Ethics: What Would You Refuse To Accept At Face Value?

Easy, anything that was worth more than face value. Obviously I wouldn't examine every coin for date , condition, DDO, DDR, but if when they handed it to me and I noticed it was a 1913 Type 1 Buffalo or a Peace dollar or if the way tha change was handed, I saw a Wheat penny, I would turn it and if it was a 1909 or a 1914 I would surely take a second to explain.

I would try to tell them on some things, but there isn't much I wouldn't accept. Obviously if it was a 1955 double die or something like that, I would say something, but as far as a silver dollar or something, I probably wouldn't say anything. Just like fistfulladirt said, 9 out of 10 people couldn't care less.

I agree that there's nothing wrong with taking the occasional stray silver. Heck, I once got a '64 half and hid it in my till so customers wouldn't see it and ask for it.

But this brings to mind a story I heard where some old lady was cleaning out her house and brought her father's hoard of gold double eagles to the bank at face value. As much as I foam at the mouth to think of getting 10 of those beauties for just $200, I don't think I could accept them if they came to me. Ignorance is no excuse to rob a customer.

I would use my gut. They're called legal tender for a reason. Silver is money and it's meant to be spent.

If a person brought me some gold I'd point it out but how long do you have to live under a rock to forget that gold has value?

If they are adults and made the decision to hand over some legal tender, what's the harm? It's quite different if it's gold because that's straight up robbing people - and I say this because gold hasn't been money for decades, so the value or buying power of the US dollar has changed. But if they insist I will take their gold as a gift.

After spending nearly 3 boxes of halves that were my "dumps" at stores to celebrate during November of 2013 (prior to his death), people could care less and think it is only money, so I will take anything at face value. Then again the only coin I have worth more than face value is a 2000 silver eagle that I bought to go with my Millennium Zippo lighter. got most of my silver while running the register at a gas station as someone brought in rolls for the little old lady to pay for her gas with in dimes, and they were all 1946 through 1964. took every one of them for the payment since it was my job to take money, then bought them off the register later when they got in the way of closing the drawer. sold one of them for $10 after I had sorted through then to fill a book and had a whole roll of 1946 extra, and the guy wouldn't only give me the 5 I asked for, but refused to give less than $10 when I told him I wouldn't take $20 for the roll.

I just didn't see any since in getting more than twice face value for it no matter what the content was since I get my entire collection at face value circulated coins. Ok well the silver Eagle isn't circulated, nor is the Native American dollar with the Horse profile, but I wanted a coin with a horse on it and only had to give face value for it anyway, so close enough to be circulated for me.

Now if anyone asks, like a few did about the halves, I will explain to them that there could even be some DDO or other oddities in ones I spend because I don't look for that, and tell them about NIFC, but at the very least tll anyone that asks to check online for "numismatics" if they want to know more or have a specific coin question to bring it to me and I will tell them all I know about it.

For as many people that dump coins not knowing what they have into Coinstar type things, people today jsut do not even care about coins. :(

I jokingly say that if you are going to be so ignorant as to deposit in the bank a coin that says "ONE OZ. FINE SILVER" for face value of $1, then you don't deserve any silver in the first place.

If Joe Q. Public is not going to take it upon himself to be educated about the change in his pocket or change jar, it's also not our job to do so. Now if someone came to me with an old gold coin or an 1893-S Morgan perhaps, I would certainly mention something to him and send him off to the LCS. On the other hand, there are indeed people who may be acutely aware of a coin's potential collectability, but are solely interested in (or are in need of) getting that $1 into their account for whatever reason, and don't want to be bothered with going to the LCS to get it checked out.

I would say to treat each unique situation differently.

On the topic of large-denomination bills, I'm actually not sure I would accept one if it came my way. The reason being that those bills have been out of print for so long that they have NO security features, and any counterfeiter worth his salt could probably doctor a $1 silver certificate into a $500 or $1000 bill that would fool anyone less than an expert on the subject. I know that the $500 bill has McKinley on it, but that's about as familiar as I am with that denomination. Just not worth the risk, IMO.

Either way, I would only buy one of those for face value, and only to sell immediately. Even $1-5 silver certificates are abysmally poor investment choices, let alone $500, $1,000, or $5,000 bills. If I remember, the average large bill will fetch $100-200 over face for an average circulated bill. Just think about what $500 would buy back in the 1940s versus the buying power of $600 today. The collector value is so far behind the inflation loss that I wouldn't keep one long term, even if I bought it for face.

Back on subject, I'd probably tell the customer about the bill's value unless I happened to have the cash on me at the time. As previously said, anyone who doesn't know that a $500 bill isn't normal pocket change doesn't care enough to be bothered selling it.