How Did It Go Down When The US Stopped Minting Silver Coins?

Back at that time, we all knew that silver coins were disappearing from circulation. Around 1965 or 1966, I started grabbing every circulating silver quarter and dime that came my way. After a couple of years silver coins were mostly gone from circulation.

During that time, I was able to grab about 25 pounds of quarters and dimes (almost no half dollars). I think I got exactly 300 1964 quarters from circulation. Also, long before 1965, any Barber coins, older half dollars, or quarters with dates (or even dateless type Is) that came my way were also kept. In addition, my parents would occasionally get silver dollars in change back when we lived in California in the 1940s and 1950s. The last silver dollar I ever saw in circulation was at the Louisville KY airport, probably in 1957 or early 1958. I ended up with most of these silver dollars -- about 15, all common date, and with considerable wear.

All these silver coins sat around in plastic tubes in paper bags in the bottom of a closet. Gradually, the plastic tubes would become brittle, and I had to tape them up. They still cracked open and coins would spill out all over the place onto the closet floor. For the first few decades, much of the time, the silver in the coins had less purchasing power than did the original dimes and quarters (after adjusting for inflation). Of course, more recently (and also around 1980), silver has become more expensive.