Searching through rolls of half-dollars has been very disheartening lately...
I remember reading years ago (2003 to be precise) about people searching rolls of half dollars and finding older silver coins that have long since vanished from general circulation. I'll still find the occasional silver dime of the Roosevelt variety (1946-1964) and more rarely, a silver Washington quarter (1932-1964) but I had never thought to go a bank and ask for rolls of the coins to do the same thing.
I got started as both a goof and because I was curious. The people I work with would say that people don't like half-dollars but couldn't offer up any evidence of this since we don't generally give them out so I started bringing in the half dollars I didn't want and gave them out in change to general success. I get about the same rejection rate for half dollars as I do with any other coin/currency...about 2%. Sometimes the customer wants two quarters instead (often offering up a "reason" like I really need to hear one...I seriously don't give a fuck what your reason is) but then again, sometimes a customer wants two fives instead of the ten I gave them so should I conclude that customers don't want ten dollar bills either? No, so I don't take the rejection of half dollars as a referendum against the coin and because of this, I now had a venue through which I could dispose my unwanted coins.
Yes, I COULD HAVE returned the unwanted coins to the bank, but that defeats the purpose of what I'm doing. If I give them back, odds are high that I'll re-receive coins which I have already rejected. I need to go through new ones to find out if indeed there still are silver coins among them.
With all that set up, I started buying about $200 a month in half dollars. At first, I got nothing. Occasionally, a 40% silver Kennedy half (1965-1970); but nothing else. A few months in, I got a 1964 Kennedy (90% silver) but that seemed to be the best I could hope for. The tales of Franklin (1948-1963) and Walking Liberty (1916-1947) halves seemed to be an elusive fantasy. It took until October 2003 when I first hit paydirt. I got a Franklin Half and a Walking Liberty one. The next month, I even got a 1906-O Barber half dollar (1892-1915)! And thus it was like this most of the time until 2008: I would get between 1-3 silver halves per $200 with occasional 40% silver halves.
2005 was my best year when I got four solid rolls of silver halves including one with mixed silvers from 1937-1963...an original undisturbed 40+ year old roll...truly fucking awesome. But by mid-2008, the supplies dried up. I went over a year before getting four more this year...but that's been it, not even 40% halves. I've been finding the occasional impaired proof, but that's it. I can't help but feel like they're all gone now from my area. It sucks...and it's discouraging.
I know I should be happy that I'm even finding these coins at all, but it's still makes time pass slowly thinking that my next trip to the bank will be wasted too. It's also frustrating because I've managed to find over 50% of the total Franklin half series (35 date and mintmark combinations) only to have the hopes of completing the series from circulation stalled. I've even gotten a fair number of the Walking Liberty half "short set" (1941-1947)...that's stalled now too. Even the appearance of impaired proofs has stalled. This whole experience is wearing me down emotionally.
People ask me what I want for Christmas every year. I have so little space left for new things so I suggest they go to banks in their areas doing what I've been doing. You never know what might turn up! But they never do it for me. I would love to think one of their local community banks has a few solid rolls of silver halves just waiting to be taken off their hands for face value. Sigh...
ADDENDUM: This January 2011, I got seven Franklin halves in various rolls including one new date (1949-D). I'm hoping this will be the start of a good year for roll-searching.
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