I usually don't mess with modern coinage, but I really like this one!

ElmerFusterpuck · January 10, 2021 8:50AM

Some of the American Innovation coinage has actually been eye catching, it's not hard to really like this "telephone" coin. It looks like you can dial the phone on it! Graded PF-69 by our host.

privatecoin · January 10, 2021 8:53AM

While I like some of the innovation dollars, the mints price now is just too high. I will just have to wait and see if the price is ever right in the aftermarket. And it's still frustrating to not see the date when it's in the album.

Panda4456 · January 10, 2021 8:56AM

I’m not sure if I am going to collect these I just started building my Sacagawea proof collection. Bought my first one a couple days ago

ms70 · January 10, 2021 8:58AM

I'd like it more if it didn't say "Massachusetts", but other than that, yes, it's cool.

coinsarefun · January 10, 2021 9:01AM

I do like that one

bsshog40 · January 10, 2021 9:04AM

As much as I think they are pretty cool, I just can't justify the prices of this stuff anymore! It's like a new car, as soon as it leaves the mint, it's worth half of what you paid for it.

JedPlanchet · January 10, 2021 9:07AM

Rotary dial for the win - great coin! I still have a rotary phone that actually works on the landline.

/old numismatist

ms70 · January 10, 2021 11:23AM

Now if it were from the RCM Mint you'd be able to spin the dial!

crazyhounddog · January 10, 2021 11:26AM

Very cool. I like it too. It brings back good memories.
👌👍

Mark · January 10, 2021 12:06PM

@ElmerFusterpuck You know, some of the YNs here are probably saying "What is this 'dial a phone' thing they speak of?"

abcde12345 · January 10, 2021 12:11PM

Neat coin yet the use of four different fonts is distracting.

CoinHoarder · January 10, 2021 12:53PM

Personally, I have no interest in any modern coinage that does not contain precious metals.

johnny9434 · January 10, 2021 1:04PM

I keep looking at that coin as well. It one of the very few that I like as well

WAYNEAS · January 10, 2021 3:35PM

out of my registry set

Jimnight · January 10, 2021 3:38PM

Nice!

bearcave · January 10, 2021 3:53PM

@JedPlanchet said:
Rotary dial for the win - great coin! I still have a rotary phone that actually works on the landline.

/old numismatist

Do you remember only having to dial 4 digits on phone? Then going to 2 letters and 5 numbers? I still remember the old house phone number, can't remember any cell phone numbers, but......

Forgot to add, I really like the coin!

JedPlanchet · January 10, 2021 4:32PM

@bearcave said:

@JedPlanchet said:
Rotary dial for the win - great coin! I still have a rotary phone that actually works on the landline.

/old numismatist

Do you remember only having to dial 4 digits on phone? Then going to 2 letters and 5 numbers? I still remember the old house phone number, can't remember any cell phone numbers, but......

Forgot to add, I really like the coin!

Too young for the 4 digit phone number, but I do remember that our phone number exchange was ALpine 6 !

JoeLewis · January 10, 2021 5:08PM

https://youtube.com/watch?v=zE_2AbY2qnY

Zoins · January 10, 2021 5:14PM

@ms70 said:
I'd like it more if it didn't say "Massachusetts", but other than that, yes, it's cool.

I appreciate the educational aspect of including it. With it, those who are curious will look up the invention of the telephone. Without it, many people would look at the dollar and continue to not learn anything.

I never knew a lot of the info here:

The World's First Phone Call Happened In Boston
[...]
Born in Scotland, Bell moved to Canada with his parents after his two brothers died of tuberculosis and he also began showing signs that he, too, might succumb to the disease. Bell’s father was an elocution teacher and his fascination with the human voice was passed down to his son, who himself became a skilled teacher of the deaf.

"So he moved to Boston where there was an excellent school and where he could meet the kind of people he wanted to mingle with," explained Gray.

The kind of people Bell wanted to mingle with were folks who shared his interests outside the classroom: Electricity, magnetics, and the quest to transmit the human voice.

"There were many scientists at this point – amateur and professional – working on what they were at that point calling the speaking telegraph," said Gray.
[...]
"Boston was very important because in the late 19th century it was kind of the Silicon Valley of the United States," said Gray. "There were a lot of workshops where he could take drawings and get people with much better engineering skills than him to build prototypes."

Gray says Bell was no businessman and, crucially, it was in Massachusetts that he also found a keen investor: Gardener Hubbard, a Cambridge patent lawyer who was the father of one of his students.

Mr. Hubbard. Gardener Hubbard. And he realized that his deaf daughter’s teacher was in fact someone who could make a fortune for him.

Bell is on the top left of this school photo:

https://www.wgbh.org/news/2016/03/11/science-and-technology/worlds-first-phone-call-happened-boston

Onastone · January 10, 2021 6:29PM

@bearcave said:

Do you remember only having to dial 4 digits on phone?

I do!

