector. Now, if you go to a old, hick town, you MAY find a box of half dollars that was distributed before the new machines sorted them, but that is going to be rare.
Old Hick towns do now like a box of half dollars collecting dust in their vault either.

By: J. Money

J. Money — Mon, 30 Jul 2018 13:46:39 +0000

In reply to Doug Menke.

HAH – love that you track it all!! And wholeheartedly agree – much more fun as a hobby than trying to make a living off of it :) Cool you found a Franklin amidst the mix too!

By: Doug Menke

Doug Menke — Sun, 29 Jul 2018 03:57:32 +0000

I have documented all my silver coins found in the last $20,000 of half dollars searched (40 boxes of $500 each), and here are my results: 8 90% silver halves (7 1964 Kennedy’s and 1 Franklin), and 42 40% silver halves, dated between 1965 and 1969. So for me it was 1 90% per 5000 coins, and a little over 1 40% per 1000 coins. I’m not going to get rich at it, but I do enjoy the feeling when I do strike silver! I know I find a higher percentage of silver in the loose halves I occasionally find and buy from bank tellers (not documented), but you can’t get nearly as high a volume of coins there.

By: J. Money

J. Money — Tue, 29 May 2018 17:09:20 +0000

In reply to Mark Witcher. Same here these days - I've since stopped coin hunting just cuz it takes up so much time and I prefer older 19th and 18th century coins way more. Was fun experimenting back in the day though :) Also have a blog on coin collecting if you're interested in checking it out: CoinThrill.com That 2nd pic: it was a smiley face! :)

By: Mark Witcher

Mark Witcher — Fri, 25 May 2018 22:45:32 +0000

Nice blog, i enjoyed reading some of your stuff, even the non-coin info was entertaining.

Just wanted to ask – the 2 photos of half dollars you posted…I get the first one is a question mark. What was the 2nd photo?

Happy hunting. I asked at my credit union about dollar coins and half dollars and they said they’d be happy to order boxes if I wished, plus they have a free coin machine in the lobby for members. I’m more into the old coin vs silver content.

By: J. Money

J. Money — Thu, 07 Dec 2017 10:50:38 +0000

In reply to Silverton. INCREDIBLE!!

By: Silverton

Silverton — Thu, 07 Dec 2017 01:48:08 +0000

In reply to Steve. I once got 20 rolls of halves and all 400 were 1968d 40 percent. Sold em that day... For a huge profit