Embossed Masonic Penny Found in a Coin Roll!

Along with all of the incredibly valuable finds that you will pull out of coin rolls when coin roll hunting, you occasionally come across a peculiar but otherwise menial find that will pique your interest but will not line your pocket. Most often these come in the form of foreign coins, but periodically you'll cross paths with one of the embossed coins, most often pennies. The coins have an etch, carving, or stamp that had some meaning to someone or commemorates an event. These coins are typically made by individuals, but some organized groups have made and sold them for special events such as the bicentennial of the US. Most have no premium but many coin collectors and coin roll hunters collect them as a curiosity.


I happened to come across an embossed coin this week while hunting through some customer submitted penny rolls and noticed that this wasn't your run-of-the-mill bicentennial carved penny. It's shown here on the left, next to a more typical JFK penny carving that also exists in my collection. Definitely click on the photo to see a larger image.

The penny I found has the Masonic Square and Compass stamped into it. I won't delve into details about the Freemasons, but I recommend anyone who's unfamiliar with the group to take a few minutes to learn a little about them.They're a somewhat mysterious group in popular culture, but Wikipedia estimates that there are about 2 million in the US.

My guess is that this very coin is a challenge coin within a specific lodge or a pocket piece of a member that somehow escaped into circulation.

Coin Roll Hunting is Profitable! You CAN Make Money!

I’m really into coin roll hunting. It’s by far one of my favorite hobbies and I definitely enjoy blogging about it and sharing the secret with you all. I’m also pretty active on a number of forums that cover the topic and it seems that I’m always at odds with people that claim that coin roll hunting isn’t worth the time it takes to do, you can't make money coin roll hunting, and it certainly can’t be profitable. This pot was only further stirred by my blog post on here entitled “Is Coin Roll Hunting Worth It?”, which caused a lot of readers to reach out to me on the many forums with challenges. Even today I was pulled into a discussion where the profitability of coin roll hunting was attacked. To put it bluntly, those who are not profiting are just not doing it right. So, I’m determined to present my model for coin roll hunting, which works for me and may work for many of you. It also won’t work for many of you. That’s the luck with this sort of thing, and without moving or dedicating a prohibitive amount of time there’s actually nothing you can do.

Get it? This about change!

   1. Location, Location, Location!

First, let me talk a little bit about where I live which probably the single biggest factor contributing to the profitability of my coin roll hunting and ultimately how this is all able to make money. I live in a moderately-sized urban city. We have professional sports teams. We have a pretty strong dedication to tourism. We have skyscraper corporate bank locations.We also have a large older population of people, many immigrants, who worked their way up in the world and are now passing their estates onto the next generation. Sure, all of these things may contribute to better finds which certainly leads to better profitability, but  the single biggest key to success based on location is the infrastructure that all of this commerce necessitates in the community. There has to be enough businesses and storefronts to support of all of these people and that means that people need to make change.

There are probably between 50 and 60 bank branches that are within a comfortable walking distance of where I live and where I work. I do all of my coin roll hunting activities on foot by walking to branches that are conveniently located to wherever I am at the time. I never have to drive to any of my banks and this really cuts down on the main cost that a coin roll hunter will bear from their hobby. If I have a particularly heavy load to drop, I just make the 4 minute walk multiple times in the same day. If one teller seems tired of me that day, I just move onto another branch. Simple!

The competition between these branches also makes coin roll hunting very easy. All of the small businesses like food markets, drug stores, and souvenir shops in the market districts get their coins from these branches so any coin orders a hunter would like to add on is just “another” dime box that they’re ordering for their many buisness customers. I sometimes have to wait in line when I'm dumping my coins into the counting machines as the business members dump their weekly till. (This is also a great time to scout coins -- Is that a silver dollar right there?) The banks around don’t really complain about providing coinage because they don’t want to lose you to the bank next door (literally, it's right next door).

Even better, much of the public transportation is free (well, our tax dollars fund it!) since the city wants to ease up much of the car traffic in the city, so this makes traveling to banks even easier. Just hop on and go to another region to a whole new set of tellers who have no idea why you want a box of pennies - all free of charge.

Exploit the natural strengths of your location.

    2. Never, EVER pay a fee for coins or to return them 

Coinstar charges a 8.9% fee. This will not end well.

There’s no reason to ever pay a fee to get coins to hunt or to return them. The expected value of a box over its face value is much lower than the fee that I’ve heard of banks charging, typically between $5 and $12. Coinstars are good for finding coins in the reject slot, but almost never to return them. Trust me, you won’t stay profitable for long paying fees like their 8.9% rate. Many banks are willing to provide coins at no additional charge as a convenience to their customers and many others even offer a free coin counting machine that will save you a load of time and money on the dump.

