Sell your coins to the US Mint (Mint purchases of coins in 1949)
WillieBoyd2
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From the "Annual Report of the Director of the Mint" for 1950 available on the Newman Numismatic Portal at:
https://nnp.wustl.edu/library/book/341
Page 53, Domestic coins, including assay pieces, withdrawn from monetary use during the calendar year 1949
Below is the column for individual purchases, there is a separate column for coins received from banks.
The mints paid face value for the coins including gold coins and trade dollars.
I calculated and added the "number of coins".
Denomination, Purchased (face value), Number of coins
Gold $3, $15, 5
Gold $1, $30, 30
Silver trade dollars, $4, 4
Silver 20-cent pieces, (zero)
Silver half dimes, $0.10, 2
Silver 3-cent pieces, $0.03, 1
Nickel 3-cent pieces, (zero)
Copper 1/2-cent pieces, $81.03, 16206 (Somebody had a lot of 1/2 cent pieces)
Only worth a dollar? In 1949 yes.
The Mysterious Egyptian Magic Coin
Coins in Movies
Coins on Television
Comments
I once wrote an article about the Mint's redemptions in the late 1920's and the early 1930's and how this suggested that during the Great Depression people were spending old family heirlooms. There was one large batch of half cents somewhere in there also.
I don't think trade dollars were legal tender until 1965.
I wonder what the mint did with the half cents?
Probably used them as copper alloy
They weren't. If the government gave them a dollar for that coin in 1949, it was an error. The coin melted for less than a dollar at that time.
Urban legends say the mint employees saw at least one Panama-Pacific $50 gold piece that went into the melting pot during the gold surrender era.
There was another story about coin dealer in Abe Kasoff's time telling a story about a dealer during the depression. He had a gold Proof set come into the shop. He was willing to pay a quarter or half dollar above face value for the $1, $3 and $5 coins, but declined to buy the $10 and $20 pieces because he didn't want that much money tied up in the coins.
I saw that. Perhaps since many obsolete and/or damaged coins trickle their way back to the Mint from local banks via the Federal Reserve System, the Mint simply took small quantities of Trade Dollars back as regular dollars to simplify the bookkeeping and keep the Fed happy. If on the other hand you tried to redeem 1,000 pieces of Trade Dollars they might pay you the scrap silver rate. I don’t know. This is speculation on my part.
Chances are that Roger B. could answer your question.
Hard times back then.
Type collector, mainly into Seated. -formerly Ownerofawheatiehorde. Good BST transactions with: mirabela, OKCC, MICHAELDIXON, Gerard