WALL STREET JOURNAL LOOKS AT COIN ROLL HUNTING

Here’s one more job that isn’t as easy as before: coin-roll hunting.

When Pamela Little, a stay-at-home mother of three from Concord, N.C., goes on the hunt, she has her iPad, a magnifying glass—and dozens of wrapped-up rolls of coins brought home from a bank.

Like her fellow treasure seekers, Ms. Little spends hours sifting through grimy nickels and dimes and other coins, looking for ever-rarer gems—older coins like wheat-back pennies (made from 1909 to 1958), silver coinage (say, Washington quarters minted from 1932 to 1964) or the odd tokens and foreign coins that make it into the rolls.

“I have always loved coins, but I never figured I had the money to collect [them],” says Ms. Little. With this numismatic niche, the only cost is the face value of the coins pulled from the rolls; hobbyists typically return any change that isn’t taken for their collection.

And if you watch the hunters’ passionate online videos about this hobby—CRH, for short—you’d think it was all fun and profit.

But the other side of the coin is that the hobby can be frustrating and occasionally combative. Hunters have to contend with a low rate of return—for every gem they find, there are many more “skunk” boxes, as CRHers call passels of rolled coins that yield nothing. A lot of the good coins have already been found. Meanwhile, many bankers are friendly, but others don’t appreciate having to haul heavy boxes of returned coins. (To say nothing of the family members and friends who think the hobby is kooky.)

Indian Head cents collected by Dustin Morgan

To read the complete article (subscription required), see:
Coin-Roll Hunting: The Secrets of a Treasure-Seeking Hobby (https://www.wsj.com/articles/coin-roll-hunting-the-secrets-of-a-treasure-seeking-hobby-1525659481)

	NBS (coinbooks.org) Web