I saw an ad recently where a well known coin dealer states.........
MWallace
Posts: 4,358 ✭✭✭✭✭
"Common in high grade since these were released the second time by the Treasury in 1933."
In over 50 years of collecting I've NEVER heard this. Is it true?
In over 50 years of collecting I've NEVER heard this. Is it true?
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Steve
PM with scans of the ad sent.
I sent CaptHenway the info. He knows the dealer and will ask him about it. Presumably he will report what he finds out here.
He was sure that he had read it somewhere, but could not find any specific reference in his files to a Treasury release in 1933. He did promise to keep looking, and to let me know if he finds the reference.
It is a known fact that during the Great Depression many households were forced to spend old coins that had been put away by the family over the years, simply to survive. I even wrote a story about this phenomenon in COINage in (IIRC) Sept. of 2014. Because the 1883 No Cents nickel had been widely hoarded in 1883 and following, there must have been a lot of them in non-numismatic hoards.
Much of this old coinage got gleaned out of circulation. In calendar year 1935, the Treasury redeemed 32 half cents, 24,536 large cents, 16,277 two cents, 12,149 three cent nickels, and 8,191 half dimes. The number of five cent nickels redeemed was huge, and since it is not broken down by type it is impossible to say how many of them were specifically 1883 No Cents Liberty Nickels, but there must have been a lot of them in there, so that for a while they could be found in circulation.
Perhaps, and this is sheer speculation on my part, there were so many of them around that somebody on the scene in 1933 thought that the Treasury must have re-released them, and published this mis-information someplace. The Treasury was actually removing them from circulation as they came in, but many people never let the facts get in the way of a good story.
TD
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As for the nickels, it makes sense that the coins would have been held back in 1883, once the decision was made to change the design. And it also makes sense that if the Treasury was willing to release silver dollars in the 60's, they would have also been quick to get rid of their other obsolete coinage, apparently a decade earlier.
Doggedly collecting coins of the Central American Republic.
Visit the Society of US Pattern Collectors at USPatterns.com.
Much of this old coinage got gleaned out of circulation. In calendar year 1935, the Treasury redeemed 32 half cents, 24,536 large cents, 16,277 two cents, 12,149 three cent nickels, and 8,191 half dimes. The number of five cent nickels redeemed was huge, and since it is not broken down by type it is impossible to say how many of them were specifically 1883 No Cents Liberty Nickels, but there must have been a lot of them in there, so that for a while they could be found in circulation.
TD
My grandmother was about 9-10 years old during the depression and one of her interesting numismatic stories was somehow getting a Flying Eagle cent in change somewhere and turning around and spending it on penny candy because it was money and there wasn't much of it.
Tom