Want to see the difference between old and new coins?

I was sorting through part of my stash of 'junk' silver coins tonight, which is basically pre-1965 U.S. coins that were minted with 90% silver, 10% copper. The coins basically trade these days for their silver content alone, and make a good inflation hedge.

Here is a standard U.S. quarter next to a silver, pre-1965 U.S. quarter. The older coins are really beautiful, they sound great when they clink together, and they have some noticable weight to them. Hold a handful of those, and you feel like you're holding real money.



Here's a pile of SP any D&D player would be proud of!!
This isn't my whole 'hoard' of silver by a long shot, but it's the majority of the 'junk' coins vice the .999 bullion.

Great stuff!

by the way--no coasters?

I remember a friend of mine back in high school once found a 1962 quarter in his change. He wasn't even sure it was real, since they look so much different than they are now, but I told him he'd better save it.

BTW, what are "junk" coins? Are those the ones that have been in circulation for a while?

Had a 1964 quarter once I won in a claw game.

Got no silver coins.

I do have a 1954 Australian Shilling coin that I found on the playground during recess back in grade school. Just in average circulated condition--probably not worth much, so I keep it for sentimental reasons.

More recently, found a seven-sided 20 pence English coin somewhere within the past month. That was odd.

Yeah, and they are called that because their silver content isn't a nice round number, but rather some strange number out to three or four decimal places. Pre-'65 US coins are 90% silver, but their silver weight varies by the type (read- size) of the coin. They break down like this:

Wartime nickels contain .05626 oz.

Pre-1965 dimes contain .07234 oz.

Per-1965 quarters contain .18084 oz.

Pre-1965 halves contain .36169 oz.

1965-1970 halves contain .14792 oz.

Pre-1936 dollars contain .77344 oz.

So, for example if I have 100 old quarters, that amounts to about eighteen ounces of silver taken all together. That's $25 dollars in terms of the 'face' value of the coins, but if I take them to a silver exchange I'll get today's spot price for silver, which for 18 ounces would be $240.

So, right now, one old quarter is worth about $2.34 based on silver content of the coin. That's a ninefold increase over the face value, which is 25 cents. So if you have any coins with dates 1964 or earlier, DO NOT put them into vending machines, etc. Save them. The spot price of gold and silver will only increase as the dollar continues to fall. Spend your bank notes, not your metal.

This is why those two idiots who tried to use 'liberty dollars', which are silver certificates, to pay for hot dogs at a baseball game were high order dumbasses. Why on earth would you want to spend a silver certificate instead of unloading the debt notes (known as US greenbacks) infesting your wallet? One retains it's value- the other does not. If you don't know which is which, see me for a great real estate deal in Brooklyn...

I've got a little baggie full of mixed coins left over from all the countries I've visited. Some of them, especially from the far east, look like they're worth less than a game token from Chuck E Cheese, and they probably are, when it boils down to it.

My old man's got several of those East Asian-type coins from his time over there (pre-Vietnam build-up). My favorite are the little Thai coins with the holes in the middle of them....

When my friend came back from Japan, she gave me a bunch of Asian coins. One of them has a hole through the middle as well, but I don't know if it's Thai.

My favorite coins have always been those square Aruban florins. Just because they're square. They have no desire to fit in with the rest of the coins, they are a rebel and outcast, the Judd Nelson of the coin world.

Although the weirdest coin I have is a gold dime from 1984.

I've got an old metal wallet, Korean, one of my aunts gave me. It's full of old Korean paper money, notes, ID, etc.

Oh, and today I tried to buy a soda, and one of my quarters kept coming back. I checked it, and it was a 1960 Silver quarter.

For some reason, I've always liked the Franklin half dollar coins.



I think after the state quarters program is finished, they should do some sort of a program that shows all of the Presidents (perhaps 4-5 a year like they do with the states on the quarters). Perhaps they could do this on a dollar or a half dollar coin. I'd hate to see Washington taken off of the quarter. Dimes are too small, pennies are too worthless, and I'd also hate to see Jefferson disappear from the nickel.

