I got a 1957 quarter today in my change. She dropped it in my hand and it didn't sound right so I looked and there it was. I'm excited Every little bit helps. When is the last time you got a silver coin as change
Congrats! Happened to me once, same thing.. Got my change back, sounded a little different in my pocket. Pulled out the quarters and checked the edges(half-copper tone is missing in pre-64 quarters), and there it was! Mine was also a '57 Oh and ever since then, I check the dates on every coin in my return change
I don't carry cash very often I use plastic so I don't get much change back. When I worked retail in the early 2000's I'd find silver coins, old coins and odd international coins all the time. The mangers knew I was a nerd and they'd let me buy it out of the register at face value. A couple weeks ago I went into the campus bookstore at the college where I work to speak with the store manager. On his desk was a Mercury dime. I said that was cool and he just handed it to me. I offered to give him money for it but he said he didn't want it but thought it was cool. Free silver yay!
Now that I'm back in the US, every time I receive change I hold the coins in a pile and glance at the edges - no need to check the dates, just look for the copper edges on post-64 dimes and quarters. If you don't see copper, look at the date. Thinking they've essentially disappeared from circulation though unless someone just banks a bunch of "grandma's estate coins" without knowing what they're doing, and quite a few of the bank staff here are wised up on what to look for based on chatting with them, so it's a miracle for any to escape into circulation unless someone inherits/steals and just spends them directly. Got a near UNC 1969 $20 note the other day though out of an ATM (no collector value), so old currency does crop up from time to time. Whoever had it all that time should have bought a gold eagle instead of hanging onto the cash for 40+ years - over that time frame the wrinkles in the gold chart kind of iron out
My son found a Morgan dollar in the yard outside our house. Which is even weirder when you realise we live in England!
A silver quarter in your change at McDonald's is a real surprise. Healthy, edible, tasty food in the bag would have been a miracle.
Yesterday! Father-in-law came home from the coffee shop and someone had slipped a 1935 New Zealand Shilling into the change when they bought a coffee. It might have been a mistake as it looks a bit like a 10 cent coin but I'm not complaining, at 50% silver I work that out to be about 80 cents worth.
Back in the 1970s, my parents owned a snack shop, which was extremely popular with young teenagers, due to the many video arcade games we had on the premises. Fairly often, when my father was emptying the coin boxes from those machines, he would discover lots of silver quarters. He said that it was probably due to the kids raiding their parents coin stashes, and using the quarters to play the video games. I don't remember what happened to all those silver quarters - although I'm sure they didn't end up in another video arcade.
I was one of those kids. I used to snag quarters from my folks silver jar to take to the arcade in the 70s. I feel doubly terrible about it now!
