Another box with 20 silver halves

[Megalodon]

Three weeks ago, I posted about a box with 20 halves - all 40%ers. Seven skunk boxes later, last week's boxes also produced 20 40%ers in one box and a single 40% silver half from the other box. Also got my first painted silver coin, a '69. Not sure if it is nail polish or paint & will try acetone to remove it.

 

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[Dozer D]

Better than what everyone else is pulling, congrats.

 

[Uncleslick18]

Wow. Nice Mega. Makes me want to start ordering halves again

 

[dibdab]

Gotta like pulling silver a roll at a time.

 

[CJ9]

this is a great find - nice

 

[bertmaster2000]

Nice finds! The painted half is likely a jukebox coin from a bar back in the day. I recommend you keep it as-is. May have a higher sale value to a collector.

 

[wesleytyler]

Wow nice!

 

[Megalodon]

Nice finds! The painted half is likely a jukebox coin from a bar back in the day. I recommend you keep it as-is. May have a higher sale value to a collector.

Good point! Thanks. And it is easier and less destructive to leave it as-is too. Glad that I hesitated to clean it until your feedback! Is there any significance to the red color for a jukebox?

 

[Megalodon]

Gotta like pulling silver a roll at a time.

Yup! Finding exactly 20 for a second time makes me wonder if a solid roll of silver was dumped in the hopper to be MWR'd at the coin sorting center. Not 19, not 21, but exactly a whole roll. Two of the rolls in this box had two and one roll had three.

 

[Kantuckkeean]

Yup! Finding exactly 20 for a second time makes me wonder if a solid roll of silver was dumped in the hopper to be MWR'd at the coin sorting center. Not 19, not 21, but exactly a whole roll. Two of the rolls in this box had two and one roll had three.

Nice score. Many years ago, I picked up a bag from a bank that my wife searched. It had exactly 20, 1964 Kennedy halves and no other keepers. I’d say you found a solid roll the hard way.

Kindest regards,
Kantuck

 

[Megalodon]

Better than what everyone else is pulling, congrats.

It appears that way because we don't (usually) report our skunk boxes and streaks. Last night was a good example. While watching the World Series, I did two boxes - total was a single 40% silver (1966).

When we go fishing, we usually don't talk about the times we got skunked either. Those times seem like "failures", though we may have fished more technically correct.

But the chance of success is what keeps us going back for more! Good luck out there!

 

[Megalodon]

Nice score. Many years ago, I picked up a bag from a bank that my wife searched. It had exactly 20, 1964 Kennedy halves and no other keepers. I’d say you found a solid roll the hard way.

Kindest regards,
Kantuck

Good to hear from you Kantuck! Its hard to shake the mental image of someone at a sorting center opening a roll of solid silver and dumping it into the hopper...

Wish I could buy bags here. The head teller at one of my credit unions actually told me they were tripping over all the bags and I quickly offered to help her out by buying some. But they are afraid to run afoul of corporate policy prohibiting bag sales after some CRHers complained about being a few coins short.

 

[Kantuckkeean]

Good to hear from you Kantuck! Its hard to shake the mental image of someone at a sorting center opening a roll of solid silver and dumping it into the hopper...

Wish I could buy bags here. The head teller at one of my credit unions actually told me they were tripping over all the bags and I quickly offered to help her out by buying some. But they are afraid to run afoul of corporate policy prohibiting bag sales after some CRHers complained about being a few coins short.

You bring up a really good point and I suspect that you're right about CRHers complaints making the hobby more difficult. Around 10 years ago, I didn't have much difficulty getting tellers to empty machines, even when only partially full. If they wouldn't sell the partial, I would offer to fill it and then pay the difference and many were open to that. Lately I've found few banks that will even sell the full bags. They say that it's policy to "send them to the Fed." I always figured that the foreign stuff and being shorted by a coin or three was just a cost of the hobby and that hitting nice scores much more than offset any shortages, so why bother drawing any unwanted attention and making tellers' jobs more difficult by making any fuss. I took the advice of others on here and gave chocolates and such to particularly friendly banks.

If they're tripping over bags, you probably aren't missing much. I find it much more likely that there's a volume hunter dropping bags on them than some old lady hauling in bags of Barbers, WLs, and Franklins. I ran into that years ago. I stopped by a bank in western Indiana. I asked if they had any halves. After buying the loose ones, she said that they had $5,000 in bags in the vault, which I hadn't run into before. I bought one, just to give it a try. My wife searched it in the car, since we were on a road trip and she immediately knew that it had been searched because there was a purple mark on the rim of every coin. She did find one lonely 40% half with a purple mark on the rim... Take that purple marker guy!!

I'd say the complaints from CRHers, volume hunting, and just the general increase in hunters, and subsequently awareness by tellers are the primary reasons that the hobby became much more difficult.

I'd like to get back into buying boxes on a regular basis but the ROI wasn't worth it for me. I was averaging 1 40% per $1,000 searched so I gave up boxes. I still do an occasional nickel box or cent box, but mainly pop in random banks on work trips so that I can stretch my legs for a bit.

Kindest regards,
Kantuck