Worn but still nice. A lower grade 1875-S Twenty Cent Coin. This date has the highest mintage of all 7 Twenty Cent coins. It’s the only one with over a million pieces minted. That's just over a million more than the next highest mintage.
I bought this one on my first buying trip as a dealer in 1995. I decided to keep it, which is something you are not supposed to do as a dealer. It's graded MS-63. Believe it or not, the San Francisco Mint issued a very small number of these coins as Proofs. They are expesive and hard to find.
Here is the one I got in change back in the fifties. I have since given it to my youngest son who was born in 1975.
That still amazes me. I know that coin was only 75 years old in 1950, and you can still find 75-80 year old coins in change now, if you search enough, but still... wow. It's in pretty decent shape, too, considering how long it spent in circulation. Thinking about that further- even if you did find an old Wheat cent or early Jefferson that's 75+ years old now, those likely had 10, 20, or even 100+ times the mintage that 20-cent piece had.
There are many coins out there that are over 100 years old. The best I have done lately is several 1890 era Liberty Nickels. 1891 (2), 1892, 1894, 1896, 1897 plus these 1902, 1903, 1907, 1908, 1911 and 1912
You must go through pretty good volumes of rolls to find that quantity of really old stuff. Oldest I ever found in my CRH days were 1909, 1911, and 1912 cents. Except for about four Buffalo nickels over the years, I never found any obsolete types except for Wheat cents. No Indian cents, V-nickels, Merc dimes, etc. (Metal detecting was a different story, of course.) Oh, wait- I take that back- in the last few years, I did luck into one Walking Liberty and one Franklin half from the bank. Those weren't even in rolls- they were in the teller's drawer, out of maybe six half dollars she had on hand.
I am compensating for the activity I missed raising 6 kids. As a youngster I would visit every place I could to search coins. Now I am retired and want to pick up. I look at about $400 worth a week.
