I don’t know much about paper currency since I mostly collect coins but does anyone happen to know if these silver certificates are worth keeping? Or should I just spend them at face value?
I save stuff like this just for the fun of it. They will be there if I need money. I do the same with star notes. It's like a little savings account.
In the condition those are I'd spend them. At about $1.20 for the $1 silver cert it's quite far from breaking the bank and it might spur interest from someone who receives it. If saving the star note makes you happy, save it.
Collectors shouldn't really care about what things are worth. I find the values interesting, but it doesn't impact my collecting direction. If you like it - keep it.
It looks like you just found those notes under great grandpap's mattress pad . . . in more ways than one from the indications of the background in your photo. If you like them, keep them. I have a couple that look like that, too. Sure wish they were convertible to silver like the notes say. Just another lie from our 'trust worthy' (yea, right) federal bureaucrats and politicians.
They all catalog about twice face in VF. You couldn't get that much even if they were VF and those are definitely not that high. Like others have said, keep them for interest value.
I keep all the ones I find. It’s like a little savings account for me. If you like them or they have meaning to you, by all means, keep them. If not sell to your LCS or spend so someone can get the enjoyment of finding them in the wild.
I do have a high grade $10 one but that was a gift. It retails for $150 so I was just curious if these ones had any sort of premium. Guess not.
I was a bit surprised when I took currency that I collected in the 80s while doing my paper route collections to learn their values are as Masterswimmer notes, marginally higher. I suspect that your $10 has some contributing factor(s) to put it up into the $150 range (aside from condition) given the notes the LCS owner was showing me. He showed me a $100 bill from 1934 - crisp uncirculated. He was selling it for $107 and remined me that the vinyl sleeve was $2. It was really shocking to learn that the $200 or so of mixed currency (silver certificates, old $2 bills, red ink specimens, etc.) are in total worth maybe 10-15% over face value. Had I known that then, I would have played more video games at the arcade.
Gosh, I'd be saving all of them...all 1934, 35, 57 it appears...wouldn't be turning out/spending any of those. To be determined later on gifting...kids, grandkids, YNs, etc...but man, for now keep them.
Actually they didn't lie. They were redeemable. In 1963, the House of Representatives passed PL88-36, repealing the Silver Purchase Act and instructing on the retirement of $1 silver certificates. The act was predicated by a prospective shortage of silver bullion. Certificate holders could exchange the print for silver dollar coins for approximately 10 months. In March 1964, Secretary of the Treasury C. Douglas Dillon stopped the issuance of coins, and for the next four years, certificates were redeemable for silver granules. The redemption period for silver certificates ended in June 1968.