If you don’t have access to a machine, rolling isn’t really that bad if you plan ahead and always have paper rolls available. Remember – banks will almost always give you paper rolls for free so NEVER pay for them, either!

Avoid fees at all costs and hunt aggressively for banks that won’t charge fees!

  3. Find other channels for revenue 

I’d like to think that my posts and stories of hunts and results are entertaining or at least semi-informative. But, that’s not the only reason why my site exists. Companies are willing to compensate me for the exposure they get from my readers. This just adds to the earnings from this wonderful hobby. Fortunately, having a blog isn’t the only way to generate additional revenue! Entering into various banks very frequently helps to keep the coin roll hunter informed of promotional offers that banks have available, not to mention the customer rapport that develops. I really think that a lot of offers have made their way to me based on my frequent interaction with the tellers. Just this weekend I was asked if I wanted to talk to the financial consultant at the branch since he had some new and interesting promotions to share with me.  Making more money with my money – isn’t that the goal of profitability from coin roll hunting!?!

The finds aren’t the only funding! Find the other types!

Final thoughts:

Coin roll hunting is profitable for me, but as you can see a lot of it is really just where I’m located and how I’m able to exploit my environment to make money. I also utilize my coin roll hunting hobby to launch other profitable ventures that just grow the earnings from this hobby even when I’m not searching. Many of these tips may not be possible where you’re located, but you might be able to use these tips to your benefit in your own environment and ultimately make some money by coin roll hunting and remembering your 5 Magic Words for Free Silver Coins. Those bags of money sitting around won't just be just full of zinc pennies anymore!

The 5 Magic Words for Free Silver Coins

If you're a reader on my blog then you're already in on the secret for scoring free silver coins from the bank: coin roll hunting. Today I heard an advertisement on the radio for someone looking to make money by sharing the secret with you. That's great for them, but I do it for free!

Their little spiel is that that they will teach you the "5 magic words for scoring free silver coins at the bank". In honor of them, I thought we could think what those 5 magic words for coin roll hunting might be. I never paid for their lessons and neither should you!

Some quick ideas that came to mind:

What are your 5 Magic Words To Get Free Silver Coins?

1. "Can I have a box?"
2. "Do you have half dollars?"
3. "Gimme all da silver now!"
4. "Heck yeah I'll take silver!'
5. "I'll take that in silver."
6. "How many rolls is that?"
7. "I know the secret words!"


I gotta run now but please add your own in the comments below and be sure to check out my latest coin roll hunting journeys here!

What's the Best Bank for Coin Roll Hunting?

Today I opened a brand new bank account. For Coin Roll Hunting. Yes, that's right. Coin Roll Hunting. Otherwise, the features of the bank are pretty miserable. They're closed pretty much all of the times that I'm outside of work. Their fees for overdrawn accounts and other bank "services" are quite high. But, they don't charge for coin rolls and I never plan on using the account other than as the best answer to "Do you have an account with us?" when I ask for more coins than I reasonably have an excuse for.   ( A quick aside -- my personal favorite excuse is "I work a lot of flea markets / yard sales" or "This is for a 'Guess How Many Coins are in the Jar' fundraiser" )

That got me thinking, "What's the best bank for coin roll hunting?".

Since I live in an urban environment my answer may be a bit different than yours if you coin roll hunt in a small town or if you're looking for silver in the suburbs.

My answer is "The closest bank you can find (that doesn't charge fees for coins, of course!)."

Realistically speaking, most banks are going to be approximately equal for silver, errors, or interesting coin varieties, so the specific bank you select isn't too critical as far finds quality. Coin roll hunting is a numbers game and part of that is frequently churning through coins. That means going to the bank a lot. A whole lot. Closer banks are easier to make it to every day.

This bank is located a 3 minute walk from my workplace and I'm pretty sure I'm going to hit them up for many times my balance within the first few weeks. It's all gravy after that.

Do you have any bank accounts just to get you more banks to coin roll hunt?

Side note: I got over the $4,000 mark today. $26,000 to go in order to meet my $30,000 search goal!

CRH 6/8/2013 : $100 Skunk Reversal

It's been a little while since I last posted, but it's only sort of my fault. I've been hitting up my source banks but they've all been out of coin (or so they claim) so when I get there I can't really pick up anything. That, combined with some non-coin roll hunting things I've been chasing, have been keeping the posts light.

Last time I searched I got skunked on $150 in dime rolls.