They are doing something like that, haven't you seen the gold dollars with Washington on them?

http://www.usmint.gov/mint_programs/$1coin/

Cool

Are these coins in circulation or is it some sort of a limited edition thing? I haven't seen these.

They're in circulation.

All I have are a couple of Silver dollars from the 70's and the few odd foreign coins I've gotten as change.

They're in circulation, but very few people will spend dollar coins.

Speaking of rare finds, I once bought a roll of quarters for bus fare some years ago, and I was shocked to find at the very top of the stack was a 1926 Liberty Walking quarter. Beautiful design, even though mine is obviously worn from much use. I've also scored a 1943 dime from my cash register at my job and a 1936 buffalo nickel from a Spanish-speaking customer who couldn't understand that the nickel had a bit of value.

I got enough wheat-ear pennies to make two fifty-cent rolls out of them, so I don't bother saving any before 1940 anymore.

If you want to get ahold of a presidential dollar coin, just use a fiver to get a stamp in a stamp machine...the post office has lots and lost of $1 coins...presidential, Sacajawea and even some Susan B's...

They always give change back in dollar coins.

Spending them is a bitch...by law, stores are required to accept them (they are legal tender) but you will get dirty looks from the casher often, because there is nowhere in the drawers to put them...and I have come across some cashiers who don't know they are real money.

I always use them to put under my kid's pillow when they loose a tooth.

Speaking of weird coins...I recently found a quarter, and it's only dated a few years ago, but the background is *very* shiny, and the raised bits like the prez and eagle are a fine brushed metal...

I figure it is one of those mint collectors coins that someone decided to spend for some reason.

Check the letter next to George Washington's neck. If the letter is "S" (As in, minted in San Fransisco), you have what is called a proof coin--those are made to be collector's items only and usually have a very mirror-like finish to them that scratches pretty easily. I came across a proof nickel in my change from Taco Bell once.

They're usually sold in sets and while legal tender, they aren't meant to be spent. I hope you kept it.

We've been collecting Mercury dimes (1916-45) where I work. Just weighed one, 2.494g. Anyone has a collection of them, we can talk trade.

Well, the wife did my teachings proud today. She came home and said that someone had given her a quarter earlier today, and when she dropped it on her desk it didn't sound like a regular coin. Having sat through my boring lectures on silver, etc, she took a look and discovered it was a 1943 quarter. You guessed it- silver! She put it away and brought it home to be added to the junk silver coin hoard.

Someone spent a 25 cent coin today that's actually worth just over 2 bucks. That's okay. It's safe now.

I've only found one silver quarter so far, and searching.

Do you folks in the US find really old coins still in circulation?

In Britain, when I was a kid in 1965 or thereabouts I was getting the coin-collecting bug and one day, in my change, I got a penny from around 1875. A Queen Victoria coin. That time span is not an option now, as Britain's currency switch was completed by 1972, and I think the oldest coin you can now possibly find in circulation is 1968.

What's the oldest coin one can reasonably expect to find in your change in the US?

I was handed a 1911 penny at work last week... pretty good condition to.

Technically, circa 1965. But there is still some older stuff making the rounds, as was evidenced today.

I have two silver quarters that I found in the registers of the various stores i've worked at over the years, both of them in fantastic shape, neither of them must have been in circulation long and must have come out of someone's collection.


Aside from that i haven't found a lot of older coins in circulation, but I've found a lot of foreign coins, which i collect just because they look interesting.

The oldest American coin i have, i believe is a 1899 Indian head penny that turned up in our garden one day after it had been tilled.

I have a small collection of silver quarters from World War II.

Meh, Johnny-come-lately.
When we were digging up our back garden, not long after we moved in, we found a coin that the local museum identified as 1st Century AD Roman. Daughter got her best mark ever for show and tell with that one.

Yeah, yeah. We know your shit is older over there...

Our coins today are slugs.