When I was a kid, I remember...
Lazybones
Posts: 1,321 ✭✭✭✭✭
...seeing Hawaiian coinage in circulation. Every now and then I would find a dime or quarter in change. This was in the 60s when I had a paper route. Anyone else remember this?
T
USAF (Ret) 1974 - 1994 - The inherent vice of capitalism is the unequal sharing of blessings; the inherent virtue of socialism is the equal sharing of miseries. Remembering RickO, a brother in arms.
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Comments
That's cool.
I assume that you were living in Hawaii at the time.
Worry is the interest you pay on a debt you may not owe.
Actually, no. I have always live in the NE.
So, it's not like they turned up every day, just every few day you might find one.
USAF (Ret) 1974 - 1994 - The inherent vice of capitalism is the unequal sharing of blessings; the inherent virtue of socialism is the equal sharing of miseries. Remembering RickO, a brother in arms.
Ordering coins and stamps from Littletown
You only had yo order them once. After that they just sent them, and sent them, and sent them, and sent them...
USAF (Ret) 1974 - 1994 - The inherent vice of capitalism is the unequal sharing of blessings; the inherent virtue of socialism is the equal sharing of miseries. Remembering RickO, a brother in arms.
...giving my 4th grade teacher SBAs for lunch, and her counting them as quarters.
Sitting in a little patch of grass by the train tracks near an abandoned brickyard with friends going through a couple rolls of pennies we dumped out on the dirt that we just biked a couple miles to get at the local bank. Along with making some candy cigarettes look cool from the drug store next door...you could blow through the paper wrapper with the powdered sugar to make it look like smoke came out.
North West Indiana around 1978.
Coins are Neato!
"If it's a penny for your thoughts and you put in your two cents worth, then someone...somewhere...is making a penny." - Steven Wright
Wishing that I could collect nickels and dimes and quarters and half dollars instead of just pennies......I was on a very tight budget during my elementary school years.
oh ya, thanks for reminding me of that part.
We also did the BMG music thing which was a fantastic deal if gamed their system.
Who didn't buy from Littleton ? I needed a '55s to complete my number 2 Lincoln book. Then the approvals started coming. My mother told me to cancel them. I wrote them a note to stop. The approvals kept coming. "I thought I told you to tell them to stop!"....."I did mom !"....."Write them again."
So I did.......They kept coming......"Did you write them the 2nd. time ?"...."Yes, I did"......"Well, keep the coins this time (just world coin junk). I kept them. They stopped coming....
Never saw any Hawaiian here in Buffalo, but I remember loving those candy smokes !
working on the farm and running a vegetable stand. Got lots of change from customers to look through, but too bad, no rarities. But definitely a different era, as I got in change Walking Liberty halves, Franklin halves, silver Washington quarters, an occasional Standing Liberty quarter, Buffalo nickels, and Mercury dimes.
Taking back pop bottles to the store so I could score a dime bag!
Edited to say I meant a Mercury Dime.
I remember buying a Hungarian proof set (or similar) at the 1982 World’s Fair. I remember my brother getting a red seal $2 in change when we were kids and he thought it was super valuable. I remember going to some local coin shows before I could drive. Back then no one in this area gave a darn about YNs, but I did get ripped off (as I later learned) so I guess I got some kind of lesson out of it.
Best kid memory for coins was getting 5 silver halves when I was 15 at a local convenient store at face value. My brother would drive us to various banks to get rolls of nickels and look for old ones and then change them for cash at another.
TurtleCat Gold Dollars
Filling Whitman’s from change.
Being fascinated with the new Susan B. Dollar.
Fortunately, that passed quickly.
... finding an almost good 16-s walker in circulation
... getting cents from the bank, 20 bucks at a time, and running them through my Scan-O-Matic
... finding about 1 Indian cent for every 20-dollar batch
... opening up rolls of dimes and seeing a 50-50 mix of silver and clad
... opening up rolls of dimes, seeing a 50-50 mix of silver and clad, and thinking that the CLAD was cool!
... marveling at my first Kennedy half
... finding an 1964 bronze cent, an 1864-L cent, an 1865 3-cent nickel, and an 1864 LM 2-center, all AU, in the dust on the floor after my mother and grandfather pulled an old mantle away from a stone fireplace of the house in which I grew up.
... finding a slick piece of Spanish silver (1763, I think) using a Jetco GTX metal detector. It was a playground find (1960s) situated on what I later learned was the site of a colonial tavern.
... finding a 1914-D Buff using Nic-A-Date, and trying to sell it to a dealer at a small show. For some reason, he wasn't interested.
Despite that the 1960s was a very troubled decade, the numismatic memories are pretty good.
Whit
Getting a roll of Morgan dollars from the bank at face value. I wish the VAM information was available back then.
Pulling every dateless Buffalo nickel out of circulation. Also, being fascinated when the 1965 clad quarters and dimes came out. I started pulling those and spending the silver, as always. Such a youngster at the time!
peacockcoins
I couldn't wait to see the new clad coinage. That wore off quickly.
