What Are Your Oldest Circulation Finds?

A 1909-VDB Lincoln Penny, about VF condition - in change from a local Starbucks. It was a pretty cool day.

ET

1905 indain penny when pennies circulated in canada, 1891 I think quarter, hard to read the date but its a vicky.

@ Woobaloo




... and to the Forum.

I have been known to release an occasional V / Buffalo nickel or IHC into circulation
in hopes it may spark some interest by a new collector but my hubs brought home an
AMAZING 1943 Mercury dime he found when breaking a new roll of dimes from a roll of
coins the store picked up from the bank. Seriously at least an MS-65 in not an MS-66.

Coin handed to me by my wife
1908 Indian Head penny (she finds all kinds of old coins)
Coin in change
While at the local liquor store I happened to ask if the cashier had any odd coins.
When the cashier behind her said she had 2 old dollar coins if I wanted them. Sure I said
She handed me 2 Morgans 1881 and 1891. She said someone just used them and she didn't want to get stuck with them

This happened a few months back, I told them I would stop by once in while to see what else they could possibly get stuck with and help them out.
Quarters
Coinstar reject

Silver is silver. My one and only silver quarter

Mine was https://www.NGCcoin.com/price-guide...duid-1440697 foun it in a river when I was ~13. I was really happy with it. Unfortunately I lost it somewhere near the house, never able to find it. I am itching to buy metal detector just to find it again

These days the oldest coins you can find in circulation in the UK are 1p and 2p coins from 1971, but when I started collecting as a youngster in the late 1960s, there were some very old coins circulating. These were my oldest pre-decimal finds from change and 'bag hunting':

Halfpenny: Queen Victoria Young Head (1860-94), date unreadable.

At the time they were demonetised in 1969, it was very unusual to see a Victorian or Edward VII halfpenny in change, and I only once found a Bun halfpenny. I did get a handful of Veiled Head 1895-1901 halfpennies with clear dates.

Penny: 1860

Victorian pennies, while not common, did still turn up fairly regularly in change right up to 1971. They were often worn flat, and I wonder how the scales at the banks coped with bags containing these very worn coins! I actually found two 1860 pennies in circulation, a beaded border variety in about Good and a lowball toothed border specimen.

Threepence: 1937

The brass threepeny bit replaced the old silver threepence in 1937 so it was impossible to get any threepences dated before 1937 in circulation.

Sixpence: 1919

The sixpence was a very popular and much-used coin in the late 1960s, and pre-1947 50% silver ones were quite scarce, and usually badly worn when found. The 1919 sixpence was the only pre-1920 92.5% silver one that I ever found in circulation.

Shilling: 1912

Shillings were my favorite coin to look through - there were more pre-1947 silver ones around than other denominations, and pre-1920 sterling silver ones still circulated in small numbers - I found three, though nothing predating George V. Shillings of the 1930s and 1940s occasionally turned up in EF - AU condition: perhaps this denomination was popular with savers, and they spent a lot of their time in bottles in people's homes?

Florin: 1920

I never found a pre-1920 florin in change, and don't know of anyone else who found one in the late 1960s or early 1970s. Even by 1971 the new 10p coins - first issued in 1968 - were almost equally as common as the pre-decimal florins, and pre-1947 50% silver florins were much scarcer than shillings in circulation.

Halfcrown: Victoria Young Head (probably unreadable); 1920

Once I started collecting coins, I never got a pre-1920 halfcrown in change, although a friend got a 1918 one not long before they were withdrawn on December 31, 1969, so they did still circulate. However, one of my earliest memories connected with coins was my Mother giving me a very worn Victorian halfcrown to pay my school dinner money to the teacher when I was about six years old! George V halfcrowns of the 1920-36 period were still relatively common right up to the time the denomination was withdrawn. Unfortunately my pocket money at the time would not have stretched to getting bags of them from the bank to sort through!