Big Boys Hobbies

Coin Roll Searching

O

oldbritiron

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Jan 7, 2009
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Hello everyone,

I have been checking in on the activity of this forum for the last few weeks now and felt compelled to "step out of the shadows" so to speak and post a thread on here.

First off, let me start by saying "WOW!" to all of you and some of your incredible finds, both MD'ing, thrift shop browsing and relic hunting. There are some very impressive finds and you should all be proud of yourselves for bringing these pieces of our history to the light of day again!

I have metal detected on and off for the last few years, but in all honesty most of my effort and attention goes into searching coin rolls for the coins I have. Believe it or not, there are also quite a few coins above ground that can cost you no less than face value, with equal or less work to digging for them!

Coin roll searching is the perfect substitute for the avid metal detecting enthusiast to ride out the cold winter months or those rainy, nasty days. The big thing, like metal detecting, is knowing where to search. Here are a few things I've picked up for better coin roll hunting success:

The biggest thing for less frustration and more productivity is knowing where your highest probability for finding coins of value and/or interest is. Personally, I have found that the coin rolls that produce the highest yield are the dimes, nickels and pennies...ESPECIALLY nickels and pennies.

Many people overlook nickels in their change mainly because the design of this coin remained unchanged for 60 years (except for the mint mark over the Monticello between 42 and 45) which makes them easy to just pass off and toss in that coin jar at home. There are some high dollar nickels that I have personally found while searching rolls, including a 1938 D, 1939 Double Die, 1939 D, 18 1942-45 silver wartime nickels, and 1950 D, not to mention countless 1940's and 50's and the occasional Buffalo.

Pennies can also be lucrative if the time is put in to thumbing through a few rolls. Wheaties are the most common, with 30's, 40's and 50's being the most common, but I have found a fair share of older wheats as well, including a 1910, 1915 D, 3 1918's, 4 1919's, 2 1920's, 3 1926's, 2 1928's and a 1929. Indian Head Pennies are few and far between, but I have found them before.

Both of these numbers for nickels and dimes, keep in mind, are the numbers from this year, averaging about $150 in coins searched a month.

Dimes, Quarters and Half Dollars can yield good coins, too, but the percentage for success is dramatically lower than that of the nickels and pennies.

Well, for those of you who read this, thank you and I hope you take something from it and good luck to all of you in roll searching and Md'ing this new year!!:)
 
Coin rolling!

I have tried all denominations except quarters and am sticking with dimes and halves. I have found more silver in these types than nickels. I am typically looking for silver and/or error/key dates. The interesting thing I am finding out about halves is that the mint is minting fewer and fewer of them each year.
 
I agree...when it comes to finding silver in rolls, dimes and halves are really the way to go. The main reason I push nickels and pennies, however is because they are not combed nearly as heavily as the dimes and quarters are and you can go through a lot more of them for a lot less money. Errors are another thing to look out for in those, too. Pennies seem to have the most denominations of errors; 1944D, 1955, 1972, 1983 and 1995 are all years that contain double die errors on either the front or back of the coin.
Another thing I would reccommend is to try and spread your search out to grocery stores, different banks and convenience stores. Don't be afraid to ask them if they have any weird change in the drawer, either! I've gotten Eisenhower dollars, silver halves including Walking Liberties and Kennedys just by peeking at the cash drawer when they open it. Last night I bought 10.00 in penny rolls from my local convenience store; I found a 1910 wheat, 1918 wheat, 1944d, 1946, 1950d, 1955D (uncirculated condition, had a brilliant reddish color to it), 1956, 1957D and a Choice uncirculated 1966 memorial cent, not to mention 4 1959 memorials and some set fillers that were in pretty good shape...all in ten dollars of pennies.
 
The key dates for pennies are usually the oldest ones.....I have coin books for 1941 to 2008 and I have filled both of them up, with only a few holes in the 141-1974 book and those holes are "S" mintmark coins, with all of the coins in those books being coins found in rolls of pennies except for a couple.

If you are looking for error varieties in pennies, there are a few year to keep your eyes out for. In the wheat variety, keep your eyes peeled for 1917 double die (found on front) 1922 no mint mark (they only made a "D" variety in this year...be careful of buying a 1922 no mint mark off ebay or from a unreliable seller because they have been known to be removed) 1944D/S (there are two varieties of this error, so if you find one, make sure you have it graded and assessed by a reputable coin dealer for a proper value) and 1955 double die (error variety on front in the numbers of the year). In Memorial cents, 1960 and 1960D small dates, 1970s small date (when looking for these coins, keep ALL of the 1960, 1960D and 1970S coins you find...it makes identification of this variety very easy to identify with a large date and small date side by side) 1972 double die (error on front) 1983 double die (error on the reverse of the coin) and 1995 double die (error on front)

Keep in mind other errors exist (off center strikes, etc) so just keep your eyes peeled when looking through those rolls of pennies.
 
I did some coin roll searching last night with a friend of mine. Kind of a slow night, but this is what we came up with from 23.50 in pennies: 6 1959 plain and D mint mark pennies, 5 wheat pennies (the oldest a 1937 d) and a 1983 with a die crack on the obverse in the O of "One Cent."
 
Coin rolling!

