Someone paid their bill with grandpas coins.. MUST READ
Little2NoCents
Posts: 32 ✭✭
-A few days ago while at Steak ‘n Shake- A group of young rowdy boys come through the door which catches my attention for a moment. I am enjoying my food with a friend & periodically glance over at the group because they are a tad loud. They finish up and you will not believe what I heard… I heard that oh so specific “ Ping “ sound that silver makes. I looked behind me and see one of the young men pull out a mountain of silver. I immediately walked up after the group left and asked the waitress if they mind me taking a glance at the change they paid the bill with. They brought me over a handful of coins which turned out to be Peace Dollars. I was shocked. They paid nearly $40 with those coins. What upset me is that they almost all uncirculated and many have a nice luster to. I only looked at a handful of them and advised them to contact the authorities but my guess is they won’t. What a shame. Has anyone else seen something similar happen?
Comments
This occurred in Indiana fishers area just in case a member was the unfortunate owner
You could let the authorities know the information in case they have a reported theft.
If you choose to get involved I would do it soon so they have a chance to look at the security cameras if installed at the place where it happened. I know if I was just robbed or find something missing I sure would like someone to step up!
Mike
My Indians
Danco Set
I may yet still get in contact with the local authorities to make a report. Hopefully the owner does realize this in a timely manner. If I am contacted however I would be glad to help. It really is a shame
See if there's way way that you could alert the authorities and stay in the back round and let the cameras tell the story
Mike
My Indians
Danco Set
My friend owns a couple of stores and two years ago amidst the height of pandemic lockdown, a lady of Pakistani origin paid her tab with a few older coins that included a very tarnished Peace dollar. My friend knew I collected and hence saved that for me and we could only hypothesize that the family were probably in tough times and raided the coin jar to pay for the food.
Didn't get to know what the rest of the coins were because it was in the till that got sent to the bank. The peace dollar was the sole exception since it was the first time for the young cashier handling such a coin and hence put aside.
https://www.pcgs.com/setregistry/u-s-coins/quarters/PCGS-2020-quarter-quest/album/247091
Something similar happened to me in Homestead, FL about 14 years ago. I received 3 cents in change that were all dated before 1920 and figured someone must have rolled up and deposited someone else's coin collection at a bank. I asked the cashier if I could look at some of the cents in his register and exchange them for cents I had. I could also see the cent bin was full of old-looking wheat cents.
Sadly, The guy couldn't speak English, a common situation in Miami-Dade County. Though he'd worked there for several years, he couldn't understand English at all beyond a few words. After a few minutes of trying to explain what I wanted to do and getting nowhere, I gave up. Drove me nuts until I smiled and realized they were just old Lincolns bringing out the 'kid coin collector' in me. Even if they had a roll of old wheat cents, they wouldn't be worth more than $10-15.
Must read??? Am I the only one who is a little skeptical when a new member with 20 posts who joined last week tells a story that's pretty incredible? Call me jaded, or whatever, but I call BS. 99% of people working in retail wouldn't accept Peace dollars as payment for anything. I can't even get people to accept Ikes or 2-dollar notes.
Valcanize:
What you are describing sounds like desperate times leading to desperate measures.
What Little2noCents described above sounds like an entirely different scenario
Mike
My Indians
Danco Set
Really??
I have 350 posts, am I also not to be believed?
Geez..........
Mike
My Indians
Danco Set
Are you telling a similar story?
I have 0 reason to come up with a tall take such as this. I shared this story for 2 reasons. 1 I’ve never seen something like that 2 I believe those coins were I’ll gotten. I can understand if you are skeptical, At the end of the day it matters none though. Call all the local Steak ‘n Shake’s in the fishers Indiana area if you’d like
I should note that I agree with any business in general they tend to argue paying in older currency no matter what fashion it is all legal tender.
I wouldn’t Take Ike’s either, They are ugly 😆
No, I'm not.
But that doesn't mean that Little2NoCents isn't telling us the truth of what happened and what he witnessed.
