Saving half dollars

[50centsaver]

Hello, I've rejoined realcent after a few years absence. There used to be topics in regard to saving 50 cent pieces (which I have some stories to tell when I have some time). Unless I'm missing it I don't see that topic listed here in the "new" realcent. One question I have is, is it worth saving 1971 and newer halves for the copper/nickel content?
I am saving copper pennies and nickels now thanks to this forum. Thanks much to all you posters!

[neilgin1]

Hello, I've rejoined realcent after a few years absence. There used to be topics in regard to saving 50 cent pieces (which I have some stories to tell when I have some time). Unless I'm missing it I don't see that topic listed here in the "new" realcent. One question I have is, is it worth saving 1971 and newer halves for the copper/nickel content?
I am saving copper pennies and nickels now thanks to this forum. Thanks much to all you posters!

just my opinion, the most seamless and easy way to accumulate cupro/nickel AMERICAN coinage is stack "bricks" of $100 FV nickels, available at face, already wrapped, and easily transportable/ and they stack neatly, as the boxes are made of sturdy cardboard.

i've found in my limited experience, a neglected segment of the halve dollar market are the Kennedy 40%'ers....even the circ's dont have tremendous wear, and , as you know they comtain .15 toz of silver.

May your Thanksgiving be a day of good food and family love, riches that money cannot buy. i say that coz i am in the bosom of my family now, and as they sleep, (yeh i am the 'nut' that wakes early) they are priceless to me. i pray your heart walks on that road today, welcome back, neil

[68Camaro]

Agree with Neil in every sentiment. I have some nickel bricks as one of the best ways to store FRNs with meaning. I personally don't due the 40%ers but agree that they are an excellent discounted method.

Especially agree with your Thanksgiving sentiments Neil - you have a great way with words of the heart. Blessings to all of you! (Though I should probably echo this in the TG post.)

[50centsaver]

Thanks for your quick responses guys. Last week after reading about saving nickels on realcent I decided to start saving them. I also save pennies, silver halves- 40 and 90%, and have some gold. I wish I would've had the gold bug back in high school! I graduated in 1973. No one taught me. I would've used my lawn mowing $ to buy ounces, rather than on girlfriends! Ha!
Like I mentioned in my above post I will have to share a few of my "gleaning" halves from banks stories in the future.
Yesterday I DID pick up my first 2 boxes of nickels from my bank. Other than the few nickel savers like us the great majority of people do not have any idea why we savers want boxes of nickels. I almost feel like it's a good idea to keep it a secret?

I take it other than running into one here and there the only way to get Canadian nickels is buying them for spot or above/not FV? There's probably no place to order them for FV, right?

A fun, healthy, safe Thanksgiving to everyone.

[68Camaro]

Thanks for your quick responses guys. Last week after reading about saving nickels on realcent I decided to start saving them. I also save pennies, silver halves- 40 and 90%, and have some gold. I wish I would've had the gold bug back in high school! I graduated in 1973. No one taught me. I would've used my lawn mowing $ to buy ounces, rather than on girlfriends! Ha!
Like I mentioned in my above post I will have to share a few of my "gleaning" halves from banks stories in the future.
Yesterday I DID pick up my first 2 boxes of nickels from my bank. Other than the few nickel savers like us the great majority of people do not have any idea why we savers want boxes of nickels. I almost feel like it's a good idea to keep it a secret?

I take it other than running into one here and there the only way to get Canadian nickels is buying them for spot or above/not FV? There's probably no place to order them for FV, right?

A fun, healthy, safe Thanksgiving to everyone.

Buying nickels is no longer a secret, but most people still don't get it. Even the hoarders, because the margin is low. But it's a safe place to hold a modest amount in FRN which is easily convertible back to paper as needed.

There are on-site now two near-spot offers on CDN nickel for sale. To get near spot price normally requires a significant volume purchase. I've bought a small amount, and continue to collect them off my dump bank magnets (also the CDN dimes and quarters, which .999 nickel as well, before the changeover date).

[50centsaver]

Sorry- what does FRN mean?

[woodyh]

frn = federal reserve note (toilet paper)

[neilgin1]

Sorry- what does FRN mean?

