When did people start saving/keeping their silver coins 1965

[Davers]

I was wondering ,being born in 1971 .when people began to keep their silver coins was it in 1965 rigrt when the mint went to clad .Also would homes built in say 1965 or1966 be worth MD for silver ? . I would quess not . Thanks Davers

 

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[Tom_in_CA]

reply

I was wondering ,being born in 1971 .when people began to keep their silver coins was it in 1965 rigrt when the mint went to clad .Also would homes built in say 1965 or1966 be worth MD for silver ? . I would quess not . Thanks Davers

People started immediately saving/hoarding silver coins at the start of '65. However, go figure, I'm sure you could still find silver easily through 1965, at least. But in the years after that, it got harder and harder. In the mid 1970s, when I was a kid, by then you rarely saw silver (unless you were going through MASSIVE quantities, anything's possible). So I'd say by 1966, it was becoming rare. So unless your site is 1965 or earlier, not likely to have silver coins. Sure anything's possible, and some were circulating in '67, '68, '69, etc.... But if you're strictly talking about odds and ratios, no. By 1965, I think it's not going to be house yards worth your time looking for silver. If silver is what you're after, I wouldn't even be wasting time in any yard after 1960. Because you'd need a few years for losses to accumulate, to even make it worth your while anyhow.

 

[cooper1841]

But........................Reach in your pocket and pull out coins, some of them are 15-30 or so years old. It would be the same in 1970, people would have coins in their pockets that were 20 or so years old

 

[Tom_in_CA]

But........................Reach in your pocket and pull out coins, some of them are 15-30 or so years old. It would be the same in 1970, people would have coins in their pockets that were 20 or so years old

cooper1841, no, this was no the case during that transition. The transition from silver to clad was an exception to that "15 or 20 yr. rule". Too many people quickly hoarded silver . Even though, initially, the silver might have only been 12 or 13c in silver value, yet it didn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that that was the time to stock up, pull from circulation, etc... So whereas NOW, no one pulls coins a mere 1 yr. old from circulation. There's no need to, as they're identical to the same clad coins being minted right now. But THEN, there definately was the mind-set of many forward-thinking persons to pull silver from circulation.

 

[TerryC]

If you are looking through older houses, expect to find the silver in the walls, or out in the garden. That is where the "caches" are going to be. I'll bet you have a jar or can where you throw your pennies or loose change, right? Everyone does... or did. If you find loose walls in closets, look behind them. True story: the owner of a home built in the '30s passed away. Roanoke Rapids, NC. In the '90s. Should be a newspaper article to verify. The kids were going to sell the house. One found some loose money. Then more. Everywhere in the house! I believe they found more than $25,000 before it dried up. Old people did not trust banks after the crash! Many older people suddenly die without telling of anyone of caches they have. Go out and get some! TTC

 

[Davers]

GOOD ! Things to know .thanks for the replys...Davers

 

[Citiboy289]

People started immediately saving/hoarding silver coins at the start of '65. However, go figure, I'm sure you could still find silver easily through 1965, at least. But in the years after that, it got harder and harder. In the mid 1970s, when I was a kid, by then you rarely saw silver (unless you were going through MASSIVE quantities, anything's possible). So I'd say by 1966, it was becoming rare. So unless your site is 1965 or earlier, not likely to have silver coins. Sure anything's possible, and some were circulating in '67, '68, '69, etc.... But if you're strictly talking about odds and ratios, no. By 1965, I think it's not going to be house yards worth your time looking for silver. If silver is what you're after, I wouldn't even be wasting time in any yard after 1960. Because you'd need a few years for losses to accumulate, to even make it worth your while anyhow.

A childhood friend of mine father owned 2 New York City taxi cabs back in 1965 - The father would sit each night and check through the coins that the drivers brought in each shift and remove the silver ----- That was along time ago but I recall him having coffee cans with 5 , 10 , 25 and 50 marked on them he would fill and fill them up , Sometimes it seemed that 75 % of what the drivers brought in went in the cans , but he still continued ----- lost track of them as we grew older but met my friend at a HS reunion 20 years later, ( 1980's ) In conversation I mentioned how I remember his dad doing that and what ever happened to the cans, he smiled and said that when silver hit 50 dollars his dad sold the lot and retired to live in Florida in a home he brought from the proceeds, the father also put the remainder in CDs that during that period of the Carter administration were paying 14% ----- Sometimes to this day when bored will attempt to do MENTAL MATH just to figure out just how much he made off the silver --------------------------------- in addition in the 1980s there was a huge hoard sold to LITTLETON COIN I beleive that was the collection of over 30 years of 2 brothers who sold subway tokens for the NY subway system . They would cull their daily change just for key dates and to complete sets --- I do recall the article said they had vast sets of all silver coins that were sill in circulation and many ROLLS mercury dimes 16D 's ----------- AND ROLLS OF OVERSTRIKE SLQ 17 OVER 18 They must have passed through 100 s of dollars of silver each day ----------- those were the days

 

[Carla705]

Just wondering...I have read posts from CRH's that say they found coins that were 40%.
I'm assuming 40% Silver. Are those coins dated prior to 1965 or after. Just trying to figure out what is truly clad and what is worth keeping.

