Does anybody remember 1965?

Did any of the boys from your class get married to avoid the draft? About two dozen from my school did.

Chris

 

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, but i understand your reason for doing so.

 

Well, I threw all the silver coins in a jar. Still have 5-6 rolls of quarters and 4-5 dimes with some halves and $. Got in a bind a few decades ago and sold all the gold coins and a lot of the silver I had.

I should have sold a bunch of other stuff when the prices peaked. LOL Hanging on certainly hasn't seen much appreciation.

After the Hunts ran the silver around, I think there must have been a lot of silver coins melted down ?

 

The 1965 clad coinage did not start rolling off the presses until late in that year and if you were in a state that did not have a Federal Reserve Branch, it wasn't until the early part of 1966 before you even seen the clads in circulation.

The first clad coin I got to examine was a Washington quarter. It looked funny, it flipped funny and it hit the table top with a dull ring. In a handful of change, it stuck out like a sore thumb. I did not like it at all, thought it to be lifeless and drab, just like some cheaply made foreign goods.

I knew no one who hoarded silver per-se, collected silver coins, yes, but in the true sense of stock piling silver to hedge inflation, no. I had a Aunt who filled up two 5 gallon water bottles with change from the day, you could not even lift the full one, must have weighed 135 lbs. Those jugs were about 60% silver, the other 40% was cents & nickels. Never knew what happened to them jugs, they prolly fell through the floor.

It only took about 2-3 years for just about every silver coin to disappear. The feds had sorters that would kick out the silver coins as they were being counted...some smart cookies. The only silver content coins they allowed to return into circulation were the "War Nickels"

Happy Collecting

 

Hmmmm....1965, my Dodge Dart GT was 1 year old and I was 25 and married just 1 year. Wife worked too and we had cash to spend. Bought a '65 BMW R69S motorcycle. Buddy's dad said we should start collecting silver coins as no more would be minted. We both laughed over our beers. I did start collecting silver dollars and later sold the culls to the Hunt's. Was just lucky I guess.:whistle:

 

I was not even a concept at that time, but my Dad and my Grandfather both started hoarding their silver coins. As a result I have come into a large collection of pre 65 coins. Many are BU rolls of dimes and quarters (we are still cataloging them all).

I have since learned my grandfather had been hoarding silver coins for a long time. He was one of those who was really prepared for the collapse of the US/World economy (barrels of potable water, pallets of dehydrated food and honey).

 

Did he hoard any BU rolls of 32-S and 32-D Washies?

Chris

 

I certainly wasn't around then, but I asked my grandfather, who doesn't quite remember the exact year... but he did pull silver out of circulation - probably in the late 60's or so.
Not too much, just a few dollars worth (one of the quarters, however, is a dateless Standing Liberty )

 

Unfortuneatly I haven't come across any of those. If I do I'll be sure to let the CoinTalk community know.

 

Although I was only 7 yrs in 1964, I remember it, By 1969, there were very few silver coins left in circulation. I also remember in 1971 when the US left the gold standard and joined the GDP standard. It was a minor foot note on the news and most people did not even know that it happened. Even today I meet people that do not know that we are not using the gold standard anymore.

 

In 1966, I was outside of Reno, in the High Sierras helping an old timer work his claim. He panned every day and the big thing was the mercury. We could get at least a vial a week along with whatever gold we scratched up. I helped for the learning and a few beers. LOL But he stayed as long as the season lasted. Guess he made a ton of money after the restrictions were lifted ?

 

Geez, you didn't have to go to all that trouble to strike it rich. If you had only bought the Fitzgerald warehouse in Reno, you would have had his hoard of silver dollars that he took out of the casino when they went to gaming tokens in 1965.

Chris

 

Benny Binion Jr. Had a few tons of silver buried near Pahrump when he was killed. Dark night, Back hoe and a flat bed. LOL But you would have needed good life insurance. Really good.

 

As I recall, it was pretty much a non-event. People were pulling walkers out of circulation, but not because they were silver. It was much like today with copper cents. Some people save them. Most don't. It isn't worth the effort [yet].

 

I was 6 in 64, but this was the point at which coin collecting reached it's peak in popularity. Most people collected in a set of Whitman folders and most wanted the silver coins before they vanished. Almost none of the collectors in my area would have considered paying a premium for coins and they limited their collections to what they could find in circulation. If you were really into it, you could go to the banks and get rolls to help fill the difficult to find ones.

I began collecting shortly after this after watching my dad fill his Whitman folders. I bought him a Liberty Head Nickle for 75 cents at Foleys for Christmas and it's the only coin he ever had that didn't come in circulation. I have now inherited it back and it's still worth about 75 cents.

 

In 1965/66, Silver was at about $1.25 oz.

So, the silver content was less than face value.

As others have said, the people who hoarded them did so more out of the fact that they wouldn't be made any longer rather than for their silver.

If you had hoarded silver back then and even if you didn't sell during the spike in 1979/80, today it would still be about a 6% annual gain per year - not bad. I didn't think it would be that high.

 

Well, here is a reply about the "switch" in Germany, so those who are solely interested in US coinage and 1965 may want to skip this post. The Federal Republic of Germany had a 5 DM silver coin (Ag 625; issued until 1974). In 1975 that got replaced by a Magnimat (basically Cu-Ni) coin.

Don't think that people hoarded the old ones, and no, it was not a big deal, except that the design of the new pieces was considered ho-hum. Maybe some people kept the old ones as souvenirs, but not because of their metal content. Why would they? You can always get new €10 collector coins (Ag 925) at face here. They do not actually circulate but may be nice souvenirs.

Similarly, the Netherlands went from Ag to Cu-Ni (for the 1 and 2.50 gulden coins) in 1967. Switzerland did that in 1968 (0.50, 1, 2 fr) - interestingly, the 5 fr coin was silver until 1967, Cu-Ni in 1968, Ag again in 1969, and Cu-Ni since 1970 ...

Christian

 

yes, some in my class did and most regret doing so. draft dodgers and hippies burnt thier draft cards :crying: no one protested the new coins going into circulation.

 

I was still on the bottle thats the one they put milk in LOL

 

The hippies moved to British Columbia to avoid the draft. They remained after the war, and produced the best (I've read) marijuana in the world: BC bud.

I knew guys that would eat a 5 pound can of that solidified white Crisco, the night before their pre induction physical. They would then have astronomically high blood pressure readings, and be classified 4-F. The one guy I knew that did it was the most fit guy around. He was a world wrist wrestling champion. Crazy times.