Silver coins in change

Mowgli

Yesterday I had a need to do some carb loading and went to Dunkin Donuts. I do not rememnber how it came up but the two guys working at the counter started talking about what they get in their tip jar. One found a nice 1938 Mercury dime and the other was talking about a silver quarter - which he only noticed because it sounded different when he dropped it on the tile floor.

How much silver coinage do you think is still circulating? Could it be that kids are getting into their parents' collections or people are spending their can/jar of old coins or is this just stuff that people have not yet pulled out of circulation?

cladking

<< <i>
How much silver coinage do you think is still circulating? Could it be that kids are getting into their parents' collections or people are spending their can/jar of old coins or is this just stuff that people have not yet pulled out of circulation? >>



None whatsoever.

It is simply impossible for a coin to have circulated for half a century
and never been seen by a collector or someone else who would re-
move it from circulation.

All of the silver was gone from circulation by early 1970. Any that is
found now was almost certainly returned to circulation by someone
inadvertantly or otherwise. In a few very rare cases the silver sat in
a change jar since before early 1970 and has been recently released.
This is known to be a rare occurance because you can't find much old
clad in high grade and there's no one interfering with there circulation.

tahoe98

............are you saying you don't have much luck sam?

kranky

Our cafeteria manager makes a point to show me every silver coin he finds in the day's receipts. So far this month he's gotten two silver dimes and two silver quarters. Not a month goes by that he doesn't get at least one silver coin. I have a feeling most if not all of them come from rolls he gets from the bank, not from customers spending them at the cafeteria.

19Lyds

<< <i>Yesterday I had a need to do some carb loading and went to Dunkin Donuts. >>



I've done more than my share of this!

As for the silver coinage? There is a lot more than folks seem to think.

cladking

<< <i>............are you saying you don't have much luck sam? >>



I look mostly at quarters which have the lowest incidence
of silver. It's been at a steady state of about .05% for many
years. Every time one silver quarter gets removed from
change another one gets spent. While about one quarter
in two thousand is silver you may see more or less depending
on exactly where you're looking. You'll find the most in the
sort of change returned to the bank from laundromats and
the fewest in the rolls supplied to banks by the armored car-
riers who sort out silver (not all do). There's a lot more sil-
ver in dimes and despite looking at few of these most of the
silver I find still comes from the dimes.

I guess I don't have much luck at only about $1 per year in
recent years. I used to get a lot more before the local car-
rier started pulling silver quarters.

But there really aren't any wheat cents, buffalos, or silver
coins that have been in circulation for a long time now. If you
look closely at even something like 1946 nickels you'll see
they quit wearing long ago. They get pulled out briefly and
returned to circulation over and over. At any given time on-
ly about 20% of them are "circulating".

TrustNo1

I've gotten a few Roosevelts in the past 18 months....no one checks it when they give it to you and when they break open the rolls, they dont look either...plenty of people dont know what a Sac is, so I dont expect them to know what's silver coinage and what isn't. edited to add: I get Wheats monthly it seems

Cnitas

I used to work in a gas station in High school in the 90s. The only silver I saw was when a desperate person needing gas would spend a roll of silver dimes/quarters ,or the random 1/2 dollars, for a tank of gas.

We never got silver in our bank rolled change.

bdunndchi

<< <i>

<< <i>Yesterday I had a need to do some carb loading and went to Dunkin Donuts. >>



I've done more than my share of this!

>>



I would love to do some DD carb-loading right now.

speety

My sister found a 1904 liberty nickel in change the other day. It was only a very good or fine, but she was pretty excited! It was cool to know they are still out there, waiting to be discovered!

GrumpyEd

Still find some war nickels and 40% halves in circulation.

I have not found a silver dime or quarter in ages.

BillyKingsley

I just got two silver Roosevelts in change earlier this year, and my mom found a 1919 cent that is in fantastic condition. I suspect that all of them had been sitting. The two dimes were found in the return tray at CoinStar (!).

I've never been lucky enough to find a silver quarter in change, or a silver dime for that matter, but I have a handfull of them that I think my parents pulled out of circulation around 1950s-60s.

I did get two silver war nickels within the past 5 years. One of them was when I was on vacation in Lake George. When we are there we put all the change in to a cup and somehow this cup got hidden behind my TV, and when I was going through all the change I could find trying to find as many different years and mintmarks I could I remembered it was there (the cup) and was quite surprised to find that nickel there!

rpw

I recently received a brand new 1964 quarter in change from a Togo's in San Jose. I spoke with the cashier with whom I am very friendly and she looked in the till and there were a bunch of them there. It turns out They had just cracked open a roll and it was all brand new 1964 quarters. The history of that roll must be amazing but I did not stop to dwell on it as I handed her currency for all of them.