This morning I woke up intending to hit a few banks on my Saturday rounds just after they opened, including a branch that I don't frequent very often. If you're a somewhat avid reader of my blog (and you better be!) then you know that all of my hunts are done by carrying the coins. This branch is a bit farther than I'd like, but it's definitely doable if I keep my coins in a bag. I walked the 30 minutes over there and entered the branch. I noticed that there were no tellers at the large main desk and was sort of caught off guard. One of the bankers informed me that she could help me over at one of the smaller support desks. Unfortunately, this teller had given me some hard times with supply rolled coin in the past, so I pretty much just walked out the door.

 As I walked down the sidewalk I realized that it was foolish to assume that she'd be unable to help me, so I turned around, walked the 25 paces or so back to the bank and asked the teller if she help me with a box of dimes. "We don't have any of those," she replied. Then I asked here about lower quantities of dimes and she said she could give me $100. Apparently asking for a box of dimes doesn't fetch a counter offer when they are short.  I guess there are 2 lessons to learn here:

1.  Never assume a teller is going to give you a hard time about coin roll hunting, even if they've done so in the past. 
2. Just because you ask for a box of coin rolls doesn't mean you shouldn't ask for lower quantities of coin as well

All but one of those dime rolls turned out to be customer wrapped rolls (CWR). Well, good thing I asked her for those coins, because the $100 yielded 4 absolutely gorgeous silver dimes. That's a pretty good haul and puts my silver count at 21 silvers so far for the year! The years for the silver dimes are 1963D, 1964D, 1952, and a 1964!

1952, 1963D, 1964D, and 1964 Silver Dimes found Coin Roll Hunting 6/8/2013

I'm going to aim to hit another one of my source banks tomorrow since they have Sunday hours! I'm crossing my fingers to find more silver dimes in those coin rolls!

CRH 5/29/2013 : Wheats and a Cud Error Penny!

Today I went to my local source bank, which has been getting weaker as the days go by. I used to go by and they'd have hundreds of dollars in coin rolls for me. Now, they're down to the bare bones when it comes to the rolls they have available. Occasionally they mention that some other people have been picking up larger amounts of coins, too. Another hunter may be about! I'll have to keep a closer watch over my coin roll hunting grounds.

I was only able to get $50 in dime rolls and $10 in penny rolls. How weak! I hoped something good was in them!

The dimes were unimpressive. No silver coins to be found today.

The penny rolls were considerably better. I pulled quite a few wheat cents, all from the 1940's and 1950's. Those are very common in CRH so pretty typical, yet better than average wheat results. An even cooler find was the incredibly shiny brilliant uncirculated 1955 wheat cent! It's easily the best condition wheat cent I've ever pulled from a penny roll. I imagine coins like this must have had a pretty cushy life to survive almost 60 years without any bad signs of circulation or corrosion. It sticks out like a sore thumb on my wheatie shot below:

CRH Wheat Results 5/29/2013 1955 BU Cent!

But the best part is still coming! I found this little gem in one of my rolls as well. He's a little worn, but he's easily the best find of the day.

1981 Cud Error Lincoln Cent Found Coin Roll Hunting in a Penny Roll!

It's a 1981 Cud Error Lincoln Cent! I'm not exactly an expert in error coins, but I did some quick research on how cud errors are made and it seems pretty straightforward. A cud error coin like this is caused when the die that is used to strike the obverse breaks under the many hours of use. The following coin strikes with the broken die are defective and a blob of extra metal is left in lieu of the die pattern. While a Cud can be faked or unintentionally replicated, the presence of weakness on the reverse in the same location indicates that this cud error is likely authentic!

My first obvious coin error found coin roll hunting! That totally made this hunt worthwhile since this is one of my best coin roll hunting finds!

By chance, does anyone know how much this cud error coin is worth?

Is Coin Roll Hunting Worth It?

When I tell people what I do or they catch me lugging around coins in my backpack, they often ask me questions like “Is Coin Roll Hunting Really Worth My Time?”, “Does Coin Roll Hunting Pay off?” or “Can you really make money Coin Roll Hunting?”. My answer to all of these questions is a very excited “Yes!”

First off, if you haven’t my mini-primer on coin roll hunting, I strongly recommend starting off with reading it here. It gives a very brief overview of the coin roll hunting process and what we’re all talking about.

Doubled Die Lincoln Cent

 Remember that you’re only paying face value when buying coins for coin roll hunting. Assuming you find nothing valuable, you can simply return all of your coins and get back at least your investment.  There are many places that you can return your coins, but my favorite is to always use a bank with a coin sorting machine since it’s the quickest return method by far. Most banks also don’t charge their members a fee in order to use the coin counting machines, so there’s a little added bonus over some other options. One of the key parts of the “financial model” of coin roll hunting is that your coins are always worth at least what you paid for them. Would you buy a stock in a company that you knew could never go lower than what you paid for it? I think most people would.

