I always ask the older people in my family and in my wife's family if they keep any old coins somewhere. I have been shown a few small boxes of foreign and silver coins they have stored away for whatever reason. Ask your uncles and aunts, cousins also.. You will be surprised at how many if them collect small amounts of coins because they are special to them
It is a good thing to be known as the family coin guru, Shrews. My last trip back home my sister in laws mother had recently passed and a cigar box of old coins came up in her belongings. Sister in law couldn't wait for me to get there and tell her what she had. And most times these things turn up average coins, but I know you are like me. Just holding that average eighty year old coin in your hands conjures up vivid images of yesteryear. And that's what makes the hunt so awesome!
As a kindness I buy all the accumulated change of all my older relatives every year and always have. When I take the time to search the coins before cashing at the bank I pay them for any good stuff I find.
Good advice. It was very common for people of a certain age to save silver found in circulation. The elimination of silver coinage in 1964 prompted a lot of ordinary folks to start saving it . My parents did and that's what got me started collecting. Wheat cents and Buffalo nickels were also popular targets.
