I believe it was here that I read about Jukebox Quarters... When an establishment's atmosphere started to wane, the barkeep would drop a few quarters into the jukebox to liven things up a bit. The establishment painted the quarters red/blue, so when the vendor came to empty the jukebox, they would subtract the painted quarters from their bottom line and give the quarters back to the barkeep. I got this in change today, and it happens to be my birth year :kewl: Now this could be a jukebox quarter OR just a quarter painted blue...either way I wanted to share this unique coin and story. -LTB
Another reason for them was that during the 1970's, the Garden State Parkway in New Jersey increased their toll from 15 cents to 25 cents. This caused a public outcry, and spurred a grass-roots protest. Parkway users were encouraged to dye or paint quarters red, and use them as tolls to record their protest vote.
I don't remember seeing blue quarters in the '40s when I was in high school, although quarters painted with nail polish were regularly used by soda fountain clerks to prime their juke boxes.
Holy smokes! I had no idea. I've seen some colored coins but thought it was kids playing around, lol. Still might have been but neat read, Thanks!
I've got a couple of Walking Liberty halves with nail polish on them. I wonder what the purpose of that was?
These days most jukeboxes take dollar bills. I'm going make a "jukebox dollar" stamp to go with my Where's George. Thanks for the idea.
Right, but the 'beauty' of these coins, metaphorically or in the eyes of the beholder, are finding them in circulation. Notes do not last as long in circulation and are intentionally pulled and replaced with new notes when their short lifespans expire.