I worked in a liqour store in a college town in the early 90's... I was always amazed when those kids would bring in a handful of silver and drop it on beer as if it were face value... well of course I took it as face value.. tried hard not to smile... and then transfered it to my back pack neatly wrapped in tissue to sort later...
BN
--------------------------------------------- Web Application Architect - ColdFusion, AJAX, CSS, XHTML, JavaScript, Oracle, MySQL
I remember when the clad coins first came out. The old guy who ran the candy store up at the corner gave me a clad quarter in change as a nickel. Apparently he couldn't see very well, and was used to telling quarters from nickels by their color. Now they were the same color. I gave it back to him.
Numismatist. 50 year member ANA. Winner of four ANA Heath Literary Awards; three Wayte and Olga Raymond Literary Awards; Numismatist of the Year Award 2009, and Lifetime Achievement Award 2020. Winner numerous NLG Literary Awards.
I still feel a sense of joy when I find a "wheatie" in circulated rolls that I search.
Silver change? My allowance was always in that and being a teller in a grocery store, all I saw was silver change. But alas, in those days my interest was in U. S. stamps and most of what I had to spend, went to that collection. However, that collection somehow disappeared while I was at sea. Then of course a military career is not conducive to doing any type of collecting, except women in evry port, LOL.
Thanks to all of you who posted for the memories of what it was like years back.
BJ Neff
Member of: CONECA, Coppercoins, CFCC, FUN and NCADD. Retired Submariner Service, 21 years.
The opinions that I express do not necessarily reflect those of the organizations that I am a member of.
I remember all the old silver coins in circulation too. There wasn't anything you couldn't find in circulation as far as denomination went. I worked in a drug store in high school and recall saturday nights fishing through the register drawer capturing all the silver I could find. (1966) By 1967 it dwindled to only a few coins each week. In the early 80's I sold most of it and we had a great Christmas that year. Like some of you, I wish I still had it all.
"If I had a nickel for every nickel I ever had, I'd have all my nickels back".
Since I was born in 1952, I remember it well. In Jr High School I worked in the cafeteria and well remember WLH, SLQ, Merc's & Buff's being seen probably most days. It seems a very well worn Barber coin was seen now and then. Of course, after 1964, it all changed...
I used to be somebody, now I'm just a coin collector. Recipient of the coveted "You Suck" award, April 2009 for cherrypicking a 1833 CBHD LM-5, and April 2022 for a 1835 LM-12, and again in Aug 2012 for picking off a 1952 FS-902.
I was born in 1973 and all of my piggy banks from my youth never had a single silver coin in them, with the exception of one silver nickel, which started my interest in coin collecting when I busted all those banks open by the time I was 11.
There were plenty of wheaties in the banks and I still find them today in change, but I was born way too late for silver.
Always looking for attractive rim toned Morgan and Peace dollars in PCGS or (older) ANA/ANACS holders!
"Bongo hurtles along the rain soaked highway of life on underinflated bald retread tires."
I started collecting when it was all silver (1961).... ....occasionally a Barber coin... ....could look through rolls at the bank and then exchange them for more rolls... ....rolls of Morgan & Peace silver dollars were also available, but too expensive for this kid!
"Those days are gone forever, over a long time ago"-Steely Dan
Me too, got my start collecting with a Oregon Trail 50c Commemorative I got as a tip for delivering newspapers. Yeah, that was actually done and people really read them. Oh my. bob
Registry: CC lowballs (boblindstrom), bobinvegas1989@yahoo.com
I did see a couple silver diems this weekend on top of the Coit tower in San Francisco. People drop them on to a window ledge for good luck or something.......
I was 8 or 9 when we switched to clad coins. I was putting together a set of Lincolns from change at that time. I couldn't afford to pull higher denominations from change. I did see SLQs, Buffs, Steelies and sometimes an IHC.
In those days I would collect empty coke bottles people had tossed aside and trade them in (2 cents for a small one, 5 for the big ones). When I got up to a quarter I would debate if I was going to buy the coke and a slice (pizza) special or the 2 slices for a quarter special.
I remember getting a walking liberty half dollar as an allowance from my dad when I was a kid in the mid 1950's. He also drove me by the (new) San Francisco mint around then.
