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 Replies: 9 / Views: 860 |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
2217 Posts |
Growing up in the 1970s, we had a next-door neighbor, Roy, who was a freelance photographer. One evening he came over and asked my dad if he could help him with a photo shoot. Turns out Roy needed a hand. No, literally a hand. My dad's hand is the one you see here. When I came across this ad in a scrapbook a few days ago, I got out my magnifying glass to check all the quarters to see if I could spot any silver. Alas, none was found. But I think Roy would have been savvy enough to remove any silver if not for the metal but for the way it would have distracted from the rest of the quarters. Good art direction and all that, you know.  |
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Moderator
 United States
15543 Posts |
Nice family memory, but strange today to see an old time advertisement for cigarette vending machines.
I suppose your Dad is R.S.S.
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Bedrock of the Community
United States
10601 Posts |
Very interesting and great nostalgia. After the photo shoot was over did you tell him to never hold coins like that again?  |
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Bedrock of the Community
United States
94367 Posts |
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Pillar of the Community
 United States
2217 Posts |
nickelsearcher-- Yes, Dad's initials are R.S.S. Marve65-- I take your point, though with copper-clad coins, it doesn't matter much, does it!  |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
2273 Posts |
The oddest thing is that in 1975 fully half of the quarters in circulation still had shiny edges. Nearly 15% were high end AU's yet there are no coins in this picture that appear to have shiny edges. I guess the photographer thought the picture would look better if the stack were homogenous.
Many of those shiny edged quarters would be quite scarce today. Even the XF's in this picture would be very eye catching. I can't remember the last time I saw a nice attractive 1971 quarter in better than VF. It's been years and years and years.
Time don't fly, it leaps and bounds.
Time don't fly, it bounds and leaps.
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Pillar of the Community
United States
2217 Posts |
cladking--very interesting observations!
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Pillar of the Community
United States
2273 Posts |
There has never been a time that at least 5% of the quarters would have shiny edges because circulating coinage is always overrepresented in new coin.
What I find even more interesting is that until 1991 Madison Avenue used stock photos in almost every single print ad and these photos all showed silver coin. This used to gull me to no end. When they finally did switch they often used modern proofs instead of circulating coinage. Indeed I still see pictures of 1991 proofs from time to time in advertising. Obviously they didn't use stock photos in this specific case because there were no stock photos of stacks of quarters.
It wasn't only coin collectors who hated clad it was also Madison Avenue.
This picture is quite a one off.
Time don't fly, it bounds and leaps.
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Pillar of the Community
 United States
6574 Posts |
That is a really fun piece of family history, and a real time capsule of Americana. I am old enough to remember these machines, and the smoking sections in restaurants, and haze filled bars during football games.
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Moderator
United States
189767 Posts |
Very interesting!  |
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Replies: 9 / Views: 860 |
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Posted 02/16/2024 2:22 pm
