Has anyone received a 90% silver silver dollar straight from the bank for $1 face value?

I have never received a 90% silver dollar for face value but my father did and that was way back on January 14th 1969 and it was a 1924 peace dollar.

 

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There are stories floating around. I believe it still happens, but *very* rarely.

It happens when a person who doesn't know any better brings them into the bank to cash them in.

THEN you have to count on the teller not keeping them for themselves (depends on the rules at that bank, or that branch even).

THEN you have to hope that they're not saving them for a "favorite" customer, or a customer that they know collects "old coins", etc.

THEN you have to hope that you're next in line, or at least the first to ask, after the coins hit the teller's tray.

Does it still happen? Yes.

Has it ever happened to me? No.

 

I have had a few instances where tellers have held "old dollars" that others had deposited and they let me have them for face value. Same thing with old halves. But it hasn't happened in quite a while.

I don't know this for a fact but I would think there would be some rule against a teller asking more than face value for any coin or note.

 

To take your question one more step, ignoring age or silver content, I've never had a teller give me dollar coins of any type instead of dollar notes when cashing a check without asking. I did receive a $2 bill at a restaurant one time in change without asking. And there used to be a movie theater around here that had tickets priced for something like $9.50 or similar and would give half dollars in change to simplify their coin needs. But even they quit doing that a few years ago.

 

I have, but not in a while, and you had to ask for one. Before 1964 my bank (I was both a customer and part-time and summer employee as a kid) kept them on hand as regular cash. Most of the people who asked for them wanted them as gifts for things like Christmas and birthdays. If the bank ran low they just ordered another bag from the Fed like other cash, but they seldom did because demand was low and most of those gifts eventually worked their way back to the bank by way of local merchants. There were several trays of probably MS 62-64 Peace dollars that went undisturbed for decades.

 

A couple months ago I received 2 Morgan dollars from a teller on my way to work.

I had to ask her, are you sure you don't want them? Needless to say i was very surprised. Never thought it would happen to me.

Is it rare, yes. Is it possible, yes.

Edit- Ive also received 40% silver ikes, but I'm sure the teller didn't know about them.

 

About half of my raw silver dollars were obtained from tellers - however, the last of those were in the 60's. After that, my interests were elsewhere & I didn't pick it back up (numismatics) until the turn of the century. Not a one since!

 

My father used to buy rolls of silver dollars at his bank in the early to mid- '60's. I was around 10 years old at the time and thought that was really cool. That dried up pretty early in 1965 most likely.

 

My sister works at a bank. In 4 years she's had several piece of silver get turned in, but only 1 90% dollar. An 1885-O Morgan in VF. But she gets silver Kennedy Halves and Washington 25c somewhat regularly.

 

It happens.

 

I don't know what happened to the comment I originally wrote, but the gist of it was that as late as the early 90's I was still getting 90% silver dollars (and other coins) regularly from helpful folks working in neighboring banks and stores. Then my career changed and I no longer hung out in that mercantile area every day. I also think that this is a less common occurence in recent years because almost no one uses actual cash. Stores no longer have the same volume in their daily infusion of raw change from circulation - and cash drawers aren't opened to the customers' view unless a cash transaction is made, so even if they have interesting coins, the clerks now have to consciously offer them since you no longer are able to catch a glimpse of the contents of the cash drawer as a casual customer.

 

In the 1960's I had numerous dollars using my paperboy money to exchange. Recent years, I ask the teller to see if there are any in the vault. In many cases this takes a bank officer to check. I have received about 6-8 dollars that way. Normally they come from some one depositing them from an estate and not knowing what they have. Same can work for half dollars.

 

When I worked at a movie theatre in the 70's a kid paid for a popcorn with a 1900-O Morgan.

 

Yes, and I've used silver dollars at face.
Of course that was when silver coins were circulating.
-- 1960 Montana
-- 1963 Alaska

 

Used to get them for birthdays and such when I was a kid...in the 1950's

 

My grandmother used to send me a silver dollar for my birthday. That was in the 1950s.