Remember When The 1965 Clad Coins Came Out

Do you remember when the 1965 clad dimes and quarters came out, what was your first reaction to them?

 

Log in or Sign up to hide this ad.

Something to spend on "real coins".

 

Can't say that I had an opinion during the event- I was born 28 years after the switch. But, I considered about saving 1960s clad quarters several years ago, and later thought it was pointless activity, so I spent them (on silver coinage).
Interesting to consider that a clad quarter is 10-15 minutes of parking time, and a silver quarter is about a gallon of gasoline (even though both coins are the same denomination).

 

1965? Let's see. I graduated from high school. I became eligible for the draft in August. I was still playing a lot of pool, but I wasn't getting Morgan dollars at the bank any more. I went to work at National Institutes of Health for one year before going to college. Nope! Didn't give the clad coinage a thought, at all!

Chris

 

My feeling was that US coinage has sunk to the low levels of most foreign coinage.

 

I remember it, but only in very vague terms. I was a child and didn't understand the significance of it, so I don't think I had any reaction at all.

 

I was a kid in the fifth grade. I believe it was the first time I realized how easy it is to cheapen something.

 

Well, I’m not in the right generation to have a memory of this, but I love hearing the thoughts of those who lived it. My biggest draw to numismatics is the story behind the coins. I’ll be watching this thread and thinking of your stories whenever I hold a pre-‘65 coin.

 

All I remember is my dad hoarding silver coins as a result.

 

I was a high school junior.
I was more interested in cars and girls.

 

As a kid coin collector I was interested in them because they were something new. One of my uncles had a different take. He said the country was going to hell.

 

Me too. I was 7 at the time.

My folks were also saving (hoarding is too strong a word) silver and wheaties at the time. That cigar box of coins got me started as a collector.

 

I was 3 - don't remember a whole lot.

 

I remember one of the columnists, I think it was in COINage, stated that the clad dime was worst looking coin of the three. The dime was "the worst of all the hamburger coins" as he put it.

 

Didn't give it much of a thought. I was more interested in girls, Corvettes, Harleys, and hunting.

 

And to think they only got worse in the '70s and '80s

 

I was out of high school in 1962; I had a government job with the Navy Department. When I would see my dad, he would ask to see my change then forthwith exchange new clad for any silver dimes or quarters he found...usually with a small bonus.

About the same time, I remember drinking a cup of coffee at a counter in a Howard Johnson's restaurant—no food, just a 15¢ cup of coffee. I left two Mercury dimes as the waitress's tip, but as I was paying the check, I heard her shouting out her disappointment to the other wait staff for such a small tip. I remember thinking to myself that a 20¢ tip on a 15¢ sale was quite a deal. I wonder if either of those dimes was a '16D.

 

I was 4. And getting kicked out of nursery school. They would send me home with a note safety pinned to my sweater to my mom. "Don't send this kid back to us".

 

I immediately thought about Gresham's Law !!

 

I immediately thought about Gresham's Law.