The Beginning

I have been coin roll hunting for over a year now. I started after reading a post on Steemit about it and was intrigued right away. Until now I only did no-risk coin hunting meaning that I paid $10 for each roll of half dollars. If I found silver coins I would profit, but if I didn't I could cash my coins back in for the same amount I paid. Sometimes I find no silver and other times I find over a hundred dollars worth in a single box of 1,000 coins.

Premium Coin Rolls

I look for coin deals on Ebay from time to time and last week I came across some rolls of silver dimes and silver dollars that were being sold as part of an estate sale. The interesting thing about these rolls is that the only known coins were the ones on the ends with only one side being visible.
These coins were sold at auction so there was a lot of aggressive bidding right up to the end and I had to pay more than I would have liked but it's exciting to think what can be inside.

My Gamble

After watching the initial auctions close, I couldn't help myself and ended up winning five auctions that included three rolls listed as Mercury dimes and two rolls of Morgan dollars. At the current price of silver the melt value of 50 silver dimes is about $55. The goal is to find rare coins that are valued more that what I paid for roll.

The First Roll of Dimes

The first roll that I won had a Barber dime on the end so I was hopeful that there would be more inside the roll. I paid $117.70 including shipping for this roll and when I opened the roll, this is what I found:

The Top Find

The best coin I found was a 1935 S Mercury Dime that I estimate to be in AU-50 condition. The value of this coin is about $12.00. There were also 5 other coins in AU-50 condition.

Dissapointing Barber Dimes

There ended up being three Barber dimes in the roll. The one on the end was the highest quality with the other two being AG or G condition.

The Rest

The rest of the coins were all common in about F to VF condition.

Final Results

The book value of all the coins in the roll is about $142.14 and having paid $117.70 leaves me with a theoretical profit of $25.44. This doesn't factor in any of the time or costs associated with selling the coins so most likely I'm looking at a loss for this roll. Hopefully the other rolls I have will be better. Based on this roll I don't have high hopes for the other two rolls of dimes as I paid more for them because of the coins on the ends, but I am still hopeful for the dollar coin rolls. I'll open those up with my son when he's back from camp in the mountains tomorrow afternoon.