More collecting "Nostalgia "...Grants Dept Store and their whizzed polished coins...
lsica
Posts: 1,584 ✭✭✭✭
I remember back in the early 70s buying a 43S war nickel that was worn so flat and polished so bright and reflective I could brush my teeth with it 😉
Philately will get you nowhere....
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I remember Grant's department stores as a kid. It was always a fun time walking through there with my parents.
All those type of stores have disappeared. Likely due to Amazon and other online sellers.
Same with Service Merchandise.
Student of numismatics and collector of Morgan dollars
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Anyone remember Treasure Island? My local one had vending machines where I could buy nice Good Indian cents and Buffalo nickels for 50 cents. But the real bargain was BU (NOT reprocessed) steel cents for a quarter.
How in the hell do you brush your teeth with a coin?
Worry is the interest you pay on a debt you may not owe.
"Paper money eventually returns to its intrinsic value---zero."----Voltaire
"Everything you say should be true, but not everything true should be said."----Voltaire
I'm assuming he'd use it as a mirror
Dead Cat Waltz Exonumia
"Coin collecting for outcasts..."
We had Woolworth's, Kresge's and Grants. All had coin displays. I loved them and spent so much time there.
Jim
When a man who is honestly mistaken hears the truth, he will either quit being mistaken or cease to be honest....Abraham Lincoln
Patriotism is supporting your country all the time, and your government when it deserves it.....Mark Twain
Toothbrushes and toothpaste were overrated back in the day?
peacockcoins
Ya me too. It was a great way for my mother to keep me busy while she did other shopping
The suburbs here had a Woolworth's with a rotating case of coins, a small hobby shop with a case and numerous antique stores with coin displays to supplement the coin stores.
Downtown had a coin/stamp department in Pogue's department store along with Sol Kaplan in the Carew Tower- the citadel of coins in Cincinnati and Sandler Brothers.
I was a regular at many of them but only visited Sol once. Eventually I hung out at the Sandler store in Northgate mall so often that they hired me. Later I bought in as a partner and it has turned out to be a lifelong hobby/career.
If you are ever in Cincinnati stop in and say hello!
Brad Coins Plus
A: The year they spend more on their library than their coin collection.
A numismatist is judged more on the content of their library than the content of their cabinet.
I remember that they also sold coins with a flip display and 2x2 cardboard holders ... I recall buying a wartime silver Jeff nickel there.
OMG ... My Mother was Right about Everything!
I wake up with a Good Attitude Every Day. Then … Idiots Happen!
So where exactly was this Grants Dept Store?
Disclaimer: I'm not a dealer, trader, grader, investor or professional numismatist. I'm just a hobbyist. (To protect me but mostly you! 🤣 )
Very nice department stores!
Great chain built by William Thomas Grant.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/W._T._Grant
Ref: https://mainehistory.wordpress.com/2014/04/28/notes-from-the-archives-grants-department-store/
Ref: https://www.cmstory.org/exhibits/robinson-spangler-north-carolina-room-image-collection-hornets-nest/grants-department-store
Ref: https://www.mihp.org/2013/03/w-t-grant-company/
I remember the coin department at Sears. They had some nice coins. That was 50 something years ago.
I remember a Woolworths’ coin offering, but not Grants. Grants and Woolworths were major 5 and dime chains that disappeared in the ‘70s. They were a big deal in the retailing industry during the first half of the 20th century.
Wasn't there a Grants on Long Island?
