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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Neal, post: 2958972, member: 43872&quot;]When I was 10 or 11 years old or so, back in the early 60s, I earned money at a small town bank by wrapping coins for 1 cent a roll.&nbsp; I would search a bag first, set aside the coins I wanted, and replace them with my pay (unless it was halves or sometimes quarters, which took a lot more).&nbsp; So I literally searched hundreds of thousands of coins over about a 4 year period.&nbsp; Because early standing liberty quarters and buffaloes lost their dates, they circulated until they wore out, but others were removed quickly from circulation by collectors if they were decent dates or just older dates in nice shape.&nbsp; For fun I once assembled two full rolls of dateless quarters, which caused a panic among the tellers because the rolls, and presumably the average coin, by then roughly 35-45 years old, were about 75% of normal weight and thickness.&nbsp; I never saw a Barber quarter and seldom saw recessed date standing liberties, then about 30-35 years old.&nbsp; When I did, they were usually in no better than G or occasionally VG, rarely Fine.&nbsp; Earlier Washington quarters 20-35 were almost never better than Fine and frequently only VG or even less, while the more recent quarters would sometimes be up to AU even at two or three years old.&nbsp; The 1965 clad quarters (over 50 years) I see today are usually better than 20-year-old silver I would see then. </p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>The buffalo nickels fared better than the silver, and dateless buffaloes were likely to be otherwise G or better, and 1936-38 buffaloes in VF or even XF were not too rare in 1963-65 circulation, perhaps having spent time in jars.&nbsp; On the other hand, if I found a better date, it usually was well worn, indicating collectors were affecting the total population in circulation.&nbsp; </p><p><br /></p><p>Mercury dimes were still common, and the wear patterns were similar to quarters.&nbsp; No Barber dimes, and earlier Mercs were usually no better than AG - VG, but again, collectors had made a dent in better dates, and my 1921 and 21 D were low AG.&nbsp; Mercury dimes 1941-45 could sometimes be found that would easily pass for AU or even UNC, but were usually F-VF after 20 years, like many clads after 50 years.</p><p><br /></p><p>I was still working in the bank, but as a teller, until 1970, and by then almost all the silver had disappeared.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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