Holy Smokes! halves find

[mazorj]

I went to the bank today for a quick transaction. Was in a hurry so I
didn't bother asking if they had any rolls of halves or other goodies. Out
of the blue, the teller asks "Are you still collecting coins, Mr. Mazor? We
have something you may be interested in."

My first reaction was mild astonishment that after years of doing business
there, I finally had a teller who recognized me and cared enough to hold
something for me. "Sure. What have you got?" I figured she had a few
rolls from the anonymous half-dollar collector in the area whose picked-over
leavings were slowly filling out my albums.

She pulled out a sealed white envelope of jingling coins with $44.50
hand-written on it. Other than that it was one of the bank's deposit
envelopes, there were no other identifying marks. Whoa! This time I wasn't
taking re-rolled table scraps. This might actually have a piece or two of
junk silver pulled from someone's drawer!

Little did I know. Out of the 89 loose halves in the envelope, I got:

Walking Liberties - 3
Franklins - 2
1964 JFK - 14
1965 JFK - 5
1967 JFK - 1
1968 JFK - 2
The 63 others are clads, mostly from the 1970s. There is one brilliant AU
1995, which suggests that 1995 was the last time that the owner paid any
attention to this half-forgotten accumulation of halves.

That's a hit rate of 30% in silver, and only a few are junkers. The
likewise untouched clads will get close scrutiny for mint errors. Somebody
obviously raided their (or someone else's) decades-old stash for hard-times
cash.

I wish I had had the presence of mind to ask, but given that they were
sealed in a bank deposit envelope with nothing other than the amount written
on it, I suspect that the teller took them in as loose coins, bagged them
for her drawer, and held them for me or the other collector). So, folks, it
really does happen and it does pay to cultivate relationships with tellers.

- mazorj
"Sick and tired of re-rolling 1978 halves"