Who had a parent who was the church treasurer?

zap1111

I was thinking today how much fun it was while growing up to be able to go through each Sunday's take from the offering collection while my Dad counted it and readied the weekly deposit. I lost a lot of my allowance in the 1960s replacing coins that showed up each week. I remember wheaties from from the teens on up, buffalo nickels, mercs, SLQs, walkers and the occasional silver dollar. I ended up selling most of them off in the 80s when silver was up. I still have many of them in my Lincoln and Jefferson books.

I long for those days of finding a decent coin in the change. Other recent posts occasionally highlight a current find of interest, and it seems like a few older specimens are coming out of the coin jars with the economic conditions what they are.

How about it? Any others out there with a young coin collection linked to the church offering plates?
zap

BillyGoatsGruff

My Uncle's Father was in Ames, IA and he found an incredible array of little treasures. A few years back, we went thru the coins and sent some off for grading. In paticular, a 1914 D Lincoln and a 1909 S VDB which both graded VF25. He also had several morgan dollars and some nice AU Buffalo nickels.

droopyd

My uncle was a Postmaster, but collected coins rather than stamps. He'd go through each day's take and pull out any coins he wanted.

(Yes, he replaced anything he took out of pocket!)

JazzmanJAB

As a 16 year old, I worked at the corner drug store in the 70's. Every shift I worked the cash register, I would check for silver by scooping the quarter & dime trays and dropping it back into the tray. You could hear if there was any silver in there or not.

DMWJR

I had the same experience growing up with my grandfather. He wasn't the church treasurer, but was among the group that counted the collections on Sunday after church. All the men routinely switched out coin for coin before making the deposit in the after hours bin at the bank. That's a great memory that I haven't thought about in a long time.

Today, there is very little currency and even less change that gets put in the plate. The church across the street from us will even draft accounts if that's the way a member wants to do it.

ormandh

I can top that! My father was the Priest of our Catholic church. Man, the draw he would pull in for collections allowed for a GREAT start for my collection growing up! Man those were the days......

Coinshowman

Currently my church takes up a loose change offering the first Sunday of each month. I've been counting and rolling the coins for about five years. On average, we collect about $150 in coins. I'd guess that in an average month, I find a silver dime, a few wheaties and a couple of pre-1960 nickels. A couple of months ago, for two months in a row, someone put in a baggie of coins that were mostly silver. In each case, about $3 worth. Though I think the best find was a 1950D nickel. After buying what I take out, I always put in enough coins to fill up rolls, so I've paid for my "finds" many times over, but I still get a thrill out of a treasure.

zap1111

Finding a 50D nickel is pretty cool!

Nowadays, we have a auto withdrawal set up with the local bank for our church offering....

Thanks for the stories!

RWB

My father was the Priest of our Catholic church

Hmmmmmm...Must have been Orthodox or Russian.....

...or maybe your Mom was an "alter girl" and the local priest couldn't find a boy to abuse....?

Never mind - this is not going numismatically.

Bear

An individual that is married before taking his vows ,is allowed to
remain married and have children. In time, I believe that celibacy
will become optional. Celibacy was enacted long after Christianity
was an established religion.

GAT

About 50 years ago I was the assistant treasurer of Grace Luthern Church in Los Angeles.

PerryHall

<< <i>My father was the Priest of our Catholic church

Hmmmmmm...Must have been Orthodox or Russian.....

...or maybe your Mom was an "alter girl" and the local priest couldn't find a boy to abuse....?

Never mind - this is not going numismatically. >>



RWB---I think you crossed the line here. You may want to delete it.

blueifalcon

So, if you find a silver dime or 1909 S V.D.B. cent, do you remove it and replace with an equal amount of money or what those coins are really worth. Just wondering about the moral aspects of this type cherry picking.

TCoins

Two quick stories.

One, my grandmother was a bank teller so thats how I got started in this hobby.

