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 Replies: 17 / Views: 3,896 |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
996 Posts |
A lot of people are bored with current coinage, and for circulation collectors like me, I can certainly understand it. What is the difference now to say 60 years ago (1956, before the end of silver)? Let's start with pennies. No design change had been made for over 45 years and perhaps an occasional IHC might pop up here and there. I know I found a couple in the 1960's as a kid buying rolls with my allowance... Outside of a few key dates it was unlikely to find a real treasure. How about nickels? At least you might still find a Buffalo (or do you say Indian Head?) or even a Liberty if you were lucky, but other than the WW2 silver Jeffs it was pretty much watching for key dates. Dimes at least had a more recent change and one could still find Mercury dimes in common change, just 10 years after the death of FDR. Since silver wore pretty poorly one could likely find some pretty well worn old Mercs and maybe even an old Barber. Quarters hadn't changed in over 20 years so I suppose it was a little harder to find SLQ's but I am sure they were still out there. Since there hadn't been a composition change there may have been more older styles. Halves were probably the most varied, since they were still plentiful in circulation at the time. Ben had only been around for a few years there were still a lot of the Walking Liberty halves around, perhaps more so than Bennies. Dollars were even less in use then as they are now. While you could probably get them here and there at the bank (Peace and probably Morgan's) no one used them then and no one uses them now. So let's compare this with the way it is now. Pennies have a few varieties on the reverse. With the current Shield, the occasionally seen 2009 varieties and the Memorial Cents being common, collectors look for Wheats, which are probably more common than IHC's were in the 50's. Some of us cull coppers out, a situation not present in the 50's. Nickels are pretty boring, a few special designs a few years ago make it a little interesting but not enough to save them. It is still possible to find 50, 60 and 70 year old nickles in circulation since neither the basic design or composition changed until recently. Dimes are probably the least exciting coin to watch in circulation. Aside from the occasional silver one popping up there is nothing to really find in circulation. That W coin from a few years ago is too obscure to hunt boxes for... The dime is pretty much a silver search these days. Quarters are weird. Until the 50 States program they were pretty much just a silver search. Once you found each of the State Quarters and got tired of the ATB ones they were pretty much kind of fun to look at then spend. These days, aside from the silver search they are spenders. Halves and dollars are so rarely used in regular commerce these days that it makes them probably the most interesting coin to watch. Occasional silver halves (I just got a 67 from a store last week...) make it into the system mostly due to collection dumps (stolen or otherwise). Halves are also interesting since the newer ones are more desirable than older ones on account of them being NIFC for the last 15 years. SBA dollars still pop up from time to time, as do Ike's. As for the Golden ones, outside of the later NIFC ones there is little to make a collector swoon over these days. So after this diatribe, is collecting from circulation any better or worse now than 60 years ago? I would say it is probably more interesting now than then, even as boring as it can be. While I would love to have been able to cull silver in the 60's it was a few years too early for me. Remember that what is new now will be old later. If you plan on being alive 50 years from now maybe set aside a few rolls of current coins and put them away for later. I wish my folks and grandparents had done that for me. |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
937 Posts |
I cannot speak directly to the time frame you ask of but a decade or so later it really was not much different than today. The old time collectors that I knew told me to not keep the wheat cents as they would never be worth anything to speak of. Forget about the new coins as too many were being made. I was told only keep the old washingtons, meaning pre war. I guess the more things change the more they stay the same
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Moderator
 United States
187544 Posts |
Interesting and thoughtful write-up.  For what it is worth, I am keeping all of my copper cents and nickels for future children to search. |
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Bedrock of the Community
United States
94367 Posts |
The biggest difference was that, in 1956, you could still find most of the current/recent series keys in circulation, albeit worn. As noted here before, I could easily put the complete WLH set together in 4 or 5 months, but then I would turn it in and start over because I couldn't afford to keep the set given its high face value. Never found a '16-D dime, but plenty of '21s and '21-Ds. I found several '32-D quarters sorting rolls at the local back on Saturday mornings back then. And you know, the Wheat cent advice was pretty good - what are common ones worth today, 2 cents apiece? Definitely not worth the effort to haul around, sort and store.  Edited by Coinfrog
09/27/2016 4:53 pm
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Rest in Peace
United States
17900 Posts |
Other than the few coin collectors who look at their change or roll hunt most folks under age 30 can't tell you who the presidents are for most denominations.
