curculation of coins

[pointer80]

Hi all, I have a question about when certain coins were in curculation. I was wondering if theres any info out there on this subject or maybe some of you "old timers" laugh can remember when people started pulling the old coins out of curculation and saving them. For example about what years did mercury dimes start disapearing from curculation was it 50's or early 60's or later than that? Also other coins like indians, buffs. etc. Is there a website with this kind of info available. If you hunt a home site that was built in the mid 50's for example what kind of coins can you expect to find there? were mercury's still in curculation in vast numbers or were they getting rare to find in your pocket change. I would love to have a timeline to go by. Man, the cold and snow really gets you thinking of wierd stuff I think cabin fever is already setting in. Thanks all and HH for those who can!

 

[Goes4ever]

I have old timers tell me indian pennies were still common in pocket change in the 1940-50s............mercury dimes would easily be in circulation until people started pulling silver out (1965)..........just think how common it is to have a 40 yr old or older penny or nickel in your change today. So I would think you would easily still find silver coins from 1920-30 in a house built in 1950

 

[zinzv]

I've always wondered the same thing! Thanks for asking the question Pointer!

 

[wvrick]

Not sure about earlier but I remember quit a few people pulling out silver coins during 64'- 66' when people started finding out clad was replacing silver. I remember silver being still common in the early 70's. My Father kept a coffee can under the counter in his Auto Parts store and pulled silver out for years.

 

[NebTrac]

..........just think how common it is to have a 40 yr old or older penny or nickel in your change today. So I would think you would easily still find silver coins from 1920-30 in a house built in 1950

This is exactly my way of thinking. Last year I'd only had my X-Terra 305 about a month before the ground froze up. I purchased the E-Trac before christmas and waited until thaw (March 6). I had a lot of time to think about where to hunt, what kind of finds I'd uncover there. I used the same scenerio. I could look at my pocket change and find a 40 year old coin with ease. I figured 30 years at least for people losing them in 1900.

NebTrac

 

[Larry (IL)]

I remember Merc dimes in pocket change when I was a kid in the 50's - 60's. Although some Merc hording was done I'm sure, it was just another dime at the time and nothing special about them. I remember some silver coin hording in general when the clad coins started in 1965 like wvrick said, but silver still circulated into the early 70's until the price of silver started to rise well above melt value. By 1980 silver coins in circulation just didn't exist due to the unheard of prices of $20 an ounce silver. (Remember the Hunt brothers?) Keep in mind that in 1980 $20 an ounce silver is equivalent to $50 an ounce of silver today. Yes, inflation is well over 2.5 times 1980's prices in 2010.

[attachment 181773 silver.gif]

Needless to say, the early 80's was a boom time for metal detector sales and for some people, metal detecting was more than a hobby. Many considered it a part time job and to some who lost their jobs, it was their livelihood. The buying power of a silver dime back in the 80's is like finding a $5 bill every time you dug one in today's inflation standards and there was a lot of silver in the ground back then too. A lot of our city park hunting bans go back to the early 80's when silver coin hunting was so popular.

 

[Bell-Two]

Yes the silver did not disappear in great amounts until the Hunt brothers attempt to corner the market, as a kid in late 40's and early 50's we got standing liberty quarters all the time, an occasional V nickle and of course Walking Liberty halves other silver of course since that was all there was. Believe it or not there was a time people actually carried halves and spent them! Silver coins and wheaties were not that uncommon until the late 70's. I worked retail for years and I woul until the early 80's get a silver coin every week or two in general change and one time a guy came in and made a purchase and gave me 7 silver dollars for it. My wife worked at a bank and she would bring a silver coin home at least every week, but they needed permission from mangaer to buy them. There was a guy here in my small hometown who got the jump on the silver market he started collecting the silver from the first and just stored it and when the Hunt brothers attempts drove the price up he cashed in a lot of it, getting checks from the refinerys for $1,000,000 or more at times. I know this for a fact. One day in the future detectors will probably look upon the "copper memorials" sort of the way we look on the wheaties. I do coin roll hunting mostly pennies since it is generally no problem to get them and return them. So far this year I have gotten 9 Indian heads and 2,500 to 3,000 wheats from the penny boxes and bags. I got a Ben Franklin half the other from my bank I saw it in the tellers tray and for 2 quarters got this little jewel.

 

[Chris(SoCenWI)]

Larry,

I would have thought that silver disappeared more quickly from circulation when clad coinage started. I am too young to remember the 60s, but I had started detecting before the Hunt brothers and don't remember much silver in circulation in the late 70s.

This question is one of the reasons I love finding coin spills when detecting. I've found seated with barbers, barbers with mercs, mercs with roosies. Don't think I've ever found a spill that went across two variety changes; i.e. seated with merc, or barber with roosie. But my experience is that coins did circulate long after they where minted, so finding seated in a 1920s location is certainly a possibility or an Indian head in a 40-50s spot.

I have NEVER found a silver coin with clad, and have found tons of early clad spills; so I assumed that silver was hoarded pretty commonly upon the arrival of clad. Anybody have different results?

Chris

 

[Nick A]

I have found silver and clad in the same hole, always a treat. I remember two quarters, one clad one silver, who have been stuck together in the same hole for a long time.

 

[Chris(SoCenWI)]

n/t

 

[Hawkeye Jim]

You could still find ample amounts of silver, especially dimes including mercs, into the early 1970's..................the silver halves were the first to disappear and when the Kennedy halves went all clad, they pretty much quit circulating............ heck, alot of banks don't even carry halves and they don't want them either.

My cousin and I used to go to the bank on a regular basis on Saturdays and get $20 in pennies and pull out all the wheaties........and my Dad used to give me and my sisters each a silver half to go to the movies...........yep, those were the days!!!

Hawkeye Jim.

 

[Prep1957]

I made more coin hunting in the hunt brother period than I did at my full time pipeline job for at least 2 years.Silver was everywhere an old fork would bring 10 bucks.I was using garret ground hog and deepseeker old TR machines.Then the whites first motion machine the 6DB came out(Yeah Baby) and changed the whole coin hunting world 30 dollar face value days were not uncommon, 6 inches on a dime with very little trash digging.So in 30 years we have gained 3 stinking inches on a dime with all our latest coin hunting technology and we are digging more trash they crackle,pop,chirp,all the time I do not know about you but I am not too impressed.I use to work for an upholster in my early teens on Saturdays.We would pick up old chairs and antique chairs bring back to his shop for 50 cents an hour.The shop had old hard wood floor when we ripped the old material off the old coins would fall out and smack the wood floor I was payed in those old coins all silver some seated,barber,etc the true meaning of my labor was free most times to him, depending what came out.When not enough came out he paid me out of 3 wooden cigar boxes full of old silver coins,pocket watches,jewelery that had fallen out before I was hired.