Thanks for sharing these stories of the "Good ol Days". Although I'm 53 I can't remember ever going into a Woolworth.. I do know we had a huge one in Downtwn Memphis but it closed after the riots..
If anyone is interested, I did stumble across this auction for a Woolworth's 50th aniversary booklet (with lots of interior photos).
<< <i>Wow - lunch for less than a buck, count me in! >>
Don't forget that wages were considerably lower back then.
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
Seeing the lunch menu sure brought back some memories, with my grandmother the lunch counter manager cant count how many times I have read one of those through the years, 50s 60s 70s. Was a big flashback seeing it. (Thank you). The best part the drink syrup was mixed...she always put in extra syrup in my cokes...still can see the white uniforms change on the counter top...and hand written tickets...an expensive meal was over $2.00....
My sister worked for Woolworths before finishing high school. After graduation they offered her a full time position and eventually she was promoted as a team leader setting up new or remodeled stores along the northeastern states. She got to know the sales person who restocked those revolving coin trays and was able to complete a Jeff Nick set between finding them in the till and buying what she could not from the salesman.
Eventually the competition between K-Mart and Walmart would bury Woolworths and all the others mentioned (Grants, Korvetts, etc. ) and after 27 years of service she was laid off but she still has her collection.
WS
Proud recipient of the coveted PCGS Forum "You Suck" Award Thursday July 19, 2007 11:33 PM and December 30th, 2011 at 8:50 PM.
There was a department store in north hills mall in raleigh nc back in the early 80's that had coins on one side and comics and sports cards on the other, It was probably a woolworth but I can't remember for sure. I was pretty much always in the comic book side as I was like 10 or so.
<< <i>I believe in the 1950s the FW Woolworth lunch counter was the most ubiquitous restaurant in the country (in the pre-fast food franchise days). >>
I don't remember our local Woolworth's having coins but I do remember them having rifles and shotguns. Every time they had a M1 Garand I would ask to see it. Glad I held off and didn't buy one of there beat up ones got myself one in excellent condition at a police auction.
This Woolworth has been boarded up as long as I can remember. There used to be a Coca Cola clock on the corner that I always thought was nice. It went missing sometime in the early to mid 1980's.
Times have changed. I used to go into a Woolworth store every saturday morning as a kid. I would go with my father to his office for a few hours. He would give me 50 cents and i got to explore downtown for a few hours on my own until i had to be back. I used to ride the subway and.... Nowadays no parent in their right mind would allow a 10 year old to do what i did.lol
In high school the Vo-ag deptment used to give out guns to the students that sold the most smoked turkeys, boxed fruit or magazines. I had a gun rack in the back window of my truck with 2 guns and a compound bow hanging off of it. This was in the late 1970's. Just seems like yesterday. lol
Mark NGC registry V-Nickel proof #6!!!! working on proof shield nickels # 8 with a bullet!!!!
I remember our town's local Woolworths having that hand-packed Rosati water ice freezer outside in the summer, too!! Giant tubs of water ice and you had to be strong to carve-out the scoops, as they were very hard!!.......
bringing an old thread alive again---the Woolworth coins
recently i picked this one up:
i always heard these referred to as Woolworth packaged coins "from the 60's" but this Lincoln is dated 1978! does anyone know how long Woolworth's (or other retailers) carried these??
Nostalgia flood! Yes indeed I recall this. I used to love that machine. Newberry's also had this and Fortunoff as well. I recall old Wheats, Indians, V 5c...some Commems...loose proof cents and so on. I looked on Wicki - these stores are listed as "a five and dime store in the twentieth century" - gosh I feel old(er)!
<< <i>In Chicago in the mid-1950s, just about every downtown department store had both a coin and a stamp deprtment. The ones remembered are Marshall Field, Carsons, the Fair, Sears, Woolworths, and Montgomery Ward. In addition, downtown coin dealers included Ace Stamp and Coin, John Ross, Liberty Stamp & Coin and Leonard Stack. Many neighborhood department stores also had coins and stamps for sale - Wieboldts, Goldblatts, SS Kresge Dime Store among them. >>
Yes Marshall Fields in Chicago had that little coin shop in the basement right up until Macy's took over. The guy had a mail order auction going. And I recall Leonard Stack. He had the coin shop on Dearborn Street between Randolph and Washington. My mom would take us downtown in the early 60's and we would come up from the Dearborn Street subway. There was a donut shop right there. It had a weird Rube Goldberg contraption in the window that made and glazed the donuts. We went in for donuts and then walked south and the coin shop was a few doors down. I would be enamored with these crazy lucite cubes that had red cents "floating inside". I wanted her to buy me one but she never did. I believe there was a poster on the wall advertising the 1955 doubled die cent that was about 10 years old at the time, about my age. I have a nice one of those now. Had to get one.