I live in Nothwest Indiana and used to do the same thing, but it was melting plastic soldiers to see the bubbling and black smoke.
The brickyard wouldn't be Harbison Walker Refractory, would it?
Pete
Taking a bunch of Walking Liberty half dollars to the local Dairy Queen and exchanging them for nickels to search through (I was on a mission to fill a Whitman nickel album).
Stupid move.
I really wish I still had those half dollars.
Silver dimes, quarters and halves were standard change when I was a kid... Got a Columbian half a few times in change on my paper route...SLQ's were common - the fifties were a great time to grow up. Cheers, RickO
I still have my original Scan-O-Matic and use it when I pick up quantities of wheat cents. It's a lot easier on these old eyes to be able to slide the mechanism, pick up a coin, look at it under the lighted magnifier, slide it and the coin flips over, check the other side, slide and it drops out and you are ready for the next. I still have half of the box that it came in that looks like a treasure chest.
Pete
….Going to coin show with my Uncle when I was 8 and looking at the $20 Libs priced at $50. That was a lot of money. My Uncle bought me an 1880-S Morgan in VG for $1.25.
…trading coins with the older kids in the neighborhood. I knew more than they did and it was always fun to "win" the trade.
…. joining the local coin club when I was a 17 year old know it all. Fortunately, I quickly learned that there was a lot of stuff I didn't know. At least I didn't tick off too many people.
….getting my mom to write a note to get out of school early on a Friday so I could go to the PAN show with a buddy. Still remember getting some great advice from Art Kagin (too bad I didn't follow it). I was impressed he took the time to talk to a couple of high school kids.
….using the Red Book as a resource to write an elementary school report on Colonial Coins (it was during the bicentennial)
This was the opposite for me as a kid. There was a kid that lived across the street from my grandma and grandpas house. He was 4 or 5 years older than me and we both liked coins. He confessed to me years later that he always looked forward to Holidays, knowing I would come over to his house. We would trade coins and stuff and he said that the following week he would be able to get a new bike.
......
Fast forward 15 years and this kid hears that I have a shop. He comes in to trade.....You'll never guess who had the edge in all the subsequent years
Picking up my first Kennedy half dollar at a mall in Massapequa Park, Long Island, New York in 1964. What was so special about it is that it only cost .49 cents plus 1 cent tax. It came in a bezel key ring. I have it to this day. No on it being an A.H. as the dealer's checked for them before giving them out. I was 12 then and it started me collecting.
Kennedys are my quest...
Going to Gimbels Department Store in Philadelphia to buy coins.
I usually had about $100 to spend from my allowance and doing chores, like mowing the lawn. The the prices were high for the time, but the coins were genuine and the men there looked out for me when I was a beginner. The price didn't really matter because the value went up on everything I bought eventually.
Later I branched out to other Philadelphia dealers. I when to a place called Penn Smelting, Harry Foreman, Dorothy Gershinson (sp) and Catherine Bullowa. Mrs. Bullowa had by far the best material.
Remember hearing that wonderful sound silver coins made when dropped on a hard surface. What a bunch of crap we circulate today. I used to deliver the local paper when I was 13-14 and coming home on the Friday and Saturday after collecting, and dropping all the coins on the kitchen table and counting my change. Had about 90 customers. Since the paper was cheap back then everyone paid in coins.
At most coin shop's they would have common date BU Morgan's & Piece Dollars laid out in a Felt Tray.......for 3 Bucks each
Steve
Finding a roll of 50-D nickels from the bank
Rainbow Stars
Bill, in Boston we had Raymonds “the home of uncle Elf” and Woolworths both of which were on Washington st.
Rainbow Stars
@TONEDDOLLARS there was also a coin counter at Jordan Marsh Department Store when I moved to Boston. I think that their budget was quite low, and they didn’t amount to much.
By then I have become a fairly advanced collector. There were several coins shops of Bromfield Street includng John Dean, Boston Town Coin, Sam Stone, Bob LaBlank and JJ Teaparty. Worthy Coin was off Bromfield on Province Street. They had the most material. All of the big area dealers, like New England Rare Coin Galleries, which was James Halprin’s store before he moved to Texas, bid in their auctions.
Woolworth’s had one of those revolving cases with coins in it. It got wiped out when silver went up and all of the silver coins in it were priced a less than the junk silver price.
@BillJones
USAF (Ret) 1974 - 1994 - The inherent vice of capitalism is the unequal sharing of blessings; the inherent virtue of socialism is the equal sharing of miseries. Remembering RickO, a brother in arms.
wow another brain stimulator
the last one I saw actually had baseball cards in it.
Kennedys are my quest...
the last one I saw actually had baseball cards in it.
The last one I saw was in an antique store and had all sorts of little stuff in it. I hope the antique store is still there. I've been back once in the past year because of the pandemic.
