Do you remember when silver coins were still in circulation?
Icollecteverything
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Every once in a while we have a thread about how old we are and I think the average and median age here is usually right around 60 years old. Since it was pretty common to find silver in your change for several years after 1964 I am guessing about half of us were around then. There were silver Roosies and quarters in circulation but I also got Mercs and some Franklin halves plus Canadian coins. The new clad coins just didn't seem right.
It seems sad that after thousands of years of silver coins being used in commerce that someday no one will be around that remembers. The end of an era. There were also stories back then about what happened when others had debased their coinage. 
Of course people still find a silver coin once in a while, some of them probably salted or stolen and spent. The only coins circulating regularly now with an intrinsic value are the older copper cents that have a copper "value" of nearly two cents.
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Of course! I've been collecting for nearly 60 years. When I first started in 1961 clad coinage didn't yet exist.
Absolutely!
I remember going to my bank and trading a dollar bill for a silver dollar. Never got a good one though. One of my friends got an 1889-CC one day. My grandmother had a tourist home. She kept the tax she collected in a box on her desk. Found a lot of Indian head cents and Barber coins. Even an occasional Seated Liberty coin. This was in the early to mid fifties. A great time to be alive.
I remember 90% silver very, very well. All my brothers were 10+ years older than I was, and they had jobs. They would let me pick through their change at the end of the day. I'd snag all the 90% dimes. This was in the late 1960s. If you pulled 100 dimes from circulation, it was not uncommon to find a half dozen silver Mercs and Roosies. I wasn't allowed to steal anything bigger than a dime, but I'd occasionally see silver quarters, and halves (both WLH and Franklins). It was truly a magical time!
I never found a IHC, or a Buffalo nickel, but one brother brought home a VG Shield Nickel once ... I still have it!
Dave
Yup. I remember in the late 60's my mom got a merc in change and I told the cashier I got a rare coin!
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I grew up out west where plenty of silver dollars & halves circulated, but was slightly late to the silver party. I did pick a few silver Kennedys from circulation, but they weren’t common.
There are even now people that have never seen silver and don't know what it is. My stepson tried to buy items at the local store and the person behind the desk wouldn't take it, it looked like funny money to them.
I remember seeing buffalos, mercs, slq's, walkers, Morgan's, Peace dollars, and the occasional IHC's in every days circulation. You could go to the bank and get all the silver dollars you wanted for face value. I was a young kid so I couldn't afford to load up on them.
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Thanks! I needed a thread to make me feel a bit younger than I feel when I look in the mirror. Silver was long gone from circulation when I was born. Over the years I did get an occasional 40% or 90% JFK and a rare silver dime or quarter but that was exceedingly rare.
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Oh, yeah.
Hard to collect them, though. A quarter could buy two comic books and a candy bar, so the temptation to raid your Whitman was just overwhelming. And half-dollar walkers? Fugidaboutit!
Here's a warning parable for coin collectors...
I started as a young kid in 1971, and finding a silver dime or quarter in my Dad's change was rare event even after only 6 years of clad circulation. You old guys were lucky
I was born in 1950. All the silver coins were silver during my formative years. I often was sent to the store for a loaf of bread with a Frankin Half and it wasn't unusual if you broke a dollar bill to get a Walking Liberty half back in change. When the coins changed in 1965 or so, everyone was saving the new stuff since it would be worth a lot down the road. (wrong assumption).
Even up to 2000 I was going to the bank and getting rolls of Kennedy Half Dollars. Most were customer wrapped and it wasn't unusual to come home with a roll or more of 90% and even the rolls of 40% were pretty common. Now I don't even ask. The bank would often call me and tell me they were sending a box of $500 and they were a few rolls short and could I bring them some rolls. Always happy to do that.
Yes and I remember getting Franklin's in change
I remember having Walkers or Franklins in my pocket. It wasn't unusual to see a standing quarter or a Buffalo nickel. I was always looking for Indian cents, but that didn't happen. I don't remember seeing barbers either. I had a paper route in '65, but at an early age, fifty cents was a lot to save......So even with all that around, it didn't do me much good.
