Older Collectors (Aged 50+ only) Question: What coins circulated when you were young?

I started collecting in '57 and started watching my change (well... my dad's change) a little earlier. At that time Lincolns were heavily circulated and appeared about in proportion to their mintage except that the better dates were long gone. There were lots of buffalos but most of the early dates were unreadable and even the later dates were tough to find nice. XF's weren't too tough but AU's weren't seen. There were lots of war nickels and many didn't like them because they were dark and appeared dirty. Jeffersons ruled in change. In dimes it was the mercs. The Roosy was still new and I even heard the rumor about JS standing for Joseph Stalin. Quarters were interesting but there weren't many pre '25 dates that were readable. The Washingtons were findable in high grade right back to 1932 though most were starting to really show some age. You could find just about any half dollar except the '21's and the '38-D. The '53 was a little tougher. In this area you saw an occassional Columbian half but I understand that was almost unique to the Chicago area. Dollars weren't around yet. Oh, you could get them if you asked around but it was 1959/ 1960 before the treasury started pushing these out. Then there were mamouth releases in '63. There was very little obsolete type of any sort.

It was very exciting when the Lincoln was modified in 1959. Many people started collections of these right from the beginning but most quit in 1965 when silver was removed from the coinage. It was about '65 that the last of the dated buffalos disappeared. By 1968 the FED began withdrawing silver from circulation and they quit in early '69 because there were so few left that it didn't pay to sort them. All the silver was pretty much gone by 1970. About 1969 people even started pulling the wheat cents from circulation. These lasted until the mid-'70's when the number flowing into circulation and the number flowing out hit a sort of steady state. The bicentennial was released in mid-'76 to some small fanfare. These were a huge hit with the general public who immediately took to hording them. Only now in the last three years have they started coming back into circulation. In those days the half and dollar still enjoyed some limited circulation. Most all the bicentennial coins not being horded got spent but only about once per year on average. This circulation was basically dead by 1980 though the SBA and half lingered a couple more years. After this there was no real circulation of these coins except on a local basis in transit systems or casinos. This meant most of the coins were never used and simply sat in storage.

 

Log in or Sign up to hide this ad.

In 1967 and 1968 I had morning and afternoon paper routes in Indianapolis. Back then, the route owner had to collect for the paper, which meant each week on a Friday evening and Saturday morning, I would make the rounds to get my payments. I carried a four tube coin changer on my belt, the kind you pushed a lever for a denomination and it shot out a coin. Since it was a 4 tube, any halves I got had to go into the pocket. I used to get a lot of Franklins, rarely a Walker. Saw some Indian Head nickels as well, and a few Winged Liberty dimes. Never saw a Standing Liberty, ever.

Paper money I used to get well circulated silver certificates.

Never paid much attention to the copper coins, but I know several hundred wheaties passed through my hands. I saw wheaties up to the 1970's, but even then the cent had no purchase power, and, well, I think the Lincoln is damn boring.

 

Times sure change. My only restriction was to be home by the time it got dark. Nobody ever asked me where I was or what I did.

My friend once told me, "One of my best memories was sitting on the front porch drinking beer with my mother and father on warm summer evenings." I asked him how old he was when that happened. He said, "Eight."

A coworker of mine used to be on his high school rifle team in Queens, NY, back in the days when shooting was a skill, not a crime. He used to bring his rifle on the New York city bus he took to school every day. Try getting away with that these days!

It's amazing that any of us are still alive.

 

thats odd, my date grew up in the 70s and found around 20 buffalo nickels and 50 silver dimes in circulation

 

older collectors

Iam 57 I remember waiting for my father [ he was a bus driver ]and going through his change alot of steel cents , merc. dimes indian head cents, walker halfs, and a few peace dollars . Ihawked papers at a news stand and found and recieved [tips around holidays morgans and peace dollars] just cherish the tme you are in now and enjoy the fun of the hunt, and the hobby. redhorse

 

