Coin roll hunting presentation given

I gave a presentation on coin roll hunting last night at my metal detecting club. The response was incredible as members posed many questions and wanted a copy of my presentation. I thought I would post it here as well for you all to view.

Presentation:

What is Coin rolling hunting? Wikipedia defines it as:

Coin roll hunting (often abbreviated "CRH") is the hobby of searching change pulled from circulation for collectible coins. These coins can come from several sources but the serious hobbyist usually obtains his coins from a bank in the form of rolled coins.
Coin roll hunters obtain -- in the U.S., rolls of pennies, nickels, dimes, quarters, half dollars, and sometimes dollars. They may also ask bank tellers if they have any old currency set aside. Hunters open the rolls and search for old or collectible coins to save for a collection or to sell for profit. They then return the unwanted coins, referred to as "rejects", to another bank. It is considered poor etiquette by CRH'ers to return rejects to the same bank they were picked up from. If a batch of coins contains nothing of interest, the hunter says he has "been skunked".
There are three main types of coin roll hunters; the composition hunter, the variety hunter, and the set hunter. Composition hunters hunt for precious metals (usually silver, sometimes copper). Variety hunters search for mint errors. Set hunters attempt to complete sets of a specific type of coin.
Prime targets of American coin roll hunters are silver dimes and quarters made before 1965, and silver half dollars from 1970 and earlier. Nickels are searched for silver "war nickels" (1942-1945) and older discontinued designs. Pennies are searched for wheat pennies (1909-1958) and the rare Indian Head penny (1859-1908). A few penny searchers save copper Lincoln Memorial cents (1959-1982), speculating on their future value as copper bullion. An occasional dime can also be found in penny rolls, giving the collector an instant bonus. The most common coin searched is the half dollar because of its low circulation volume. Since the coins have little or no turnover from hand to hand, they have been the best denomination choice for finding old and rare types. The half dollars from 1964 and earlier are composed of 90% silver, and the ones minted from 1965 through 1970 are 40% silver by composition. Silver prices rose dramatically in 2006, making silver coins worth about 8 to 10 times the face value. Toughening economic conditions have caused people to deposit long-held stashes of coins at banks, unaware of their value as collectibles.
Often coin roll hunters also collect special proof coins, exonumia, and coins from other nations.
The practice of coin roll hunting has also been extended to paper bills. Given that bills have much shorter lifespans than coins, older bills are much rarer to find in circulation. A fortunate hunter can still find United States notes and old-style notes (pre-1996). Due to a size reduction, bills older than 1928 are almost impossible to find "in the wild". Other hunters look for star bills, which contain a star at the end of the serial number. These bills have a small premium over face value if in pristine condition, especially if sequential star bills are found.

Tips for getting coins from a bank:
Go to a bank that charges no fee (i.e. a bank that you have an account with). When cashing in “dump”, dump at a branch that you do not frequent. Dump in smaller portions. Example: dump 2 boxes at most on each occasion.
What to look for? Silver, proof coins, and error coins
http://www.collectorscorner.org/pocket.html#Halves Excellent site that tells you what to look for in your pocket change by denomination.
Dollars? Error coins
Halves? Silver, error, and low mint years:
Kennedy Half years: 1964 and prior are 90% silver (including Franklins and Walkers), 1965-1970 are 40% silver (1970 is a KEY date with 2.15 million coins minted). Other key dates:
1987 P: 2,890,758 1987 D: 2,890,758
2002 P: 3,100,000 2002 D: 2,500,000
2003 P: 2,500,000 2003 D: 2,500,000
2004 P: 2,900,000 2004 D: 2,900,000
2005 P: 3,800,000 2005 D: 3,500,000
2006 P: 2,400,000 2006 D: 2,000,000
2007 P: 2,400,000 2007 D: 2,400,000
2008 P: 1,700,000 2008 D: 1,700,000
2009 P: 1,700,000 2009 D: 1,700,000

http://www.collectorscorner.org/pocket.html#Halves Excellent site that tells you what to look for in your pocket change by denomination.

Here is the site I use to check the prices of coins based on their metal content (i.e. silver, copper and clad) http://www.coinflation.com/coins/basemetal_coin_calculator.html
You should save all 1982 and prior pennies for their copper content. Canadian pennies should be saved as well from 1996 and prior. Canadian pennies from 2000 to present are steel pennies…like ours in 1943. They are not worth much, but pretty neat regardless.
Here is a screenshot of the price of 100 pennies from today (4/16/09) $1.44!!!



Here is an excellent article on the aspects of buying copper:
http://www.goldwhy.com/copper-bars.html

Here is a site that is already selling copper pennies in bulk…by the pound:
http://www.pennybullion.com/

Here is yet another really neat article in support of hoarding/buying copper pennies.

Last but not least, you can find other coins in rolls of pennies (and other coins as well). This morning I got 4 boxes of pennies from my bank. I started unrolling them and BINGO I found another dime. I wanted to take a picture of it, but I had already cut the roll open. I put it aside and examined the unopened rolls to see ANOTHER dime. I took a picture to show you all. One dime found in a roll of pennies represents basically a 20% return…for doing NOTHING! Brinks can make these mistakes ALL day long!! Note the dime about 1 inch from the right end of the roll…you can see the silver color and ribbed rim.






Here is a link to the site that sells a penny sorter (i.e. sorts copper pennies from zinc pennies). $500, but really neat! I cannot justify buying one of these yet

http://www.ryedalecoin.com/Products.html