Silver vs Money

This is an interesting video about the supply of silver and the limited potential ownership of it.

Coin Roll Hunting Tip: Getting Rid Your Unwanted Change

What do you do after you sorted through all that change?  All of those unwanted zinc cents really add up. You could roll the coins but that would take time away from searching new rolls. Some coin roll hunters open up accounts at other banks to "dump" rolled change or take advantage of a free counting machine in the bank's lobby.  Another option is to take the coins to the Coinstar machine.  If you want to get past the 9.8% service fee these machines charge, you can opt for a gift card to merchants like Amazon.  This works well if you were already going to make purchases through these vendors.

50 Roll Cent Bank Box Break # 2

 I purchased a 50 roll box of cents from my bank and these are the results: 

• Wheat Cents: 6
• Canadian Cents: 4
• "S" Mint Marks: 3
• Copper Lincoln Memorial Cents: 25%
• Total EF - AU Coins For Albums: 35
• Key Find: 1964 (AU) 

Verdict: These were machine rolled cents and they may of been partially searched for wheaties and nice memorial coppers.  There were multiple corroded/green cents in the box.  The box produced average copper results. I pulled a large quantity of key error dates and will inspect them once my magnifier arrives.

50 Roll Cent Bank Box Break

I purchased a 50 roll box of cents from my bank and these are the results: 

• Wheat Cents: 12
• Canadian Cents: 8
• "S" Mint Marks: 5
• Copper Lincoln Memorial Cents: 27%
• Total EF - AU Coins For Albums: 75
• Key Find: 2000 Off Center 

Verdict: These were machine rolled cents and they produced ok results.  I found some really nice AU cents including a 1960D, 1964D, and 1970.  The box was light on Lincoln Wheat Cents but produced decent copper results.  I pulled 8 Canadian cents with the oldest being a 1957.  I pulled a large quantity of key error dates and will inspect them once my magnifier arrives.

10 Roll Cent Break

 I purchased 10 rolls of pennies last week from my bank and these are the results: 

• Wheat Cents: 9 
• "S" Mint Marks: 6
• Copper Lincoln Memorial Cents: 25%
• Total EF - AU Coins For Albums: 10
• Key Find: 1962 (AU)

Verdict: These were customer rolled cents and they produced odds results.  I found some really nice AU cents including a 1962, 1968, and 1973.  There were multiple "S" mint marks in the rolls.  On the other hand, many of the coins were severely corroded or run over by a car; including a 1973S that could of graded MS 65 (RD) if the face wasn't scratched off.  This lot of coins seems to of been from a hoard of cents that either fell in the street or got mixed with some pennies collected by the homeless.

What Are My Motives?

Not long ago, I started thinking about ways to diversify my net worth while protecting myself against inflation.  I thought about investing in gold, but I am currently priced out of that market.  I also thought about silver and did buy some, but it is not cheap and there is a premium being associated with each transaction.  I wanted to get into a metal cheaply like the silver coins being minted in the early 1960's (1964 and back).

The current silver colored coins being minted in the U.S. today are copper-nickel clad.  Given the composition, weight, and denomination the current nickel could be a good investment. The nickel currently contains between $.05-$.07 of copper-nickel clad.  Another option would be to sort though pennies and save all cents minted 1981 and older as these are 95% copper. The nice thing about saving nickels is there is no sorting required.  All nickels in circulation currently have the same composition.  This may change in the next year or so as the government is investigating alternative metals.  The US Mint spends more to create the nickel than it is worth.

I currently search rolls of cents and nickels.  These are the items I am saving from the "hunt".

Nickels - Everything!  Nickels are currently made of 75% copper & 25% Nickel (Until further notice that is!).  I am also working on 2 Jefferson 1938 - Date sets with my kids.  This has proven to be a fun activity.

Cents - I am currently saving all pre 1981 cents for the copper value, high quality cents for a couple of albums we are doing as a family, and sorting certain dates for inspection of errors.

 I plan to post my finds here and hope to here from others as they set out on this low overhead treasure hunt!

Resources I have found useful:

http://www.survivalblog.com/nickels.html

http://www.coinflation.com/

http://www.numismaster.com

Striking It Rich With Pocket Change

A Guidebook Of Lincoln Cents

Complete Guide To Buffalo And Jefferson Nickels

http://www.lincolncentresource.com/

Coin Show Radio