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What is the most unusual US coin you ever received in change?
rnkmyer1
Posts: 525 ✭✭✭✭✭
I’ll start - a 1891 seated dime.
“The thrill of the hunt never gets old”
PCGS Registry: Screaming Eagles
Copperindian
Retired sets: Soaring Eagles
Copperindian
8
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The most unusual would be the 1859 IHC I got in change as a teen. It was so beat up and had a silvery color to it, it looked like a beat up dime. Still have it.
I got a 3c nickel in place of a nickel around 10 years ago. It wasn’t in the best shape but I knew what it was Immediately
11.5$ Southern Dollars, The little “Big Easy” set
Honest to bob, I've never received anything in change that was not current design (could be different metal, but not different design).
I have bought rolls from the bank and received both Frankies and Walkers, but nothing in actual change.
I'm pretty jealous of some of the stories I read here!
My only possible saving grace was once I bought a used Library of Coins type set album that had a nice half dime that had migrated into the binding. I noticed the lump and freed a nice 1857 half dime. But still nothing in change
Other than foreign coins... not much. I've gotten the odd Mercury Dime and silver. I did get a beat-to-hell-and-back Indian head cent at some point... 1900s date... but I've seeded more of those than I've actually gotten.
Successful BST transactions with: SilverEagles92; Ahrensdad; Smitty; GregHansen; Lablade; Mercury10c; copperflopper; whatsup; KISHU1; scrapman1077, crispy, canadanz, smallchange, robkool, Mission16, ranshdow, ibzman350, Fallguy, Collectorcoins, SurfinxHI, jwitten, Walkerguy21D, dsessom.
In the mid-90s I received a worn Civil War token in change.
www.brunkauctions.com
Nothing exciting. I got a clad Proof quarter that was nice enough to collect although it wasn’t worth much more than a quarter.
Lincoln cent clip. Numerous oddball foreigns in bank roll searching.
Closest story I have is when the new Susan B Anthony dollars came out a girl in the drive through gave me 3 of them as quarters. Had no idea what I was looking at back then, had to look it up in Coin Worlds.
I found a 1912-P Barber dime in a cash register at my store. Also, an ASE in a plastic flip.
half cents, large cents, 2 centers, and even a worn out bust dime.
edited to add: I also received examples of all of these (along with other obsolete series) from circulation as a teen. I believe it was a case of older collectors "priming the pump" so to speak in an attempt to help along new collectors.
Back in the early 1960's, I received a 1959 Proof Nickel in change.
I recall when larger coin shows- like the Long Beach show- would drop key date cents- such as the 1099-S VDB- into locally.
The press would sometimes cover this story and it was a good-will effort on the show promoters.
I doubt any of these shows do that anymore. (I hope I am wrong.)
It would have been fun to receive one of these coins in change.
peacockcoins
Nothing too terribly crazy. When I was a kid, buffalo nickels and IHC's now and then. Pre-1964 Washingtons and Roosies as recently as 2015-ish. A handful of war nickels and steel wheaties. Circulated proof state quarters a time or three. I've had lots of 40% & 90% Kennedies in rolls from the bank and a few times some pretty good runs of Franklins and WLH's, but those weren't given as change in the course of commerce.
1970-S cent DDO-1 in AU-50.
An authorized PCGS dealer, and a contributor to the Red Book.
I received a 1965 silver dime in 2007, spent it in 2008, realized what I had in 2016, found this place 2018.
I’ll never see the money I threw away that day but in the long run I learned how to make it back.
In the early 1990's i got a 1945 mercury dime in AU in my change at K-Mart.
Now @Coinscratch was that silver really a ’65?
Cheers, and God Bless, CRHer700
Another Mandela effect:
There never was a hyphen between the 'K' and the 'mart'.
peacockcoins
Absolutely yes, though I had never collected a coin in my life by this time I had seen plenty of silver and knew what I was looking at I just didn’t know what I was looking at.
I was puzzled for a little while and just threw it in a jar with some other silver dimes that happened here and there.
Man, those are interesting! I’ve only gotten a Buffalo nickel, wheaties, and a few silver dimes and quarters.
>
Hey @Crypto , did you ask for your other 2c, brother?😉😂
A clad dime planchet & a fake five dollar bill.
IHC's, Wheat cents, a few Mercury dimes, silver Roosies, war nickels. I did find two 1950 D Jefferson nickels about a month apart back in the early 70's. Only two I ever found in circulation.