Fifty, NEVER be sorry about any question asked here. Its rare on the hurly burly flame world of the internet, but these men here, actually ENJOY being of service, in regards to helping others who need questions asked. These are the good guys, white hat coin cowboys. That might sound like a joke, but it aint. neil

[OneBiteAtATime]

Sorry- what does FRN mean?

Fifty, NEVER be sorry about any question asked here. Its rare on the hurly burly flame world of the internet, but these men here, actually ENJOY being of service, in regards to helping others who need questions asked. These are the good guys, white hat coin cowboys. That might sound like a joke, but it aint. neil

And what's interesting - the black hat types tend to weed themselves out.

[neilgin1]

Sorry- what does FRN mean?

Fifty, NEVER be sorry about any question asked here. Its rare on the hurly burly flame world of the internet, but these men here, actually ENJOY being of service, in regards to helping others who need questions asked. These are the good guys, white hat coin cowboys. That might sound like a joke, but it aint. neil

And what's interesting - the black hat types tend to weed themselves out.

know what? thats true...been skating across the web, here's a video on one of my favorite guys, a white hat type, Brett Favre. its a neat video, he's miked, and he just one of the good ones, he always encouraging to his guys, friendly to the opposite team, friendly to the ref's....and it just seems like he had FUN, he enjoyed playing the game,. i sure miss him:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uIKuogLuqbE

i think you guys'll enjoy this 6 minute vid, neil

[rexmerdinus]

white hat coin cowboys.

Dude, I LOVE that!

[Hawkeye]

I agree. I've learned a lot from this forum and I appreciate every bit of knowledge I've gained. There are some good people here who are willing to share their knowledge and experience, which I have found to be rare. You usually either get one or the other: morons and scam artists who are more than willing to "share" information, and guys who know some things and keep it all locked up.

As I have learned from experience, the only dumb question is the one you don't ask.

[50centsaver]

Time for a story. 3 years ago after buying silver halves from a dealer, I thought how about if I go to banks, buy rolls to go thru looking for silver halves.
I thought others had to of thought of this too and sure enough I discovered realcent, and enjoyed corresponding with others about this method.

I am a school assembly performer (forplanethealth.com). I travel 47 states doing my programs in schools, so I thought it'd be a golden (silver) opportunity to look for halves as I travel- a perk of my job. Since then I've went thru 1000s and 1000s of dollars of halves across the US. I have many success stories to tell, as well as headaches from these endeavors- like the hassle of always having to dump the non-silver- sometimes having to pay ie $10 (sometimes banks do it for free), crabby bank tellers, being shorted by bank counters, all the time I've put in, gas $...There's the work involved...There's no free lunch, BUT…

This find is my favorite- you'll see why: I was in southern Minnesota a couple of hours from where I live.
I was low on cash- I usually carry $1000-1200 with me when I'm on my tour searching for halves. I only had $72 with/left my silver searching $ at home.
I hadn't figured on searching that day. I got to the small town and had a little time before my show so thought, why not see if there's a bank. I had enough $ for 7 rolls.
I found this very old little 2 teller brick bank- one of those old banks that have been there since the beginning of time- the only bank in town. I explain to this nice young naive teller that "I'm looking for some 50 cent pieces, some half dollars." She's says "OK", goes back into this ancient little vault and brings back an open white canvas sack. She tells me there's $256 worth (512 coins) and lays the bag on the counter in front of me. (Usually banks have the halves only in rolls if they have any halves at all.) I peek in the bag and right away I see one or 2 silver and immediately my heart starts beating a little faster as I realize most likely this bag hasn't been gone thru by silver hunters. I knew I only had about $72 cash so I searched my brain what to do. One of those lightbulb "aha!" moments occurred, and even though I doubted she'd let me do it, out of my mouth came, "Would it be possible for me to only buy the ones I want?" (Ha! Out of all my halves hunting I've done those words have never come out of my mouth.) Without batting an eye she said "sure", and led me back to a small meeting room! Needless to say I was very happy and surprised about this, felt like a kid in a candy store, and was looking forward to seeing what was in the bag! We sat down and she dumped out all the coins on the table- all 512 of them. Already I could see more silver ones. Yes!
I explained I would like the halves dated 1970 and before, that "I like to collect the older ones."

