I remember receiving my first clad coin in change.
CaptHenway
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There is a thread about a well-worn 1965 quarter that is not particularly significant, but it reminded me of the first time I received one in change.
About this time of year 59 years ago (not 60) I stopped at our corner candy store and bought something that merited 8 or 9 cents change. The store was owned by a nice couple who always treated us right, and sometimes the wife elderly father (hey, I was 15; he looked about as ancient as I feel now) gave me the "nickel" and few cents change. As I was walking out I checked my change (naturally) and saw that I had a bright and shiny 1965 QUARTER, which had the grey color of a five cent piece rather than the whitish color of a silver coin. The color was quite distinctive to me as a collector, though I suppose that the average person might not have noticed.
I had read about the new coins coming out, and figured out that the old man (who had very thick glasses) had probably judged it to be a nickel from its color rather than the design. I went back in and talked to the lady owner and showed her the coin and told her about the change in metal, and that she needed to talk to her father out the change in color. For all I knew he had given out a whole roll of quarters as nickels.
She thanked me, took the quarter from me and gave me my nickel, and must have talked to her father as he never did it again.
Now how the heck can 59 years have gone by??????
Comments
I was a 13 year old newspaper boy delivering AFTERNOON newspapers on my bicycle in New Rochelle, NY and also remember the first clad dime in 1965 and quarter in 1966 and thought how ugly the grey clad coins were. That began my pursuit of silver dimes and quarters which has not ended to this day.
One of my chores was to bring the clothes to the laundrymat. I had to give the attendant my clad quarters so he could give me silver quarters as the clad quarters did not work in the washing machine.
Joe.
I never had a vending machine reject one of the new quarters. The machines must have been set too sensitive to some factor.
As a kid, filling holes in Whitman cent folders, I remember it also. What I remembered most, was the adults talking about it..........and none of it was good! Not that I could but I remember my grandfather telling me to save all your silver coins from my paper route.
I thought that they were ugly then I and still think that they are ugly now.
I really didn't get started with collecting until I was 9 or 10 in the early 70s. By that time most of the silver was gone from pocket change. So I'm wondering what some of you who were finding in change before the clads took over. Did you ever see an SLQ or Barber Dime in change for instance? I'm curious....
jom
Well, back in the mid-50's, continuing more-or less until the mid 60's: all the 20th century "classics" were common in circulation, albeit in worn condition. SLQ's tended to be very worn, so finding one with a decent date was unusual. Barber coins were found occasionally, well-worn. IHC's were often found in change, as were "V" nickels. Morgan and peace dollars were used in casinos. Hard for us geezers to get too excited about more modern coinage.
In 1965, I was a college freshman and heavily into coin collecting when clad coins came out. I remember reading numerous articles about them in the numismatic press and was really looking forward to getting some. I even made a special trip to my bank just to pick up a roll of 1965 clad quarters to examine and spend. The remember the novelty of clad coins quickly wearing off.
Worry is the interest you pay on a debt you may not owe.
"Paper money eventually returns to its intrinsic value---zero."----Voltaire
"Everything you say should be true, but not everything true should be said."----Voltaire
I remember people spray painting them red
Bar, tavern, and restaurant owners would give jute box owners space in their establishment for a percentage of the profit. When the jute box wasn't being used, the bar or tavern owner would "prime the pump " by playing a couple of songs. He used quarters that he painted red usually with red fingernail polish. When the owner of the jute box came around to empty the quarters, he would separate out the red quarters and give them back to the owner of the establishment.
Worry is the interest you pay on a debt you may not owe.
"Paper money eventually returns to its intrinsic value---zero."----Voltaire
"Everything you say should be true, but not everything true should be said."----Voltaire
First ones I received were the three bicentennials when my family moved back to the US in 1975. At age six, we lived in LA for a year in 1971, but I didn't collect coins then or recall having any money.
Basically correct, but as an aside the bar and restaurant owners sometimes had no choice as to whether or not to have a juke box.
The common knowledge in Detroit was that if you were opening a new bar or tavern or restaurant, you would be visited a few days before opening by four large men in dark suits with a juke box and a question: “Where do you want it?” Sometimes there would be a cigarette machine as well, but those did not use painted quarters.
I remember my uncle in law complaining about the clad coin when he got his first on change. He groused because he figured it was the beginning of the end for the country. For me it was a new coin, which for a young collector was something good.
hmmmm.aren't we having fun with fiat now?