Mike
My Indians
Danco Set
And how often do people steal pocket change? The customers AND the teller in your story would have had to both know that the Peace $s were dollars and also not know that they were worth more than one $. It is possible but very unlikely. Every coin dealer has people come in weekly with SBAs thinking those are worth more.
While it is possible, it is highly improbable to Bryce's point.
True. But, to your point, he could also be fictionalizing Eben if he had 400 posts. It's just less likely that he would tell an intentionally tall tale if he had been here for years. People lie to strangers in bars far more frequently than to long-time coworkers.
[I don't know that the story is a lie. However, I understand Bryce's skepticism.]
I’m sure they realize they are worth more then the face value. Hence the fact I do not think the manager nor any of the staff that night would alert the local authorities. It is highly improbable yet it indeed happened. Sadly but again this happened roughly the 24’th Which I’m sure if some of the members here decided to do some digging of their own they would be able to corroborate my story. It feels wrong to a certain degree that I am having ti give my argument about the situation.
The authorities wouldn't even take a statement. No crime was committed. All stories are met with skepticism, especially the more improbable they are. I understand Bryce's skepticism. You can respond to it or ignore it.
Guilty until proven innocent here I guess, Very sad!
To some members here everything is a conspiracy
Mike
My Indians
Danco Set
No one judged anyone guilty of anything. Bryce expressed skepticism. In fact, "innocent until pricehistory guilty" REQUIRES SKEPTICISM. Otherwise, you would automatically be guilty upon someone filing an accusation.
FWIW, this wouldn't be the first time someone showed up, told a tall tale and then disappeared. It has happened before.
It also, for fairness, wouldn't be the first time someone told an improbable story that proved to be true.
This board is full of improbable tales. Every "You Suck!" award given here is for an improbable find or purchase. Same with the top finds in Coin Star and coin roll hunting threads.
I'm still trying to figure out why all this handwringing is going on when the OP/witness has not even reported the incident to the local authorities. Instead, we as the readers are being invited to call the area restaurants to corroborate the story.
Why were the boys not confronted at the time? Why not tell them that they were spending their money at 1/30th of it's value? Maybe it was an inheritance they did not understand the value of, or a cache of coins they discovered in the attic, etc., etc.
Also, while this was an interesting and potentially disturbing story, why is it a "MUST READ"? Are posters now free to add commands like that in their thread titles? (This is a sore subject with me as I see this at work - one coworker thinks their emails are more important than everyone else's).
Two quick relevant anecdotes...
A local bank teller told of a teenager who came in to cash in a bunch of Franklin half dollars. She told him they were worth more than face value and he could go to a coin shop to get maximum value. He wasn't interested and said if she didn't take them he'd just go elsewhere. So, she swapped them for currency and kept them herself.
Someone I know of told how her late husband found thousands of dollars in Federal Reserve Bank Notes from the 1920s/1930s while having some work done in their basement in the 1960s. They strategically spent it without raising too many alarms. (Although buying a new Mustang with old cash was a potential flag, the salesman had other priorities).
If this was to be reported to the police, it should have been done immediately, while the evidence of the possible crime was still obtainable.
If I witnessed what I thought was a reportable incident or crime, I would have called the police myself.
I would have offered my currency to replace the silver dollars and walked home with my pockets jingling. (JK...
)... Cheers, RickO
Could have been inheritance. And I'd probably have offered paper for them if they took them at face.
Sounds like you're doing the right thing. You notify the restaurant not much more you can do. Doing the next step and notify authorities hopefully we'll return the coins. Good job.
USN & USAF retired 1971-1993
Successful Transactions with more than 100 Members
Wow, that's a crazy story...thanks for sharing. I would have used my FRNs to purchase those Peace dollars. Now they are long gone. TC
Can you be more specific on the "Fishers area"? I just spoke to the Manager of the Steak and Shake on Commercial Drive and he could not confirm the story but he did say there were two other Steak and Shake's in the area. He said they have received a few silver dollars as payment in the past but none recently. He also said he "buys them out of the register" whenever it does happen.