She proceeded to HELP ME go thru the pile to look for them! I realized this was too good to be true, somebody pinch me!

We made small talk as we started to go thru the pile. She checked each coin by date as I took a bunch/approx a roll's worth at a time and checked for the silver edges as I always do. I became excited as I was immediately finding some, as was she! I wanted to get thru the pile as soon as I could so I wasn't even checking to see if they were 90% or 40%. I did notice a few were 90% as each of our piles grew. I couldn't believe this was happening. I just hoped I had enough cash.
She asked if I wanted the "dirty ones" too, and without trying to sound too obvious I said "yeah sure, I'm not that picky". She had no idea about the silver. Later she said "The ones you want seem to be a little different color". I tried to sound surprised that yes indeed they were.
Our respective piles continued to grow and I was beside myself. I noticed a few were Franklins as I hurriedly went thru the pile. When she counted what we set aside it came to $43 FV. I had $29 to spare! She even gave me a nice green bank zippered bag to take them in. I thanked her VERY kindly for her help and wished her a GREAT DAY. I was smiling from ear to ear as I made it to my car, anxiously awaiting to see how many 90%ers were in the bag. There were 22! -including 7 Franklins- which I especially enjoy finding because they are rare. So 22 90%, 64 40%. I laughed, I whooped! This was a once in a lifetime find. I had paid $43 for silver that today is worth approx $575. I've kept the find separate in that green bank bag. What a fun memory.

I'll post about my other finds sometime. My blood pressure is up as I write this, fun to recollect.

[NHsorter]

Great story 50, thanks for sharing!

[everything]

Thanks for the travelers story. Their is something about the 50 cent coin, I like them too, my last finds were a 62d Franklin and a 2009S.
It is interesting though to consider the melt value of the 71-11 .50 which is only .09, but the diversification of the nickel is pretty cool since it has 25% nickel in it.

[neilgin1]

wow Fifty! that is about one of the neatest stories i ever read on this forum, plus i've NEVER seen one of those ancient brick banks actually in business. Seen them in towns, etc, being used as other business's......what a day that must have been. if i may so bold, what time period did this mini bonanza happen to you?...the reason i ask is that i been involved with futures since 81..ie seen silver trade $4-5 for AGES, but i didnt wake up until Feb 2008, which meant i had to ramp up quick in the $12 to 20 band for toz coins, and 12 to 18 times in the 90%'ers, so my experience is just one of picking off roll after roll on Ebay, using FRN's, which isnt as exciting as your's or the other guys experiences...thats why i ask.

also, it does amaze me, what people percieve as "valuable"....this teller had no idea of the value. Thanks for the great antedote!

[50centsaver]

nellgin1 wrote: "what time period did this mini bonanza happen to you?"

It happened about two and a half years ago. Glad you liked the story. My mom is really interested in coins. She always smiles and laughs when I re-tell that story. She gets a kick out of it. She is starting to give me all her copper pennies and nickels she gets for change. I bought a little scale for her to use for the pennies.

You wrote: "also, it does amaze me, what people percieve as "valuable"....this teller had no idea of the value."

This happened to me: At one bank when I asked for halves, 2 tellers went thru them first right in front of me taking out all the silver- so they obviously knew the value! "Shucks!"

At another bank, they first went thru the halves taking out the 90%ers but left the 40%ers!

At another bank, they counted out some loose halves (about $20 worth) saying, "I think there's some silver ones in here". I said, "That's OK",
and they gave them all to me.

I was in TN, picked up 20 rolls of halves, and EVERY roll had from 1 to 8 40%ers, NO 90%ers, so I presume they had taken out the 90%ers but didn't know 40%ers had value? Very odd. Why did EVERY roll have at least one 40%er?

The majority of banks I've been to have NOTHING when I go thru rolls. I just tell myself, the only thing I've lost is a little time, effort, and gas, and think, it's all part of the game. The game requires patience, and persistence. Maybe the silver gods will shine on me the next bank...It does get old though going to bank after bank after bank getting skunked.

The most I've ever gotten in one roll of halves is 19! Can you imagine how cool that was! I've heard of someone who got 20, from the old realcent forum.
8 was my first record, then 12, then 16, then the 19. I'm usually happy if I get one or two a bank. I've been to alot of banks.