Last Year For Finding Silver Dollars In Circulation

When I was a HS student in Omaha, NE in the mid 50's, I liked to collect coins, but I didn't have very much money. So, my collecting was confined to finding coins in circulation. Back then, you could still find barber quarters and dimes, indian head pennies, and liberty head "V" nickels in circulation. In order to increase my search for liberty head nickels, I decided that I should go to a place where there are lots of nickels in play. I thought of a great plan-- I went to City Hall and asked to speak to the guy who collected and counted nickels from parking meters. He had a large counting machine with a large rotating circular metal tray into which he would dump the nickels for counting. The process was slow enough that he could see the coins as they rotated around in the tray before going "down the drain". I asked him if he could spot and remove old ones and save them for me. Since I was a kid and he liked me, he said he would. So, over the course of 2-3 years, I would drop in every month and he would sell me his latest "yield" of "V" (and occasionally shield) nickels. I suspect that, most likely, he saved the best for himself, but I was happy!

 

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Smart play and welcome to the neighborhood!

In those days, there were a lot of the manually-operated counting machines still in use. The operator could stop at any time.

Chris

 

I’m just posting so I can keep hearing these awesome stories. I’m in my 30s, so aside from the occasional silver I pull from CRHing here, I’ve never received anything better than silver Kennedy halves in change.

 

In 1963, I watched my father cherrypick bags of silver dollars at the dining room table. I don't know where he got the bags, but he returned most of the coins.

I was only five (5) at the time. It was fun to watch...especially when each coin represented twenty (20) chocolate bars!!!

 

Prior to 1965, slot machines were legal in parts of Maryland along the Chesapeake Bay. The nickel and dime machines routinely paid out Barber & Buffalo nickels as well as Barber & Mercury dimes.

Chris

 

In 2012. I got a Peace Dollar in change from Taco Bell.
See attached link about half way down the page https://www.coincommunity.com/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=126126&SearchTerms=taco,bell

 

AFTER SILVER WAS REMOVED FROM CIRCULATION FOR A BRIEF TIME YOU COULD GET SILVER DOLLARS FOR SILVER CERTIFICATES. AFTER THE BANKS RAN OUT THEY OFFERED A ONE OUNCE POUCH OF SILVER NUGGETS FOR A SILVER CERTIFICATE. iN THE FIFTIES AND SIXTIES YOU RARELY SAW A SILVER DOLLAR IN CIRCULATION BUT WOULD OFTEN GET ONE FOR YOUR BIRTHDAY OR CHRTISTMAS.

 

That's pretty amazing. Obviously that coin didn't survive 90 years in circulation. Some collector (or, more likely, a hoarder) reintroduced it. I wonder how many hands it passed through, all of them clueless about what they were holding?

 

I'm thinking a child of a collector/ hoarder....

 

You're right. That's probably more likely.

 

1964 or 5. I worked at my dad's gas station on the west side of Detroit. We would get them periodically. Thing is, coin shops sold common dates for choice BU for $3 or so. Dad would sometimes bring 10-15 home for me to select one or two. Found my 1903-O in one of those batches. It was just after the Treasury Dept. released the basement bags. Went from $2500 down to "about $3.50" I don't remember the exact date, but it probably was in 62 or 63. I was very excited for about two days until I took it to my neighborhood coin shop and the owner said "Oh, you got one too." That's when I got the bad news of the release. The blue Whitman folder had the spot for the 03' plugged.

 

Ahhh...the "Good Old Days".

I had a lady on my paper route (early '70s) who was the assistant manager of the Union Trust Bank in town. The paper was 85¢/week and she would tip me a silver quarter each week. She had a whole bag of them!

Needless to say, she never carried a grocery bag or shoveled her walk when I was around.