I started collecting in 1948 and I miss those days when virtually everything was available in change. I mean everything. When I was in grade school I even got a 20 cent piece in change. A friend got a 1908S Philippine Silver Peso in change and I gave her 50 cents for it. It was given to her as a 50 cent piece. Most common coins back to about 1870 were regularly found in change. The bank always had Morgan and Peace dollars that they traded for $1. And, I did hoard a bunch of whatever I thought would hold value.
Welcome to CT Derrick, cool find, always sweet finding a 79 year old coin. I suggest if you're roll hunting do a little research and become familiar with what to look for. The mintmark (if there is one) will be to the right of Monticello on the reverse as furryfrog pointed out, for coins dated pre 1965. If you search long enough you'll find the occasional war nickels which contain 35% silver, they were made from mid 1942-1945 and the mintmark on those will be enlarged above Monticellos dome. As you search more you'll realize what's worth holding onto and what's not. Albeit what's worth keeping varies by collector. But, keep an eye out for 38D, 38S, 39D, 39S, and 50D as all of those are difficult to find in the wild. Thats just a small sampling, as there are many others to look for. Searching through old CT threads is a good way to become educated with the series as well. Happy hunting
I envy you this experience, @Inspector43 . You have some years on me since I did not start collecting until 1955. Much of what I had collected then disappeared over the years, though, but I watched a young boy in a grocery store recently who was trying several times for the coin star machine to take his coin reject it. I asked him what was the matter, so he handed me a 1937D Walking Liberty half. Hero that I am, I handed him a dollar bill for it and he walked away with a big smile. I sure hope that coin didn't come out of his dad's collection.
It was great back then. My routine was after school I would go to all the neighborhood Mom & Pop stores and look through their change. I would walk in, open the register, search the coins, swap for what I wanted and go to the next store. The owners wouldn't even look up because they trusted me. On Saturday morning I would go to the bank and look through their change. Tellers had to roll their own coins. They would let me sit in the vault and roll for them. Every Saturday I would walk in, go to the vault, sit on the floor and the tellers would bring me trays of coins to roll (search). I had other outlets to search and was well known around the change world.
@LA_Geezer, Every now and then I would come across an unusual amount of older coins; Indianhead Pennies, Liberty Nickels, Barbers, etc. I just knew in my own mind that some kid got into daddies collection or hoard. I bought a beer in a bar out west one time and there was a guy buying beer using proof coins. I asked him why and he said he just ran out of money. Well, back then a proof set cost $2.10 from the mint. There was 91 cents in the set. A block away was a coin dealer that would have happily given him $2.10 each. I finished my beer and went to the local police department. They did get up and go over there.
Local grocery stores are getting lots of presidential dollars, so when I saw a guy using some of them I asked him where he got them. Turns out he got them at the local casino, and were left over from when he got tired of playing the slot machines. Strange, I thought, since so many casinos are using tokens.
I liked it when casinos used real coins. My wife hit a jackpot on 50 Cent machine as I was checking out of the hotel. With the cab waiting, she had to take a bucket of halves with her on the plane. I had a nice trip searching through them. Of course, that was a long time ago. You probably couldn't take them on a plane now.
I can receive that, I understand and appreciate the advice, like I said previously I am still new in collecting.