Absolutely yes, there were silver coins only until I was almost 7. But they disappeared virtually overnight as I recall.
I especially liked it when my Dad would fall asleep on the couch and I'd fish out all the coins from between the cushions the next day! A kid could buy a lotta junk with small change in those days.
Me at the Springfield coin show: 60 years into this hobby and I'm still working on my Lincoln set!
I inherited a bunch of morgans that belonged to my grandfather including his pocket piece which he got when he came to this country from Scotland, it graded AU55. Last week I found in change a 64 washington quarter, I noticed an unfamiliar ring immediately when the gas station clerk dropped the change in my hand, I haven't gotten any of that in years....
I remember my grandfather died and left a trunk of silver dollars to my grandmother. And we sat on the floor and had to rewrap them because he had rolled them in newspaper rolls of 25 and the bank would only take them in 20 rolls. My cousin and I went through and each got 5. So naturally we took the OLDEST dates. Who would want them newer 1890 series of dates? Newer coins ain't rare.
I remember how, in the middle to late 60's, I thought some friends of mine were silly going around from bank to bank, from store to store, gathering silver from circulation. At this time, I was filling my cent and nickel albums...
I remember the day they showed me the results of a whole summer's work - silver housed in plastic rolls. Two army footlockers full. Yes, that much.
I am just guessing, but I would imagine that both of them pretty much financed their college education from the proceeds.
Great thread - haven't thought about this stuff for a long time.
John
John C. Knudsen, LM ANA 2342, LM CSNS 337 SFC, US Army (Ret.) 1974-1994
I was born in 1966 some of you have all the luck. The only way I find silver is when I hear that sound from the casher playing with it and then I ask if I can but it from him or her.
I still get lots of silver halves and war nickels from rolls (wheaties too) but that's really it. My last silver coin from circulation was a war nickel from several months back. A 1945-D
I remember as a child being driven from one change machine, bank, etc. to another by my father who was hoarding silver coins as they were being taken out of circulation. ha ha. One of my better childhood memories.
Anyone can make a difference, but most people probably shouldn't. -- Marge Simpson
I turned 20 in 1964 so I grew up with nothing but silver coinage. I was attending language school for the Air Force at Syracuse Univ. in 1969 and just before leaving for Alaska , I bought $400.00 in dimes from one of the local banks. They contained 1 1964 dime. A month later after arriving in Anchorage I did the same thing there and those yielded $385.00 in silver! I tried to get the members of the local coin club to keep track of their silver finds for a month and issue a challenge via Coin World to any other club in the lower 48 to top their finds. The idea was shot down as the members all felt that silver would always be in circulation. Bear in mind that there was only about a 3% premium for silver in 1969. Bill.
<< <i>I turned 20 in 1964 so I grew up with nothing but silver coinage. I was attending language school for the Air Force at Syracuse Univ. in 1969 and just before leaving for Alaska , I bought $400.00 in dimes from one of the local banks. They contained 1 1964 dime. A month later after arriving in Anchorage I did the same thing there and those yielded $385.00 in silver! I tried to get the members of the local coin club to keep track of their silver finds for a month and issue a challenge via Coin World to any other club in the lower 48 to top their finds. The idea was shot down as the members all felt that silver would always be in circulation. Bear in mind that there was only about a 3% premium for silver in 1969. Bill. >>
Fascinating. All the FED branches were removing the last of the silver in circulation in the contiguous 48 by mid-'68. It's surprising the people in Alaska allowed the silver to circulate so long.
In the early 1950's I started saving all the Newfoundland halves I found in circulation. I worked as a cashier in grocery stores (A&P)in Maine where Canadian coinage circulated freely. I also visited relatives in Canada. I ended up with 15 different in a Whitman holder plus the 3 obverses of Victoria, Edward VII and George V who was on the last Newfoundland half in 1919.
In 1956, my new bride turned three rolls (60 coins) of duplicate Newfoundland halves into the local bank. So I must have found about 80 Newfoundland halves dated 1919 and earlier. Those were the good old days. BUT I NEVER EVER found a single Canadian half in circulation before George VI. Halves were much less common in Canada then, than in the USA.
