Weighing Half Dollar Rolls for Silver

[SilverGuy23]

I have been getting $500 string boxes that have 4-8 rolls missing. When i search the remaining rolls, i am skunked. It almost seems some one is weighing rolls to get the silver and only opening the heavy rolls.

Does this technique work for searching for silver?

[argent_pur]

At best I would say it is highly unreliable to do that because you have no way of knowing the amount of wear that the coins in the roll have. A better and more relaible method is to do an edge-check.

[AGCoinHunter]

I have seen the same thing in the past. I believe the person is doing it by weight. That is the only logical way I believe this could be done.

[rainsonme]

When I started looking for silver halfs, I would weigh every roll, segregate them between heavy, avg, and light. Then see if I could predict that all the silver woudl be in the heavy rolls. I was using a balance scale. I could not predict. So I abandoned that attempt. I have always wondered if a metal detector that was sensitive to silver would be able to pick out a silver half amid all that nickle/copper.

I would ask for sealed boxes.

[SilverGuy23]

So last night i searched my $460 string box and was skunked. but i did find one Proof in great shape, 1998s.

I will ask for sealed boxes from now on. I ordered two boxes yesterday, she said they would be in next week.... cant wait.

Kind of like that anticipation Christmas morning,

[totalcount]

I have tried this (even posted about it on the old board). It is fairly reliable but not totally. If there are lots of slot machine worn coins in a roll it can hide a silver one. I think you would end up getting around 80% of the silver doing it.

If you can get more coins than you can dump through a counter and can return the rolled ones easier than loose ones (like at a bank without a counter) then it is worthwhile, it is also a little faster (but not much). It does sound like someone is doing that

[UDEric]

From my experience with this, 90% silver coins almost always show up as heavier on the scale, however the scale that I have can not tell the difference between 40% silver and non-silver halves.

I get 226g for a skunk or 40% roll and 228g for a 90% roll...(NOTE: my scale only weighs to the nearest gram and does not have tenth of a gram ability)

[appjoe]

I have a gram scale it rounds off to the nearest gram and I also tried to predict the rolls I found at 225 grams I never found silver. At 226 grams most rolls no silver but a few had a 1 40%. I found the 227 gram rolls always had 1 90% silver half. I had 1 roll that was at 237 grams. My heart started racing i couldn't open it fast enough. The first thing I did was check the edge all clad I put them on the scale again still 237 grams I checked them all no silver, here the roll had a extra half in it 21 instead of 20. What a let down so I still check all the rolls for NIFC's or anything else that might be in there. The eyes are the best tool. Take your time relax and enjoy the hobby.