It was about 40 years ago, 1966 I think that the US went off the silver standard. I guess it could have been as early as 1964 since that was the last year they minted real silver coins. Up until a certain date you could turn in your paper silver certificates and redeem them for silver coins or for silver bullion. For each dollar you would get the equivalent of $1.38 in silver bullion, which I guess was the value of the silver in a silver dollar at the time. You could only exchange the certificates at a federal reserve bank. As the last date to make the exchange got near, I was told that there was a long line of people at the Federal Reserver bank in Philadelphia, PA. Many with suite cases, black trench coat, hat and dark glasses. Hmmmmmm. Anyway, many people did not turn in their silver certificates because it was inconvenient to take them to the federal reserve bank or they were betting that they would become more valuable as a collectors' item than the $1.38 they could get for them. I still have a few certificates. Some from 1934 and some from 1957. I don't think they have increased that much in value because so many people kept them. Just a piece of the past. You made a Great find though........ Shame that silver certificate doesn't bleep, bleep with a metal detector...... I know of a guy who stashed away $10k in a PVC pipe with end caps before he got his divorce, so his wife didn't get any of it. He died in an accident a couple of years later and no one knows where he hid the pipe. Some day someone may stumble across it. Oh well, metal detector won't work on that cache. HH
All 1957.