Terrific old thread, enjoyed all the history here...I am fortunate in the sense that the fellow who owned the bodega where I used to work in Queens, NY, would set aside for me all wheat cents and silver coins from the register which he'd sell me for face value up until about 6 months ago when my job relocated and he went back to his home country. I offered to pay him a premium for the silver but he wouldn't take it...I'm guessing I got about $30 in face value silver quarters and dimes and halves last year, including a 1934 $100 note!
Collecting 1970s Topps baseball wax, rack and cello packs, as well as PCGS graded Half Cents, Large Cents, Two Cent pieces and Three Cent Silver pieces.
Oh yeah! I remember all the good old silver I found in change....Hmmm let me count it up...two 1964 quaters, considering I was born in 1986 I think thats about right. Would have been nice to have seenall that silver in my change though.
I remember Nov 1965 when the clads first came out. A co-worker had a 25th aniversary and they gave him $25 in the new quarters. I immediately tried ro get a few at a bank. There was a coin shortage on and they were not about to give any to anybody who specifically asked for them and might hoard them. I finally found a friendly teller I knew and he let me have one. I still have it. It turns out that its particular reverse was used on only 5% of the 1965's.
<< <i>I remember when all coinage was silver. The first job I had at 16 was delivering prescriptions for a drug store and they payed every Saturday in silver dollars. I would usually get eight to ten dollars per week, but there was something about getting ten silver dollars - it felt like I was getting real money. >>
That's because silver and gold coins are real money, unlike the fiat currency and play money now in use.
I was also born in the early fifties and finding SLQs, buffalos and wheaties dating back to the 'teens in change was what got me into collecting.
Lately, I've found a few silver coins in circulation here in Hawaii which have been a really nice surprise (1951 S quarter, 1950 S dime last two months); I'm wondering if people are emptying their old piggy banks in these hard times...
A guy in front of me at the checkout stand at Ace Hardware got a silver quarter in change yesterday; kinda tuirned green with envy on the spot!
"Gem EOR toners are tangible evidence that the Eighth Dimension does indeed exist." ---Ambrose Bierce, while attending a Heritage Auction at the 1907 Long Beach show
In 1964 I was 12 years old.My dad said to save all the silver coins you can they will be worth more after next year.I managed to save a few dollars.He filled beer kegs with the coins.
In 1975 I worked in a small candy store and tons of silver coins were found.SLQ s in great shape.One day I said to my friend I found a quarter that shows a bare breasted woman in the register and he said they cant do that it must be a fake coin lmao
I started coin collecting in the early to mid 1950's and all coins were 90% silver save for copper cents. I can still remember when once or twice a year, carnivals came to town and were set up on the main street of my small hometown of about 7000 people.
The local Kiwanis club always had a big 6-8 foot square "ring-toss" game set up made out of pine or plywood boards, where you paid 50¢ or so for 3-4 Morgan dollar size iron, "doughnut hole" rings. Then you would "ring-toss" those iron rings at a flat table inside the square structure upon which there were 90% silver Peace and Morgan Dollars, Walking Lib. Halves, (a few) Standing Lib. and Wash. quarters, and dimes. Whatever coin your iron ring completely encircled, you would get to keep. The dollars were hard to encircle (surprise, surprise) because they just barely fit inside of those rings. Needless to say, it was fun for everyone, and the Kiwanis club undoubtedly made a nice profit by the end of the 5-6 day carnival.
I never thought that growing old would happen so fast. - Jim
I remember the change to clad; did not mean anything to me at the time. Coins were for candy, bubble gum cards and soda. The really crushing "change" in the 60's was the no deposit no return bottle; no longer could you find some discarded bottles and turn them in for goodies at the corner grocery store. God, do I feel old this morning. Merry Christmas.
I was 8 years old in 1965. I remember clearly when my grandfather showed me the first clad quarter. I thought it was pretty cool and bought it from him with a silver quarter.
love reading this thread, lots of nostalgia contained in here. I am far too young to remember silver coinage in pocket change (in my 20s). As a kid I hoarded things, no doubt if I was in many of your shoes and born in your era, I would have hoarded silver coinage and became a rich man now!