Zoins · January 10, 2021 6:32PM

@bearcave said:

@JedPlanchet said:
Rotary dial for the win - great coin! I still have a rotary phone that actually works on the landline.

/old numismatist

Do you remember only having to dial 4 digits on phone?

I don't, but with Alexa and FaceTime, you don't need numbers any more!

Onastone · January 10, 2021 6:35PM

For Christmas, I passed out over 40 of these Innobucks to co-workers. Not surprising, nobody had even known about the series. The funniest line I got back was from a high schooler, she said, " I didn't know Massachusetts invented the cellphone."

CoinHoarder · January 10, 2021 7:04PM

@bearcave said:
Do you remember only having to dial 4 digits on phone? Then going to 2 letters and 5 numbers? I still remember the old house phone number, can't remember any cell phone numbers, but......

Yep. And I also remember when we had one area code for the whole state.

Zoins · January 10, 2021 7:07PM

@Onastone said:
For Christmas, I passed out over 40 of these Innobucks to co-workers. Not surprising, nobody had even known about the series. The funniest line I got back was from a high schooler, she said, " I didn't know Massachusetts invented the cellphone."

Great job getting these out there and creating conversation!

Are Innobucks put into circulation by the Mint or are they purely collector coins?

WAYNEAS · January 10, 2021 7:07PM

Long Island Midland 3

bearcave · January 10, 2021 9:13PM

People here are up there in age for sure! 😂 I can remember old phone numbers but not the new cell phone numbers, just put them in your phone and forget about it. I am glad to see the mint recognizing Bell and the phone. There has been a lot of improvement over the years. (I still like the coin.)

golden · January 10, 2021 9:22PM

Interesting coin.

BLUEJAYWAY · January 10, 2021 9:44PM

@bsshog40 said:
As much as I think they are pretty cool, I just can't justify the prices of this stuff anymore! It's like a new car, as soon as it leaves the mint, it's worth half of what you paid for it.

Sorry,wrong number (price wise).

Onastone · January 11, 2021 4:20AM

@Zoins said:

@Onastone said:
For Christmas, I passed out over 40 of these Innobucks to co-workers. Not surprising, nobody had even known about the series. The funniest line I got back was from a high schooler, she said, " I didn't know Massachusetts invented the cellphone."

Great job getting these out there and creating conversation!

Are Innobucks put into circulation by the Mint or are they purely collector coins?

They are not put into circulation. That's why they make a great surprise gift or cool tip for a waitress....(if we ever get our restaurants back up & running}

coinkat · January 11, 2021 6:51AM

Interesting design- I like the rotary phone dial. I agree with Private coin as to the placement of the date... seems there are places for it. Perhaps the message here is to covey that innovation is a timeless concept and we need to search for it to appreciate progress.

Zoins · January 11, 2021 6:58AM

@coinkat said:
Interesting design- I like the rotary phone dial. I agree with Private coin as to the placement of the date... seems there are places for it. Perhaps the message here is to covey that innovation is a timeless concept and we need to search for it to appreciate progress.

I like the design without the date as it's a small coin and not a large medal.

If it was important to add the information, it would be usesful to include the following:

date / time of first call
participants on the call
location / city of the call
what was said on the call

ricko · January 11, 2021 7:19AM

Nice coin... Really stands out among other designs....I remember phones before the dial phones... Had to wait for the operator (usually pretty quick) and give her the number... If you were on a party line (cheaper), first had to check no one was already talking...Cheers, RickO

291fifth · January 11, 2021 8:05AM

I still remember my home phone number from the 1950s. We moved from that address in January, 1959.

The coin has an interesting look but should not have used more than two fonts. The use of many different fonts seems to be common in present day design but leads to a cluttered and disorganized look (my opinion).

Batman23 · January 11, 2021 8:17AM

@CoinHoarder said:

@bearcave said:
Do you remember only having to dial 4 digits on phone? Then going to 2 letters and 5 numbers? I still remember the old house phone number, can't remember any cell phone numbers, but......

Yep. And I also remember when we had one area code for the whole state.

We still have one area code for the whole state. And it was probably just before 1990 when I had to dial more than four numbers on a local call.

bearcave · January 11, 2021 9:39AM

What state are you in? We have 4 area codes and it way before 90 we had to dial 7 numbers for a local call and all 10 with "1' for a long distance call. Cell phones are different.

Zoins · January 11, 2021 9:45AM

@Onastone said:
For Christmas, I passed out over 40 of these Innobucks to co-workers. Not surprising, nobody had even known about the series. The funniest line I got back was from a high schooler, she said, " I didn't know Massachusetts invented the cellphone."

Actually, that was invented in New York

Space engineer builds working rotary dial cellphone, and you can, too

A space engineer is so against smartphones, she designed and built her own, functioning cell phone with an old-fashioned rotary dial. And now, she's showing the public how to do it, too.

