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 Replies: 10 / Views: 1,584 |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
1005 Posts |
My father has spent a fair amount of free time restoring an old (circa 1928) horse-racing themed arcade game that takes nickels. In the past I have given him dateless Buffalo nickels to use with the machine, to give it that authentic feel. Later on I figured that in 1928 it would probably be likely to also have some V nickels still circulating, so I gave him a number of lowball V nickels for use in the machine as well. Recently, in a late night ebay impulse buy, I acquired a lot of cull Shield nickels to look for dates I don't have yet, and would like to give him the rest if they would be appropriate for the time period. My question is, does anyone have an idea what the relative populations of these coins were in circulation back then? Any idea if any Shield nickels would still have been circulating in 1928? I want to have a nice distribution of authentic old (cull) coins for use in the machine, and want something to go off of when gauging proportions. Thanks for any suggestions! |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
1068 Posts |
I would assume that there might have been a few circulating around but probably not that many...
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Pillar of the Community
United States
4692 Posts |
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Valued Member
United States
206 Posts |
Keep in mind that Shield nickels have a slightly smaller diameter than their successors; they may not work in an arcade machine, but it would interesting to find out! |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
511 Posts |
Sounds like a neat old arcade machine.
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Pillar of the Community
 United States
1005 Posts |
Chetzler, that's a very point that I hadn't considered or known about; I'm thinking that even if they don't work, it might still be fun to throw them into the mix. After all, if they were circulating, it would certainly have happened where someone at the bar/arcade would have to swap their old Shield nickel for one of those new Buffalo nickels that actually works to get the horses to race! From what I've read, popular opinion was against the design of the Shield nickel, since many considered it to be very ugly. If that were the case, then I would suppose Gresham's law would have kept the shields circulating for a long time. |
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Bedrock of the Community
United States
20753 Posts |
Being rather on the elderly side I can tell you that when I was a kid, coins like that were all over the place. Shield nickels, Buffalo nickels, Sitting Liberty Dimes, etc. Back when I was a kid, coins were for spending, not collecting. If you look into it you would see that almost all coin collecting stuff just didn't exist in the not to distant past. Everyone thought I was nuts trying to collect what was supposed to be used as money. My allowance was in Silver Dollars and they all got spent, not saved. They were just to common. |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
1748 Posts |
My great uncle saved a lot of older coins from when he was in the Pacific during WW2. It was all "V" nickels, no Shields. The Shields were gone by then, apparently. That was 1944-1945. Indian Head cents and Barber dimes were in his stash as well. So I would think 1928 would have been a mix of "V" and Buffaloes, maybe with an occasional Shield. Edited by DoubleEagle20
11/09/2014 12:04 pm
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Valued Member
United States
324 Posts |
IF 1928 was indeed the beginning of your arcade game don't forget it could have been used for up to 10 years. So, it also saw plenty of coins dated in the 1930's.
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Pillar of the Community
United States
4211 Posts |
My husband brought me home a 1945 BU Mercury dime from the change drawer at work a couple of weeks ago so arguably it was "still circulating". They opened a roll of dimes from the bank and noticed it right away. So I would say it was possible for a few of them to be floating around. Like this 69 year old dime. |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
1590 Posts |
In my Grandfathers Casino in Carson City, we would occasionally find Shield nickels up till the early 70s. I remember we had boxes of dateless buffs and well worn V nickels. One of the large coin companies bought our stock of Liberty nickels to sell in magazines and whatnot. |
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Replies: 10 / Views: 1,584 |
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Posted 11/08/2014 9:04 pm
