I have been spending Ike dollars and enjoy the comments and looks from the kids working the register
SanctionII
Posts: 12,636 ✭✭✭✭✭
Some time ago I ordered $500.00 in Ikes from my local bank. I looked through them, kept a few (one beat up 40% silver, a nicely toned clad and a few very clean clads. The rest I set aside, wondering what to do with them.
Well for the past few months I have been spending them at local businesses, including coffee shops, grocerey stores, convenience stores, etc. Most of these establishments are staffed by young people in there late teens and twenties.
The reaction I get when I pay with Ike dollars is varied. Many cashiers have no idea what the coins are and find it hard to believe that such large coins exist. Others seem annoyed at having to deal with these coins. Others get excited and show the coins to other employees. Others keep the coins and replace them with dollar bills out of their own pockets, thinking they have come across a rare coin worth big bucks (maybe they are since I did not check for varieties). At one place the employees are now looking forward to me showing up. When I do they ask if I have any more of the Ike dollars. Sometimes I bring them. sometimes I do not and tell them "not today, but I will bring some next time".
The Ike dollars usually get a much more interesting reaction that what happens when I spend clad
Kennedy halves. I guess Kennedy halves are more common in commerce than are Ike dollars.
When I run out of Ike dollars, I will order up another $500.00 form the bank and do it again. Hopefully the Ike dollars I am spending will not end up at my bank, only to end up in my pocket again.
Well for the past few months I have been spending them at local businesses, including coffee shops, grocerey stores, convenience stores, etc. Most of these establishments are staffed by young people in there late teens and twenties.
The reaction I get when I pay with Ike dollars is varied. Many cashiers have no idea what the coins are and find it hard to believe that such large coins exist. Others seem annoyed at having to deal with these coins. Others get excited and show the coins to other employees. Others keep the coins and replace them with dollar bills out of their own pockets, thinking they have come across a rare coin worth big bucks (maybe they are since I did not check for varieties). At one place the employees are now looking forward to me showing up. When I do they ask if I have any more of the Ike dollars. Sometimes I bring them. sometimes I do not and tell them "not today, but I will bring some next time".
The Ike dollars usually get a much more interesting reaction that what happens when I spend clad
Kennedy halves. I guess Kennedy halves are more common in commerce than are Ike dollars.
When I run out of Ike dollars, I will order up another $500.00 form the bank and do it again. Hopefully the Ike dollars I am spending will not end up at my bank, only to end up in my pocket again.
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The name is LEE!
LINK
http://www.shieldnickels.net
New collectors, please educate yourself before spending money on coins; there are people who believe that using numismatic knowledge to rip the naïve is what this hobby is all about.
I simply asked the people at my bank branch if they could check with their central vault facility and see if that facility had any large sized dollar coins, including Ike dollars. I also asked them to check if half dollar rolls were present. The people at my branch said they would check and asked how much I wanted. I told them $500.00 each in large dollars and in halves.
A day or so later the people at my branch told me that the vault could comply with my request and that the coins had been ordered by the branch from the vault. A few days later I stopped by and picked up a box of $500.00 in rolls of halves. The $500.00 in large dollars came in a cardboard box that was falling apart and that had been taped. The box was then put in a thick, clear plastic bag and the bag was taped. Took me a while to cut open the plastic bag and the taped up cardboard box. When I did, large dollars spilled out everywhere. I was hoping that good luck would smile on me and that multiple Morgans and Peace dollars would be in the pile. Unfortunately, I only found a single beat up 40% silver Ike.
I am definitely going to do this a second time.
Oh, BTW, the $500.00 in rolled halves produced not a single silver half.
I had socked away every single Susan B Anthony, Sacagawea (Probably spelled wrong) and presidential dollar I have gotten so far, even the ones that are badly damaged, but I've decided recently that I was going to spend some of them.
Most of the ones I plan to spend are the Sacagawea dollars, simply because I have more of them then anything else.
<< <i>Dang, I didn't know you could still get them! >>
Some banks have a big stash of these--gotta ask.