With 20 Bank bags full of silver coins I knew we had some work ahead of us.

I recently got a phone call from a friend that went like this:

?Hey John, you know something about coins right??

?Yea, sure do.? I replied.

?Well you are going to go wild! I just found a ton.?

He had literally just found a ton of coins. I did not know what to expect. My buddy then described to me how he had moved a dresser in an apartment his family owned and he found a safe full of silver coins. The apartment had been vacant for twenty years and his family just got around to cleaning it out. The coins were then put into bank bags and carted out to my friends home.

I walked into my friend?s basement and saw what I knew to be a massive hoard of coins. His father and mother had separated them by type and the rest was up to me.

I spent the next ten hours looking through all of the Barber halves, Walking Liberty halves, Mercury dimes, standing liberty quarters, Barber quarters, Morgan dollars, and buffalo nickels. I searched for key dates and MS examples of coins that would be worth more than their silver value. I was not surprised when I pulled out a nice AU 1915 Barber Half and countless 1921 and 1921 D Walkers. It was a true treasure hunt and I could not contain my excitement every time I pulled out a find. We were able to build a full set of Walkers and a near full set of Mercury dimes (even with an estimated 5,000 mercs we did not find any 1916-Ds and we only found a single 21-d and three 21).

This turned my friend into a collector. His is starving to learn more and more about coins and I have begun to teach him what I have learned over the years. The hoard was a ton of fun to search through and I hope you really enjoyed the story. Keep you eyes open you never know when you may stumble upon a great find.