NOPE!
Was born approximately 40 years after the mint stopped making silver coins.
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Oh, I certainly remember, having been born in '54. Pre-1964, my dad would throw all of his silver into a big glass jar, and at Christmas, this stash would fund Christmas presents. I could barely lift the thing. I remember that Mercs and Franklins were common. My dad was the principal of a small elementary school, and every Monday he would bring home about 30 dollars in change from lunch tickets sold at 30 cents each. I got to count the change and swap out what I liked at face. I remember getting an a.g. 16-s walker. Of course, the common Franklins and Roosevelts .... not interested. There were just too, too many. What I remember most, however, is the thrill of finding a new CLAD coin.
Whit
I recall stumbling upon them, like now.
Don't lament the old days too much. Coinstar and similar machines have opened new opportunities that did not exist years ago. I got my first 2 cent piece and 3 cent silver "in the wild" courtesy of public coin counting machines.
Barely, I was pretty young when the switch was made. I remember getting a 64 Kennedy when they first came out and thinking it was a big deal.
When I was kid if I asked my Grandma if I could have an ice cream when heard the ice cream truck coming down the street she'd often say "Let me see if I have any silver'"
That'll date me.
Oh, absolutely - I remember getting SLQs in change, too - although most of them, by the early '60s, had at best a partial date. Even worn, they looked much better than Washington Quarters. And, of course, if you had the money, you could still go to the bank and get Silver Dollars.
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I was born in 1951 so, yes. I remember spending a walking liberty .50C on enough candy to sink the Queen Mary. I nickel back then would buy you a $2.00 candy bar today. A guy could also feel safe in his own home.
Happy hunting, Joe
As a little kid, before clad coins, I remember thinking that walking liberty halves, which occasionally showed up, were the most wonderful looking coins (I still love them). In the late 1960's, in middle school, a coin collector friend at school and I made friends with the lunch lady that ran the cash register. At the end of lunch, we would buy at face whatever silver she had collected, which my friend and I would split. We would usually get some.
I can remember getting my first copper-nickel clad quarter in change, so yeah I am an old fart......
I was born in the early sixties and silver was part of circulation when I was young, however I grew up in a very remote and isolated area so coins and collecting were not a part of my young life.
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Yes, My parents owned a grocery store back in Chicago and my Dad would collect the silver coins and put them in a cigar box. That's how me and my two brothers got started in collecting coins.
At an early age I knew to look for dimes and quarters minted prior to 65. It's amazing how many people today don't know that coins were minted i silver....
Yep! I remember around 1970 looking at change and learning the "good" coins didn't have a copper line along the edge! There were still silver coins in circulation, but they were disappearing quickly. Buffalo nickels were mixed in too and were always fun to find.
But as many have said here, values were quite different than today, comics were ten cents, then omg went to twelve cents...and when they went to fifteen cents it was rough! I do remember candy costing just five cents, so hanging on to silver coins was tough as a kid.
I could buy lunch with a half dollar and get a little change back.
I was an "old hand" collecting buffalo nickels when the new fangled trolley car cent came out.
I pulled a few Columbian half dollars from change but never found a really desirable silver coin in circulation until 1975 when I got an Unc 1935 dime.
Not too much here in Northern Ohio, and being born in 1974. Yet, I can remember pulling 80% Canadian silver dimes, and occasionally a Canadian quarter back in the early to mid '80's when I started collecting. Also, the 40% Kennedy half seemed more common to come across then.
I remember getting a silver Washington Quarter back when I was delivering pizza for Domino's while in my senior year of High School in 1992. Lost it somehow playing quarters at a party the next week....
Sadly no. The only things that are "rare" that I get in change was a wheat penny like 10 years ago which got me started in collecting, and some bicentenial coins. Born in 2003. If it counts I found a few silver dimes going through a change jar that my dad saved.
Yes, I do remember getting silver in change. 🙂
Yes but we were kids and keeping a dime was too much. Our big search was “S” Mint cents. Didn’t see that many in Chicago.
