Junk Silver: Roll Searching

These days, most silver investors who are banking on junk silver, build their investment portfolio through purchases at coin stores, eBay or other online, reputable coin and precious metal dealers. Very few will tell you that searching for coins at stores or in pocket change is a reliable way to get pre-1964 junk silver coins.

A number of silver enthusiasts continue to do the old standby of  "roll hunting" and are slowly,  but steadily increasing their junk silver holdings at face value.

It works like this; go to your local bank or credit union and ask a box of halves. Typically, a coin roll hunter will order $100 - 500.00 in halves which the bank will have to order as well and have shipped in to the bank. The buyer picks up the halves and the fun begins.

Coin roll hunters will sit down and unroll each roll searching for silver coins. First they hold up the unwrapped roll and identify those coins with silver rims - those are easy. After going through all the rolls, they start checking the individual dates and pull halves dated between 1965 and 1970. These coins have 40% silver content and are worth collecting as well.

Afterward, the coin hunter rolls the halves back up, returns them to the bank and deposits them into their account. Sometimes, coin rollers will use the leftover coins to order and pay for more halves. Rinse and repeat.

Roll hunters will tell you to focus on halves and not quarters or dimes as those rolls were "mined" long ago - quarters and dimes are circulated more often than halves so the silver gets picked out sooner. Halves on the other hand have a low circulation rate so the rolls can pay off.

Some roll hunters are complaining that the returns on roll hunting are dropping each year as silver increases in value. Others say that the economy has more people dumping their coin jars and collections into the bank and that has the silver coin supply experiencing a "bump" in old coins returning to circulation.

Remember, if coin roll hunting, you can't lose any money on this pursuit as you are paying face value for the halves. Also, you can always use the leftover coins for small purchases. Good luck!

Junk Silver: What are those coins worth?

A quick note about junk silver values...

My son was examining the 1944 Washington quarter I found in a box of old junk and asked me what it was worth.

Well, the face value is .25, but the silver value is, based upon silver pricing over $40.00 an ounce is about $7.00!

Those pre-1965 Roosevelt and Mercury head dimes? Try just under $3.00 a piece!

How about that 1964 Kennedy half? Try $15.00 a pop!

OK, so junk silver was a great investment or collector's hobby as the price has risen dramatically over the past few years. But what about the future?

Experts say as long as the money supply, i.e. dollars, remain printed based upon borrowing and debt, their value will only go down and the price of commodities, like gold and silver, including junk silver, will only go up. If inflation, the diminished buying power of the dollar, grows, silver and gold will continue to rise.

It's anybody's guess what will happen at this point as there are many variables in the world economy to conider. But the fact is silver, especailly junk silver, has offered a good return on the money over the past few years. Keep digging through that change. There's a fortune in pre-1964 silver out there!