Does anybody remember 1965?

Cars had fender skirts and curb finders..

 

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My mother and her friends once discussed it when we were talking and they remembered being in school in the lunch line comparing coins to see who had the new "sandwich" coins, anyone who had one was the object of wonder as they sounded cool when they hit the tables and the novelty of finding them in circulation. Who knew 40 years later it would come full circle and be the opposite.

 

In the 1967 song "Alice's Resturant" he goes to the Draft Board...all did not go as planned.

http://www.arlo.net/resources/lyrics/alices.shtml

 

1965 was a very very long year for coin collectors.

It really started in 1961 as mintages started creeping higher and the FED was releasing reports that it couldn't continue minting silver coin indefinitely at such high production levels. They had only a couple billion ounces of silver and it was consumed at about 60,000,000 ounces in 1961 alone. From here it seemed to feed on itself and the higher the mintages went the more the public hoarded. By 1963 it seemed like a foregone conclusion that silver was going to be discontinued in circulation. 1964 dawned very bleak. It was not only that roll and set collection was in high gear and everything of any value was gone from circulation but they were experimenting with new alloys and screaming to Congress for help. They got permission to freeze the 1964 date in the autumn in the belief this would discourage collectors. This was no help because collectors weren't the problem.

Then 1965 hit and the end of the world numismatically. There was the coinage act of 1965 which changed the composition to a cheap knockoff and a brand new date freeze. If this weren't bad enough they also stopped mint marks and all types of mint sets. Congressed even had a bill pending that would outlaw collecting new coins. Unsurprisingly the market collapsed. Soon the silver started disappearing and then the FED started yanking it out from mid-'68 to mid-'69. But it was mid 1966 before '66 coins went into production and by the end of 1968 there was almost nothing in circulation other than a bunch of '65 to '67 coinage in AU-Unc condition. Most of it was abysmal quality since they were just cranking out coins to relieve the shortage and no one cared about quality.

It was a bad time to be a collector but I'd go back and do it right if I could. There were lots of rare coins and mules and they could be found then with effort.

In a lot of ways 1965 didn't end until 1999 for the hobby in general. It took this long before anyone cared about new coins again. For a lot of collectors it's never going to really end.

 

I was keeping my cigarettes dry in 1968 by putting them between the straps and my steel pot helmet, wishing I could draw a bead on Hanoi Jane. LOL

Times have changed.

 

In 65, I was a wee lad watching Felix the Cat, Gigantor, Speed Racer, and the like. By the early 70s when my dad got me into collecting, silver was no where to be found.....

 

i became interested (conscious) of coin collecting in 1967 when i was 10 ... i used to go to the bank with my dad and buy rolls of dimes, quarters, and halves ... and pick through them to pull out the silver ... then i would exchange them the following week ... i was able to acquire about $85 (face value) in silver (pre 65) coints (after all i was just a little kid with a limited budget (money earned from doing work)

i dont recall ANYBODY that I knew kids or adults that were doing this

it seemed that most people were sort of oblivious to the switch from silver to clad coins (and it's significance)

years later when silver raced from $1 an ounce to nearly $50 an ounce, my dad told me "you had the right idea" ... funny that both my parents bought silver and gold in the 80's (but never made any money from it since both were steadily dropping in price (from the peak value in 1980)

i do remember my dad talking about people that were able to get silver dollars from the bank in the early 1960's ... however i was too young to remember that. amazing that my parents never caught on to that steal at the time.

 

i also used to find buffalo nickels in change ... however most didnt have any dates

does anyone remember the acid you could buy and if you dropped some of the acid on the worn area where the buffalo nickel date was ... the date would appear ... it sort of makes me laugh now thinking about it

i also remember vigorously cleaning some of the coins i would find with silver paste and a wash cloth (gasp)

 

i found a lot of walking liberty halves and standing liberty quarters in my roll searches .... they were REALLY worn tho

it's funny that i didnt save the 40% silver clad kennedy's ... they were really common and still being produced (up to 1968) ... i was focused on the 90% silver coins as they were more interesting to me ... i missed that one!

 

the first item i bought from the us mint was the 1968 proof set ... i remember telling my brother that I thought it would be worth a few hundred dollars in 20 years ... laughing ... boy was i wrong about that!

i think it was in the early 1970's when i bought my first gold coin by mail order ... from an ad i read in a magazine called "Coin-Age" ... i think it cost about $45 (??? i think ... my memory is sketchy! ) ... it was a near uncirculated liberty $10 gold coin ... i really wanted a $20 saint gaudens as i thought it was beautiful but it was out of my price range at ($80) ... as i recall the $10 indian gold coins which i also thought were really beautiful also cost around $80 (also out of my price range) ... isnt that sad!

 

In '65 I was running a paper route. Back in those days the paper cost 35 cents for weekly delivery. Most folks would "throw" you a 50 cent piece to satisfy their weekly bill. Picked up a lot of walkers and frankies that way. Even managed to complete a set of frankies which I still have. Collectors thought differently in those days. It was all about what you could pull out of circulation. The only time you resoted to "dealer" purchases was when you had trouble filling a hole in an album.....

 

green ... totally agree ... a dollar was worth more back then ... gasoline was 29 cents a gallon ... and you could buy a NEW car for $2000

 

I got a 1964 El Camino used with 2500 miles on it for $1300 cash. LOL Wish I would have saved my cars, instead of the coins. Had a new 1967 Mustang (I gave to my girl), a 1947 Hudson pick-up and a 1953 Vette', my family sold when I was in Nam.

I always made pretty good money raising rabbits and working part time construction, so I bought pretty much anything I wanted.

Feel like I blew my retirement. LOL

 

Oh no, not the vette.

 

man ... some of those cars would be worth a pretty penny today

 

I don't remember 1965 I was 4 years old. My older brother was 5, my younger brother was 3, and my sister was 1. My dad's hobbies were coin collecting and baby making...

 

I was 7 in 1965 and working on a Lincoln set that I still have.
My folks started saving silver a few years after 65.
In 1970 I was putting together a Washington set from the junk box at the local dealer. I was paying more than face for silver, I'm sure.
It's fun to kick back and think about this stuff.

 

'65 Vetts were no fun to drive except in a straight line.

I preferred our BugEyed Austin Healey Sprite. And I could afford 23c/Gallon gas.

 

right ... fill up your gas tank for $4 ... i remember the days

remember how the guys would run out and pump it for you (and check your oil and tires) ... when you'd drive in you'd run over that little rubber hose that would make the bell in the station go "ding-ding" ... then later you had the option of full-serve or self-serve ... and self-serve was a few cents cheaper

 

Friend of mine had a Triumph (Spitfire?). Man that thing was fun to drive...