Thanks,
~C~

 

[Tom_in_CA]

citiboy, great post.

carla705, when you see reference to "40%" silver coins, they're talking about kennedy half dollars, that continued to be made in 40% silver till 1970. All other silver US coins (dimes & quarters) had ceased to have silver after 1964. (they had had 90% silver up till then).

 

[Carla705]

citiboy, great post.

carla705, when you see reference to "40%" silver coins, they're talking about kennedy half dollars, that continued to be made in 40% silver till 1970. All other silver US coins (dimes & quarters) had ceased to have silver after 1964. (they had had 90% silver up till then).

Tom - I understand now. Thanks!

 

[Bum Luck]

I was astounded to see how fast the millions of silver coins disappeared in 1965.

 

[Mackaydon]

In 1979, the Hunt Brothers had just about cornered the world silver market--on their buying spree. The price of an ounce of silver hit $48.70. Lines of people would stand outside "We Buy Silver"--type shops around the nation waiting to get in and sell their silver anythings, including coins. If you want to talk about the exodus of silver from circulation, you have to mention those Hunt Brother days of 1979. At the time, I worked in a bank. In addition to culling the silver coins, silver certificates could be sold for just over $1.50--and they were relatively common to find.
Don.....

 

[Phanntom]

I was late teens during that time. My mother owned a number of hair salons and came across a lot of silver. I don't remember anyone dealing in hoards of silver. In my mothers case, she only saved silver dollars and half dollars. The action you describe was more with the Silver Certificates. As I recall, there was about a two yr window when they could still be redeemed for silver. She had a guy I believe he was a teacher came by every week and bought her Silver Certificates at a premium over face. There were numerous ads in the paper with offers to buy them so you'd know what the going rate was. She always sold to the same guy so he must've treated her fair.

 

[Tom_in_CA]

I was astounded to see how fast the millions of silver coins disappeared in 1965.

Uh oh bum luck, you're giving away your age

 

[Bum Luck]

Uh oh bum luck, you're giving away your age

You can have most of it for free, Tom! Down to about 20.

 

[Citiboy289]

You can have most of it for free, Tom! Down to about 20.

I know the feeling BUM LUCK ------ But in this day and age I dont know if I would want to be 20 again and have to go another 43 years LOL

 

[x512x]

I think it still worth digging up man

 

[wainzoid]

I have a friend who worked for a vending machine company in the 70's and early 80's. He had a large route he ran to stock and collect from pin ball machines, pool tables, and cigarette machines. He handled a bank bag or more of coins daily. He pulled all the silver he saw and after 8 or 10 yrs he had accumulated enough that would have filled a half of a drywall bucket. He showed them to the wrong person and they dissappeared one day while at work.

 

[wainzoid]

I wanted to add that he worked mostly bar rooms and game rooms, and these coins were spent mostly by kids or drunks.

 

[jrf30]

I remember in 1964 the new Kennedy half coming out. My dad and I saved a few becuase they were so special. He got two in a special holder with a commenerative certificate and all that (Probably overpaid for something not worth it, but back then he thought those things were cool) But mostly my brother and I would save Franklin halves and throw back the 1964 Kennedy halves as something we didn't want. HA. The quarters and dimes were also silver, so it meant nothing special to us then. Does that sound weird? It is not. THink of it from today's viewpoint. We have the same thing happening right now, so we have the perfect illustrationto show why we did NOT keep silver back then. Every single nickel we touch today is made of more copper than the value of the nickel. Do we all hoard nickels? Keep every single one we find? Nope. Yet in 50 years, when people talk about finding some of the "old nickels" with the copper still in them when they search coins, they will talk in awe of "the days when every nickel was a keeper" and how cool it must have been for those people (US!) to be able to keep every nickel we saw. Yet we don't think so. It's just not a keeper to us at this time. Just like the silver coins were not keepers to everyone back in 1964. 1965 was a different story, but still it took years for the silver to eventually dry up. Want to truly know more baout back then? Watch the nickel when we change the composition. Watch how long it takes to truly disappear (It will take years to stop being in rolls of nickels) And if you are alive in 50 years (I won't be) then you can be the one talking about the good old days and explain why you didn't go get box after box of nickels at the bank and just store them. People then will say you should have stored them all. But we don't. You'll see. :-)