Today change is a nuisance. Their might be a few who toss their change in a jar as a form of savings, but otherwise watch when people do receive change. No one ever counts it, let alone adds it up.
And if a few coins fall on the ground, with the exception of the quarter, the average person won't even bother to pick them up.
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Bedrock of the Community
United States
10029 Posts |
Also do not forget that back then every coin had a value based upon mintage. After slabbing came along, the focus has changed so much more to key dates, that about everything else is now just considered "junk silver." I remember when going to a coin shop, I would ask for a specific date of (let's say) Mercury dime, and the owner would pull out a tray containing most of the dates sequentially laid out. f I was after a 1923-S, I would look through the tray, find up to 3 or 4 different 23-s dimes in the tray (if the owner had them), compare condition and price, and choose the one I wanted. The grade of each,along with adjusted price, was always right on the 2X2. This made it more exciting to collect from circulation. You didn't just find a junk silver 1923-S, you found a 1923-S graded it, and looked up the mintage to get a better idea of availability and worth. It was a lot more exciting and fun. |
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Bedrock of the Community
United States
11951 Posts |
I agree ..
Good write up.
I started putting coins away in the 60's ... yes it was more fun.
I still think there are good coins out there ...
Modern new releases
Searching dealers junk boxes
Finding older collectors looking to sell their collections.
The internet
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Pillar of the Community
United States
7184 Posts |
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Bedrock of the Community
United States
20753 Posts |
Way, way back when I was a kid my Dad came home and showed me a penny that looked like it was Silver. It was brand new and it started me on coin collecting. Every time he got one in change he gave it to me. Funny thing was it was attracted to magnets. That was in 1943 of course.
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Pillar of the Community
United States
7375 Posts |
Just talked to an old timer last weekend at a flea market. He told me he found a 1955 Double Die Lincoln Cent in circulation, along with a lot of other cool finds. Times have changed. |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
2270 Posts |
I'm a youngster and wasn't around 60 years ago to collect coins. But I was around collecting Buffalo nickels 59 3/4 years ago.  What I remember best in my youth was everybody collected coins. All of my friends and most of my classmates had collections or an interestin coins. There were no key dates or high grades that I could find. I searched all the change I could find anbd it was all heavily picked over. Maybe if I were older I could go through rolls and find something, anything, but I didn't have enough money and ability to secure bank rolls until about 1959. At this time everything was pickedover, there wasn't much of anything. Indeed, The Numismatist did a study way back in 1945 that showed over 95% of the '09-S VDB cents had already disappeared from circulation and this was before the baby boomers had scoured the change for 12 years. I found a few things that were worth a premium but in every case it is worth less today than it was then. Fortunately I sold them all. By contrast today I'd wager nearly 1% of the coins in circulation will have a significant premium in 20 years. Perhaps it's even more if you count all current issue. More importantly there are major rarities that can be found with effort. Some of these are already valuable. Since 1965 some of the most important moderns have been found in circulation. This exists solely because people think the coins in circulation are worthless so nobody is looking. If you examine a 1971 quarter there is about a 60% chance that no knowledgeable collector has evewr examined it before. The average 45 year old coin in circulation in 1956 had probably been seen and rejected by dozens upon dozens of collectors before you ever saw it. Time don't fly, it bounds and leaps.