I ran across one in a flea market that actually uses it to show their coins for sale. Unfortunately, although it worked very nicely, the coins contained within were in very poor condition. Billings Mo.
<< <i>Yeah, I remember it (and reveal my age along with everyone else). Only bought Whitman albums at Woolworth's; in NYC, there was Macy's, Gimbels, and Abraham & Strauss that had coin/stamp departments as well. Most of my coins (in those days) I bought from small shops where the guy had a couple display cases, a big old safe in the back and a few cigar boxes filled with worn-out IHCs, Barbers, et al. I used to spend hours digging thru those looking for low-mintage dates, and he always made me feel like I'd scored big no matter what I found (best I remember was a 1913 Type II Buff in AG or so--you could barely read the date). But that's when collecting was really collecting (for me), and that's where a lot of my "weekly allowance" got spent. Last time I drove past the old place (20+ years ago), it was a liquor store. Do shops like that still exist today? >>
I bought a Cir 1901s 5$ Lib in the early 90s for just over 100$ at that Macy with the old wooden escalators in NYC. Thought I had made it having a coin worth more than 100$
<< <i>I believe in the 1950s the FW Woolworth lunch counter was the most ubiquitous restaurant in the country (in the pre-fast food franchise days). >>
Yes, I agree. But in the 50's the place to be in the Philly area was the Horn and Hardart automats for fast homestyle cooked food. I still remember putting all those coins in the slots for a lunch over there in Philly when we went Christmas shopping at Gimbels and Lit Bros.
And now I await someone asking "OK, what's a 5 & 10?"
We didn't have Woolworth's but when I was a teenager I would take the bus once a week or so to downtown Pittsburgh in the summer and make the rounds of four places that sold coins. One was a department store and the other three were typical coin shops.
Looking back, it was nice that none of them ever got sick of seeing me even though the only thing they got out of me was the greasy fingerprints I left all over the display cases. I didn't find out until years and years later that one of the shop owners had a 1894-S Barber dime (he's passed away now, but his wife/son still run the shop). >>
You are referring to Kaufmann's 9th floor coin shop run by the Meredith family. Nice folks. I spent many a lunch hour (and many a paycheck) there in the 80s. There was the little coin shop on the corner in the Grant Building. Banner Coin is still on 4th Avenue across from the old Dollar Bank. Littman's is still around, too. They let me dig thru their melt bucket for VAMs. Nice folks!
On a recent trip to TN. we stopped in a gas station and I saw a "bubble gum" type dispenser with "potluck" coins in it. From barbers to mercurys to wheat cents to old halves. $ 1.00 a pop...
F. W. Woolworth went out of business in 1997, when the company decided to focus on the Foot Locker division and renamed itself Venator Group. By 2001, the company focused exclusively on the sporting goods market, changing its name to the present Foot Locker Inc.
Our local Woolworth's didn't have coins, but I remember it well. How did I miss this thread whenever it was started on Saturday February 19, 2005?
Thanksgiving National Battlefield Coin Show is November 29-30, 2024 at the Eisenhower Allstar Sportsplex, Gettysburg, PA. Tables are available. WWW.AmericasCoinShows.com
Comments
I was close
Experience the World through Numismatics...it's more than you can imagine.
Circa 1950's
Are those coins in that case??
1928
1954
Whatever you are, be a good one. ---- Abraham Lincoln
If anyone is interested, I did stumble across this auction for a Woolworth's 50th aniversary booklet (with lots of interior photos).
<< <i>Wow - lunch for less than a buck, count me in!
Don't forget that wages were considerably lower back then.
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
"Because I can"
myurl The Franklin All Old Green Holder Set
Eventually the competition between K-Mart and Walmart would bury Woolworths and all the others mentioned (Grants, Korvetts, etc. ) and after 27 years of service she was laid off but she still has her collection.
WS
<< <i>What's a "Woolworth"??? >>
A lot more off the lamb.
( A sheepish sort of joke
<< <i>I believe in the 1950s the FW Woolworth lunch counter was the most ubiquitous restaurant in the country (in the pre-fast food franchise days). >>
<< <i>What's a "Woolworth"??? >>
Depends on what kind of sheep it came off of
This Woolworth has been boarded up as long as I can remember. There used to be a Coca Cola clock on the corner that I always thought was nice. It went missing sometime in the early to mid 1980's.
In high school the Vo-ag deptment used to give out guns to the students that sold the most smoked turkeys, boxed fruit or magazines. I had a gun rack in the back window of my truck with 2 guns and a compound bow hanging off of it. This was in the late 1970's. Just seems like yesterday. lol
NGC registry V-Nickel proof #6!!!!
working on proof shield nickels # 8 with a bullet!!!!