Hey what is this OLDER collectors stuff. We are just well educated with numerous years of experience and are glad there is Medicare. I think Most of my cars are older than most of the people on this forum.
As someone else noted about the 1943 Steel Cents. When I was a kid they were just coming out and my Dad used to give me lots of them and all like brand new because they were brand new. I still have 26 rolls of them. Also, Mercury Dimes where the most common dimes although there were many Liberty Head dimes in circulation. Same with Buffalo Nickels. Jefferson Nickels were just coming out and no one liked them. Lots of people still don't like them. Although Washington Quarters were the latest thing you could still see lots of Standing Liberty and Liberty Head Quarters in circulation. Walker Half Dollars were the only thing in that size and my Dad gave me my allowance in Morgan Silver Dollars. Spent them the following weekend at an amusement park here in Chicago called RiverView. I only saved the Peace Type Silver Dollars because as a kik I thought they looked better. Most expensive coin I ever saw back then was a tray full of 1916D Mercury Dimes selling for $1.50 each in a coin shop window. I bought them all. Had to take out a loan from my sister to do it and she charged interest although I didn't know what that ment. No such thing as the Red Book or any other book on coin prices. Nowadays I think people make more on coin books than on the coins. No Dansco, Whitman, Littleton, etc type Albums. Only the Whitman folders with slots that had glue in the slots to help hold the coins in. No 2x2's, no plastic rolls, no coin shows and no coin forums on the internet.
I not to long ago mentioned to a neighbor's daughter that when I was a kid we didn't even have TV. She just stared at me and asked "What did you hook up your Atari or other games to?"
I started coin collecting when my Dad gave me coins all the time and by the time I was a teenager I already had a few complete sets of Lincoln Cents, Mercury Dimes, Buffalo Nickels and lots of other ones. Occationally stopped collecting with the marrage stuff, children, house and more and more cars. Then back to collecting coins and now have many, many sets of each denomination. Not because I'm old, because I've been around for a long, long time. But not OLD.

 

ahhhh! riverview western and belmont JUST CARL remember nickel nights the bobs and the fireball.horse

 

Back in the late 50's early 60's when I was a youngin',we would occasionally find indian head cents,mercuries and surprisingly,a lot of '43 steel cents.Every once in a while,Walkers, and even though Franklins were in circulation at the time,I hardly ever saw one.Maybe people had already stopped using them like today?

 

Just Carl, good story!

 

I define circulation as the random movement of coins in commerce. A 1992 nickel randomly moves from one transaction or change jar to the next. If it sits still too long for any reason then it's no longer in circulation. If a collector pushes it into a folder it's not circulating. If the general public suddenly decides '92 nickels are desirable and begin removing them then they are no longer circulating once the percentage in circulation stabilizes. For instance all through the 1980's the public horded bicentennial quarters. At any given time about 20% of the surviving mintage was in circulation. The coin was in circulation to a degree but it did not circulate freely. The same thing occurs with the wheat cent. These are being yanked from circulation by millions of people. When they discover their specimen has no value then it's likely to go back into change. The percentage in circulation is well under .1%. One can say the coin can be found in circulation but it's not really circulating. The percentage in change remains remarkably stable over time in most locations. It is possible to get temporal or local aberrations but wheat cents don't truly circulate any longer. The same is true for silver. The last silver coin was plucked from circulation decades ago. When you see one now it's only because someone who plucked it decided to spend it or it was accidently spent. There is a small probability that it came from a lot of coins that has been in a piggy bank or the like for decades, but for every silver coin from this source there are probably hundreds of silver coins in circulation from someone who just didn't want to bother taking it to the coin shop to sell. There may have been a few buffalos still circulating up to about '73 but it was very few and they had been picked over by collectors. You might find a buffalo in change tomorrow but they still no longer circulate. You might find a silver coin but they haven't circulated since 1970.

For all I know you might just find an 1804 dollar but there's no doubt it hasn't been circulating for 200 years.

Think of it this way. If a coin has a 1% chance of being found by a collector and removed, then after 100 transactions there is a high probability that it will be gone. After 1000 transactions every single one will be gone no matter how many millions were placed into circulation. These coins have experienced their ten "deaths" and no longer circulate.

 

For the younger crowd, there really isn't anything interesting remaining in circulation.

The chances of finding anything of real value in circulation are nil. Coin collecting is now purely reliant on the secondary market.

The older folks had it good when it came to coin collecting. Most of the fun of coin collecting is in the thrill of the hunt. Most of that thrill is lost now, since there really isn't anything worth searching for.

When the older generations are gone, there may be little hope for coin collecting as a hobby. If the prices of collectible coins continue to skyrocket, only a very small percentage of the population will be able to have a decent collection. Multi-Million dollar collections are becoming commonplace. It's only a matter of time when a common date merc in BU is worth $100.

