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 Replies: 17 / Views: 2,016 |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
3098 Posts |
Were there news reports about how the coins were going to be debased? Did you actually go out and cash all your paper notes into coins and stash them away? I bet if this happened today, I would put away at least a few hundred in silver coins. Also, do any of you remember the stop to silver certificate redemption? And also back then, were you able to just walk into the bank and redeem the certificate? If so, did they just give you a Morgan or Peace or were there special government silvers? And up to 1964, did the banks actually have silver dollars on hand?  Just wondering... Where else but on the forum can I ask this question? |
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Pillar of the Community
Canada
1931 Posts |
I think that is a great question! I am going to subscribe to this post as I would like to know the answer as well. Good question wd1040 :)
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Bedrock of the Community
United States
20753 Posts |
Well it's sort of obvious you haven't been to coin shows lately. Otherwise you would have noticed that probably 75% of more of the customers would remember When Washinton won the election. Many would remember the passing of the large cent, Twenty Cent Piece, etc. I think some voted for Lincoln so he could eventually be on a coin.  Might be a slight exageration but I remember when they changed from the Mercury dime to the Roosevelt one and thought that was the end of coin collecting. I remember the first 1943 Cent my Dad gave me when they first came out. It broke my heart when they stopped making those Standing Liberty Halves and just who cared about putting a scientist on our half dollars anyway? Basically as far as I can remember there never was to much said as a general public announcements when coins were changed. Now the news media publicizes even the slightest change but when I waw a kid, hardly anyone cared about coins. They were for playing games, buying stuff, having fun so who cared what they were made of. Clad coins. Just to recent a change. No big thing. |
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Bedrock of the Community
United States
10284 Posts |
I remember it very vividly. I especially remember seeing the bright copper in the middle and being mesmerized by that. These were being called sandwich coins on the news. Although I could care less why this was happening and what the changeover had to do with silver, I do remember it happening and I would say I am sure it was my first true examination of the edge of a coin and I do remember it being my noticing the difference in color of the surface of the coins too.
I was about 7 or 8 when I saw them the first time. I think it was during spring cleaning or early summer, because my weekly allowance came on Saturday afternoon ( AFTER the chores were done! ) and I only got thirty five or fifty cents a week! I think quarters were first on the scene.
This topic has brought back some memories of Dad. It could easily be the same "payday" I remember cleaning the half dirt floor basement by carrying out stuff into the yard and then having to carry it back down after Dad hosed down the things that needed washed off and hosing down the basement walls and concrete floors and near empty coal bin. I still remember the smell of a wet dirt basement.
Without cheating with Google, I even think I recall "My baby does the Hanky Panky" and/or "House of the rising sun" and/or "Wipe Out" was playing on the local radio station. We used to be able to listen to the radio when we worked Saturday mornings.
The coins were also mentioned in school around the same time.
Whether this was a factor in why I collect coins or not I don't know but now that is a few times I recall remembering coin design and now composition well before I turned 10.
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Bedrock of the Community
United States
10284 Posts |
Just Carl, Oh my, you make me feel so young, You make me feel like Spring has sprung!  Edited by TNG
04/26/2009 3:55 pm
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Bedrock of the Community
United States
20753 Posts |
Quote:
Without cheating with Google, I even think I recall "My baby does the Hanky Panky" and/or "House of the rising sun" and/or "Wipe Out" was playing on the local radio station. We used to be able to listen to the radio when we worked Saturday mornings.
OK now that is enough trying to make me feel like a mummy. Those songs were being played when I was aleady in college.  Ever hear of Frankie Lane? Now his songs were popular when I was a kid. |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
2734 Posts |
When I started working in the early '80's (a few years after the Hunt Brothers debacle), one of my managers saved all the silver coins that she could find from circulation. She'd been doing that since 1963, of course! I thought that was a good idea, so I started saving them too, and also wheat pennies. Sometime last year, I finally decided to become a 'coin collector', which is something like a guy with a hundred 1950's cars parked on his ranch finally deciding that he'll be a 'car collector'...  By the way, this woman did redeem as many silver certificates as she could (at the time), and she did get 100 Morgan/Peace Dollars from a bank in downtown Denver in 1963. So I'm not one of the 'first-hand' people, but one of them was my manager for several years! Edited by DNA
04/26/2009 8:08 pm
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Bedrock of the Community
United States
10982 Posts |
I do remember my Dad pulling silver dimes and quarters from circulation on a regular basis! This was the early 1970's and a lot of pre-'65 silver coinage was still floating around.
I thought it interesting that the year I was born (1964) was the last year the U.S. produced silver coinage for circulation and then the year I graduated from high school (1982) was the last year bronze U.S. cents were coined. I this a bad omen?
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Valued Member
United States
360 Posts |
Yes there was. In fact, the San Francisco Mint allowed us to turn in silver certificates for silver bars and bags of silver granules at the rate of $1.293 per ounce. We traded silver certificates for both. This was cutoff after an announced time frame elapsed.
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Pillar of the Community
 United States
3098 Posts |
When was the cutoff for exchange of silver certs?
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Moderator
 United States
6563 Posts |
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.....in March 1964 issuance of the Series 1958 Silver Certificate was stopped & redemption in silver dollars was suspended; 24 June 1968 was the last day for redemption in silver bullion.
Finally, on 15 August 1971, President Richard M. Nixon announced[4] that the United States would no longer redeem currency for gold or any other precious metal, forming the final step in abandoning the gold & silver standards. |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
3098 Posts |
Quote:
24 June 1968  That's my birthday! (Well, not really, the year's off) bherring1964, what could this mean? |
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Moderator
United States
6563 Posts |
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bherring1964, what could this mean? It means both you are the kinda people that won't walk under a ladder |
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Bedrock of the Community
United States
10982 Posts |
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bherring1964, what could this mean? It means switch to gold! Silver and bronze don't mix with my sign!  |
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Rest in Peace
United States
3730 Posts |
When the change started, we put paper cups on a kitchen shelf, and dropped the silver coins in the cups as we found them.
To this day, I have no idea what happened to the paper cups, or their content.
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Rest in Peace
United States
2668 Posts |
I remember. There were articles in the paper, and in school we studied the differences between the old planchets and new, although they were called slugs. I remember my Dad explaining it like this, "It means money can go down in value, now." And some business' started hyping the silver money as 'tomorrow's collectibles'.  |
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Replies: 17 / Views: 2,016 |
Posted 04/26/2009 3:44 pm