RIP "BEAR"
recently i picked this one up:
i always heard these referred to as Woolworth packaged coins "from the 60's" but this Lincoln is dated 1978! does anyone know how long Woolworth's (or other retailers) carried these??
www.brunkauctions.com
Nostalgia flood! Yes indeed I recall this. I used to love that machine. Newberry's also had this and Fortunoff as well. I recall old Wheats, Indians, V 5c...some Commems...loose proof cents and so on. I looked on Wicki - these stores are listed as "a five and dime store in the twentieth century" - gosh I feel old(er)!
Best wishes and thanks for the memories,
Eric
<< <i>In Chicago in the mid-1950s, just about every downtown department store had both a coin and a stamp deprtment. The ones remembered are Marshall Field, Carsons, the Fair, Sears, Woolworths, and Montgomery Ward. In addition, downtown coin dealers included Ace Stamp and Coin, John Ross, Liberty Stamp & Coin and Leonard Stack. Many neighborhood department stores also had coins and stamps for sale - Wieboldts, Goldblatts, SS Kresge Dime Store among them. >>
Yes Marshall Fields in Chicago had that little coin shop in the basement right up until Macy's took over. The guy had a mail order auction going. And I recall Leonard Stack. He had the coin shop on Dearborn Street between Randolph and Washington. My mom would take us downtown in the early 60's and we would come up from the Dearborn Street subway. There was a donut shop right there. It had a weird Rube Goldberg contraption in the window that made and glazed the donuts. We went in for donuts and then walked south and the coin shop was a few doors down. I would be enamored with these crazy lucite cubes that had red cents "floating inside". I wanted her to buy me one but she never did. I believe there was a poster on the wall advertising the 1955 doubled die cent that was about 10 years old at the time, about my age. I have a nice one of those now. Had to get one.
<< <i>Yeah, I remember it (and reveal my age along with everyone else). Only bought Whitman albums at Woolworth's; in NYC, there was Macy's, Gimbels, and Abraham & Strauss that had coin/stamp departments as well. Most of my coins (in those days) I bought from small shops where the guy had a couple display cases, a big old safe in the back and a few cigar boxes filled with worn-out IHCs, Barbers, et al. I used to spend hours digging thru those looking for low-mintage dates, and he always made me feel like I'd scored big no matter what I found (best I remember was a 1913 Type II Buff in AG or so--you could barely read the date). But that's when collecting was really collecting (for me), and that's where a lot of my "weekly allowance" got spent. Last time I drove past the old place (20+ years ago), it was a liquor store. Do shops like that still exist today? >>
I bought a Cir 1901s 5$ Lib in the early 90s for just over 100$ at that Macy with the old wooden escalators in NYC. Thought I had made it having a coin worth more than 100$
Yea,baby, in Mansfield, Massachusetts.
<< <i>I believe in the 1950s the FW Woolworth lunch counter was the most ubiquitous restaurant in the country (in the pre-fast food franchise days). >>
Yes, I agree. But in the 50's the place to be in the Philly area was the Horn and Hardart automats for fast homestyle cooked food. I still remember putting all those coins in the slots for a lunch over there in Philly when we went Christmas shopping at Gimbels and Lit Bros.
<< <i>
<< <i>Woolworths is a 5 & 10. >>
And now I await someone asking "OK, what's a 5 & 10?"
We didn't have Woolworth's but when I was a teenager I would take the bus once a week or so to downtown Pittsburgh in the summer and make the rounds of four places that sold coins. One was a department store and the other three were typical coin shops.
Looking back, it was nice that none of them ever got sick of seeing me even though the only thing they got out of me was the greasy fingerprints I left all over the display cases. I didn't find out until years and years later that one of the shop owners had a 1894-S Barber dime (he's passed away now, but his wife/son still run the shop). >>
You are referring to Kaufmann's 9th floor coin shop run by the Meredith family. Nice folks. I spent many a lunch hour (and many a paycheck) there in the 80s. There was the little coin shop on the corner in the Grant Building. Banner Coin is still on 4th Avenue across from the old Dollar Bank. Littman's is still around, too. They let me dig thru their melt bucket for VAMs. Nice folks!
Now Sears, from old catalogs that I have seen, didn't they sell coins back in the day?
Many members on this forum that now it cannot fit in my signature. Please ask for entire list.
Our local Woolworth's didn't have coins, but I remember it well. How did I miss this thread whenever it was started on Saturday February 19, 2005?
Thanksgiving National Battlefield Coin Show is November 29-30, 2024 at the Eisenhower Allstar Sportsplex, Gettysburg, PA. Tables are available. WWW.AmericasCoinShows.com