Coin Collecting In The 1960-S

In the last 10 years I have gotten two Buffalo nickels from circulation, one was in a casino, the other in a department store. Both of course were dateless. The one last year was kind of exciting, the first obsolete coin find in quite awhile, several years ago I would buy Franklins from cash drawers, etc but they were not as old.

Yes it is possible to get very old coins, my oldest find in the past year was in roll searching, a 1910 Lincoln, but several from 1918-1919 turned up.

Yesterday while out at the mall looking at a book sale, I looked in the fountain there and there was a wheatback cent staring up from 18" in the water, it looked from the wear to have been from the 1930's but I am not the type to pull coins out of a fountain.

Ahhh the memories ... I was 8 in 1960 and had been collecting for three years (thanks to my father). He would go to the bank and pick up a $50 canvas bag of pennies and empty them out on the dining room table. It was a family affair with my mom, brother and sister joining in. We were targeting 1909-S, SVDB, 14-D, and 31-S. In addition, we sorted any penny dated prior to 1940 into date and mintmark stacks. It would take us most of an evening to complete the sorting. Dad usually rolled and returned about $40 to the bank from the original $50 bag. The rest went into whitman's to fill holes and shotgun rolls by date and mintmark. This was usually a once-a-month event. We never found the elusive 09-SVDB, but did get one 09- S, two 14-D, and about six 31-S, and hundreds of shotgun rolls. We weren't looking for mint errors (except 55/55), so I don't know how many 22-No D, and other double dies passed through our tiny fingers.
Dad fell into some hard times about 20 years ago while I was stationed overseas. Being the proud man he always is, he wouldn't ask for help. He unloaded his entire collection for a fraction of its worth. In later years I found out about this and told him that I had never lost the passion and would have given him a much better offer. Why is that water under the bridge always so murky?

You should all think yourselves lucky. I live in germany, where the coins in circulation are no more than 6 years old. I come from the UK where no coin is older than from 1971 as we changed our currency. When I grew up we had shillings used as 5 pences and things, but nothing interesting, now the 5 pences are smaller, and we can really only look out for the new coins, like the two pound coins and 50 pences.
Though next year they tell us that new coin designs are coming out, oowww.

I worked in the US and actually got into coin collecting because of that, canada and the euro was coming in a bit after. I got a dateless buffalo coin and someone told me to keep it, half dollars all the 1976 special coins and then when back at home searched through my 1 cent coins etc, but I really need to get back to the US. The State Quarters start at around $1 a piece up to maybe $3 and the new dollar coins are way to expensive, i´ll have to start asking americans if they have any.

I suppose many of us collect what we consider "rare" based on the era in which we grew up. I cannot now resist good examples of 19th century or earlier coinage, because those coins were no longer circulating when I grew up in the 50's and 60's. They were esoteric and exotic when I was a kid.

I cannot generate any enthusiasm at all for modern proof coins and other "coins" that are not business strikes and were never intended for circulation. I certainly appreciate their artistic qualities, and support anyone who wants to collect them.

I'm told some of the federal reserve notes made since the '60's are almost impossible to find. They're all cheap because no one collects them.

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A follow-on to the younger folks here that may believe they missed the ship. You haven't!

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I suppose many of us collect what we consider "rare" based on the era in which we grew up.

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As one of the "younger folks" I'd have to agree with these two statements. At the time when certain coins are plentiful most collectors will choose to search for the older things rather than hang on to what is new and plentiful. We get into the mindset of "There are a lot of those and I'll still be able to get them later."

Eventually, later comes and those once plentiful coins become increasingly difficult to get a hold of. And those older coins we searched for disappear entirely.

Amazon,

Re my car...

With some shopping help from my parents and a bit of searching, I ended up with a 1962 Chevy.
Two years old, clean, and ran great. I kept that car until 1970.
Definitely got my money's worth, but...I wish I had kept my coins! LOL!

The 1960 days I wish grew back in those days. I was born in 1971 and its amazing how times changed. Even when I grew as an kid back in 1980 something. I
never remeber any pre 1964 silver coins out there anywhere. It took me intill 1990 something to get my first pre 1964 silver quarter from an coin roll. I never will forgot that day. I going use them in the washing machice. I amazed I found it and saved it.

The sad thing is I saved all wheat pennys or old Jefferson nickels for over 20 years. I bought books in 2007 and could not even finish my books after saving an lifetime of wheats, and pre 1960 nickels. I had to buy nickels such as wartime silver, keys such 1950d, 1948s, all the 38 mint marks etc to finish my book. In 2007 I went thru 600 dollars worth fed boxes and still never completed my set. I found my first 1926 nickel about monlth ago in an fedbox. Its wore out buy I going save it as an keepsake. It took me lifetime to find that coin.

My big Lifetime finds was. In 1990 something when I worked at bowling center as an mechanic. My boss called me told me. Some Kid just spent 2 bucks worth of pre 1930 pennys. My boss gave to them since he knew I collected them. After working there for 8 years . It me 8 years to get 120 dollars worth of susan dollars, 60 dollars worth halves not silver, maybe 120 worth of two dollars bills. I was luckey serval of those batchs the numbers are repeaters and came out the same fed brick in 1976. My twos are staying together for rest of my life since numbers match up. I never seen again or may never. My bosses always saved all the good stuff for me. I amazed we never got more than we did since we had over 40000 to 50000 in cash go thru that bowling center each monlth. I worked there 8 years and took it me serval million dollars going thru that place for collect up those old coins or those other things. I never seen an Ike dollar go thru place in 8 years. I never knew those coins or two dollars bills were never used and so hard to find. I was luckey
my boss was not an coin guy and he liked me . Thats onley reason I got them all.

My silver coins such as Peace dollars or morgons or ikes or very old stuff. Onley reason I have those was my father saved them before I born or when I little kid. My morgons and Peace dollars was given to my father from his father in 1950 somethimg. They were passed to me and I will pass them to my kids later.

Its amazing how times changed and these days all we have clad coins out there. These days I have to buy old coins to build sets and try find stuff and never do on roll searching. It would so cool to build an set without buying the coins on ebay. I wish I grew up in those days and pulled all pre 64 silver coins , wheats of the bank rolls. You had good back in those days before they removed all silver coins from the bank rolls.

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