Railroad Coins
Onastone
Posts: 3,992 ✭✭✭✭✭
My dad used to tell me if you put coins on a railroad track, when a train goes by, your coins are flattened out and huge! I never did it, didn't have any tracks nearby. Has anybody here done this???? Anybody have a railroad coin?
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I don't have a R.R. coin but we used to do that when we were kids. Flat Pennies courtesy of the Pennsylvania Railroad.
I had a few - not any longer.
Yup, I've done it. It flattens them out pretty thin. I had a quarter that looked smeared and a lot of copper was visible.
It makes a bit of noise and I always wondered if the engineer could hear it.
Great transactions with oih82w8, JasonGaming, Moose1913.
I know I have them somewhere. I just took a quick look to post pics but can't find them.
Great transactions with oih82w8, JasonGaming, Moose1913.
we ran over spikes, 40 lb tie plates and anything else that got in the way, would not notice a coin.
Did this all the time growing up in Montana on the old Burlington Northern mainline (ex Northern Pacific).
Pennies and dimes worked best, the dimes would be paper thin.
Tried an Eisenhower dollar once thinking it would end up huge, but the train wheel bounced the Ike off the track before it really got rolled out.
Did that as a kid. Had to put lots on the track as most would fall off before the train squashed them due to vibration. I found a flat cent metal detecting and knew it was a railroad coin.
I got a bunch of 'em! Used to take the grandkids to the tracks and wait for a train. They loved picking them up after the train passed.
And yes, they make noise when flattened. Not real loud, but kinda like a "Tang Tang" when the wheels smash em.
Pete
Where are the pics?
@Insider2 once said
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The one and only time I tried it, it didn't go well. Had put three or four pennies on the track and backed up like 20 feet and the train passed. As it went over the pennies they shot out like bullets. One went right over my shoulder and broke a window in the rear of a business nearby. The owner heard the glass break and came chasing us. Oh, we got away but learned that lesson quite well.
bob
I cannot begin to tell you all the dangerous games the kids of my youth used to play on and around the railroad tracks. Representatives from Santa Fe and Union Pacific were constantly visiting the schools to lecture about the horrible things that could result from our " activities. " That didn't stop us. It was too much fun and so exciting. The Santa Ana River bridge. That was our favorite hang out at night. The big headlight coming down the line. The sparks of the wheels on the tracks. The NOISE!!! And yes the coins on the tracks. We didn't have video games back then but we did have the 8 o'clock FLYER to entertain us on summer nights. I think things were better back then. Like they used to say, " It was a lot of fun right up until somebody got killed. " But we all survived. Life was better in those days. People took chances. We were foolhardy....but brave!!!
We did that many times.... often we could not find the coin after the train passed.... usually just used cents though... money was scarce back then...One guy used a dime... we did not find that either...Cheers, RickO
We used to do that. The only coin lost was when my brother put a Silver Dollar on the track!
I live in Los Angeles. and there was a freight yard. We put various things including coins on the tracks, as the trains moved very slowly, so things just got crushed, but did not go flying. Even had a few sandwiched coins and overlapping ones.
I have an 1893 Railroad Track (not railroad rim lol) Morgan.. I'll try to dig it out today and post some pics. She really is a neat piece of, um, well, I guess, exonumia.
Here ya go. Pretty neat, ain't she...
DEC 27TH 2017 New Hope (PA) Railroad #40 run over these two cents
INYNWHWeTrust-TexasNationals,ajaan,blu62vette
coinJP, Outhaul ,illini420,MICHAELDIXON, Fade to Black,epcjimi1,19Lyds,SNMAN,JerseyJoe, bigjpst, DMWJR , lordmarcovan, Weiss,Mfriday4962,UtahCoin,Downtown1974,pitboss,RichieURich,Bullsitter,JDsCoins,toyz4geo,jshaulis, mustanggt, SNMAN, MWallace, ms71
Somewhere I have a Canadian penny (the large kind) that was run over by a train carrying the Royal couple on a visit to Canada. Then it was counterstamped with those details. If I can find it I will post a pic.
Here's a few that I have, always found a couple when we tore out road crossings.
I suppose that was a mercury dime?
I guess it would pay to walk the tracks with a metal detector! > @Leroy said:
Wow! That's almost like a wishing well find!!!!
https://forums.collectors.com/discussion/969596/president-william-mckinley-funeral-train-relic#pagetop
@Onastone....It could very well have been a Mercury dime... I do not remember....However, they were extremely common when I was a kid...just general circulation at the time...Those are great finds you have there... and certainly look like track coins...Based on our experience, many were not found after the train passed. Cheers, RickO
If I'm not mistaken, I think I recall reading about people putting coins on the track when the train carrying President Lincoln's body passed by.
Great transactions with oih82w8, JasonGaming, Moose1913.
Of course they used a Lincoln Cent.
Just a benefit from working at CSX, it was interesting being a coin collector and working on the railroad. Once in a while on the Miami subdivision we would find a pile of assorted change laying on the cross ties between the rails. Had something to do with the passing train removing the bad spirits from what i'm told. Of course the same people actually believe that the Chupacabra really exists.
@Leroy I was going to give you a thumbs up LIKE but then saw the picture....that's just disturbing. Interesting about finding change on cross ties, not so much with the Chupacabra carcass.
You're right, I shouldn't have posted that picture, it was disturbing. I was trying to show an image of the mythical Chupacabra so people would know what I was referring too.
As a kid, when on vacation in Somerset, PA, we would squash pennies (cents) on the railroad track in front of grandma's and grandpa's house.
I have some cents somewhere that the SP Coast Daylight 4-8-4 flattened sometime in the early 1980s.
The SP Coast Daylight 4-8-4
I just wanted to see what this locomotive looked like!
I am convinced there is a coin for everything!!!
Ethiopia circa 1893, IIRC.
It was "common knowledge" as a kid that the caboose guy would shoot you with salt pellets if he saw you near the tracks. We became invisible in the weeds many times, not wanting to know if it was true or not. I used to have a flattened cent from my youth but I can't find it. Most of the time we couldn't find them afterwards.
INYNWHWeTrust-TexasNationals,ajaan,blu62vette
coinJP, Outhaul ,illini420,MICHAELDIXON, Fade to Black,epcjimi1,19Lyds,SNMAN,JerseyJoe, bigjpst, DMWJR , lordmarcovan, Weiss,Mfriday4962,UtahCoin,Downtown1974,pitboss,RichieURich,Bullsitter,JDsCoins,toyz4geo,jshaulis, mustanggt, SNMAN, MWallace, ms71