I was bored yesterday so I bought $100 worth of coins ($25 in pennies, $50 in nickels, and $25 in dimes). I found my first "V" nickel! It is a 1911 and I nearly crapped my pants. I found a silver dime and a bunch of potential errors in the pennies. (I'm going to get a good magnifying glass shortly to review them). I found 8 wheats and one of the wheats is in remarkable shape: 1956D. Typically the wheats are a dull brown or some other color...this one was shining like a 2005 penny.
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Excellent finds!! That's why I love going through rolls of coins...you never know what you're going to find and if you don't find anything, it's not like you are out any money or anything, right? That 1956 D is in remarkable shape...it was probably in some old person's coin jar that went into the bank and cashed them in.

I went and got 10.00 in pennies last night from my bank. While I was there, there was an old woman in the bank cashing in change (our bank has the change machine right in the lobby so the bankers don't waste time pouring change into a machine) and after she checked the coin return slot and had gotten her receipt, my buddy started cashing his change in. Before he started the machine, I figured I'd check the coin slot for the heck of it and found a 2002 Canadian quarter and a 1968 Canadian dime (this was the last year Canadian coins had silver in them...50% to be exact, 1966 and before contained 80% silver) I love finding silver!

In all those pennies I only found one wheatie, 3 1959's, a few S mint mark coins and a few Canadian pennies. I also found a 1962, two 1963 D's, a 1969 S, a 1971 S and a 1974 D that were in uncirculated/choice uncirculated condition. The best finds of the night though were two 1983 die crack coins, one of which has a crack that runs in a half moon shape from the O in ONE CENT to the N in UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.
 

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FYI: The reason that a lot of older nickels and pennies are found is because of the rim design as well. Since any Joe Shmoe can look at a clear bank wrapped roll of dimes, quarters, or halves, there are not as many of the silver coins out because of the blatantly obvious switch to clad coinage. Since pennies and nickels have pretty much always had the same rim, there are many older coins overlooked.

I also specify at the bank that I would like "publically" wrapped, (not bank wrapped) rolls of coins....more chance for some old coins to slip out of grandpa's collection, and into youngster's greedy hands!! :yes: HH
NC
 
I definitely can see that being a big reason as to why that is...another reason is people just don't care about coins in general and a wheat penny to them is a good way to not break a dollar for that cup of coffee.
 
I picked up a box of halves the other day. $500 worth and found absolutely nothing worthwhile. They were professionally wrapped by Brinks, so I wasn't expecting much. Oh well. Maybe next time.
 
dutchroots said:
I picked up a box of halves the other day. $500 worth and found absolutely nothing worthwhile. They were professionally wrapped by Brinks, so I wasn't expecting much. Oh well. Maybe next time.
Click to expand...

That's amazing....I picked up three rolls today at a bank and found two 68 D silver clad halves.....the odds! :?: HH
NC
 
Guess I need a new bank. :D

I went through every one of the 1,000 halves and there was not one of them older than 1971 or newer than 2001. There were 119 of the bicentennial 1776-1976 coins. That's a pretty large percentage. I'll try a different bank next time.
 
Bicen halves!

I hate those darn things. Someone said they might be worth something someday...that someday would have to be when the government destroys the majority of them. Below is a chart of the mintages...at leat the ones in the 60's had some silver in them :spin:

Kennedy Half Dollars, 1964 (90% silver)

1964 - 273,304,004
1964 D - 156,205,446
Kennedy Half Dollars, 1965-1970 (40% silver)

1965 - 65,879,366
1966 - 108,984,932
1967 - 295,046,978
1968 D - 246,951,930
1969 D - 129,881,800
1970 D - 2,150,000
Kennedy Half Dollars, 1971-present (cupro-nickel)

1971 - 155,164,000
1971 D - 302,097,424
1972 - 153,180,000
1972 D - 141,890,000
1973 - 64,964,000
1973 D - 83,171,400
1974 - 201,596,000
1974 D - 79,066,300
(no known half dollars dated 1975)

1976 - 234,308,000 (bicentennial)
1976 D - 287,565,248 (bicentennial)
1977 - 43,598,000
1977 D - 31,449,106
1978 - 14,350,000
1978 D - 13,765,799
1979 - 68,312,000
1979 D - 15,815,422
1980 P - 44,134,000
1980 D - 33,456,449
1981 P - 29,544,000
1981 D - 27,839,533
1982 P - 10,819,000
1982 D - 13,140,102
1983 P - 34,139,000
1983 D - 32,472,244
1984 P - 26,029,000
1984 D - 26,262,158
1985 P - 18,706,962
1985 D - 19,814,034
1986 P - 13,107,633
1986 D - 15,336,145
1987 P - 2,890,758
1987 D - 2,890,758
1988 P - 13,626,000
1988 D - 12,000,096
1989 P - 24,542,000
1989 D - 23,000,216
1990 P - 22,278,000
1990 D - 20,096,242
1991 P - 14,874,000
1991 D - 15,054,678
1992 P - 17,628,000
1992 D - 17,000,106
1993 P - 15,510,000
1993 D - 15,000,006
1994 P - 23,718,000
1994 D - 23,828,110
1995 P - 26,496,000
1995 D - 26,288,000
1996 P - 24,442,000
1996 D - 24,744,000
1997 P - 20,882,000
1997 D - 19,876,000
1998 P - 15,646,000
1998 D - 15,064,000
1999 P - 8,900,000
1999 D - 10,682,000
2000 P - 22,600,000
2000 D - 19,466,000
2001 P - 21,200,000
2001 D - 19,504,000
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
 
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