My brother got a Shield Nickel in change at a gas station in the mid-70s.
Dave
Lots of Canadian and occasionally Mexican coins, I live in Arizona. A counterfeit $10 note. A very circulated broadstruck state quarter would be the most unusual.
1870s IHC in the 1980s.
Looking for Top Pop Mercury Dime Varieties & High Grade Mercury Dime Toners.
A 1912 cent, almost 100 years old at the time.
The Mysterious Egyptian Magic Coin
Coins in Movies
Coins on Television
About 5 years ago, I received an 1899 Liberty nickel in Good at Golden Coral in change.
Spring National Battlefield Coin Show is September 5-7, 2024 at the Eisenhower Hotel in Gettysburg, PA. WWW.AmericasCoinShows.com
Let me date myself!! In grade school, I received a dateless buffalo nickel in change from the candy machine.
Spring National Battlefield Coin Show is September 5-7, 2024 at the Eisenhower Hotel in Gettysburg, PA. WWW.AmericasCoinShows.com
Wow, what a let down.
Cheers, and God Bless, CRHer700
For all of my finds in CRH, two common wheats are all that I've found in my immediate family's change. However, I found a 1964-D quarter, 1964-D dime, and a 2019-W quarter in my grandpa's change(these were firsts for me at the time), a 1962-D dime in my uncle's change, and in my mom's friend's change, I found a 1919-D wheatie, 2 steelies, and an aluminum coin from Columbia.
Cheers, and God Bless, CRHer700
This subject makes me want to
Why?
Cheers, and God Bless, CRHer700
I took in an 1865 three cent nickel back in the ‘70s working as a toll collector. Guess they thought it was a dime..
You just reminded me I had to pay a buck to the toll collector to cross the San Luis pass bridge back in the day.
Unless the wind was from the west when the fishing was the best.
I got a slightly circulated pre-82 blank planchet 1c from the post office while mailing a coin. I looked at the employee and showed her what she gave me....she said "oops, Im sorry, I can give you a different one". I declined and said thank you. Not worth much, but a cool find to get back in change! A few weeks later, I got a very slight indent on a quarter from the same post office.
A handful of modern foreign coins, a few silver dimes, enough Jeffersons to fill three albums (with lots left over) but just one 50-D, a high and low leaf quarter, several W quarters, and one minor clipped quarter. Nothing to write home about.
My Collection of Old Holders
Never a slave to one plastic brand will I ever be.
Back in 1996 my wife received an 1857 Flying Eagle cent in change at the local JCPenny store.
A 1991 dime. It's only "unusual" because I live in Australia, where we don't see too many US coins in change.
I believe it was given to me as a 5 cent coin (worth about 4 US cents at the time). So, winner!
Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius, "Meditations"
Apparently I have been awarded one DPOTD.
A fake 1898 $. Much lighter than the real McCoy. Looks VF. About a $50 MV coin if we’re real. Faker-roo.
My old man got a one-sided 76 (I think) Lincoln years ago. I believe he still has it. Monetarily, probably not worth much but, as you said, cool to find in change.
One sided? How does that happen?
Cheers, and God Bless, CRHer700
Double post, apologies
I got a 1 cent piece from the Netherlands dated 1878 at a gas station ⛽️, go figure
My most memorable coin from circulation was a 1909 Lincoln cent in AU with some red remaining. This was back in the 1960's. Most memorable but not U.S. was a Bermuda "Pig Cent" received in change at the local grocery store.
If two planchets are fed into the coining chamber at the same time, only one side of each planchet will receive an impression from one of the dies.
Worry is the interest you pay on a debt you may not owe.
I got a Swiss franc that was passed as a quarter. The franc was worth about a buck, if memory serves.
An 1876 20c piece from an A&P in suburban Philadelphia in 1970. The cashier gave me an additional nickel when she realized it wasn't a full quarter. Sent to NGC in the 1990s and got MS62. It obviously was not circulating for nearly a century of course.
Heavily worn, buffalo nickel.
“I may not believe in myself but I believe in what I’m doing” ~Jimmy Page~
My Full Walker Registry Set (1916-1947)
https://www.ngccoin.com/registry/competitive-sets/16292/
1969-D No FG Lincoln Cent,
Probably wouldn't grade that way, but it had the floating roof and the FG was gone.