Breaking into my Canadian quarter collection to buy a large Nielson's jersey milk chocolate bar at my local candy store, because I already had run out of my 10C allowance from my parents. (regular size was 10c and the large size was 25c).
My brother still gets a laugh when I remind him of this.
"Gold is the canary in the financial coal mine." (Alan Greenspan)
"I only golf on days that end in 'Y'" (DE59)
I have posted this before . . . .
The fire was ignited by my grandmother (Dad's side) who put together three Indian Cent Whitmans (supposedly full from her years as a teller in the Nodaway Valley National Bank in Iowa) for her three grandchildren. Unfortunately, as the sets were passed down upon her death, every better date than 1894 was stolen by my aunt. But . . . . the fire was lit.
Burned . . . seared . . . into my memory even better than my wedding day, were those orders from the back of a magazine that Robert Vaughn and I sent off with our lawnmowing money to some mail order shop back east. AG 1909-VDBs, a few early teens and a few 20s. We spent EVERY summer day on our bikes trailing the mailman to Robert's house waiting for a return envelope. OMG . . .the disappointment when we were SURE the mail would have our package . . .and the mailman just dropped off a bill or two at his house.
Those days that the mailman (finally) dropped off a small package were like someone now winning a $600m lottery. We were breathless . . .went in to his kitchen . . . sliced open the envelope and separated out the coins we had ordered. We had our Whitmans ready . . . and after showing off each cent we had purchased (they were like 4 for a dollar) . .we would slowly . . .carefully set them in our Whitmans and then look at the filled holes in the sunlight coming in through his kitchen. I remember Robert getting a full VG 1913-D Lincoln and thinking he could probably buy a house with it. A filled hole then was tantamount to conquering Everest or running a sub-4:00 mile. And that was for putting a slick 1916-D in a Whitman !!!
I don't think I have ever matched that excitement in my life. I have had a full life (insert list here) . . .but have never matched that feeling at his kitchen table . . . . .
Drunner
A walk to the store was safe, having a quarter made it worth walking to the store, you got three items for a quarter.
"A dog breaks your heart only one time and that is when they pass on". Unknown
.....sitting with my dad at the old round oak kitchen table in the mid to late 1960's sorting through bank bags of coins looking for pre-64's.
Pulling Walkers and silver nickels out of circulation.
I was 9 in 1976 and the Bicentennial was a big deal in school and the media, once the coins started circulating and I showed an interest, would get older coins from the grandparents
Started riding my bike to the store that Summer and buying CoinAge magazines and boxes of root beer twin popsicles with lawn mowing and pool cleaning money
Next school year on Saturdays Dad would drive me to the San Jose Coin Shop (grew up on Almaden Valley) and I'd work on my type set.
By 1982 I'd discovered movies, music, video games and fast food, and later, girls, beer, grass and gasoline, so missed 1984-1995 only rediscovered coins once done with high school, college, early career.
The dual advent of eBay and this forum got me all the way hooked again, and by 2005, I'd built the type set of my lazy junior high summer dreams
Liberty: Parent of Science & Industry
... when there was nobody on Bradenton beach except me and my Dad.
When I was a little kid my Grandmother would give me and my 2 sisters each a dime (Mercury Dimes) to buy a bottle of pop at the putt putt miniature golf place down the block. I loved going to Gram's.
That is really cool. I got to talk to Art Kagin at several shows when I lived in Iowa. He was full of useful quips like "You only need one customer per item."
Pacific Northwest Numismatic Association
...going to grandmas house and asking to see her box of coins...again. She had a small metal lockbox filled with Morgan dollars. Each was wrapped in a piece of aluminum foil. I would unwrap each one and look at each coin, fascinated by the design and their size. It was cool to see so many. I am sure that is what sparked my interest in collecting.
Wow! That's expensive (depending on the date, of course). I see they go from between $15 and $50 on eBay now.
https://us.v-cdn.net/6027503/uploads/editor/pm/3wqbqmjuimv3.png
Both the local shops here have those. I thought they were common
Martin
There's a couple of shops here that have them, too. Seems these things are passed down from generation to generation.
Back in the 70's, I remember buying some special envelopes with mixed world stamps and there was a slight probability to win prizes - more stamps!
Coinsof1984@martinb6830 on twitter
My dad getting $1000 bags of silver dollars every Wednesday for 22 weeks to search in 1962-3. We found many good Morgans including 4 1893-S's and some 1889-CC's and 1-liberty seated dollar (1859-S). There were no Peace dollars in these bags. This stopped rapidly in Jan. 1963. The VAM reference was not around then, so I am sure we missed a lot of Morgan varieties. One of the 1893-S's was so worn that all you could see was the date and mm. I remember selling it for $60 a little later. I am sure it is wondering around today in someone's lowball registry set.
Finding a 1909-S VDB vf-xf cent while searching rolls from banks. (about 1963). Also found a 1857 FE cent f-vf (the only FE cent that I found in circulation).