Foo - I got a 1941-D nickel in change

Pretty cool getting an old coin in change. Just thinking back to how different things were in 1941 and what a huge change the country was about to endure.

My grandfather was born in Indian Territory in 1905, in what is now called Oklahoma. He began riding the rail road from somewhere in OK. to Dallas, selling newspapers, apples, candy, etc. as a teen.

When he got to Dallas, he would hit the coin shops and buy any odd looking coins. Nothing of value, just different looking, would buy them at face value.

When he got back on the train, he would slip one of the odd coins to a customer when making change for a sale. Then he would pull the coin back and tell the customer he did not mean to use that coin, it was valuable, rare, whatever. He would then negotiate the sale of the coin to his customer at a slightly higher price, and make a penny or two off of a nickle that he paid a nickle for earlier in the day.

I still have some old coins, Confederate money, fractional bills, etc. that my grandfather gave to me as a child.

He went on from riding the trains to working on them, and his job was considered high tech at the time. I often marvel at all the change that man saw in his 80+ years on this planet. Both world wars, the death of the steam trains,the birth of air travel, space travel, television, computers, etc.

And the change is still occuring.

YouTube- Did You Know 4.0

One time I was walking down an alley looking through some random trash (don't ask) and found this plastic prescription medicine jar. It felt quite heavy and when I opened it I found it was full of stacked half-dollars. Most were as early as 1942s. A couple are 1960's and 1 is a 1980. Maybe one day I'll see how much I can get for them.

http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b396/Gordo_Ruckus/Foo/Picture097.jpg

PS: These are some big ole' coins too. You could knock somebody out if you threw one at 'em.

When I was bartending - everyone once in a while I hit potluck when I was cashing out - obviously someone either went into their collection - or the coins were from a stolen collection :( and I found several old coins - supplemented my old buffalo head nickel and mercury dime collections.

Big E, some of the coins my grandfather left me are Walking Libertys!

I used to work in a store and got an amount of old change now and then. I figured the grandparents died and someone cleaned out the old place finding old coins here and there in containers or cupboards.

One time some kid came in every few days and paid for batteries with old silver dollars and old Franklin half dollars. I figured he found Mom or Dads collection of the coins they received for good grades when they were kids. Those coins are now in a bag in the back of my underwear drawer.

I have one of these from my grandfather's collection before it was sold in an auction. Mine however does NOT have hole drilled in it for a necklace :mad: and I have it sealed - and mine is in qood quality. 1785 Dei Gratia

http://img36.imageshack.us/img36/2218/coinsy.jpg

The back of mine is in extremely high quality, front is better than what is pictured here.

Ooo one source has it at $115! Saving this heavy thing! (checked a couple years ago and it was worth $45)

hehe - this is what one site has about the coin.

The Consolacion, a Spanish Armada del Sur (South Sea Armada) galleon, was lost in 1681 after striking a reef near Guayaquil Ecuador. A delay in receiving silver coins from the mint in Potosi prevented the Santa Maria de la Consolacion from sailing with the rest of the armada from Callao, Chile. When the lone ship met pirates, the captain decided to ground the Consolacion on Santa Clara island, nicknamed Isla de Muerto (Island of the Dead), but struck a reef in the process. The vessel was evacuated and intentionally set on fire by the crew to prevent the plunder of treasure; Consolacion coins are thus true pirate treasure coins. Each piece comes with a certificate of authenticity & history.

I picked up a 1945 nickel as change somewhere. This was from a narrow period when the nickel in nickels was replaced with silver (they were still mostly copper, however) because of the value of nickel for metal alloys deemed critical to war.

Even if the coins have no numismatic values, silver coins are worth a LOT more than their face value these days.

http://www.coinflation.com/silver_coin_values.html

Examples:

1916 Mercury Dime $1.3303

1963 Silver Quarter $3.3257

1962 Franklin Half $6.6515