The Good Old Days (early sixties)

I never managed to figure out my first computer. The Radio Shack T-16 (for a whopping 16k bits) required a monitor and I didn't know it. I do remember the explosion which came when they introduced the 256k chip. Who would ever need more?

I still relied on Coinage and Coins for my information.

As far as the internet, I waited out the millennium to get started.

 

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I liked the OLD "Bulletin Boards". It was literally a bulletin board in the local coin shop people would hang coins for auction on for a week, and at 1pm on Saturday the winner was determined and the coins taken down. I got an O over CC Morgan there, (back in the day maybe a 63, now a 64 or 65 probably), for $32, large cents for $5, etc. Fun times.

 

Yeah I played on those "bulletin boards" as well.

 

You've got to look at the bright side when reminiscing about the past. My teen years started in 1960. In 1964, I bought a brand new Corvette for cash with money I won from one pool match. It costed $4900. In 1966, I traded it in on a brand new GTO Tri-power which only cost $2300, and 103 octane Sunoco was 25c a gallon. There isn't anyone under 25 or 30 who has ever seen car and gas prices like that!

Chris

 

Our mother was the consistent long term coin collector in the family. She started us coin collecting at a very early age. We managed to fill couple and almost fill a lot of Whitman albums. A lot. . . . All probably pocket change circulated condition. Then when I became around twelve or so I discovered Ziggy, the owner of local hobby shop who would trade collector coins for
merchandise. My life changed. Wow, a 75¢ balsa wood glider for only a few indian head pennies, choice quarter and maybe a dime. or some ammo for my 22 caliber Savage bolt action rifle only cost some choice dimes and some choice nickels. it got so bad mom would check the albums regularly and yell at me about the coins disappearing. I still have a lot of those albums of course all of them are missing key dates and mint marks.
On the upside last time Ichecked I had >$800.00 melt value in quarters alone.

Just remembered another event: During the 70s the Mint was selling CC dollars and advertising in the coin mags. I remember the prices started around $7.50 - $35.00 or so
then later on some relatively higher prices. I'm thinking too expensive and the $7.50 coins were beat up and maybe mint errors. (I know) Later one of the mags had a article about the mint having no mechanism to make bad checks good so dealers and others were ordering large volumes paId for with bad checks.

 

Boy, some of you guys are old! I'm surprised you've got the strength to type!

As for me, I'll let y'all in on a little secret, I color my hair gray. You see, back when I just had my natural hair color, I used to talk, and I'd never get any respect. Now, however, it's as though, they take one look at that gray, and I can hear them thinking: "He must know sumpthin', he's been around for sooooooo long!"

 

Hehe...I don't belong in this thread!

 

"Boy, some of you guys are old! I'm surprised you've got the strength to type!

As for me, I'll let y'all in on a little secret, I color my hair gray. You see, back when I just had my natural hair color, I used to talk, and I'd never get any respect. Now, however, it's as though, they take one look at that gray, and I can hear them thinking: "He must know sumpthin', he's been around for sooooooo long!"
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You're one smart young whipper snapper! I didn't know all it took was some grey hair dye to acquire wisdom and life experience. Dang nab it!
You're right again, I sometimes wear out early in the day and don't have the strength to type or the brain cells to learn how to use that new
fangled voice recognition software my great grand kids bought me from that college book store . My nineteen year old live in maid, Juanita,
types verbatim what I mumble when she isn't attending to my more personal needs.

Next time I have questions about the provenance of one of my esoteric medals or need advice on the distribution of my estate or assisted living units I'll be sure to email you for advice.:smile

 

I would find that hard to believe. For one thing the GSA and the Mint cashed the checks long before they shipped out the coins. For another it would seem to me they would have a real good mechanism. Show up at the dealers door with an FBI agent and an IRS agent and a threat of mail fraud. I would think the dealer would be very anxious to make the checks good. If you defraud a private citizen with a bad check it can me hard to get them to make it good. You defraud the US government with a bad check they can make your life a living nightmare.