Disclaimer: I'm not a dealer, trader, grader, investor or professional numismatist. I'm just a hobbyist. (To protect me but mostly you! 🤣 )
Never mind.
https://www.nytimes.com/1975/10/30/archives/grants-downfall-suburban-blight-and-competition-wt-grant-plagued-by.html
Disclaimer: I'm not a dealer, trader, grader, investor or professional numismatist. I'm just a hobbyist. (To protect me but mostly you! 🤣 )
Here was the Woolworth's in Kingsport, TN where I lived as a youngster. Road the bus to town every Saturday to settle with Paper company and spend my profits. It was a most enjoyable time in my life. Believe it or not, when I was 16 years old, my friend and I would scour the streets for pop bottles. Collect a couple hundred, cash them in at a gas station, fill up John's VW get us each a pack of smokes and go to Pal's for hotdogs and still have a dollar and change left. Different time. Ask a kid today to go pickup pop bottles for gas money. Lol
Jim
When a man who is honestly mistaken hears the truth, he will either quit being mistaken or cease to be honest....Abraham Lincoln
Patriotism is supporting your country all the time, and your government when it deserves it.....Mark Twain
Cleaned and polished? Hah, I remember working in the hard count room at my parents casino in Carson City. Part of my job description was to clean dollars. Seems customers hated to get those dirty dollars all over their hands. (if you ever gambled with silver coinage you know how your hands look and smell when you go to leave for home). Yes, I cleaned tens of thousands of coins over my high school career at the casino. Just liquid soap and hot water. No scrubbing. Laid them out on a cloth covered table to dry and patted. Put back in canvass bags. Dollar customers must have been special, because I never had to clean halves, quarters, dimes, etc.
bob
vegas, baby!
PS: please don't blame me for all the cleaned coins out there!
Wow, Bob, What a job. Can you just imagine how many of those hefty silver coins you handled on a daily basis.
Jim
When a man who is honestly mistaken hears the truth, he will either quit being mistaken or cease to be honest....Abraham Lincoln
Patriotism is supporting your country all the time, and your government when it deserves it.....Mark Twain
I used to do it as well, except I was only 5 years old, and it involved a lot fewer bottles and cigarettes. I still do, except now it's aluminum cans for "junk silver."
Did you go to the coin shop on Center street. A lady and her brother used to run it. Also sold slot cars and Match Box cars. Bought a 1931 S cent from her. PCGS said it was counterfeit. Oh well.
Y> @Tibor said:
Oh yes, was terrified of her at first, but then she became a great help and actually gave me some supplies and my first Red Book. I almost remember her name. Little small woman with jet black hair. Do not remember her brother ever being there when I went in. It was a long walk from 5 points to her shop but made the trek often. Did you live in Kspt? Just spent Christmas there with my sister and brother.
Jim
When a man who is honestly mistaken hears the truth, he will either quit being mistaken or cease to be honest....Abraham Lincoln
Patriotism is supporting your country all the time, and your government when it deserves it.....Mark Twain
I grew up in Boones Creek, North of Johnson City. As a reward for good grades,
my mom would take me up 3 or 4 times a year. Having spoken to a few dozen
collectors over the years, you are the first to have anything positive to say about
her. By the time i was in 6th grade, I quit going. Did mail order and the New York
city coin shop tour. We went every summer. Live near Colonial Heights now.
Frequented these 3 stores as a youngin. For some reason don't recall the coin displays too much. Probably because not a collector so much at that point in time. Chased the candy,baseball cards, and toys mostly. I do remember those rotating roasting chicken spits. Think the whole chicken was $1.99.
My paternal grandfather Roy Lee Raymond, born 1890, spent much of his early career opening new W. T. Grant stores in the northeast. He opened one in Reading, Pennsylvania in 1919. That's why my dad was born there that year.
I know nothing of these particular store offerings (before my time for this era) but it's fun to learn about the way things used to be. I would imagine youth would still gather bottles for deposit in exchange for comics/candy/whatever, if it was possible to do so. A new comic these days seems to run about $3.99 and up, if one finds themselves reading modern comics (drek!) anymore. Likewise we seem far removed from the era of my older brothers (when cards were a nickel a pack) or even me (when current year cards were 50c/pack, but something like '85 Donruss could run you $6.50 a pack at that time.) Trends march on and I can't think of too many kids who could gather enough bottles for a meaningful spending money return anymore. Perhaps I'm wrong -- but I don't think people even litter as much anymore to make it possible!