So I Gotta Ask...... (Re: Coin Book Origins)

I'm pretty sure the hoarding was happening before clad coins began to be issued, as the price of silver rose above face value. This was, after all, the reason why governments world-wide were dropping silver from their coinage.

Well, perhaps not so much "hoarding" as "melting down for scrap value straight away for quick profit". But the end result was the same: people pulling coins out of circulation and not spending them, forcing the government to make more coins to keep the economy going.

As for "knowing the difference", the vast majority of people, then as now, wouldn't have known or cared. Only the coin collectors and silver speculators were really paying attention, and they'd have known about it pretty quickly.

There are 40% business strike ikes? I have over 200 of them and not one is silver. Maybe I'm missing something.

Libertad: Your original question was when did people start to notice the changes in coin material? Most PEOPLE still don't have any idea that anything has been changed at all. Your asking such a question on a coin forum where almost everyone here has been made aware of such changes on a mostly daily basis. There are only thousands of people involved in coin forums. There are millions and millions of people not on any kind of coin forum at all. Actually there is 300,000,000 people in the USA alone. Many more in America if you include Canada and Mexico. Although most of Mexico is now in the USA.
Possibly half do not have computers or access to the internet. Millions have limited access to good TV reception and many don't even have TV sets. Sounds hard to belive if your reading this though. Travel around to many farm lands or in so called hillbilly places and you'll see this.
Back to your question. I go to breakfast with a bunch of old, retired people every once in a while. I've brought up coinage several times and none have any idea what is what with coins and could care less. I once mentioned about the 1982 change in material for the cent and a few there said I was nuts. They look exactly the same to them.
People every day go to jewlers and see if they can get some of their coins turned in since they must be Silver since they look like Silver. Usually only a few years old coins.
If you go out on the street and ask people how many coins are made of Silver you may be surprized at how many say none or all of them.

Real Money? It makes the world go round! Every time someone says that I remember that Joel Grey rendering from Cabaret. Money is only worth the value assigned by that commercial segment of society. That 1878 CC Morgan will only purchase a Dollar's worth of gas at your local Mini-Mart. Now if a collector assigns a numismatic and intrinsic and value based on a commodity and rarity; now it's a whole new ball game. (I might add, that it's one that most are really not prepared to play.) I like Gold, Silver, and Copper coins because they look great, last longer, and their worth is determined by the aforementioned.

Sorry GR58, as Just Carl offered, its been my experience that most have no idea nor care that silver was removed from circulating coins. I remember getting into a heated debate with a friend over this in the 70's. His position was that if the silver was removed, the money supply would become worthless. (What fools these mortals be...) He didn't understand that "money" was nothing more than a vehicle for assigning value for conducting commerce.

When I brought up the money you couldn't readily see as currency, M1, M2, M3, and asked if it was also worthless (since it was just in paper or electron form) he really got mad. Most don't understand the money system or what it represents. As long as that quarter still goes in the slot, and has purchase power, John Q doesn't care.

Although, you know what's really sad, I see disillusioned older folks (some my age) at coin shows looking at silver and gold coins. Their retirement plan doesn't bridge the money flow void retiring caused. Now they think they'll just get some gold or silver to hedge against the "storm". I heard one gentleman ask when gold went over $800 and ounce. It was almost $1200 and ounce then. Some also don't understand the difference between a St Gaudens Double Eagle and an American Gold Eagle; watched one heated argument because the dealer charged more than spot price.

Sorry for the long post.