There are still a few occasions where I must use cash(mostly farmers markets and a few quick serve resterants). I am currious to know whom else out there always turns their coins to the side to see if there are any silver ones there. In my house I manage the credit card sign up bonus/ bonus points plan and i also always look on the side of nay coin given in change. my wife just uses the card in place 1 or 2 of the wallet(that i place there) and she never looks at coins. just wondering of there is any corrilation. btw i actually find about 2 silver coins a year. not much but at $5 for a quarter i will keep looking.
I've never thought about it until now. Am I reading your post correctly that a true silver quarter will go for $5? what year or before should folks be looking for? I have some 1oz bars of silver that were given to me as a 'reward' for being the first to answer during some Q&A sessions at a sales seminar years ago (decades ago? ), how much could I expect these bars to go for if I was to sell them? (if I can find them)
They are quarters and dimes 1964 and before. you can see current silver value here http://www.coinflation.com/ I just place the coins on there side and see if there is a copper line or not, then confirm the date on the older coins. as for 1 oz silver its about $27 right now.
I don't think going through my change each day is worth $10 a year. Right now I make $10 an hour as a grad student, and I'm sure it would add up to more than an hour over a year. Other people probably make more than I do.
I donate my change to the laundry machine gods. Somewhere I like to think of them in laundry heaven giving the quarters to all my sacrificed socks so they can play Pac Man.
THANKS for the feedback, I've always just put my change into a 5 gal water jug I keep next to my dresser. Mrs Sweet Wille is not a fan of the jug, however after I finally decided to empty it at our local credit union & came up with a well over $1000+ as well as finding my long lost wedding ring which had somehow amazing fallen from the dresser through the 3" neck of the jug, she now makes the comment, "fill the jug" !!
Many laundry machines recognize coins by their weight as well as size, so if you try to use a silver one, the coin might be rejected. Have you noticed people successfully using foreign coins in the machines you use?
I actually check it when i receive it, i just roll the coins on thier side in my hnad and look quickly before i deposit into my pocket, it was something my dad showed me years ago, it struck me as anhtoer thing i do that has "attention to detial" written all over it, so i was currious to see if others who collect and spend miles(something that requires attention to detail) also do.
I don't get enough coins to get to a thousand dollars, but every year or so I take a jug of coins to the coinstar machine at the grocery store and get a Starbucks card (or Amazon or whatever) for $80+. Guess I know what I am going to do tonight, though
In addition to the silver coins, there was a time when USA bills said "silver certificate" and at the time were a property right to some silver that the USA government owned. Many coins are worth more for the metal than their face value and certainly cost more than that to produce.
You brought a smile to my face. When I was in college, I spent some time one summer as a Good Humor man - probably 1966. The US had discontinued Silver Certificates and everything being printed was a Federal Reserve Note - I'll bet many of you don't even know what I'm talking about! I stopped by my then girlfriend's (and now wife's) home at then end of my shift and her father insisted on going thru every bill to see if he could find any. He was a dentist but hey - every penny counts! Haven't thought about that in many years. Thanks!
Nah- I came out of my mother's womb pre-med. Got a different college summer job working in a hospital and came home depressed every evening. When my mother sat me down to ask me what the heck was going on, I told her I think I hate being around sick people! She wisely told me that it could be a problem - so I started looking around, spent an hour talking to the family dentist, and the rest is history!
I have one fire safe that contains a few pounds of silver, predominantly 1964 Kennedy half dollars acquired over the years.
I don't even pay with cash for most things anymore, as I am burning off GCs. But, I have to sometimes, and, when I do, I always check.
Having been a coin collector for many years, I always look at my change. I also have some of the bank tellers at my branch on the lookout for silver coins for me. I often bring home half dollar rolls to go through and I have found several pure silver and several part silver soins through the years. Most people don't know that the Kennedy halves from 1965-1970 are part silver. Only the 1964 are pure silver,but the part silver are also worth well over face value at today's silver prices.
What change? -- about the only time I handle coins is when I'm on a toll road, which is so seldom that it isn't cost effective for me to even think about getting an easy pass gizmo. In fact, about the only time I handle cash these days is when I give tips and they ain't in coins ! DTWBOB
I'm with you. Everything goes on my credit card, even my daily $2 cup of coffee and 75 cent parking meters. I take that back- if I happen to be in a small independent store and I'm spending less than $6 I'll probably pay cash, but that only happens a couple times a month. I probably spend <$10/month in cash, not counting tips and lotto tickets. As to toll booth, I use the iPass (illinois version of the radio frequency toll pay unit), so no cash there. Bottom line, I do look at my change, but I get so little of it that the odds of finding anything interesting are miniscule.
My father kept a stash of silver coins, silver certificates and two dollar bills. The silver coins seem to be exceedingly rare that I haven't checked them for a while now.
