half dollar box

[frugi]

$500 for a box, found only one 1964 silver half, and nothing else worth more than face.

I hope I can try it again. my local bank doesnt get them in very often, and I dont usually have $500, to spare, in fact i didnt have it to spare this time, I am cutting it close, I will have to dump these, and see what happens, maybe I will pay the bills, or get another box at a different bank. This box wasnt very fruitful compared to like it was 5 years ago. I was hoping for a bunch more silver.

[theshoenlebens]

Lucky you got the half.
I've been thinking about sorting a box again myself. Stopped awhile ago when I sorted around $7000 without any finds. No customer rolls here. Have to order so that doesn't help either.

[angel2004]

I just kept $500 for searching. reusing and getting new boxes. You kind of have to order boxes where I am. Some banks are more willing than others to do so. The most I found in a box was 4 (1 90%, 3 40%) My best find was when I asked a teller a few weeks ago if she had any halves and she had $13.00. I took them loose and $6.00 in 40% !! I somehow don't think some people realize they are silver or they just plain don't know! I was very lucky in that find!

[scyther]

1 90 isn't bad at all. If I were assured even 1 40 per box, I'd still be searching halves...

[angel2004]

I know. That's pretty much all I've ever found. Only 1 box with none. I guess I had been lucky. The bank is the problem for me since I kind of kept reusing the same money to get the boxes, they just gave such a hard time not worth the aggravation. To me, it was like winning a scratchoff! Nickels have been about the same for me 1 or 2 silver there too.

[Ecotic]

I have a pretty novel way of attaining and sorting half dollars. On one of my 'penny runs' (days where I go to a big city with like $1,000, I'm at the first bank by 9 a.m. and visit my last one at 6 p.m. to get as many pennies as I can) where I visit like 30 banks in a day, I just ask to buy whatever half dollars are in the tellers tray at the time. This way I don't get shorted in a roll a customer brought in and I don't have to hope for one of the extremely elusive half dollar boxes. So I go back to my car with my pennies and halves, quickly glance through to see if I got any silver, then cash back in the skunks at the next bank I visit. I can go through the equivalent of 1-2 boxes a day doing this, and so over time I build up a rather good bit of silver.

[Bigsarge]

I had to take a little break from halves for a couple weeks. I went through 6k in halves and wound up with 3 - 40%ers. My bank has no problem with me ordering them, just the dumping was getting to be a pain in the butt for what I was finding. Going to try again today and see if my luck changes

[knibloe]

I get $1K per week. So far this year it has been dismal. Maybe 1-40% per week with several weeks in a row with all skunks. Last week, I had a box with 6-40%. This week I have sorted $900 of the $1K. I have found 8-40% and 1-90%. It would be great to think that this will continue, but I doubt it.

Dumping them isn't the most peasant thing, but I don't have any problems doing it. I paid $2K at once on my credit card last month.

[angel2004]

So where you you dump? I don't go to banks I don't have an account with to get the halves but it sounds like some of you do. I don't want to go to the coinstar machines since they take a few of force giftcards.

[tedandcam]

So where you you dump? I don't go to banks I don't have an account with to get the halves but it sounds like some of you do. I don't want to go to the coinstar machines since they take a few of force giftcards.

Most of us have several accounts with different banks and credit unions. We pick up at the banks/CU's that are willing to order coin and dump at the ones that are either unwilling to order or don't have a system that we favor to dump at. NEVER EVER EVER dump at a different branch of the same bank you pick up at. That will get you cut off in a heartbeat.

[angel2004]

Thanks. I just have 2 banks so not that many to go to.

[Ecotic]

NEVER EVER EVER dump at a different branch of the same bank you pick up at. That will get you cut off in a heartbeat.

One way I've always avoided this potential problem is by buying the boxes with cash (instead of making a withdrawal, which leave a record that a bank's computers may flag), so it appears on my account activity that I just deposit a lot sometimes, but not that I pick up a lot.

[angel2004]

But if you dump and pick up at the same bank you could be getting your same coins back.

[scyther]

But if you dump and pick up at the same bank you could be getting your same coins back.

Not usually. For whatever reason, most banks ship the coins they receive off to the fed, and order new boxes to give out to customers. I have no idea why.

[scyther]

NEVER EVER EVER dump at a different branch of the same bank you pick up at. That will get you cut off in a heartbeat.

One of my banks doesn't mind if I do that. I've only done it a couple times with the same denomination, but they said it's okay. I also consistently use them as a dump bank for pennies, and pick up dime and nickel boxes at the same time.

[Klark Cent]

i wish i would have been sorting halves 20 years ago. i wasted so much time playing tecmo bowl and super mario bros. the percentages would have been high, the banks more cooperative, etc.

oh well. i am stacking nickel boxes now. in 30 years, maybe i can cash in!

[angel2004]

There are still halves to find out there as well as war nickels! Nickels, I agree, are an item to save!

[SilverDragon72]

Nickels! I haven't sorted any for a while now. I hear that the 2013's are out now, so I may just have to order a few boxes....

[camtender]

i wish i would have been sorting halves 20 years ago. i wasted so much time playing tecmo bowl and super mario bros. the percentages would have been high, the banks more cooperative, etc.

oh well. i am stacking nickel boxes now. in 30 years, maybe i can cash in!

It would be interesting to find out how much higher the percentages were 20 or so years ago. I would guess that the would not be that much higher.

[frugi]

i wish i would have been sorting halves 20 years ago. i wasted so much time playing tecmo bowl and super mario bros. the percentages would have been high, the banks more cooperative, etc.

oh well. i am stacking nickel boxes now. in 30 years, maybe i can cash in!

It would be interesting to find out how much higher the percentages were 20 or so years ago. I would guess that the would not be that much higher.

I guarantee you the percentages were much higher 20 years ago. In 1993 silver was only like $3.75/ozt.

Back just 6 or 7 years ago I bought a bag from the Brinks sorter at the bank, and it had over 100 half dollars that were 90% silver, over 20 were Franklins, it had probably 50 that were 40%, it did have a bunch of batting cage, and car wash tokens as well, but also had several Colonial coppers in it from the 1700's, one from Connecticut, a promissory half penny from Britain, and several bank tokens from Canada. It was a major score. I didnt sort that many boxes or bags back then, but I did get more after that one that had bunches of silver, but I usually spent the money on bills, and never had the cash to buy the bags. Since that time, I have only recently tried again a couple of times in the past couple of years. SO, I have been out of touch for awhile. On this most recent box I was expecting much more than just 1 silver half.

[Robarons]

When Silver is $3.75 oz isnt the silver content of a 40% Half worth less than its face value?

I recall a dealer saying that in this time period a change from .55 to .57 a 40% was amazing.

[dannan14]

When Silver is $3.75 oz isnt the silver content of a 40% Half worth less than its face value?

I recall a dealer saying that in this time period a change from .55 to .57 a 40% was amazing.

Close, spot of $3.38 makes a 40% worth $.50

[everything]

I sorted $1000 weekly for 1.5 years, found about 40 oz. total, I could go up to a month at a time before finding anything.

[Tourney64]

It had been 6 months since I got half dollar boxes. Last round of 4 boxes yielded 2 skunks, 55 silver 40% halves, and the last box yielded 1 40% half. I'll get more once I can stop working 19 hours a day 7 days a week. Last 4 boxes sat around for 3 weeks.