I either give my grandson 2 half dollars or a gold dollar every time he visits. What he does with them I don't know.
Nope. But I pull them out of my pocket, when I make 'change', and watch their reactions. Every once in awhile someone will ask me 'What is that?" but more often they are intrigued with my 'ASE' pocket piece.
95% of the time it's a look of curious confusion that ends with the cashier either reading the denomination on the reverse or asking me to verify the denomination for them.
I use Ikes when I really want to throw people off. Halves do the same but not to the degree of a big dollar coin.
I used to do that...put halves back into circulation. I haven't done that in a while... I know the strange look you get when handing them to a cashier. I've even put 90% and 40% Kennedys back into circulation...including wheat cents, indian cents and so on. I figured if I sparked a young collectors interest then it was worth it
It's fun spending clad Kennedys, Ikes, SBAs, Saccies, etc. at Starbucks, just to see the reactions...
No, but I have left presidential dollars as tips in restaurants then watched what happens. Yesterday I gave the lady barber three of them as a tip for giving me a haircut. She smiled, apparently knowing what they are.
I’ve purposely have paid or attempted to pay with Kennedy Halves, Ike, Presidential Dollars etc. My experience has been as such, anyone younger then say maybe 40,ish always appears either very interested or confused in the coinage being presented? But I recently was told by a young counter person that they could not accept my foreign money to buy breath mints, lol I’ll give accepted slack to most of the younger generation that unfortunately doesn’t seem to understand what our U.S. Mint produces for Currency and Coinage. But what floors me is the Bank Tellers I’ve encountered that (Don’t) know nor understand certain U.S. Coin/Currency? IMHO, absolutely no excuse if employed at a financial institution one is not up to speed on all of our Coin/Currency. Maybe not entirely all the Tellers fault, as the employer should be doing their proper training also! I recently was in a Bank and asked the (young) teller if by chance they had any Ike Dollars? The first response back to me was with a look of confusion and smile, they said, well sure, I like dollars. I said okay but do you have any Ike Dollars, explaining what they were about. It was almost funny, they said, oh I get it, it’s a rhyme game I see? I like Ike dollars. I gave up!!!
I sometimes get halves to search (only a roll at a time, not a box) and put them into circulation (at least till they go back to the bank). The most interesting time was once while I was shopping I was panhandled by a woman who asked for $1 to buy a soda. I gave her two Kennedys and she said thanks and walked off. After a few steps she stopped, turned around and asked me if they were dollar coins.
Anything to confuse millennials and make them think. Halves and Ikes ride in my truck console waiting for the opportunity.
It has been years, maybe a decade even, since I last saw an unusual coin in my bank. They used to get an occasional presidential dollar coin—mostly from customers who got them to put in the slot machines at the casinos—but since those machines are gone here, those are nowhere. I have seen only the one 1961 Half Dollar that a boy in a grocery store handed to me as he asked, "Why won't the Coin Star take my coin?" I have never seen any Half Dollar coins at my bank, and I get blank stares when I asked if I could buy a roll or two. It's all part of living out here in the boondocks. This is southern Louisiana, after all, where things happen very slowly. I finally got a 2019-D nickel the other day, but I am not sure when I'll get its P match.