Successful Buying and Selling transactions with:
Many members on this forum that now it cannot fit in my signature. Please ask for entire list.
I'm old enough to WELL remember when there was no clad coinage.
As a kid I knew that gold and silver were precious metals, and I found odd to be spending silver. When I became a collector I plucked a set of silver Roosevelt dimes from circulation. I also got a fair number of Morgan dollars for my Whitman albums because you could go to the bank and exchange paper dollars for silver dollars. I saw half dollars in circulation now and then, and they were usually worn down to at least Fine.
When the JFK half dollar was introduced I couldn't wait to get one, but it was May before I saw my first one. I remember it was at my local Milton, Delaware bank, and I still recall when the lady teller set them down on her black counter. Most all of the coins I got from the bank were badly marked up. I had to go to a dealer and pay $1.50 for the Denver mint coin.
On the day we saw the first clad coinage in 1965, I remember one of my uncles exclaim, "Well the country is going to hell!"
Retired dealer and avid collector of U.S. type coins, 19th century presidential campaign medalets and selected medals. In recent years I have been working on a set of British coins - at least one coin from each king or queen who issued pieces that are collectible. I am also collecting at least one coin for each Roman emperor from Julius Caesar to ... ?
I remember getting buffaloes, mercs, slq's, walkers, morgans, peace dollar's, etc in change on a regular basis. Good old days.
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
Me too! Seeing SLQ's, and Walking Halves all the time, Merc dimes every day. This being mid to late 50's. Going to the store for my Grandmother with a quarter or half buck clutched in my fist, spending the change at the penny candy counter, great memories.
I remember as a teenager when the clad coinage first came out. I would search desperately just to find one of the "new" clad coins! Silver was everywhere, but clad was tough to get! Pretty wild, huh?
Larry L.
Autism Awareness: There is no limit to the good you can do, if you don't care who gets the credit.
<< <i>We had to pay for the war so clad coinage was the answer I suppose. >>
Inflation and the rising price of silver were the issue. In 1964, our involvement in Viet Nam was minor compared to later years.
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 also remember that by 1966 it had just about disappeared... and the days of building dime, quarter and half collections from pocket change were dead.
I started collecting in 1959. Found every Mercury except 16-D, many of the SL Quarters, every Washington except 32-D&S, every Walker except 38-D. Dollar bills exchangeable for cartwheels.
Coins we spent then would make us wealthy today. I should be a millionaire, but....
Good deals with: goldman86 mkman123 Wingsrule wondercoin segoja Tccuga OKCC LindeDad and others.
Comments
BN
Web Application Architect - ColdFusion, AJAX, CSS, XHTML, JavaScript, Oracle, MySQL
Silver change? My allowance was always in that and being a teller in a grocery store, all I saw was silver change. But alas, in those days my interest was in U. S. stamps and most of what I had to spend, went to that collection. However, that collection somehow disappeared while I was at sea. Then of course a military career is not conducive to doing any type of collecting, except women in evry port, LOL.
Thanks to all of you who posted for the memories of what it was like years back.
Member of: CONECA, Coppercoins, CFCC, FUN and NCADD. Retired Submariner Service, 21 years.
The opinions that I express do not necessarily reflect those of the organizations that I am a member of.
I used to get a walker 50 cent piece each week as my "allowance"
also remeber getting steel cents in change once in a while!
Recipient of the coveted "You Suck" award, April 2009 for cherrypicking a 1833 CBHD LM-5, and April 2022 for a 1835 LM-12, and again in Aug 2012 for picking off a 1952 FS-902.
There were plenty of wheaties in the banks and I still find them today in change, but I was born way too late for silver.
"Bongo hurtles along the rain soaked highway of life on underinflated bald retread tires."
~Wayne
....occasionally a Barber coin...
....could look through rolls at the bank and then exchange them for more rolls...
....rolls of Morgan & Peace silver dollars were also available, but too expensive for this kid!
"Those days are gone forever, over a long time ago"-Steely Dan
Proud recipient of two "You Suck" awards
<< <i>I remember when it was all silver.