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Pillar of the Community
United States
595 Posts |
Quote:
Remember that what is new now will be old later. If you plan on being alive 50 years from now maybe set aside a few rolls of current coins and put them away for later. I wish my folks and grandparents had done that for me. After my father died (1978) we found some coins he had put aside. There were some large cents, IHC, two-cents, Liberty nickels, a couple Morgans, and quite a few foreign ones. What is interesting is the coins he did NOT save -- there were no Mercury dimes, no Standing Liberty quarters, no Buffalo nickels. Surely he had come across some of those even after they were no longer minted. I am forced to conclude that since he was born in 1912, those coins were the ones he grew up with, as it were, so he didn't consider them of interest. I wish he had. Jan Edited by janknez
10/04/2016 02:57 am
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Pillar of the Community
United States
790 Posts |
My grandfather actively collected from circulation for decades. In my Mom's youth, it was a family thing, sitting around the dinner table at night going through the coins he brought home from the till at his service station. Over the decades he amassed a LOT of coins, none of them especially rare, and most of them circulated to the point of bullion value only, but even so, they're worth quite a bit more than face value. (By circulated to bullion value, I mean coins worn to the point that you can only see the outline of the design. I have one Seated Liberty whose reverse is literally worn smooth.)
I still go through my change when I have the time. I don't handle nearly as many coins as he did back in the day, but It doesn't seem like there are nearly as many "finds" in pocket change these days. I hang onto copper pennies (because grandpa said to after they changed over to zinc in '82--I think he hoped the government would cycle coppers out of circulation quickly, thus increasing the value of the ones we kept), and I do find those quite often. Silver coins far, far more rarely.
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Pillar of the Community
 United States
996 Posts |
Part of the difference is that 60 years ago coins were useful buying instruments where as now they are basically for making change. In the 50's people SPENT coins, now we get stuck with handfuls and toss them in a jar when we get home. Most people do not start the day off with coins in their pockets, they have bills and plastic in their wallets. You could walk out of the grocery store with a bag full of groceries paid for with a few coins in 1956, today you would need a bucketful for that and spend an hour counting them (or get told to cash them in at the CoinStar first).
Coins were worn so much then because they were used multiple times a day for years. Plus, current copper-nickel "silver" coins wear much better than silver did. 50 cents in 1956 was equal to almost $5 today, so people didn't toss coins in a jar then, they were actually valuable in commerce. Imagine coming home from work today and dropping a pocket full of $5 bills in a jar...
For these reasons coins were much more worn down much quicker. Current coins get used once, tossed into a jar or bucket, get cashed in again a year later, used once again and the cycle repeats. Other than quarters being used in machines most coins only get used a couple times at all. Even the quarter machines (laundry, etc.) are moving to bills and plastic.
My daily coin jar holds about $125 when it gets filled, about once a year if I don't artificially fill it with CRH chum. That would be over a thousand dollars worth of purchasing power compared with 1956. Today, $125 would buy a nice meal for 2. Then it would pay for an entire weeks vacation. People who hoarded coins then did so as a store of value, now they do it because it is far more convenient than actually spending them.
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Pillar of the Community
United States
4867 Posts |
You are spot on n9jig! There really isn't any meaningful buying power with coins today. Many feel they are a nuscience nowadays...especially for pennies! Nobody really wants them so it's kinda odd the mint keeps churning these things out.
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Pillar of the Community
United States
2270 Posts |
Quote:
Current coins get used once, tossed into a jar or bucket, get cashed in again a year later, used once again and the cycle repeats. Other than quarters being used in machines most coins only get used a couple times at all. In 1956 the average quarter was used about 25 times per month by my calculations which could be off quite a bit. This had decreased to 18 times a month by 1978 and 15 by the early '90's. Today I'd guess it's only about 10 times and this is probably because the population of quarters has increased so much. I defined "used" as simply changing owners. They are frequently counted in a machine between owners. Clad wears much better than silver because it's harder but also because it's a little lighter. A lot of wear is caused by a coin's own weight forcing it against a surface as it moves. Lighter weight means less wear. My calculations are based largely on how fast the average coins wears down. Time don't fly, it bounds and leaps.
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Replies: 17 / Views: 3,896 |
Posted 09/27/2016 3:30 pm
