Posted on 03/22/2022 5:16:47 PM PDT by P.O.E.
OK, call me paranoid.
Local charity was having a “penny war” fund raiser, so I decided to go through the change jar (an old 5 gallon water jug). Parsing out all the bottle caps, shiny stones, etc. that got thrown in. I put the quarters aside.
Then started going through the nickels, dimes, & pennies. Growing up as a kid, we had coin collections, so with time on my hands decided to sift through them for wheat pennies, silver, etc.
To my wonderment, I found very few coins from the 70s and 80s. Even the 90s were sparse. I understand about the copper, silver, etc. content of old coins, but why were there so few from that era.
Then I started thinking about the “coin shortage” of the Covid days, and started to think how did all those coins disappear? It's not like they would have worn out. Was there some machinery somewhere pulling those coins based on metal content? Pennies I could understand. But dimes & nickels?
Like I said, call me paranoid.
Nickels, I don’t do, pennies added up too fast in bulk. I like junk silver and some off the wall stuff, like silver zombie coins or gold notes.
True. But I just thought it odd. Granted it was my jug of current pocket change from the last year or so.
For the record, my all-time favorite US coin is the Standing Liberty half-dollar. A work of art. The patina of wear only adds more visual interest IMHO.
I have a few, but ‘average circulated’ is pretty worn any more.
Filling station knocked 33 cents off my bill today because they didn’t have change. They have been short of change for weeks, since I first started going to that one.
Hi paranoid.
I trust you are doing well.
If not, buy some gold coins (in person). It will make you feel better. (Remember security)
That will be a $25 donation to FR, and you can call me anytime you need to.
Solved case of paranoia.
5.56mm
They are made of dissolvable plastic. When you wash your pants they dissolve. Not having any value in the actual metal residue. You might want to install a filter on your washing machine drain. Send the residue to Biden for taxes.
The really crisp ones are priced way out of my league. (self-correction - should have said “Walking Liberty” half -dollar.
So I should save the half-pair of socks, too? :)
Pennies are zinc now.
Deadly to dogs.
I hate them and usually don’t even accept pennies in change unless they’re copper.
Actually, I meant the modern gold notes. High premium, but fun. in different denominations:
https://www.providentmetals.com/1-gold-utah-goldback-note.html
Yes, it was.
Pennies were higher in copper u til the early eighties. People would collect them and taken over the border to melt them. It’s illegal in the US, but not in Canada.
“Pennies changed from 95% copper & 5% zinc in mid-’82. Those are worth about $0.03 each right now - but they’re illegal to melt down. It is now 97.5% zinc...”
I have in the neighborhood of 8000 pre-1982 pennies. Maybe a few Wheatheads. Wondering if they can be used as an anode for electroplating. Or would that 5% zinc screw up the works?
Very cool. Thanks. IIRC, there’s a lot of really interesting currency before the 1900s.
I remember back in the day (like 40 years ago) guys would have stashes of said coinage. Wonder what happened to it all.
Every once in a while there would be a handful or so would turn up in change at the local convenience store - guessing somebody found (or stole) granny’s collection.
Thanks :)
The Great Recession shook a lot of coins free. Damn cashiers at my grocery store snagged some walking libertys, but I got a Franklin, and quite a few Kennedys.
I have a bunch, silver and copper, that I inherited from my grandmother. I have an Indian Head from the 1880’s in there.
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