My first box of halves

[SilverFace]

I got my first half dollar box yesterday (9-9) and although I didn't have any great finds I'd say I did pretty good. There seemed to be a variety of different finds in this box which made it as much fun as searching a nickel or penny box. But of course the silver finds make it a little better than searching nickels or pennies.

Anyway I found 9 40%ers, 29 NIFC's (I coundn't believe that) and a double sided reverse coin which I'm guessing is a magicians coin but I can't get the coin apart. I was really surprised by all the NIFC coins I found including nearly an entire roll of 2008's and 5 clad proof coins. And one of the proofs was a 1972S which is the oldest proof coin I've ever found. I also found another 1976S coin which doesn't appear to be proof but I can't tell for sure if it's silver by looking at it. The tone of the coin makes it look like it might be silver but the edge is a little dirty so it's just hard to tell. But I suppose if it's not proof then that means it must be silver so I'm going to include this one as a 40% silver find for now. I found my first '76S coin just last Friday (9-2) and that coin looks proof but I'm pretty sure it's silver too. I'll just have to wait till I get me a scale so I can weigh these coins to find out for sure. Anyway here's my list of finds for this box:

9 40%ers (including the '76S): (1) '66, (5) '67, (1) '68, (1) '69, (1) '76S

29 NIFC's: (1) '72S, (1) '97S, (1) '98S, (1) '06S, (1) '10S, (1) '02P, (1) '03P, (11) '08P, (8) '08D, (1) '09P, (2) '09D

For some reason I can't get rid of that stupid cool face but it should be eight '08D's above

And one double sided reverse coin that I suppose is a magician's coin but I can't get it apart - maybe it's not supposed to open.

I ordered 1 brinks bag about a year and a half ago but it was a complete bust so I've just been searching cwr's and loose halves since. But I like these boxes (garda I think) with the string & son white and yellow wrappers. Before I even finished searching this box I even called the vault teller @ the bank where I got this one and asked her to order me another one for next week. So I was thinking maybe I'll bring her some chocolate or something next week when I pick up and ask her if she could start ordering me a box every week. And then maybe after a couple of weeks I might see if I can increase my order to 2 boxes a week. If I could average 8 or 9 40%ers a box I would be one happy hunter. But I won't know for sure about what kind of averages I'm getting until I start searching more boxes - maybe I was just a little lucky with this box. Only time will tell.


Btw, this box wasn't nearly as good as the score I had last Fri. with $91 in cwr's and loose halves but I'm still happy with this first box.

Keep on searchin' & HH

 

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[Numismaniac]

I'd be very happy with that box! Congrats.

On the 76S the best way to tell for sure if it's silver is to weigh it on a pretty precise scale. You will need one that weighs to at least a 1/10 of a gram. The 40%ers are about .3 grams heavier than clad I think. Just compare it to other 40%ers and clad.

In 76, they made clad halves (76 and 76 D), clad proofs (76 S), silver proofs (76 S), and silver BU coins (76 S).

Nice haul

 

[SilverFace]

I'd be very happy with that box! Congrats.

On the 76S the best way to tell for sure if it's silver is to weigh it on a pretty precise scale. You will need one that weighs to at least a 1/10 of a gram. The 40%ers are about .3 grams heavier than clad I think. Just compare it to other 40%ers and clad.

In 76, they made clad halves (76 and 76 D), clad proofs (76 S), silver proofs (76 S), and silver BU coins (76 S).

Nice haul

Thanks. As I mentioned above I found my first '76S coin just last Fri. (9-2) and that coin appears to be proof but it looks silver to me as well. I think I even noticed that coin from edge searching before I even looked at the date. But the "76S I found yesterday doesn't seem to have any glossy proof finish that I can see so if it's not proof than that should confirm that this coin is silver without even having to weigh it. But I've been meaning to get me a scale for a while anyway so I'll double check and weigh both of these coins when I get a scale.

And has anybody ever found one of these double sided reverse coins - or maybe double sided obverse coins? I found my first magicians coin just 3 or 4 weeks ago but it was a '74 coin with both rev and obv. sides and it opened up. This coin I found yesterday I remember I kept turning over to see the date before I realised it didn't have one (the roll kept shifting in my hand and I kept losing my place with the coin as I flipped it over that's why I had to check more than once - but I guess the joke was still on me). But it was kind of a surprised because I've never found one like it. But then I've never even seen any magicians coin before I found that one 3 or 4 weeks ago and that was a surprise too.

HH

 

[Generic_Lad]

It could just be an altered coin made to be used in coin flipping contests. Most magicians coins look like a normal half dollar to try to fool people into thinking its an unaltered coin.

 

[sneak]

Nice score! I keep the 2008's since they have a mintage of only 1.7 million each. That is lower than the 1970-D!

 

[BuffaloBoy]

I would love to have boxes like yours, love the proofs and love the silver, the non-proof NIFC's in my opinion aren't worth keeping, I know how you're thinking, i thought the same way, save all the NIFC's... Then I got a box with 200+ nifc's and decided to only keep 2 of the best coins per date and mint mark... hope this helps!

 

[SilverFace]

I would love to have boxes like yours, love the proofs and love the silver, the non-proof NIFC's in my opinion aren't worth keeping, I know how you're thinking, i thought the same way, save all the NIFC's... Then I got a box with 200+ nifc's and decided to only keep 2 of the best coins per date and mint mark... hope this helps!

I was really surprised I found so many NIFC's with this box. I think I found just about as many in this box as I have in the past 2 years I've been CRHing. And all the '08's and '09's look to be at least AU's with really crisp (I guess that's the word) edges. I can't resist saving them because of the low mintages. I even save the '09 nic's and dimes I find for the same reason and those coins were released for circulation.

But if I found a box of 200+ of them I would probably think a little different too and maybe just keep the nicest looking ones as you said or maybe keep them all and try and dump them on Craigslist for a small profit. But I tried to do that before with 200+ circulated clad Ike's I had and that didn't work and I just wound up dumping them at my dump bank.

Also it could be that they might stop minting half dollars completely sometime in the near future which might give them a little more value too. That's just a guess but it does seem a little odd that they keep minting them regularly every year just for collectors only. But there are already several bills in Congress to discontinue the gold dollar coins (although that's a little different situation) so who knows.

HH