I was stationed in Okinawa 4 different times. Something I had found out during my first time there, that many of the islanders would a few silver coins to cans full of Americans coins. After the war it became an American territory until 1972, when it was turned back to Japan. So during the years as an American territory, American currency was used then until 1972, in which the Japanese yen replaced the American money. Also, when we stooped using silver in our coins, it was not noticed that much over there. I found out that many of the Okinawan's that had these coins did not realize that any coins minted before 1965 where silver. Another shock to me, was they didn't really care. There is not any emphasis on keeping silver, gold or any other precious metals over there. So any Okinawan's that had the silver coins; I'd explain it to them, and this ask if I could buy from them. Some of them just gave me the coins because they cannot use them for buying anything since they use the Japanese yen. So if you take a trip to Okinawa, ask some of the older local people if they have American coins from the territory days.
I was stationed there from 2010 to 2014. I noticed I would occasionally get silver coins in my change from vending machines on base and started doing research about US coins on Okinawa. It was then that I learned much of what you stated above. Also, thanks to the base exchanges on the 15+ bases there, a lot of silver was still actively circulating on the island. Once I realized this, I started coin roll hunting at the base credit union in 2012, and by the time I left in 2014, I had pulled over 500 silver dimes and 60 silver quarters. I even found over a dozen Mercs and a few Barber dimes, the oldest being a 1907. Through conversations with the tellers, I learned that due to the weight of coin currency, the banks there rarely ship boxes of coins back to the states and vice versa.