Dime with a cud at 10:00

 Another key part of making money by coin roll hunting is how likely you are to find desirable or valuable coinage.  You would imagine that it’s not easy to find valuable coins, but that’s not exactly the case. Many valuable coins, like doubled dies or even some cuds, aren’t obvious to non-collectors but can easily be Ebay’ed for substantial percentage-based profit.  Silver coins aren’t incredibly common but can easily be found in any higher volume search.  These coin values vary with the silver price but are typically worth about 18-25x the face value of the coin in silver value alone. This is before factoring in any numismatic collector value. Dime roll hunting and quarter roll hunting have been particularly fruitful ways for me to find silver coins.

Rolls of Silver Quarters Are Out There!

There’s also the opportunity to get a collection windfall. About 2 years ago I was fortunate enough to buy some $10 quarter rolls from a credit union that turned out to be filled with 40 90% silver quarters. At the time, each roll was worth $250 in silver value even though I only paid $10 for them.  More recently, I hit a later year wheat cent collection. As older collectors pass their coins down to their next of kin, the value or importance of those coins is not always communicated or understood and they escape back into circulation to be found yet again!


You can see that it’s possible to get value from searching circulated coin rolls for valuable coins. They’re out there. Non-collectors are missing them and new collections are getting released back into circulation every single day. Sure, finding valuable coins isn’t going to be an immediate windfall, but you’ll accumulate value much quicker than you think, especially since finding silver in coin rolls isn't too hard. Worst case scenario, it’s very easy to dump all of your non-valuable coins right back for new rolls to start searching all over again.

Best of luck and happy hunting!

What's a NIFC Coin?

If you've spent any time reading through the stories of coin roll hunters (as you're doing right now), you've undoubtedly come across people saying that they found some NIFC coins. This sort of language is particularly common among the half dollar coin roll hunters. NIFC stands for "Not Intended For Circulation" and includes many different types of coins that were not released as generic business strikes for everyday use including proofs and business strikes of coins from series that were essentially discontinued from "normal production", such as the Kennedy Half Dollar. Although new 50 cent coins have been being produced each year, they've been produced as NIFC since 2002 with the normal Philadelphia (P) and Denver (D) mintmarks. Collectors can purchase the newly minted half dollar coins in bags or rolls directly from mint at premium. However, they often make it into circulation and make semi-desirable coin roll hunting targets!

2012 D  Kennedy Half Dollar NIFC coin

What is Coin Roll Hunting?

I know a lot of you who visit this blog are stone-cold coin roll hunters already, but one of my missions for this blog is to spread the word on this wonderful and fruitful hobby. I’m guessing that starts with introducing the hobby and talking a little bit about it.

1912 V Liberty Nickel

Recently, there have been many ads on the radio claiming that they can sell you the secret to getting silver for free from any bank, many times without an account. The ad goes on to tell you that they are going to tell you the 5 magic or secret words that you need to know in order to do this. What these ads are talking about is a hobby or income source known as coin roll hunting and there really aren't any secret or magic words involved.

   Coin Roll Hunting (the hip, shorthand acronym is CRH), is the act of searching rolls of coins for desirable or collectible coins. Pretty much every searcher has their own pet coin type that they are looking for. Many hunters search for error coins, die varieties from the minting process, silver, valuble key dates, particularly old coins, foreigns, or even just a quest to fill one of those addictive little coin books. Personally, I’m a little bit of all of these, though at this point I don’t really have the patience to fully delve into the variety thing on everyday coinage. I’m sort of a silver stacker nut and I definitely love the older coins I find as well. I’d take finding a 1912 V nickel over a silver war nickel any day!  

As a CRH'er -- get used to these!

      Typically, we coin roll hunters get our coins from banks or credit unions for face value, though there have been times in my obsession when I’ve asked stores to return my change in the form of coin rolls. Those were some dark times! Banks will usually oblige requests for coin rolls with no issues. I have many different banks that I stop at to pick up coins, affectionately referred to as Source Banks. I try to rotate through them so as not to become annoying.

Coin Redemption Machine

     After getting the rolls, tear into them and keep the goodies! Remember that any coins you keep were purchased for the low price of face value.  Many coins are worth well more than that, even in circulated grades. All of the coins that are not simply end up getting returned back to another bank, referred to as the Dump Bank. It's generally wise to have a separate dump bank from your source banks since the last thing you want is to search the same coins repeatedly. When dumping coins, you can always re-roll the coins yourself, but I greatly prefer to select a bank with an automatic coin counter since it’s much easier to just dump the coins in and get all of your cash back. They’re generally pretty accurate and the time-savings is well worth any shortcomings from what I’ve been able to determine. I stay away from Coinstar machines, but there are (limited) cases where it may be a reasonable option for returning coins.


 Enjoy your new hobby and happy hunting!