Coins in circulation in the 1950s

[Bum Luck]

I just thought I'd add a snip of unrecorded history for the benefit of you detectorists that want to plan their searches or analyze their finds.

I'm in my 60s and always have been a coin collector.

In the 1950's in small town Wisconsin, it was a fairly common thing to run across in circulation:

Indian head cents
(no flying eagles)

Buffalo nickels (very common)
V nickels

Mercury dimes (very, very common)
some Barber dimes

Standing Liberty Quarter (very, very common)
Barber Quarter

WL halves
not many Barber halves

Peace dollars
Morgan dollars

Until the 60's, one could go to the bank and occasionally get silver dollars, both Morgan and Peace.

I hope this helps you guys both plan and analyze your finds to make your searches more productive.

Good Hunting!

 

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[goldnow]

I am 57..In the 1950's, I too, collected coins from an early age, and what we had in hand from just change was unknown treasure today....Whenever I was sick, my mother would go to the bank and buy rolls of every denomination, including silver dollars, and I'd go through them to fill in the empty spaces and upgrade my little blue coin folders, to keep busy. Like you said, what people here on Treasure net are all excited about finding once a year, as I am also, I was literally surrounded with them, on demand, by the hundreds on my bed. I had the 1877 IH in triplicate in bank rolls, two double die 1955 wheats, silver dollars galore, 3 legged Buffalo, 1909S-VDB, and on and on, but sometime around the late sixties, and the call to hit the road for some adventure around the world came upon me, the whole collection got sold, and bought me a few years of freedom and great memories. Maybe I detect to regain what I once had, but those years of freedom traveling, were worth every penny, too.

 

[Siegfried Schlagrule]

I started detecting in 1962 and all dimes, quarters, halfs and dollars plus many nickels were silver. The home made and heath-kit detectors only went four or five inches deep but that was enough to snag some very good coins. Up until about 1966 you could still get many wheat pennies in rolls although they began to disappear and the high-grades were squirreled away beginning in 1959. I remember that when steel cents went to three cents each the big operators ran them down a conveyor belt under a magnet and they disappeared almost over night. They went from getting one in change every week to very scarce. siegfried schlagrule

 

[Falcon]

I am also 57 and remember having Buffalo nickels and Walking Liberty half dollars every once in a while. Wheat pennies were very common along with Mercury dimes. As the years went on, they seemed to disappear from sight. However, in 2004 I came upon ebay while surfing the net and noticed all of the above mentioned coins being sold, which excited me and started me into coin collecting. I purchased wheats, silver dimes, Buffalo nickels, and silver Liberty Walkers to have fun looking for key dates and errors. I particularly love collecting Morgan silver dollars though because I really like the design. I guess you could call me a rookie numismatist.

 

[Bum Luck]

I particularly love collecting Morgan silver dollars though because I really like the design.

Ditto to that! They are beautiful; We used to love the ringing sound of them when "flipped" in the air with our thumbs. I keep one in my pocket to remind me of those good days. I gave the last one away to a high school kid, totally unasked for. It blew him away. He'd never seen one.