Clad Coins were first introduced before I was born, so their existence are all I know. My dad had a huge novelty plastic bank in his bedroom, and it was shaped and modeled to look like a giant liquor bottle. It had a paper label and everything. He kept silver coins in there that he pulled from circulation. I remember him explaining the significance to me, when I was about five or six years old. I do, however, remember when bicentennial coins were first released and they were a huge deal at the time. Same with SBA dollars.
Sometimes, it’s better to be LUCKY than good. 🍀 🍺👍
My Full Walker Registry Set (1916-1947):
https://www.ngccoin.com/registry/competitive-sets/16292/
@PerryHall . I have spent over 45 years refinishing floors. Many times in bars and resturants.
Yes. Some owners would paint their coins red , blue, black etc. and use them to get people started then get their money back when the juke box owner would show up for the divide.
Today everything is digital. I cannot remember the last time I saw a juke that took change.
Years ago I knew the owner of Southwest Games and Entertainment. On several occasions i was allowed to go thru the change bucket while I was waiting for wax to dry in the overnight.
I did a small collection of State Quarters at the time but lost interest when all my coins were Denvers. I know i could count the number of silver coins i found on one hand. james
I remember all the hype about the bicentennial coinage but that's about as far back as I can go.
Remember as a kid going to a bowling alley and seeing cigarette vending machines?
peacockcoins
Yup.. And the thing is it made you look at that roll of silver, quarters in a whole new light, suddenly they were valuable metal
I remember in elementary school there was a large poster hanging on the bulletin board showing the new Lincoln Memorial cent that was coming out soon. Since I was collecting coins from pocket change, it was exciting enough that I still remember it.
Worry is the interest you pay on a debt you may not owe.
"Paper money eventually returns to its intrinsic value---zero."----Voltaire
"Everything you say should be true, but not everything true should be said."----Voltaire
As a kid we would take a baseball bat to the pay phones. The phones would spit out change like a slot machine. 🤣 😂.
......I'm from New York! 😉
I remember as a young brat getting the first Bicentennial half in change in late summer of 1975 at a fruit stand and wondering why I was getting a coin dated 1976 in 1975. Halves did still circulate a bit.
When I married my first wife in 1986 we would go out to Arlington Park race track in the far northwest suburbs of Chicago once or twice a year. Big old barn built in the 1920's. They used half dollars a lot. They charged a nominal 50 cents admission, I guess so that they could then deny admission to known troublemakers. The turnstiles took a half dollar, so you would give an attendant a dollar bill and he would give you two halves. You used one for the turnstile, and could use the other one to buy a program inside the turnstiles. Since my wife and I used both half dollars I would then give the program guy another dollar bill and get a half dollar change.
All parimutuel bet payouts were rounded down to the next solid dime. The betting windows only used halves and dimes. A $5.90 payout got you a $5 bill, a half and four dimes. Faster that way. If you were lucky you ended up with a pocket full of dimes.
I think the concession stands used quarters to give out change.
I remember seeing clad in circulation in downtown Denver (with my father) in or around 1966 when I was ten years old (I had been collecting from pocket change since 1963 when I was seven so I was aware of silver coinage and that it was going to be replaced with clad).
I remember that my dad received a clad quarter in change when he made a purchase. He let me look at it. Initially I was intrigued by the different metal (it definitely stood out when the majority of dimes, quarters and halves you found in circulation were silver), but after time passed and the clad coins became more and more available in circulation I lost interest. When clad coins circulated they turned ugly very fast and had no eye appeal (compared to silver coins).
Today, almost 60 year after clad coins arrived, I still look at change I receive from cash purchases. You can immediately tell when a clad dime or quarter from the 1960's, 1970's and early to mid 1980's is present. They look like real money that actually circulated at a time when you could purchase an item for a penny, nickel, dime or quarter. Today I do not know if you can buy anything for a quarter (at best maybe a gumball form a gumball machine).
What a GREAT thread @CaptHenway Lots of great responses and memories of our changing change.
I remember finding occasional Buffalo Nickels in the late 60's in circulation...that and wheat pennies.
Looking for change in a phone booth coin slot was always on my list, finding a dime or quarter just sitting in there was great, but once finding over $11 in change hooked me good.
In the early 90's, kids around here learned that by spraying salt water into the coin slot of a soda machine would make an electrical connection that would release lots of change. They called it "salting the vending machines"
I had a relative who collected rolls of silver coins before the clad arrived. When he passed, his closest kin found buckets of silver.