the good old days.

[coinut9]

 i remember way back when i first started coin collecting in the early 60's i use to find some really nice coins in change from the deli

 i always went to as a kid. 1909-vdb's , buffalo nickels , mercury dimes , etc.etc.  i also use to go to any bank and ask them if they

had any silver dollars. most of them always had a few in their drawers. so i would purchase them when i had extra money on me.

and of course there was all the 90% silver coins you wanted. but in 1962 who cared about them. no one knew that 1964 would

be the last year of the 90% silver business strikes.

     any other members care to contribute to this post of early finds ?

[davidx256]

This past April one of my customers stopped at a bank and asked for "hand rolled change" and silver dollars. The teller said that she did not have any rolls but a customer just cashed in a bunch of old dollars - the lot was 92 Morgan Silver dollars - the only key date coin that was missing was the 1895. The other coins from the set were given to another customer in change.

The great finds are still out there. Our customers that are silver hunters bring us $3000 to $12000 worth of 90% silver, 40% halfs and collectible currency every week. They are getting all of this from banks right here in RI.

Because the coins are worth so much more today the finds are that much sweeter.

Here's to the present!

David Mc

New England Coin Exchange

[coinut9]

wow now that's what i call a find.

[johnandceil]

In 1956, a cousin showed me a silver dollar she said she got at a bank for a dollar. I was amazed! So I went to the Citizen's Bank in Park Ridge, IL with some of my hard earned caddying money, walked up to one of the marble counters with bars and asked if I could see silver dollars. I was given a coffee can with several dozen coins that I dumped out on the counter and looked through; I bought an 1898 in Unc. Can you imagine tellers doing this today especially for a 14 year old kid?

[rockrepeatclothing]

Your post reminds me of times with my father. He would go to the bank and buy bags of coins and we would spend the weekend looking for silver and wheat pennies. After we were done with the bag, we had to roll the coins to take back to the bank.

Now I'm selling his collection. The coin collecting bug never bit me, but he and my grandmother painstakingly sorted and labeled every coin, I would just hate to break the collection and sell it to a dealer for bullion. I know my father would appreciate his coins going to another collector.

As I said, I have very little knowledge of coins. That being said, I've stared listed with very low starting bids with the hope the true value will be realized with the ebay auction process. Thank you for the memories.

[mtkiii]

I can remember my father taking  me to a big coin shop when I was 9 years old.  I can still visualize seeing $10 gold eagles for $65.00.  Ah, the good old days.  That's when a dollar was worth close to a dollar.  lol.

[johnandceil]

In the mid 1960s I worked in the Chicago Loop. In the coin stores they had Unc. $20 gold pieces for $45.00 in their windows. I seriously considered buying one, but $45 was a lot of money to a newly married with a  baby daughter. I was only making about $100 a week. The last time I was in Chicago in 1986 there was only one stamp & coin shop in the Loop and the last I heard they moved out to the suburbs.

[rockrepeatclothing]

Interesting.  I know you didn't mention the year of the coin, but what do you think a unc $20 gold coin sell for on ebay?

[johnandceil]

I was generally speaking, not about any special date. The coins stores would have rows of $20 for sale in their windows and they were usually $45 to $50.

A similar coin on eBay now would be at least $1,400. I've been kicking myself for 50 years for not buying at least one!

[mtkiii]

The coin shop I first started is long gone.  The store is boarded up and vacant.  I can only assume that the coin dealer named "joe" to me has passed on.  He was in his 70's when I was age nine.  I remember a friend of his from NYC came by and had a wallet of high priced coins.  It contained an 1872 proof 2 cent piece that toned a golden brown.  It was beautiful.  I can still picture the coin today.  Again, ah...the good old days

[johnandceil]

Believe it or not, I had my first taste of whiskey in a stamp store in a Loop office building. The store owner and his buddy were drinking shots over the counter and I, a mere 16 year old (looked older though) was offered a shot. I bolted it down and wasn't much affected. Nearly all the office buildings in the Chicago Loop in the 50s had a small stamp store on an upper floor.

The coin stores were all at street level. I can think of six. Most had a large 10 cent bowl of old foreign coins on the counter. I found some decent coins from the 1700s in them. There was just no demand for such coins then. Broken bank notes sold for $1 to $3 for the most part. Again, little demand for them.