Walking up to the counter to pay for my coffee at the filling station this morning, I observed the two younger dudes talking low and under their breath. As I got closer I heard, "Yea, between 1916 to 19-twentysomething." Immediately I knew they had found a cool coin. As it became my turn to pay, with a grin on my face, I ask the guy, who I saw pocket his find, "find a cool coin there?" He looked at me, almost with disbelief that I knew what was going on, ans said, "Hah...yea, it was a silver quarter....a...uhm...liberty quarter....standing...liberty, no date on it, but they were made from 1916 to 19-twentysomething." I said, "cool!" He told me that he finds and pulls coins out of change all the time. Then he proceeded to tell me that he had, alone in nickels, about $30 dollars face value in *silver nickels*, his oldest is 1890something, and he doesn't keep anything past WWII. This is when I wish I had a pocket US coin fact guide to hand out. The more I think about it, it seems geeky, and more like I'd be proselytizing than anything. But this kid had a genuine interest in coins, maybe just in a "how much is it worth" kind of way, but there was interest. I didn't have the time nor the heart tell him that the roughly 600 nickels were not made of silver, but mostly nickel, except for the years 1942-1945 when they were 35% silver. But that is when I could hand someone with interest a guide with coin facts and say here...look'em up...maybe you have *the one* in your stash! Yea, he'd find out his $30 in nickels are most likely only worth $30 (maybe a bit more depending on the war nickels), but it may end up pulling in a new face to the hobby. Just how my brain works.
If you have a smart phone and can pull up Coinflation on it next time you see the guy, you could show him the value of the war-nickels, which ones are those dates and their alloy for the specific years. Then tell him the rest are not silver-alloy but to check for a few specific dates where key dates would be most valuable should he have the luck to find any.
Should said hey there is a cool forum you should check out if you like old money. Its called CoinTalk
All great ideas...I was in line to pay and had several people behind waiting, though...you know how it is...pay and move on...don't hold anyone up
