Some people have a hobby of searching rolls and rolls of coins for 40% or 90% silver coinage that is no longer being minted.  They call themselves Coin Roll Hunters, and their activity is called coin roll hunting, or CRHing.  But it’s not just some US coins that have silver in them.  Many Canadian coins do as well.

While most coin roll hunters look in rolls of Kennedy Half Dollars for silver, Canadian coins like quarters, halves, and dollars, minted through 1967 contain a decent amount of silver.  Even Canadian quarters and halves minted in 1968 are half silver.  With the price of silver fluctuating daily, and since it’s fairly easy to search through coins that, when you are through searching through, can be returned to a bank and redeemed for face value.  You are never really out any money, only temporarily.  It could be argued however that some banks might not be too happy if you come in and try to dump or get rid of $500 in half dollars or dollar coins.  All of that roll searching does take time too, but I’m sure for many it’s a labor of love or just a plain old hobby.

With silver at around $12.50 an ounce USD, Canadian dollars minted from 1935 to 1967 contain about $7.50 USD in silver.  And as the silver price goes up, so does the value of these coins.  Before too long, there won’t be any silver left in circulation as it will have been conveniently removed by coin roll hunters and collectors looking for a zero loss opportunity to build their coin collections and bullion stockpiles.

There are websites like www.coinflation.com that allow a person to see just how much a US or Canadian coin that contains silver is worth, and just how much each year contains.  EBay is full of people trying to buy and sell these coins, as many have numismatic value as well as intrinsic precious metal value.  It’s usually very tough to find any of these coins at below their silver melt value and many sellers expect buyers to pay premiums on them because of their silver content.

I have heard stories of Americans and Canadians taking road trips to try to go out to banks in remote locations to hopefully locate rolls of coins that have not been searched for decades.  It’s amazing the stories you will hear, but most people who are into CRHing will tell you that just about any bank has the potential to really pay off for someone who has done their homework and knows what they are looking for.  Personally, if it takes me 4 hours to go through 100 rolls or coins with the potential to net an average 5 to 6 40% or 90% silver coins, I’m not doing so well in terms of dollars made per hours spent looking.  I even heard of people searching hundreds of rolls before they find anything at all.  While I’m sure people CRH as a hobby or even an obsession, it’s just not worth it to me.  I can make more per hour at just about any normal job and my hands don’t end up all smelly.  I guess in this recession, everyone’s looking for a way to pull in a few extra bucks on the side.