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I have been searching half dollars for about 2-3 years now. maybe it is just one of the normal skunk streeks but latley as the price of silver has climbed it seems the amount of silver in my boxes has decined.

I search $1000 per week (regular pick up) and do drive bys where I just ask if banks have halves about 20 times per week near my office. This year i have searched roughly $17,000 worth of halves and have found 22, 90% and 127, 40%. That puts me at 0.43% down from my historical average of 0.5% maybe that is just a natural flucuation, but maybe it isn't?

Anyone else notice this trend?

Ya things have dried up over here too. More people searching me thinks..

They have dried up here completely in the last month. So far in April I have found only two 40%ers in searching $12,000.00 worth of halves. I get $4,000 a week to search. It has gotten to the point where I am about ready to give up searching halves.

People are starting to pay attention. Yesterday at my dump bank, there was a young couple pouring some coins thru the coin counter in the lobby. Just a jar of random change, nothing special. (Yeah, I peeked.) When they were leaving, they somehow got engaged in a conversation with the guard standing near the entrnace. I could hear them talking about silver dollars...real ones. Then when I went over to the counter to submit the coin counter receipt, there was a lady at the counter, late 40s, well-dressed, trying to send a wire transfer for the first time. The teller asked "what kind of company is this, some kind of investment company?" The lady says "I guess so. I am trying to buy silver from them." I normally do not run into conversations like those two in the wild. None of my friends/acquaintances bring that sort of thing up.

I have found ZERO 90% & 40% halves after searching through $4500. I gave it up. I get a good dime once every 3 boxes. It's Slim Pickens 'round these parts.

Coworkers are starting to come up to me and mention I must be making a lot of money because "gold is up today." They're aware of the stealt move of the metals, but still not inclined (maybe they just can't afford it, most are working two jobs) to buy themselves. During my break the other day I heard a couple of other "silver experts" talking about how and where to buy silver, but their prices and silver's past performance were way off.

I agree I think with silver approaching $50.00 everyone is becoming more educated to look for it. Everyone from the people dumping coins to the bank tellers that handle them. I think if it is not already there it will get to the point where silver in circulation will be almost nonexistent. I think rather than waste my time picking up and then searching and dumping halves that have no silver in them I will be better off just to buy a few 90%ers each week.

NDFarmer wrote:I agree I think with silver approaching $50.00 everyone is becoming more educated to look for it. Everyone from the people dumping coins to the bank tellers that handle them. I think if it is not already there it will get to the point where silver in circulation will be almost nonexistent. I think rather than waste my time picking up and then searching and dumping halves that have no silver in them I will be better off just to buy a few 90%ers each week.

I agree except that in Texas if you spend $1000+ in fiat, you can get the items with no sales tax for a savings of 8+%.

I have been searching halfs for about 5 years. Just before christmas, all the silver dried up for me. At least one other searcher in the northwest has been having better luck, but for me, it has been mostly skunks, and no longer worth my time taking back all the halfs. I have told most of my banks to stop ordering halfs for me. Glad I took advantage of the past 5 years; wish I had thought to do it over the past 20. For me, the free silver is over.

I would surmise with the price rise that people are becoming more savvy as to the worth of their coins and not letting them go. Plus more searchers entering the fray. If only half as many people now give up their silver as before, and there are suddenly, say, three times as many searchers... then you could expect to find only 1/6 as much silver as you used to. The good old days are behind us.

Is the same true for dimes these days? I haven't been searching lately due mostly to lack of capital.

psi wrote:Is the same true for dimes these days? I haven't been searching lately due mostly to lack of capital.

I switched to mosly dimes about a year ago and was doing good up until about 2 months ago. Now I find apx. 1 or less silver dimes per box, last summer I would find 2 or 3 per box when I hit a good batch of dime boxes. The best luck I've had with halves is searching coin counter bags and vault bags--when I can get 'em.

Searched eight boxes from last week total score 3 40%. Found a 2011 half tonight my first. Scored on CWR last week small town, two banks, one had six rolls found total of 12 40%. Things are drying up around western New York lots of roll searchers and closet collectors. Lots of people at work seem to be talking about it also.

Like many of you I occasionally get a few halves to search. I have not found much either. Today however as I was dropping this half in the bag to return I heard a thud sound...I pull it back out and after a little more investigation I found this magic coin.

Well, I don't have years of sorting to compare since I just started boxes last year, but here are some comparisions between my numbers this year and last.

2010 - 196 boxes searched.

Total haul 432 40% and 230 90% for a total of 662.

Averaged 3.37 silvers per box
Averaged .7504 oz of silver per box


2011 - 176 boxes sorted so far

Total haul 308 40% and 106 90 % for a total of 414.

Averaged 2.35 silvers per box
Averaged .4766 oz of silver per box

2011 is skewed by February which really sucked and hurt the averages. If February were thrown out than my 2011 averages would be alot closer to my 2010 averages. On the other hand April is on track to be my best month of the year so far.

In conclusion, I'm lucky in that my haul has not suffered a major downturn (yet). So a sorting I will go.

Nice, I remeber seeing an ad for something like this in the 1980's. If I remember the coin was 12 bucks or so back then, they are 30 bucks and up now.

http://www.amazon.com/Expanded-Shell-Coin-Dollar-Steel/dp/B002M9Y918

Copper Catcher wrote:Like many of you I occasionally get a few halves to search. I have not found much either. Today however as I was dropping this half in the bag to return I heard a thud sound...I pull it back out and after a little more investigation I found this magic coin.

I look at it this way. Any SILVER I find for face at $46 spot is a gift. While I've found much more in the past, I continue to search and am thankful for the few SILVER coins I find. Now, sorting for me is just for the thrill of finding just another beautiful SILVER coin to add to my hoard.

Yes you never know when some clueless person will dump some more back into circulation....Just got a dime box today....5 SILVERS!(4 rosies and a merc) The last box I bought before that had zero...so its hit or miss-just keep on searchin!

This week I got my regular 2 boxes and I found 2 40%. It is hard to say. My numbers are down and based on some of the other numbers I have seen they are down also, but regardless i still make a few thousand dollars worth of silver per year. Even with the lower percentage. At least i got in when silver was at $13 and i was finding on average 5 per box.

I am going to do my standard Friday afternoon walk by of about 20 banks around the White House. We will see what I turn up? Last week i found only 1 40% in that walk, but sometimes i find some ikes or 1930's bills with the old quote about "redemable in legal money " on them. The best part about finding the last one was that I found it 4 blocks from the Federal Reserve HQ!

It really is ashame that i didn't know about this when i was a kid. If and when I ever get the Delorian fixed I am going to add that to my list of things to tell younger me.

Even if it seems like it, Halves are not drying up.... Look at Country's tracking stats. If you search $500 in Halves you are likely to make 6% silver (Roughly $30 in silver EVEN IF THEY'RE ALL 40%ers.) (4.something.... damn tequilla 4.35 coins per box?) vs. 2% on a box of dimes (roughly $5) (like 2 coins per box?). Country puts these stats together for a reason.... I'm not giving up on halves until I see half stats go below 1% return.

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Loose lips...

Sink ships...

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I think it's regional, and also depends on what carrier you have... as recently as '08 I was getting boxes with 50-100 40% in them- now... maybe one between 4 boxes...

Just finished going through my weekly order of $4,000.00 in halves, another total S-K-U-N-K not even one 40%er in all four bags. I have another order set up for Monday but this might be my last one.

For me, its getting harder to even find CWR halves to search - at least half or more of the banks I stop at now are usually out of all halves and I'm always hearing "the guy that was just here yesterday cleaned us out" story more and more.