Merry Christmas to all. Hope your day was joyful with family and friends. Now here is my question on this quarter. Does it look like it may have been spray painted?. The whole coin is like this as you can see from the pics. Any info would be apreciated. Thank you in advance
Many, many years ago, tavern owners used to paint some quarters red so they could use them in the gaming equipment that they leased. Occasionally, customers would lose a coin or two in machines like pool tables, video games, juke boxes, etc. so the proprietor would give them the painted quarters to use in the machines, but when it came time for the owner of the machines to make the weekly collection, the red quarters would not be counted in the receipts. Chris
I never understood that practice. I'm sure it didn't add up to a lot. Why not just mark it down on a pad? How about if the customer decided to pocket the red quarter. Would the tavern close down because the loss of a few cents?
It is definitely altered. Probably environmental damage. The clad layer contains Cupro-Nickel that can be affected by exposure to the elements. Here are some of my metal detecting finds throughout the years -
The pool hall I hung out in as a kid did this. The owner could keep folks happy when a machine messed up. When the hall/bar was too quite, the owner would play something on the juke box to get the party started. Apartments used to do this for folks to use the laundry machines. If you paid the rent on time, they gave you a couple of dollars in painted quarters. Painted quarters helped keep all the math correct.
A friend of mine owned an arcade business, and I would help him from time to time. He had machines in dozens of locations, and the "red quarters" found in the collections at each location varied from a few dollars to about $20 each week. Granted, it didn't add up to much for each proprietor, but for my vendor friend, it sure would make a difference on his tax return. Chris
