Tips for $500 Half Dollar Boxes

[Recyclersteve]

I wanted to start a new thread so we can share some tips regarding when to order or refrain from ordering $500 half dollar boxes from our local banks. I've ordered a few boxes over the years, but don't really think I've had much success. I'll dig through my old spreadsheet to verify that, but am quite confident the results have been less than stellar.

So what does everyone do? Will you go through rolls labeled Brinks? What about those labeled Loomis? Or is that a waste of time because they've gone through sorting machines already?

FYI- I went through $200 of Loomis rolls yesterday and found a single 40%er. But it could have been a mistake made by a machine. If I'd found 10-20 instead, then I'd feel more comfortable that Loomis rolls might be worth going through.

I'm trying desperately to get through the next 5+ years with very little formal income (age 61 now and recently retired- I likely won't take Social Security till age 66 years 4 mos.). My wife doesn't want to take a lot of risk in the stock market, so that puts me into a bit of a bind. Any money I could make by getting silver halves at banks would be most appreciated. I don't mind the hand sorting. The thought of getting skunked repeatedly on $500 boxes is tough to deal with.

If you have something you'd like to share with me instead of the whole community, I invite you to send me a PM.

One tip I can think of is this: When someone says they have a $500 box in-house (or close to $500, say $450 or more), I might ask for $50-100 in halves from the box. I go out to my car and check both ends of the rolls if the ends are visible. Also, I open two rolls and go through them completely. That way I have a pretty good idea before getting far away from the bank whether or not I should go back inside to get the rest of the rolls.

What else can everyone think of?

[mishra142]

Halves are definitly not a great way to make money. You most certainly would make more working at mcdonalds. You will have many many skunks that is a fact. I've had 20+ skunk boxes in a row before. Over the years my average "keepers" per box is approx. 2 but like anything else you have amazing boxes and you have terrible skunk streaks.

[JadeDragon]

I can’t imagine trying to make any money sorting halves now. I buy them when I can find them for the thrill of the hunt, but they are more like scratch tickets. The cost (in this case gas, assuming your time is worthless) exceeds the potential payout.

Running a scrap and junk removal business or moving business or something would be a better use of your time. If you feel too old to do heavy lifting consider using your experience to coordinate and supervise some strong young backs.

[highroller4321]

A few tips:

You are always better off with small local banks.

You are always better off getting ALL of the half dollars a bank has. (This doesn't work if you live in a big town)

The halves don't really matter where they come from, unless you are going to the same bank over and over again. If you are going to the same bank then more then likely you are going to start going through your rejects.

[mtalbot_ca]

This is interesting. I was a .999 nickel sorter (from Canada...) and I made an experiment on weighting the boxes and try guessing the .999 nickel percentage. It did not work out, simply because I had way to many US nickels (at 5g a pop and up to 10-100 per box) versus the .999 nickel at 4.54g to be able to guess accurately. I imaging that with 1g difference between the halves made of silver (12.5g for 90% and 11.5g for 40%) versus a NI-CU coin at 11.34g, a good box with more that 5x90% would stand out. You would also avoid those being short...

Imagine if you could go in the vault...with a scale.... you could SCORE!

Cheers,

[Recyclersteve]

This is interesting. I was a .999 nickel sorter (from Canada...) and I made an experiment on weighting the boxes and try guessing the .999 nickel percentage. It did not work out, simply because I had way to many US nickels (at 5g a pop and up to 10-100 per box) versus the .999 nickel at 4.54g to be able to guess accurately. I imaging that with 1g difference between the halves made of silver (12.5g for 90% and 11.5g for 40%) versus a NI-CU coin at 11.34g, a good box with more that 5x90% would stand out. You would also avoid those being short...

Imagine if you could go in the vault...with a scale.... you could SCORE!

Cheers,

In theory you could score, but I'd imagine you'd need a super accurate scale. And I think it would be hard to find one that accurate that is inexpensive and portable.

[mtalbot_ca]

I agree.

The scale that I used was similar to this: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01DDG156A

From a purely theoretical point a view:

Since 1000 halves are weighting at 11.34kg, I would take the following steps to find a reference weight, (both for bags and boxes) against which I would compare the actual new unsearched boxes/bags.

Step 1: Confirm the baterries are new/good.
Step 2: Confirm the surface you are using is flat
Step 3: Confirm the accuracy with reference weights (1 oz, 1lb, 10lbs and 20lbs range)
Step 4: Take 10 measurements from known ''skunks''.
Establish the arithmetic average and variance.

My target would be: AVERAGE + VARIANCE.

For example: I get the following results:
- Average weight : 11.75kg
- Variance : 0.21kg

Before trying to go and set-up an inspection/sorting space in a vault...LOL (as this is possible), I would do probably 50-100 boxes and try to establish if a corrolation exists between the weight of a box and its silver content. In fact, we might find the opposite....maybe the silver-rich boxes would not be found because there were short 1-2 halves....

If confirmed, I would definitively keep all the box above 11.96kg, definitively avoid the boxes below 11.75kg, and depending on your cash-flow take the in-betweens (11.75kg-11.96kg).

JUST A DREAM, as I will never be able to experience it ...here in Canada.

Keep sorting!

[JobIII]

I tried weighing the boxes. It wasn't so cut and dry like the penny boxes. That sounds like a great plan but in reality I think you'd find yourself missing out on a lot of silver.

[ThatGuy0502]

I hope this is obvious, but don't dump at the same bank you buy the boxes from.....

[Tourney64]

I tend to have better luck in the beginning of the year. I think people cash in their coins for Christmas. I want to do some searching later this month.

[Recyclersteve]

Don't overlook the banks inside grocery stores. I've had some pretty decent luck with them over the years.

[fasteddy]

Happy New Year to y'all....

Get all the halves you can, don't edge check, look at the date. Volume volume volume....just like dimes. Order them if you halve too. I order two boxes at a time. I used to order ten boxes but wheeling out that many half boxes along with 12 boxes of pennies made nervous even with a piece in my pocket.

The place to get halves it at the bank that will sell you the $1000 bags off of their coin sorter....cha ching! although my banks stop doing that a few years back 8-(

Not only do not dump at the same bank you pick them up from but dump at a bank that uses a different armoured service....although in a small town you may not have a choice and the vault is the only one in town. 8-(

you want the Ag in halves you gotta sort, sort, and sort some more. there still is silver there....go get it.

[galenrog]

Silver is a bonus. When sorting any coins, the money is in the errors.

Time for more coffee.