Me too, got my start collecting with a Oregon Trail 50c Commemorative I got as a tip for delivering
newspapers. Yeah, that was actually done and people really read them. Oh my.
bob
I did see a couple silver diems this weekend on top of the Coit tower in San Francisco. People drop them on to a window ledge for good luck or something.......
In those days I would collect empty coke bottles people had tossed aside and trade them in (2 cents for a small one, 5 for the big ones). When I got up to a quarter I would debate if I was going to buy the coke and a slice (pizza) special or the 2 slices for a quarter special.
He also drove me by the (new) San Francisco mint around then.
The Mysterious Egyptian Magic Coin
Coins in Movies
Coins on Television
I especially liked it when my Dad would fall asleep on the couch and I'd fish out all the coins from between the cushions the next day! A kid could buy a lotta junk with small change in those days.
60 years into this hobby and I'm still working on my Lincoln set!
<< <i>No, but I remember watching the Ed Sullivan show in B+W. >>
I remember watching everything in b&w until 1973 because we didn't get a color tv 'til then.
60 years into this hobby and I'm still working on my Lincoln set!
And we sat on the floor and had to rewrap them because he had rolled them in newspaper rolls of 25 and the bank would only take them in 20 rolls.
My cousin and I went through and each got 5. So naturally we took the OLDEST dates. Who would want them newer 1890 series of dates? Newer coins ain't rare.
I remember how, in the middle to late 60's, I thought some friends
of mine were silly going around from bank to bank, from store to
store, gathering silver from circulation. At this time, I was filling my
cent and nickel albums...
I remember the day they showed me the results of a whole summer's
work - silver housed in plastic rolls. Two army footlockers full. Yes, that
much.
I am just guessing, but I would imagine that both of them pretty much
financed their college education from the proceeds.
Great thread - haven't thought about this stuff for a long time.
John
SFC, US Army (Ret.) 1974-1994
Hoard the keys.
Check out my current listings: https://ebay.com/sch/khunt/m.html?_ipg=200&_sop=12&_rdc=1
My last silver coin from circulation was a war nickel from several months back. A 1945-D
Never saw any silver.
Well...maybe once or twice...but not much more than that if at all.
I tried to get the members of the local coin club to keep track of their silver finds for a month and issue a challenge via Coin World to any other club in the lower 48 to top their finds. The idea was shot down as the members all felt that silver would always be in circulation. Bear in mind that there was only about a 3% premium for silver in 1969. Bill.
Successful BSTs with: Grote15, MadMarty, Segoja,cucamongacoin,metalsman.
<< <i>I turned 20 in 1964 so I grew up with nothing but silver coinage. I was attending language school for the Air Force at Syracuse Univ. in 1969 and just before leaving for Alaska , I bought $400.00 in dimes from one of the local banks. They contained 1 1964 dime. A month later after arriving in Anchorage I did the same thing there and those yielded $385.00 in silver!
I tried to get the members of the local coin club to keep track of their silver finds for a month and issue a challenge via Coin World to any other club in the lower 48 to top their finds. The idea was shot down as the members all felt that silver would always be in circulation. Bear in mind that there was only about a 3% premium for silver in 1969. Bill. >>
Fascinating. All the FED branches were removing the last of the silver
in circulation in the contiguous 48 by mid-'68. It's surprising the people
in Alaska allowed the silver to circulate so long.
Menomonee Falls Wisconsin USA
http://www.pcgs.com/SetRegistr...dset.aspx?s=68269&ac=1">Musky 1861 Mint Set
In 1956, my new bride turned three rolls (60 coins) of duplicate Newfoundland halves into the local bank. So I must have found about 80 Newfoundland halves dated 1919 and earlier. Those were the good old days. BUT I NEVER EVER found a single Canadian half in circulation before George VI. Halves were much less common in Canada then, than in the USA.
Collecting 1970s Topps baseball wax, rack and cello packs, as well as PCGS graded Half Cents, Large Cents, Two Cent pieces and Three Cent Silver pieces.
Loved it and still do!