 

But we have Badges

 

I want one!

 

One what? A good old day?

 

That's odd! My badge has "PO1" on it.

Chris

 

>I would find that hard to believe. For one thing the GSA and the Mint cashed the checks long before they shipped out the coins.<

Good point. I hear you. However, I'm repeating what I read. At the time I used to read two different coin magazines every month.
I don't remember which magazine had the article. At the time I did not have the money or the foresight to buy any of those coins however my brother did.
I wonder if the early sales were handled by a subsidiary? It was a long time ago. I'm sure some others on CT have details about the early sales.
If I'm confusing the early sales with another event I apologize but I don't think so. I do remember eventually the problems with sales even out.

>But we have Badges<
and Medicare and AARP

>You've got to look at the bright side when reminiscing about the past. My teen years started in 1960. In 1964, I bought a brand new Corvette for cash with money I won from one pool match. It costed $4900. In 1966, I traded it in on a brand new GTO Tri-power which only cost $2300, and 103 octane Sunoco was 25c a gallon. There isn't anyone under 25 or 30 who has ever seen car and gas prices like that!<

Sweet rides both of them
Nice story about a colorful youth. How many games in that match? Nine ball? Straight pool? Still play pool?
While you were tooling around in a '64 vette I was struggling to keep a flathead V8 '49 Ford four door on the road. Later on I got a part time job in a auto garage so I could put together a 41 Ford coupe with Mercury V8 flathead, Iskenderian 3/4 race cam, Offenhauser aluminium heads, Scott fuel injectors mounted on the lower end of Stromberg 97 carbs. Don't remember who made the three carb aluminuim intake manifold. or the tricked out ignition system. And eyeball flames on the front sides of the big hood courtesy of JC Whitney.
JC Whitney Auto mail order was my friend in those days.

After giving it some thought the '41 Ford coupe was 1960 or '61.

 

Well I have to admit that I could see the GSA or the Mint being so unorganized as to get the bounced checks back and still send the coins to the deadbeats, but they WOULD have means to go after the bad check writers.

 

I agree with you on both counts. What ticked me off at the time was I wanted to buy some coins but didn't have the money and thought the $7.50 coins would be worthless and here are these people buying coins with bad checks.

 

We were playing 150-point straight pool. I was spotting him 50 points a game for $10 a point and he had to break. Not counting the spot, he scored 80 points the first two games, and he quit after I ran out four consecutive games, beating him 900-380. Playing all six games took about 5 hours.

After 54 years of playing, I had to quit earlier this year because I developed an "intention tremor" in my stroke arm which totally destroyed my mechanics. I know what I'm supposed to do, but I just can't execute it any more. I don't want to have to play like that.

Chris

 

Conder, correct me if I'm wrong, but didn't someone post a photo of the GSA order form for the CC dollars on the NGC forum? I do recall that it stated there was a minimum bid of $30 or $35.

Chris

 

I was never as good as you, but I do understand yoru frustration. I used to be good enough to run tables a couple times in a run consistently. I don't care for drinking, but in Iowa the only pool tables are in bars so I stopped playing. If I try to play now, I KNOW what I want to do, where to hit, how to hit, the english, etc, I just cannot do it. Nothing is more frustrating than your mind being more advanced than your body.

Chris

 

Wow, those are some amazing numbers, if I figured correctly. According to Inflation Calculator that $4,900.00 is worth $34,756.54 today. Pretty impressive for anybody but especially for a 17y/o kid. Paul Newman (The Hustler) would be proud. Sorry to learn of your "intention tremor" impairment. My game went downhill after getting my first pair of glasses. Though today it improves some if I remove them to play but can't quite see as well as I should.

The CC dollars went through different sales programs over a significant period of time. I think (not sure) the cheaper coins were toward the end of the sales Kinda like scraping the bottom of the barrel so to speak.