Yes. Used to trade all my silver quarters for clad quarters, from collecting on the paper route in the sixties ( yes , preteens actually had jobs back then) . My sister filled a 3 pound coffee can ( yes they were that big back then) full of silver quarters, through the course of a few years. Just recently she told me that she still has that coffee can full.
I find them still today occasionally in them fancy coinstars and bank counting machines. RGDS!!
In the mid 60’s I frequently went to the local bank for rolls of coins to search. The tellers knew me and would put the older coins aside for me. On two separate occasions the tellers offered me Gold coins at face. I don’t recall the denominations but I do remember seeing an Indian ( either $2.50 or $5 ). Unfortunately there was no way I could buy them , even at face. I just could not use the few dollars I had for such high denomination coins. If I did I would not have been able to continue my search for a 1909 S VDB. I did get a couple of silver dollars at face From those same bank tellers and still have one of them to this day.
Mercury dimes were easily located, dateless SLQ’ s , war nickels , just a few Indian cents , mostly dateless Buffalo nickels and more 1943 steel cents than I could keep. All thanks to my local bank tellers.
Yes. And silver dollars were used vey, very commonly up to 1963. Especially by the older ranchers and dairy men.
16 years ago...imperial palace in Vegas had a 20 dollar machine that paid out under a certain amount in some silver dollars and some tokens. Also I hit for 500 on a dollar machine at paradise island and there were silver dollars mixed in with tokens and those speciality silver coins with paradise island around a silver center coin
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When I was a kid, silver coins were the everything. I remember that gold and silver were the symbols of value and that “silver” said value to me. When I was young, you could get silver dollars at the bank for face value.
I remember comments by my conservative uncle who commented that the “country was going to hell” when the clad coinage was issued.
First ice cream "truck" in our small town was actually an insulated box mounted on the front of an adult sized three-wheel bicycle. Rode down the street, ringing a bicycle bell mounted on the handle bar so we kids knew it was coming. Chocolate coated ice cream bar for a nickel.
Yes.
Absolutely. My dad was a coin collector (wasn't everyone's?) and my sister worked at a bank in the mid to late 60's. I remember her bringing home bags of coins (with permission) and dumping them on the kitchen table so we could all search for the '64 and earlier coins. Good times.
I do remember when there was silver in coins. As a matter of fact, the changing of silver coins to cupronickel coins was one of the events that sparked my interest in coins.
I do NOT remember seeing silver dollars in circulation. I am sure that they were at the bank, but I did not have the money to get one.
I do not ever remember seeing a Buffalo Nickel (I know, not silver) or a Standing Liberty Quarter that had a date. All were dateless.
I remember peering into cash registers and seeing Walking Liberty, Franklin Halves and Mercury Dimes.
Although my dad was not a coin collector, when the silver was removed from coins, he gave me some paper money to obtain silver coins.
When a cash register opened, and I saw silver halves and mercury dimes, I asked if I could exchange the cash for the coins. The cashier would usually say "You can get these anywhere", and then do the exchange.
During the 1980 run up in silver, I cashed in a bunch of Washington Quarters. To this day, I still have the Mercury Dimes and silver half dollars that I obtained all those years ago.
Nah.
I was born in 1974 (obvious by my name).
If only I had a time machine, then that would be awesome.
Chris
Sure do
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I was born around the same time. I’m sure you can guess what year I was born in.
I was born in the early '40's, and silver and copper were the standard coinage (except for the '43 steel cent). On my paper route, WLH's, SLQ's, Columbian halves, Buffalo nickels were common. Hated it when they switched to sandwich coins....Cheers, RickO
That was before my time... When the transition was made, what was the approximate melt value of the silver coins relative to the face value? At what point what there enough of a spread to have non-coin people start plucking the silver from circulation?
Sometime around 1955 my father gave me a half dollar with a big eagle on the back (Walking Liberty type).
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heck yes.
I also remember going to the bank and asking for silver dollars.
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