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 Replies: 9 / Views: 1,642 |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
543 Posts |
I had read there were talks in the mid-1960s to include quarters and dimes to be phased out in the same manner that halves were, which was to phase them from 90% to 40% before becoming obsolete. I found this interesting and think it would have toned down some of the excitement - initially - to hoard every silver coin in sight. It wouldn't have cured the coin shortage that was faced during the era, however. I also think if the quarters and dimes were phased at 40% for a few years, eventually people would have saved all 60s coinage but at a slightly slower rate than the silvers were plucked out. the 1969 Philadelphia dime could have been a keydate. Instead of finding nothing before 1965 in change as a kid (spare a few pennies), you'd be hard pressed to be finding anything before 1970.
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Pillar of the Community
Canada
999 Posts |
I don't think it would have mattered. All the 90% ones would still be taken out of circulation, then the 40% ones would be once the price of silver went up to the point where they were worth more than face.
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Pillar of the Community
United States
997 Posts |
At the time they were minting as many of all coins as they could and they continued making silver 1964 coins through 65 and perhaps even into 1966 before finally introducing the clad coinage with 1965 dates.
I think a reduced-silver alloy might have slowed the silver removal down somewhat to where more silver might still be found in circulation these days. The Hunt Brothers and the silver shenanigans they were involved with however would likely still have happened and these steps would have only made it harder to pull silver coins out of circulation as edge-searching would not have been effective.
Clad might have been an effective coinage material as 50 years has proven but it made edge-searching so much easier and made the silver removal so much faster.
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Bedrock of the Community
United States
10034 Posts |
 I know a lot of silver has to be being dumped from collections or old rolls "grandpa left to the kids," but it still amazes me this much silver remains. I remember the Hunt brother days and it seemed everyone I knew of back then, into coins or not, were looking for silver. Remember 50.00/oz. was a lot more money back then than it is today. I was working as a teen in a coin shop and could not believe the volumes of silver coins being bought by the owner and sent out to be melted. In the back room the owner literally had 5 gallon buckets of silver coins stacked up 2 buckets high (some three buckets high where they could be stabilized) in the main floor area of a 10X10 room. The buckets were stacked against the left wall and he left a path to walk around them to get the back exit. Obviously he had a very expensive alarm system. |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
987 Posts |
Quote:
I had read there were talks in the mid-1960s to include quarters and dimes to be phased out in the same manner that halves were, which was to phase them from 90% to 40% before becoming obsolete I have not read about this. I will have to do some research. |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
2023 Posts |
There is a key sentence in the Wikipedia article for The Coinage Act of 1965: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coinage_Act_of_1965 -- "A number of senators wished to retain silver in the dime and quarter, and called for them to be made from 40 percent silver, but an amendment to that effect was defeated." The citation doesn't provide any more information (it doesn't seem to go back that far) but that's all I can come up with. |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
1613 Posts |
Silver coinage lasted as long as it did because of western politicians. Like those from Nevada. Hence the nick-name "The Silver State". Las Vegas and Reno, in particular, had plenty to lose.
ANA member - PAN Member - BCCS Member There are no problems only solutions - the late, great John Lennon
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Moderator
 United States
187702 Posts |
Sounds a lot like zinc today.
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Pillar of the Community
United States
4333 Posts |
Never heard that before. They only kept the Kennedy half in 40% silver as a tribute to JFK, from what I've read. While the price of silver rose in '79-'80, the Hunts were not interested in the dirty forty due to refining costs. As a seventeen y.o roll hunter, I found the silver was hard to come by as there were a lot of hunters due to the recession, and high unemployment especially in the building trades. Interest rates close to 20%! When I listen to LED ZEPPELIN...so do my neighbors...
Roll hunting since '77
Dirt fishing since '72
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Bedrock of the Community
United States
17884 Posts |
Quote:There is a key sentence in the Wikipedia article for The Coinage Act of 1965: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coinage_Act_of_1965 -- "A number of senators wished to retain silver in the dime and quarter, and called for them to be made from 40 percent silver, but an amendment to that effect was defeated." They alredy had their political sop to keep the half at 40%, sounds like a last minute push by the silver producing states to grab a bigger piece of the pie. Quote:Never heard that before. They only kept the Kennedy half in 40% silver as a tribute to JFK, from what I've read. It wasn't done as a tribute to JFK. |
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Replies: 9 / Views: 1,642 |
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Posted 10/15/2018 1:21 pm