 

I believe the truth is just the opposite of this. When I scoured change there was nothing of real interest and no coins that will be valuable at any time in the foreseeable future. Even if the BU mercs go to $100, which is improbable, there were no BU mercs in circulation in 1957, or at least exceedingly few. Every coin in circulation had been pawed over by dozens of collectors and anything interesting was gone. There were some varieties but people didn't save these much and these may be valuable in the future, but the simple fact is; if people save a coin then it will be common and have little value.

The coins made since 1964 have not been saved. Not only have they not been saved in worn condition, most weren't saved in mint condition either. Nice condition coins made since 1964 are usually tough in any condition and varieties tend to be scarce or rare. Try finding a nice AU '70-D quarter. Look for one with a nice even strike from fresh dies. It should have light even wear. It's this way across the board and then when you really want to get tough find that same coin on dime stock, or with a DDR.

Many of the most valuable modern coins have been pulled out of circulation.

 

I was born in the early 1960's, so I don't remember anything other than the occasional silver dime. I never saw a Walking Liberty Half Dollar until I started collecting coins when I was about 10 years old. As a matter of fact, I don't remember seeing any Franklin Halves, either.

I remember the first time I saw a Walking Liberty; I thought it was the most beautiful coin I'd ever seen. It still ranks among the most beautiful, surpassed only by the Buffalo Nickel, in my opinion.

My mom and her friend took a trip to Las Vegas in 1973 and she brought back a Morgan Dollar for me. She said that Morgan Dollars were used in the casinos in the slot machines. The dollar had a small, black sticker on the back sort of in the shape of a star. I suppose that's how the casino could tell it was one of theirs.

It's strange to think that Morgan Dollars were actually being used as recently as 1973 (perhaps even later for all I know). They probably switched to Ike Dollars during that time period and the Morgans were eventually phased out. I still have that Morgan Dollar, though, and it's one of my most prized possessions.

But, as far as circulating coins when I was growing up: It was all Lincoln cents, Jefferson nickels, Roosevelt dimes and Washington quarters for me!

 

In 1965 I made the down payment on a new car with 2 books of mercury dimes I had picked out of circulation at the bank where I worked. Forty-one years later I'm still chasing those elusive high-grade Winged Liberty dimes!!!

 

The Hunt !

Many current coins have proved to be winners. No not all ,but time will tell. Current gold and silver can, and does offer a way to collect some very fine art. America and Australia can keep your wallet empty. I like to pick value and I do like proof coins. I look for Art that pleases me and pieces that may have future value.
Many coins I like are in silver, not gold. For some reason some coins just attract me in silver. With the pace we keep, chasing coins is difficult but collecting coins should be fun. To own because you like what you choose makes you happy, then I would suggest do what you like. If a really old coin makes a great impression on you then purchase an off year and take it out and admire it. The best of the old coins are gone, but the best of the new generation have yet to be coined.

Be well
Floyd

 

heh just carl doyou still have ht tray of 1916D mercs and ohw much were there when you bought them

 

If in each transaction involving coin X, there is a .01 (1%) chance it will be removed from circulation by a collector, after 100 transactions, the odds the coin will still be in circulation are (1 - .01)^100 = .366 (36.6%)

After 1000 transactions, the odds it will still be in circulation are (1 - .01)^1000 = .0000432 (.00432%)

If 1,000,000 coins of type X are placed into circulation, and while in circulation, each has a 1% chance of being removed by a collector in each transaction in which it is involved, after each is involved in 100 transactions, the number remaining in circulation then will be 1,000,000 x .366 = 366,000. After each is involved in 1000 transactions, the number in circulation will be 1,000,000 x .0000432 = 43.

This assumes that each coin, once removed from circulation, never returns to it, that all coins experence the same velocity of circulation, and that I'm not too drunk to be doing math.

 

Not true, if one is prepared to learn the varieties, and to do a little cherry picking. Then there are all sorts to be found. Double die varieties populate every type of modern coinage, as example. Some are worth as much as a 55 double die cent, even though most aren't.

 

I stand corrected. Of course the point remains that it's impossible for a coin like a 1909-S vdb
to have been in normal circulation since 1909. The Numismatist published a story back in 1945
that these coins were essentially gone from change and every coin has been checked many
times since 1945. If you find one or a silver coin or any coin like this it will be one that was ac-
cidently returned to circulation or was intentionally spent.

But, the more run of the mill coins are being entirely ignored and have been since they enterred
circulation. This is why people are pulling extremely valuable coins out like 1983 copper cents or
1972-D DDR quarters.