Any body has some coin roll hunting tips?

[Renthewren]

Hello! I am getting into coin roll hunting, And was wondering if any body has some tips for me. Thank you! 

[Six Mile Rick]

What are you searching for?  

Varieties or high grade?

[Six Mile Rick]

Your best coins are going to come from original mint rolled coins. Many collectors have their own coin rolling kits and re-roll the coins after they search them. Today's coins are in special mint wrappers or the bank rolls which are in plastic.

[Renthewren]

I am mostly looking for errors, key dates And stuff like that. I mostly look through pennies, but I am going to look through nickels soon too. 

[Six Mile Rick]

Personally  I search rolls for top grades and then search for the varieties within the group I save. Sometimes something will jump out that is strange and I will set it aside. It seems that variety coins at a low level grade are really not worth getting graded unless it is soooo rare.

 Of course I deal in all NGC graded coins but --- a raw set of variety coins would be a fun search in findings for sure!! 

 

[Mohawk]

Hello,

Rick is absolutely correct in his assessment.....original mint rolls are going to yield the best coins as far as grade goes.  Those types of rolls are where your highest grade pieces will be found.  Bank rolls are typically going to yield circulated pieces that may be good for filling in a Whitman Folder or Dansco Album just for fun, but they aren't going to be worth much.  As far as key dates in rolls goes......that ship has essentially sailed decades ago.  I look through rolls sometimes, and it's a scarce occurrence to find any Wheat Cents from before 1940 or any Jefferson Nickels from before 1956 these days.  This is not to say that there are not good coins still hiding out there......I've found a few.  For example, I've found 2 1984 Doubled Die Lincoln Cents in rolls, but I had to look through literally thousands of cents to locate them.  I like doing it because looking though coin rolls relaxes me when I'm stuck when I'm working on my school work and that, in turn, often gets me unstuck (I'm working on a doctorate), so I am getting a reward from the activity anyway...the 1984 Doubled Dies were just bonuses.  But any classic key dates, such as 1909-S VDB and 1914-D Cents are long gone.  I wouldn't go into this venture expecting to find those kinds of key dates because the odds of finding such a piece in a roll today are astronomical.  If you're doing this for fun, go right ahead because it IS fun.....just don't set your expectations for what you will find too high or you will quickly become discouraged.

Varieties and errors are absolutely possible though.  One thing I would recommend for this venture is familiarizing yourself with all of the different varieties you may find in your chosen denomination.  NGC's Variety Plus on our host's site is a great place to start.  There are also other sites online, such as Coneca's website, that are great free to use resources as well.  If you want to spend a few dollars, you can pick up a copy of Strike It Rich With Pocket Change by Ken Potter and Brian Allen.  I have a copy, and it's a great resource for the roll hunter as it lists many different errors and varieties which could reasonably be expected to be found in the coin assortment that makes up modern pocket change. 

Let's see....what else......One denomination I wouldn't waste my time on with bank rolls is quarters.  The State Quarter mania of the early 2000's has ensured that quarters have been gone through by people who may not be considered serious collectors but who were at least paying attention to the coins in the roll.  Anything old and made of silver would jump out rather quickly.  Quarters also circulate widely and are used in many vending machines and Laundromats, creating another arena for anything interesting to be snagged fairly regularly.  I did a few test rolls of quarters a couple of years ago and it was a total bust......all clads, mostly State and America the Beautiful Quarters, the few standard Washingtons were all beat up pieces from the 1980's and 1990's......not worth the effort if you ask me. 

Well, that's all I've got!  I hope it helps you and good luck in your hunting!

~Tom

[Renthewren]

Thank you so much for your advice! It will definitely come in handy! 

[Conder101]

Cultivate good relation with your bank tellers because in the long run the bank is going to hate you.  If you are able to get a bank to provide you with rolls or boxes of coins DO NOT return the searched coins to the same bank.  (Unless you WANT them to hate you even sooner and cut you off.)  If helps to have an account withthe bank, preferably with a large balance in it.  If you can try and determint which armor car companies service each bank then make your dump bank one that uses a different service than your source bank.  (Otherwise what you dump gets rerolled and sent back to the source bank and you are searching the same coins over and over.)

[kennyj]

I have searched rolls here & there for a few years. I have bought boxes of pennies and half dollars from the bank; or just picked up 10 rolls here n there of whatever denomination I felt like getting. I still found some 40% halves and 2 or 3 Walkers; found a 1913-D type 2 Buffalo (corroded) but legible; as far as the pennies go, circulated wheats and coppers (1981 and prior) are saved. I do find some nice red pieces from time to time (60's-70's saved), I look for Wide AM varieties as well (only found 1998 wide AM so far). Still looking for that "84 Doubled Ear". And of course I check all my pocket change, lol.