Justine Haupt, an astronomy instrumentation engineer at Brookhaven National Laboratory in New York, says she wanted the very basics of a cellphone with the ability to completely avoid text messages.

https://www.wusa9.com/article/news/nation-world/rotary-dial-cell-phone/507-77eb6015-392b-495c-84ea-00a6b13287e6

Onastone · January 11, 2021 5:32PM

@Zoins said:

@coinkat said:
Interesting design- I like the rotary phone dial. I agree with Private coin as to the placement of the date... seems there are places for it. Perhaps the message here is to covey that innovation is a timeless concept and we need to search for it to appreciate progress.

I like the design without the date as it's a small coin and not a large medal.

If it was important to add the information, it would be usesful to include the following:

date / time of first call

participants on the call

location / city of the call

what was said on the call

Little known fact, the first call was made from Boston, but the other line was busy!!

Batman23 · January 11, 2021 5:36PM

@bearcave said:
What state are you in? We have 4 area codes and it way before 90 we had to dial 7 numbers for a local call and all 10 with "1' for a long distance call. Cell phones are different.

Small town Alaska. We are always a bit behind the times.

P0CKETCHANGE · January 11, 2021 5:49PM

One thing I like about this particular coin, and something no one else has mentioned, is that there is legitimate relief in the dies. The depressions for the letters/numbers are truly concave. It’s refreshing to see this on a modern coin after the clip-art low-relief state quarters, commems, and the like.

Swampboy · January 11, 2021 11:51PM

@Mark said:
@ElmerFusterpuck You know, some of the YNs here are probably saying "What is this 'dial a phone' thing they speak of?"

And to date myself I remember when we got a 'modern' dial phone.
Before that phone arrived at our house you'd just pick up the receiver and waited for an operator to pick up.

Dug13 · January 12, 2021 7:31AM

Which side is the Obverse and Reverse?

olympicsos · January 12, 2021 10:10AM

@bsshog40 said:
As much as I think they are pretty cool, I just can't justify the prices of this stuff anymore! It's like a new car, as soon as it leaves the mint, it's worth half of what you paid for it.

Unless you're a flipper.

bsshog40 · January 12, 2021 4:22PM

@olympicsos said:

@bsshog40 said:
As much as I think they are pretty cool, I just can't justify the prices of this stuff anymore! It's like a new car, as soon as it leaves the mint, it's worth half of what you paid for it.

Unless you're a flipper.

I don't see flippers making any money on stuff like this!

JeffersonFrog · January 12, 2021 5:29PM

@bsshog40 said:

I don't see flippers making any money on stuff like this!

They are to a certain extent ... the rolls are not currently available on the Mint's website ...

https://www.ebay.com/itm/2020-D-American-Innovation-1-Dollar-Coin-Roll-Mint-Uncirculated-Massachusetts/154173145995?hash=item23e56f838b:g:7uMAAOSw7Ytfn4I5

Zoins · January 16, 2021 10:03AM

@Dug13 said:
Which side is the Obverse and Reverse?

That's a very interesting question.

I'm not sure anyone knows!

pursuitofliberty · January 16, 2021 10:08AM

Me and my brother went latchkey in the early 70's, and we ran the neighborhood at all hours until about 9pm or so.

Not going to be home, better call Mom

LO5-2279

abcde12345 · January 16, 2021 10:26AM

@Jimnight said:
Nice!

WAYNEAS · January 16, 2021 11:06AM

@Zoins said:

@Dug13 said:
Which side is the Obverse and Reverse?

That's a very interesting question.

I'm not sure anyone knows!

I load the Statue Of Liberty into my digital albums as the reverse with the state design as the Obverse.

DBSTrader2 · January 16, 2021 11:49AM

I still remember my grandparents' complete phone # (redacted here: PE5-####, and they haven't been there in about 55 YEARS!!!). Can't remember what the full exchange name was.......

My parents' home exchange (ELgin 6-####) started out as 215- area code & later changed to 610. Been a while since they lived there as well.

As nice as the coin looks, it brings back bittersweet memories for me, as I joined the Ma-Bell umbrella 30+ years ago, seeing it change from Bell of PA to Bell Atlantic to Verizon over the years, and our department size cut from 2 dozen when I started to just 3 by the time I was RIF'd.

Working in Billing, I was "instrumental" in coding & testing all necessary changes to handle each new area code as they were introduced as either in-lays or overlays to existing ones........

These days, I'll bet the only annual bonus the company would give its non-CEO employees would be maybe one or 2 of these coins in a stocking - - along with the customary lumps of coal.........

Lucky (for my eyes, mental & physical health, & finances) to get out when I did......

carabonnair · February 2, 2021 9:57AM

Not exactly on topic, but I found this and it's phone related, so I thought I would post it here. A holder for sending up to 99¢ for phone refunds:

[or $1.04 ]

JeffersonFrog · March 13, 2021 10:29AM

An update 2 months later. I like the MA design a lot, I just can't buy P or D rolls from the Mint. There's not a lot of volume, but look at the eBay flips!

I usually don't mess with modern coinage, but I really like this one!

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