Two, when I was about 7, my Sunday school teacher gave a lesson on false idols. She said that if we loved/worshipped anything more than God, then it was an idol. The following Sunday I put in the collection plate my prized MS Ike dollar. Pious little me thought it might be an idol. Some forty years later Im sure someone plucked my Ike from the collection plate in the counting room. All I can do is look back and laugh.

ram1946

I've posted a version of this "how I started collecting coins" before but it does derserve another post given the OP thread.

I started collecting coins in 1957 when I was 11 years old. My friends and I would go to the rectory at Mt. Carmel Church in Pittsfield, MA on Sunday afternoons. We were allowed to go through the Sunday collection and take out any coins that we wanted. We simply had to replace a cent for a cent, nickel for a nickel, etc. I can still remmeber the great Mercs, Walkers, SLQs and Buffs that were readily available. There were even some Barber coinage, Indian Head cents and series that preceded the design renaissance of the early twentieth century. Had I known then what I know now.................!!!!

Our pastor, Father Santini, was also a avid collector. He had the most remarkable (to an 11 year ol'd eyes) collection of Indian Head cents. I can still remember how beautiful that completed (yes, 77, 08s and 09s included) album was.

TwoSides2aCoin

My dad sang in the choir. My mom cannot carry a tune in a bucket,

lcoopie

if you knew what you were doing,
the subway token person
was in the right place

joz350

I work for a large Catholic church and although I see the piles of cash every Monday I never touch the money for fear of being thought a thief. Too bad, I often wonder if thre are any treasures in the bills.

BigE

PerryHall, i agree with you but what good is it to quote someone in your post and suggest that it be deleted. RWB, I know you are just kidding but some including the OP might not take it that way----------------------BigE

WaterSport

I was one of the supervisors at the Washington Monument from 1980-1984. The entrance fee then was a dime. Around 1982 we got orders to stop collecting it. Every week we collected a dozen coin boxes unlocked them, sorted and counted the money and deposited the cash at the Riggs Bank. Even then SLQ, WLH and buff nicks were found weekly. My boss was an activate collector and always had coins to exchange. I was broke and working two jobs to earn diaper money and this was a time I had about a 10 year hiatus from collecting. I do not recall anything of great value coming across the table, but then again it was only about collecting dates and series.

WS

PerryHall

<< <i>PerryHall, i agree with you but what good is it to quote someone in your post and suggest that it be deleted. RWB, I know you are just kidding but some including the OP might not take it that way----------------------BigE >>



Once he deletes his post, I'll certainly delete my quote.

zap1111

Lots of great stories coming out. Thanks for sharing. We would always replace a coin with another of equal face value, and at the age of 8 or so, I felt no moral dilemma at all - I had no idea what the term cherrypick meant. We never seemed to find anything very rare - just old. I don't recall any Barber coinage still showing up in the 60s.

And I appreciate attempts to keep this thread coin-related. Thanks.
zap

Hawgstick

How ethical is that to do today? With silver worth multiples of face value? Would it be okay to drop a 20 dollar bill for a worn out saint? I wonder how often that happens with bell ringers taking in their collections for sal. army.

DNADave

I've seen a few wheats given during the "penny march" at our church...and a few in Vacation Bible School.

Oh, and RWB's post is way out of line, and surprising from someone I thought was a leader in my area of interest. Very disappointing.

500Bay

When I saw this thread started yesterday, I had a feeling the Catholic Church would get bashed somehow...
I'm glad people here do not equate Walter Breen with all numismatists...

To the OP: I have done collection counting at a parish over the years, and the coins are fewer and fewer each year. Cash is even getting less common. I guess I am too young to see much in the way of silver or other collectible coins in the collection.

zap1111

I was amazed at how in two quick replies this thread had been distastefully sidetracked, and was glad to see that another few posts helped get it back on track.

I was talking with my dad last night (he's about a week away from being 81 years old) and mentioned this thread and the memories it was stirring. He enjoyed hearing of them and reminisced about that aspect of raising a bunch of young boys.

I can still remember the smell of the floppy bank deposit bag he used, as well as the thrill of the hunt.
zap