Realcent.org

http://www.coinweek.com/modern-coins/1000-kennedy-half-dollar-roll-search/ interesting article

Neat!! Wish I had such an opportunity.

awesome!!!!!! I need to do this one day with a $500 box.

awesome!!!!!! I need to do this one day with a $500 box.

Anyone worth their half dollar reputation can see that one of the boxes he opened (the one he shows halfway down the article) was full of searched and re-wrapped halves.

He was also painfully slow - of course it was a research project of sorts and he was looking for non-silver numi coins, but that's generally not worth the time. Should have been through both boxes in a half hour.

Interesting idea.

I had the greatest fun doing $1000 a week, did it for about two years. I had just as much fun looking at all the marked up halves from previous searchers. Sure proofs were found, yay, and the newer ones in AU condition, and I had a pretty good collection of both AU, 1976, proofs, anything else AU, polished, and the stupid political half dollars, with pictures of obama painted on them, and etc. The old british penny is the same size as a half dollar, as is the australian half dollar, and so are some bar chips. It just didn't pay for itself, or I doubt that it did, although my pickup was about three miles away and the dump was about 5 miles away. The last two boxes I searched I found 10 oz. silver in 40%. I still search penny boxes, maybe one a month just for a little fun.

I did this a lot in the 80's and 90's and found some decent stuff. Lots of 90% and many 40%.

Today?... a complete waste of time and energy.

I was late to the game and missed out on the early days of this that so many like yourself talk about. Because the searching threads were showing some people still finding silver, I did try this myself 3-4 years ago and realized after 15-20 boxes that I was late to the game in my area and someone(s) had already skimmed them out - plenty of evidence of prior roll searching. So I ended up with mostly the same opinion as you, for a time. But...

When I mentioned this to a friend in another state, he decided to give it try despite my discouragement of him. I'm glad he didn't take my advice because in a couple of years of heavy roll searching he's picked up hundreds of silver halves, including a fair amount of 90% and including walkers and franklins. I visited him in late 2015 and searched 6-8 boxes myself with him. He was disappointed in the take relative to his norm but I wasn't! I picked up 4 64 halves and a half dozen 40%ers. It was a first (and probably last) for me, and I've saved those that I found so that I can later say that I remember the day when such a thing was possible. The take is starting to decline now in his area; he's about to give it up.

The point is that there are apparently still in the US islands of relatively unsearched banks, and you don't know for sure until you try.

Searching is enjoyable, especially when you make the rare find.

But ....

I find my time is spent better (compensation) if I just pick up a bit of overtime and buy silver on dips. Just me. If you like unwrapping
roll after roll, and lucky to find one 40%...