Snowman24

this is the real term of finding silver

i was riding my bicycle last week and near the white line i saw a quarter on a busy 4 lane road in my town
so i waited until it was safe to pick it up and it turned out to be a 62D quarter

i had some digs in it from cars running it over but hey - whats the odds of finding one on the side of the road

Snowman

CoinSeeker

I guess I'm the lucky one, but I look over every single coin I get everyday. I only spend dollars, at the end of the day I look through my change (usually 15 or less coins) then put it in a jar. I save that, then buy coins with the change I save. I got a 1946 Jefferson today and a 1958 about a week ago.

sumnom

I saw silver in circulation fairly regularly throughout the 1970s. I can remember looking through rolls of dimes and quarters as a kid and frequently finding two or three silver coins per roll so I don't think it's right to say that they were all gone by early 1970. These days, however, I rarely see any. In the last several years I have come across two dimes and a quarter and that's it.

fc

the only silver i find is with my metal detector...

cladking

<< <i>I saw silver in circulation fairly regularly throughout the 1970s. I can remember looking through rolls of dimes and quarters as a kid and frequently finding two or three silver coins per roll so I don't think it's right to say that they were all gone by early 1970. These days, however, I rarely see any. In the last several years I have come across two dimes and a quarter and that's it. >>



Perhaps it should be phrased differently. In this area of the country (midwest) the
silver was gone by early-'70 and that should be generally true throughout the coun-
try. But there may well have been pockets or areas where old silver was released
from old hoards in larger numbers. There could have been local areas where this
would result in silver moving in and out of FED storage much longer. It was 1975
(probably) until all the coins in storage had been turned over after they adopted FIFO
accounting in 1972.

Even though these coins could have seemed pretty plentiful, I'd still maintain that they
weren't truly "in circulation". Once the percentage of people who remove a coin crosses
a certain point then the coin just can't circulate. No matter how many millions were made
the half life shortens to a few weeks and they disappear. The FED stopped separating
out the silver in mid-'69 because there wasn't enough to bother with any longer. The
cost of separating was almost insignificant.

mrcommem

Received a 1949-D Rosevelt dime in change at the QT on Saturday when I got gas. The coin has to be in AU58. Virtually no wear. We had a coin show in town on Friday and Saturday. Is it possible someone did a coin drop?

commoncents123

sometimes i intentionally spend common wheats or dateless buffalo's just for the thrill

DeutscherGeist

What is special about a Nickel from 1946? Does it have silver content? What years of nickels have silver content? Pre-1964 only?

If the Kennedy Half dollar in pre-1964 had 90% silver, what about the ones dated 1964 to current? Are they 40% silver? Which ones are worth saving?

What about the Eisenhower dollar coins....so they have silver?








edit to add questions

melvin289

I never find anything. I don't get silver in change. I don't find anything in the CoinStar machines. I went to the bank to get rolls of half dollars only to find each roll was a half dollar short and I had to make that up. I basically have quit trying.

Ron

Batman23

I found a 62-D dime in change today

Batman23

What is special about a Nickel from 1946? Does it have silver content? What years of nickels have silver content? Pre-1964 only?

46?, nothing. Silver nickels were some of the 1942s through 1945. You will find that silver nickels have the large mintmark over the building on the reverse. I have found about a half dozen of them this year roll searching with my son.


If the Kennedy Half dollar in pre-1964 had 90% silver, what about the ones dated 1964 to current? Are they 40% silver? Which ones are worth saving?

The 64 Kennedy is 90%. The 65-69 Kennedys are 40%


What about the Eisenhower dollar coins....so they have silver?

Some do but I am not familiar with these. The silver were in special sets and were not minted to circulate.

TrustNo1

I get at least one a year.... nothing since the last post in Aug.

johnny9434

ill spend some dateless buffalo's just for the thrills and i like to see the face on people. its all good

Baley

most "circulation finds", particularly obsolete types are spent by good-natured collectors to generate a little excitement and plant seeds for future collectors

(I'm excluding roll finds, especially half dollars... most of those are from "cashing in change jars"

ambro51

haha, yes you are right there. Ive spent about a dozen very worn liberty nickels over the past month. All at local shops in my little town.

ernie11

I've been envious of a friend cause recently he's come across a 1964 dime, a 1955 quarter, and just found a 1925 Buffalo nickel walking down a road. Haven't had that kind of luck recently. Of course, I am lucky in that he turns these all over to me cause he knows I collect coins.

MrMoo

I found a silver quarter in the drawer a few months ago. The one I got previous to that was 7 or 8 years ago. A 1964 quarter, it's always a 1964.

jm8787

<< <i>

<< <i>
How much silver coinage do you think is still circulating? Could it be that kids are getting into their parents' collections or people are spending their can/jar of old coins or is this just stuff that people have not yet pulled out of circulation? >>



None whatsoever.

It is simply impossible for a coin to have circulated for half a century
and never been seen by a collector or someone else who would re-
move it from circulation.

All of the silver was gone from circulation by early 1970. Any that is
found now was almost certainly returned to circulation by someone
inadvertantly or otherwise. In a few very rare cases the silver sat in
a change jar since before early 1970 and has been recently released.
This is known to be a rare occurance because you can't find much old
clad in high grade and there's no one interfering with there circulation. >>



Impossible is not the right word. I've found silver quarters and dimes before in my change, so that "it's impossible" argument goes right out the window. Not everyone is a collector and there were tens of millions of silver quarters and dimes once circulating. the chance that there are a few left in the shuffle is pretty good i think.