When Were Currently Uncommon Coins Commonly Circulated?

First collected as a kid in the mid-80s. I remember searching big jars of change at relatives' houses (great way to keep a kid quiet & occupied for a few hours) and even with these jars being filled in the late 70s-early 80s, finding wheat pennies was rare, and 90% silver was unheard of. BU early 60s Lincolns were common, as were 68-74 S mints. Early Jeffersons and the occasional war nickel did turn up, but not much more frequent than today.

I find more wheats & silver now than I did 30 years ago. Maybe there were more collectors back then and interesting coins got pulled more frequently?

 

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This was my experience almost to the T. Except I never really saw any Walking Liberty halves at that time. I saw a lot of Franklins. It seemed people saved the Kennedys and spent the Franklins, which were almost always well worn.

 

I recall the wheat pennies all the time in change in the early 1970s
Buffalo nickels I only have a handful from change in the early 70's.

I still have my change that I sorted by decade in containers from back then, though keep in mind a little one does get change very often.. One of these days I'll actually go through them to see if there's any high value ones ... if I ever look up which ones to look for.

 

I recently found a 1935 buffalo nickel. Do you guys think this is something that has been in the wild for all these years or do you think it accidentally made its way back?

 

I doubt it's been continuously circulating for the past 80 years, especially if the date has not worn off. It probably sat in someone's coin jar or change drawer for many years then got reintroduced to circulation at some point.

 

I agree with steve63. Although the oldest pocket change find I've ever had was a 1910 Lincoln cent that looked like it had been circulating every day of its 105 years of existence.
But Lincoln cents are not obsolete like buffalo nickels, so they could conceivably sneak under people's radar. Also if it has a date it was probably reintroduced like Steve said. As we all know the dates wear off them at an alarmingly quick rate

 

I have heard of dealers acquiring a large collection that may have a lot of low grade common older dates. Since these are hard to move at any profit, they're just taken to the bank and re-enter circulation.

 

or given to customers in change, as has happened to me a couple of times.

 

I think wheat pennies still circulate to a degree because they are tougher to see at a glance. (Haven't gotten a silver half since the '70s.) At times I get wheat pennies weekly but only because I have help. The clerk at the liquor store I frequent gave me a wheat penny in change and I commented on it by saying, "Wow, a wheat penny; worth about 3 cents because its copper." From then on, she holds the wheat pennies in her cash drawer and exchanges them with me for a penny each. This store is the busiest in town so lots of traffic. As I said, on occasion I will get a penny a week; then nothing for a month. Anyway, it's fun to see what will show up next: a 1955 DD?

 

I'll echo Treshunt. They were everywhere when I started collecting us coins. Sometimes you could find late date Buffs with luster.

 

Hello,is there any one look for some wheat penny let me know.

 

So do you think dateless buffs could potentially have survived all this time wild?

 

I think I read somewhere that it takes about 20-30 years of continuous circulation to wear a coin down to poor condition. So any coin more than 30 years old that has a higher grade than that must have stopped circulating for some span of time. The problem here is that it's very hard to define "stopped circulating". For years I put all my change into a coin drawer and there times when a few months or even years went by before I rolled and desposited them. Especially for the smaller change like pennies and nickels I think that is very common. So many coins go back and forth from "the wild state" to "not actively circulating" many times over. So it's really hard to define "being in the wild". However when it comes to coins like buffaloes that probably get pulled out of circulation quickly once they pass through the hands of a collector, it's probably safe to say they have been "out of the wild" for the majority of their lifetime.

 

When I started coins back in the late 50's early 60's all rolls here in NC Texas were about 50/50 except 1 cent rolls. In $1 rolls there were more Morgan. I recall spending a 1921 Peace once because I JUST did not like the design.

 

When I was a kid collector in the 60s, it was fairly common to find Buffaloes and Mercs in spare change and rolls, some of them in notable shape. Of course, Franklin halves were all over the place and wheat cents were in abundance. Occasionally, an Indian Head cent would turn up. Can't remember ever finding a Standing Liberty quarter but there were a few Walking Liberty halves.

 

As a paperboy from 1959-1963 Walking Liberty half dollars, Standing Liberty quarters and Mercury dimes were given to me as payment frequently. Of course I would check dates looking for high value coins, but seldom found anything worthwhile.

 

I wasn't a collector per se,, but as a youngster in the early 1970s I found and saved many wheat cents. They were plentiful, with the occasional IHC. In my ignorance, I called the wheaties, banana cents. The wheat stalks looked like bananas to me. Oh well,, then my best find ever, a 1909 S VDB. Had it for about a month then accidentally spent it on some penny candy. The candy store owner pocketed that beauty so fast. Ah, story of my life.
Few months ago, got a Mercury dime in change. Weird.