Coin roll hunting means buying rolls of coins from a bank at face value, searching every coin for silver, old dates, errors and key dates, keeping the good ones and taking the rest back. You only ever pay face value, so the worst case is a few hours spent looking at coins.
What you need
- Rolls or boxes of coins from your bank. See How to Get Coin Rolls from Your Bank.
- A clean, soft surface such as a towel or a felt mat, so coins don’t get scratched.
- A magnifier or loupe (5× to 10×) for dates, mint marks and doubling.
- A printed sorting sheet in a clear PVC-free sheet protector. The Roll-Hunting Keeper Sheet works with any denomination.
- Optional: a small scale that reads to 0.01 g, to tell silver from clad (see How to Tell Silver Coins from Clad Coins).
- Coin wrappers, if your bank wants searched coins returned rolled.
What to look for
Silver
- Dimes, quarters and half dollars dated 1964 or earlier are 90% silver. Look at the edge: a solid silver edge with no copper stripe.
- Kennedy half dollars dated 1965 to 1970 are 40% silver.
- Jefferson “war nickels” 1942 to 1945 with a large mint mark (P, D or S) above Monticello are 35% silver.
- Canadian dimes and quarters dated 1967 and earlier are silver: 80% from 1920 to 1966, either 80% or 50% in 1967 (weigh or test to tell), and some 1968 ones are 50%. They turn up in US rolls. Check any coin in Is My Coin Silver?
Cents
- Wheat cents (1909 to 1958) and Indian Head cents.
- Copper cents: cents dated 1982 and earlier are mostly copper; from 1983 they are copper-plated zinc (1982 has both). Many hunters save copper cents. Melting or exporting US cents and nickels is illegal, with limited exceptions, so save them as coins (see Is It Legal to Melt US Coins?).
- The US Mint struck its last cents for circulation in November 2025, so cents are getting harder to get from banks, and some hunters now save them.
Old dates, keys, errors and new designs
- Buffalo nickels, early Jefferson nickels and anything that looks unusually old.
- Key and semi-key dates. Check Key Dates and Mint Marks for each series.
- Errors and varieties: doubled lettering or dates, off-center strikes, missing or doubled mint marks, clipped edges. Look closely before you get excited: damage and wear can look like errors.
- New designs: 2026 brought new 250th-anniversary designs, including a one-year half dollar showing the Statue of Liberty instead of John F. Kennedy (a new Kennedy portrait is planned for 2027). Many people like to save one of each.
- Foreign coins and tokens. Banks won’t take them back, so pull them out either way.
How to search a roll
- Open one roll at a time and spread the coins on your mat.
- Flip each coin to the date side, then sort onto your sheet: keepers, silver, old dates, errors to check, foreign, damaged, and back to the bank.
- For silver, check edges first; it is the fastest way to spot it in a stack.
- Put a magnifier on anything in the “errors to check” pile before deciding.
- Keep notes: the bank, the date and what you found. It shows you which banks and which coins are worth your time.
Taking coins back
Return the coins you aren’t keeping the way your bank prefers: rolled in paper wrappers with your name or account number, or through a coin counter if your bank has one for customers. Take out foreign, damaged and stuck-together coins first. Coin-counting kiosks in stores usually charge a fee to pay you in cash, so banks are often the better choice. See the bank guide for more.
What your finds are worth
Most finds are worth their metal: check today’s melt value in the Coin Melt Calculator or the US Coin Melt Values table. Key dates, scarce varieties and coins in high grade can be worth much more than melt, so have a promising coin checked by a dealer or a grading service before you sell it. Values on JinglePig are for information only.
Good habits
- Be friendly and patient with tellers. A good relationship with a bank is worth more than any single box.
- Order a sensible amount, and give the bank notice for boxes.
- Store keepers in coin flips, tubes or holders that are PVC-free.
- Wash your hands after searching; circulated coins are dirty.