Beginner Question, Advice Appreciated

[Scott in MI]

Hello all. After many hours of reading on T-Net, I decided to get in on the action in 2013. Got my first 3 boxes of halves this week and all were skunks. All 3 boxes were sealed Brinks boxes and the rolls were freshly sealed. I did notice multiple coins coming out of these boxes that either had green sharpie on the B at the top or had blue sharpie marked over "we trust" on the right hand side. Is this a coincidence or am I sorting through coins that have already been hunted? Any advice is appreciated. I went to a different bank today and ordered more boxes (not sure if they will be Brink's or not).

On a bright note, my credit union has a coin machine and they told me to come in and dump as much as I wanted anytime. The manager said they just seal the bags up and send them to the Fed so I wasn't making any extra work for them.

Scott in MI

 

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[bigscores]

Your CU will change their song sooner or later.

It's all luck... The halves you get have all been searched, it's just a question of if you caught a collection that was dumped in there at the same time and if you were lucky enough to have those rolls containing said coins end up in your box. When coins are processed at Brinks, Garda, Loomis, Dunbar, wherever, they're generally cut out of the large plastic delivery bags and dumped into a HUUUUUGE hopper that feeds them into a rolling mechanism. The rolls are then hand-packed into boxes and the boxes glued shut. So if a collection of 500 coins is dumped, they could be spread out over dozens upon dozens of boxes... it's all luck.

3 boxes is an infinitely small sample size, if you want to get some good finds, churn more, try to do at least 6 boxes a week.

 

[Scott in MI]

Thanks bigscores. Makes sense they have all been searched. Was just curious about those coin markings and if it meant something. Hopefully next week will be the week I make my first score. Silver or no silver, I go through the coins with my 5 year old and we have fun family time either way.

 

[CaliShawnNokc]

What kind of numbers are you pulling doing 6 boxes a week? I'm on my 4th and I have about 20-40% and 2-90% and 4 or 5 errors.

 

[fistfulladirt]

Was just curious about those coin markings and if it meant something.

Yes, it means that there once was a time when being crazy meant something. Nowadays, everyone's crazy.
Just ignore the coin markings and have fun searching. If you're hunting Mi you are bound to find something, just stay outa my back yard lol.

 

[Xiao en]

keep hunting keep hunting and keep hunting.

If you get discouraged on halves try dimes nickles and cents also. They all can yield a valueable metal

 

[Thorne]

The markings most likely are someones way of saying I've been here. Its always a worth a smile when you see one you had come back around. Really lets you know where your coin is been. Its like that where's gerorge been site that tracks a dollar bill serial number

 

[bigscores]

What kind of numbers are you pulling doing 6 boxes a week? I'm on my 4th and I have about 20-40% and 2-90% and 4 or 5 errors.

That is fantastic for four boxes.

I average like 20-25 ounces a week on 30-40 boxes.

 

[enamel7]

That is fantastic for four boxes.

I average like 20-25 ounces a week on 30-40 boxes.

What are the errors?

 

[ninetwosix]

I had a question, how often do you guys visit your dump banks and how much do you dump at a time?

 

[RobbyD49]

I did notice multiple coins coming out of these boxes that either had green sharpie on the B at the top or had blue sharpie marked over "we trust" on the right hand side. Scott in MI

I've run into the same blue sharpie over "we trust". I've only started doing halves and out of three boxes...skunk.

 

[CaliShawnNokc]

What are the errors?

Well, I'm learning that they aren't anything of value. Mostly doubling, and a small blemish here and there. I need to read more on errors so I know what to look for. I started looking because like Scott here, I was getting skunked the first couple times on Nickels and dimes. I figured if I'm not going to find good silver, I might as well look for errors. Now that I'm on halves, I'm not running into that issue. I'm pulling silver just fine, but now I want to get some cool errors too.

 

[GarouLady]

I have a really hard time doing Halves up here in northwestern michigan so I tend to do nickels. But to throw the tellers off my track I tend to throw my loose change into my dump. I normally do small searches, about 3-5 boxes a month. I know its small time but you don't tick off tellers or burn out your dump sites as fast. But if you luck out and have any Coinstars around you check their website to see if any offer giftcards. You can turn your coins in free of the 9 cent per dollar dump fee for a giftcard. Even better if you can find a friend to do a swap with you, swap the giftcard for hard cash without the hassle. After a few months if I haven't found anything worthwhile, I switch from nickels to dimes, or pennies, or if I can afford it about a 100 dollars of halves.

Hope this helps.
Sincerely, Garoulady