Never saw gold but my mother got several pieces in the 60's. She
owned a casino in Carson City.
bob
<< <i>I remember when all coinage was silver. The first job I had at 16 was delivering prescriptions for a drug store and they payed every Saturday in silver dollars. I would usually get eight to ten dollars per week, but there was something about getting ten silver dollars - it felt like I was getting real money. >>
That's because silver and gold coins are real money, unlike the fiat currency and play money now in use.
I was also born in the early fifties and finding SLQs, buffalos and wheaties dating back to the 'teens in change was what got me into collecting.
Lately, I've found a few silver coins in circulation here in Hawaii which have been a really nice surprise (1951 S quarter, 1950 S dime last two months); I'm wondering if people are emptying their old piggy banks in these hard times...
A guy in front of me at the checkout stand at Ace Hardware got a silver quarter in change yesterday; kinda tuirned green with envy on the spot!
---Ambrose Bierce, while attending a Heritage Auction at the 1907 Long Beach show
In 1964 I was 12 years old.My dad said to save all the silver coins you can they will be worth more after next year.I managed to save a few dollars.He filled beer kegs with the coins.
In 1975 I worked in a small candy store and tons of silver coins were found.SLQ s in great shape.One day I said to my friend I found a quarter that shows a bare breasted woman in the register and he said they cant do that it must be a fake coin lmao
The local Kiwanis club always had a big 6-8 foot square "ring-toss" game set up made out of pine or plywood boards, where you paid 50¢ or so for 3-4 Morgan dollar size iron, "doughnut hole" rings. Then you would "ring-toss" those iron rings at a flat table inside the square structure upon which there were 90% silver Peace and Morgan Dollars, Walking Lib. Halves, (a few) Standing Lib. and Wash. quarters, and dimes. Whatever coin your iron ring completely encircled, you would get to keep. The dollars were hard to encircle (surprise, surprise) because they just barely fit inside of those rings. Needless to say, it was fun for everyone, and the Kiwanis club undoubtedly made a nice profit by the end of the 5-6 day carnival.
- Jim
mbogoman
https://pcgs.com/setregistry/collectors-showcase/classic-issues-colonials-through-1964/zambezi-collection-trade-dollars/7345Asesabi Lutho
Many members on this forum that now it cannot fit in my signature. Please ask for entire list.
As a kid I knew that gold and silver were precious metals, and I found odd to be spending silver. When I became a collector I plucked a set of silver Roosevelt dimes from circulation. I also got a fair number of Morgan dollars for my Whitman albums because you could go to the bank and exchange paper dollars for silver dollars. I saw half dollars in circulation now and then, and they were usually worn down to at least Fine.
When the JFK half dollar was introduced I couldn't wait to get one, but it was May before I saw my first one. I remember it was at my local Milton, Delaware bank, and I still recall when the lady teller set them down on her black counter. Most all of the coins I got from the bank were badly marked up. I had to go to a dealer and pay $1.50 for the Denver mint coin.
On the day we saw the first clad coinage in 1965, I remember one of my uncles exclaim, "Well the country is going to hell!"
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>
<< <i>I remember when it was all silver. >>
:
Me too! Seeing SLQ's, and Walking Halves all the time, Merc dimes every day. This being mid to late 50's. Going to the store for my Grandmother with a quarter or half buck clutched in my fist, spending the change at the penny candy counter, great memories.
coke machine and insisting my mom use a Rosie. On my paper route one lady would always pay with a silver Franklin or walking liberty.
If someone paid with a dollar bill the change they would receive was two washington quarters, never the halves.
Or better yet, I'd ask them to use it for the following week, (I had no change) :-)
Never received any Barber coinage in change. When the Kennedy half was issued I don't recall ever seeing them used.
Washington quarters and really worn down SLQ's were the norm. Then almost over night in 65 it all ended.
We had to pay for the war so clad coinage was the answer I suppose.
Steve
Larry L.
<< <i>We had to pay for the war so clad coinage was the answer I suppose. >>
Inflation and the rising price of silver were the issue. In 1964, our involvement in Viet Nam was minor compared to later years.
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 also remember that by 1966 it had just about disappeared... and the days of building dime, quarter and half collections from pocket change were dead.
Coins we spent then would make us wealthy today. I should be a millionaire, but....
my early American coins & currency: -- http://yankeedoodlecoins.com/