I am not doubting your story and personally, would not express skepticism publicly without confirmation first. I'm just trying to validate it for all the members who have read and/or commented here.
Tim
I don't have an opinion on the reported story but I can tell you that when my house was broken into, it was like pulling teeth to get the police to even come and take a report. I have family and friends in other parts of the country who had the same experience. I would suspect, unless the police were bored and wanted something to do, the same thing would happen here.
They don't even know what a Peace Dollar is.
"I can't accept this........it's not real money".
Pete
Fishers is a suburb of Indianapolis, Indiana that has grown faster than most new suburbs in the past 10 years.
Pete
Thanks Pete. The Manager mentioned other locations that might be considered as being in the "Fishers area" so I was asking the OP for a more specific address. This is the location I contacted:
It's good of you to go to the effort, but unless the OP wants to step up locally then this is just an anecdote to add to the list of stories we heard somewhere.
The OP said he'd assist if someone contacted him, but who would contact him, and how would they know to contact him? 🤔
Most, and I mean 99% or more of servers, would have no idea what a Peace Dollar is and they'd probably refuse them. And if they did know, or if it was explained to them, they would grab those coins quickly for a nice payday.
Once I intentionally tried to spend a silver quarter (back when it was worth less than a dollar) just to get it into circulation. The cashier (maybe owner) who was old enough to maybe know about silver coins from her youth, refused it because it looked funny. And that was a coin that still had a current design. 😐
I tried paying for something at a store a few weeks ago and the cashier told me that my Kennedy half was not US coinage and that she couldn’t accept it. After a few minutes of explaining she finally accepted it.
In the mid-90s I saw a middle aged guy pay for a pack of cigarettes with Buffalo nickels. He was ahead of me in line at a mini mart in Bellevue, WA. He paid cash, but the change portion (~35 cents) was all Buffalo nickels. I was in total shock. It’s the only time I’ve ever seen a Buffalo nickel in circulation. After he left the store with his cigs, I told the cashier I’d be interested in buying the nickels. He smiled and said ‘No thanks’.
Dave
Especially, in this case, since spending silver dollars is not a crime. The assumption is that they must somehow be stolen. They could just as easily be legally owned as an inheritance, for example, or as a gift. The assumption that it was "grandpa's collection" is without foundation.
So...if kids steal coins and spend them it should be reported...
...unless it's something you want, then you try to buy them for face...?
Just wanted to know how the rules of taking things that aren't yours work.
SMDH
RIP Mom- 1932-2012
Who said that?
It has not been established that the coins in the original post were stolen. The OP suspected they were stolen, but did not alert the authorities. We don't know what the server thought.
never let your opinions guide your actions that can end up very badly for one, always have some facts backing you up before you react that way you will not second guess yourself and will have some reason for your actions
and never think beyond what you know about the situation
https://photos.app.goo.gl/a6kwqbXrBhxnawsk6
Another possibility is that the coins may have been counterfeit.
My Jefferson nickel registry
https://www.pcgs.com/setregistry/alltimeset/188986
My classic commemorative registry
https://www.pcgs.com/setregistry/alltimeset/255614
I like the counterfeit angle.🙄
Couple of years ago at a show, I got offered a roll of Morgans and after too much backNforth, agreed on a price. But he slipped in a few fakes. Always look at old dollars by edge view. Fakes are a tad wider sometimes.
How many folks have re-introduced a bunch of wheat cents back into circulation to give others the thrill of the hunt? Just maybe these guys were a little more well off than we know.
Agreed. It grates.
Smitten with DBLCs.
I wish the Steak N Shake near me was still open. It closed about 3 years ago and it's been a vacant location ever since. I like their burgers and fries.
Collector, occasional seller
They could of made a soap opera around the Steak N Shake I worked at as a teenager!
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If I heard that " ping", I'd have offered to pick up the forty dollar tab, tip the waitress forty and give the customer $20 back, for them $s. Why waste a good opportunity ?
I'm hungry for a good burger now.......