I was thinking about yesterday’s state quarters quiz (scroll down, it’s not too far) and it got me wondering about our coins in general. Most people will “save” a buffalo nickel or a Mercury dime, since the fact that they’re older designs makes it a reasonable bet that the coin is rare and perhaps worth a few times its face value. And while I’m not a coin collector per se, I do know a bit about the hobby, so I began to think about it from a casual person’s point of view. And here’s the question I came up with:
Are there any otherwise-normal-looking coins I might find in my pocket that are worth holding on to?
And the answer is: not likely. I took a brand new, hot-of-the-shelves coin value book (the 2008 U.S. Coin Digest) and panned through the types of coins currently in circulation and see if there’s anything worth keeping an eye out for. You know, if there’s, say, one particular Jefferson nickel that’s worth a few bucks. And notwithstanding the one-in-a-billion errors that occur, here’s what I found:
- A Lincoln penny dated 1933 or earlier is worth 15 cents or more, but even the most pristine ones are worth no more than $100.
- A Jefferson nickel dated 1938, 1942-45, or 1950 might be worth 25 to 75 cents in good shape.
- A Roosevelt dime dated 1949S or 1950S is worth a buck in good shape.
- A Washington quarter dated 1940 or earlier is worth $3 in good shape.
And you know what? That’s it. No other coin type still in circulation is gonna be worth more than its face value. That includes Kennedy half-dollars, bicentennial quarters, and even steel pennies. Heck, even some older designs, like the Ben Franklin half dollars, have little collector’s value once they’re circulated.
So is it worth sorting through your change to see if you have any of these? That’s up to you. I guess it’s better than staring at the tile while you’re waiting on the folks at White Castle to bag your order.
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I like to keep any Bicentennial quarters I come across…and yes, I drank the kool-aid and I’m collecting all 50 state quarters…although I’m not down the rabbit hole so far as some of my friends who are collecting the D mint and whatever the other letter is that prints them…I have a book filled with Kennedy half dollars, but they are probably only worth face value…still, they were given to me for free, so I can’t complain…that’s truly the best money – the kind that you get for doing nothing!!
posted by donner on 7-3-2007 at 11:33 am
I’ll still hang onto my pre-copper-sandwich dollars and half-dollar coins, they may be worth something to my grandchildren.
posted by Miss Cellania on 7-3-2007 at 11:40 am
My grandfather owned a vending machine business for decades. He would occasionally let me sift through the thousands of quarters he collected each week.
There were always a few silver quarters in the mix. Those are worth at least a couple of dollars each and sometimes they are worth more than $100 (depending on the mint, year, and condition).
That was 20 years ago at the most recent, so I don’t know if it is still common. I do know I have never been given one as change.
posted by n2y2 on 7-3-2007 at 11:43 am
One more silver quarter antidote:
My father was a metal shop teacher. One of the projects was molten metal casting (I still have the big “HOT STUFF” belt buckle he helped me make; it was the 70′s)
One of his enterprising students learned the lesson very well. He and his father found a ‘recipe’ for making counterfeit silver coins. It included melting a real silver coin adding few other cheaper metals and some glass (to give it the distinctive ring that silver coins have). They would then pour the mixture into mold. Using this method they could make 4 to 6 fake coins with one real coin.
To even the moderately trained individual, it is easy to detect the difference between a struck coin and a cast one, so they were caught very quickly.
posted by n2y2 on 7-3-2007 at 12:04 pm
Whoops I meant anecdote. I do not have a cure for the silver quarter.
posted by n2y2 on 7-3-2007 at 1:03 pm
What about a penny from the 1800s? I have one that’s about the size of a quarter from 1883. Found it in the wall of an old apt I owned in NYC built before the Cival War!
posted by David on 7-3-2007 at 3:54 pm
Oh, absolutely, older coins are worth more. I was dealing strictly with the coin types that are currently in circulation and have been for several years — the Lincoln penny, Jefferson nickel, Roosevelt dime, Washington quarter, and Kennedy half dollar.
posted by Sandy on 7-3-2007 at 4:06 pm
What about a $2 bill??? I know this is about change but I was just thinking. I have received a few from a company for filling out consumer survey’s. Why not send me 2 $1 bills and call it a day. What am I going to do with the $2 bills? I haven’t tried to buy anything with them. I bet the person wouldn’t know what to do with it.
posted by Audrey on 7-3-2007 at 5:11 pm
We’ll find out about the $2 bills. I got a bunch of them to spend on vacation this year.
posted by Sam on 7-4-2007 at 7:27 am
$2 bills are very spendable and are far more common than you might think.
Of course, there’s always the possibility you’ll come across a clueless cashier… I tried making a purchase with an “old-style” $10 (with the smaller picture of Hamilton). The kid gave me a funny look then called a manager over. Apparently he had missed the billion-and-one news stories about the style change?
posted by Anita on 7-4-2007 at 8:40 am
silver quarters/dimes:
it is easy to take a stack of dimes or quarters and look at the edge. if there is a copper stripe on the coin, it is probably nothing interesting (nickel/copper “sandwiches”). the silver coins do not have this stripe.
general:
any coin denomination that does not have washington, roosevelt, lincoln (except the “wheat ear” lincolns), or jefferson is a novelty and you should keep it! even if it is kinda worn or you look it up and it’s not worth much, it is still interesting. you are preserving history by not allowing it back into circulation!
if you want to sift through lots of coins, take a large bill to your bank and ask for change. if your bank & tellers are nice, this won’t be a problem. :) if they are not nice, well, why are you giving them your business?
i used to buy old coins. while this is cool for novelty and investing purposes, “finding” rare coins is more satisfying.
posted by fgc666 on 7-4-2007 at 10:52 am
I used to work at a currency exchange outlet at an Australian airport, we didnt see many $2 bills, but always accepted them
posted by betty chung on 7-4-2007 at 9:36 pm
My grandfather had a sandwich bag full of silver quarters. After he died my grandmother found them and thought, “How dumb it was to save a bag of quarters” and plunked almost all of them into parking meters before I could tell her.
posted by Tdave on 7-5-2007 at 1:49 am
The comment about the $100 wheat penny is kinda misleading… there is only one kind of wheat penny that is worth that much: the 1909-S VDB penny. Only around 500000 of these were made, because the designer of the penny left his initials on the penny (VDB) and after it was found the design was quickly changed. In mint condition they are worth at least $500. But that’s the only really rare wheat penny, the rest aren’t worth more than $10, even in mint condition.
posted by Leadhyena on 7-5-2007 at 5:23 am
The source I referenced for the article indicates that a few other pennies can be worth nearly $100 if they’re in nice condition, notably the 1924D and 1931S. That’s pretty specific info for the casual collector, however.
And granted, these book values may be high in the real world, of course, but that’s why I indicated their origin.
posted by Sandy on 7-5-2007 at 8:35 am
There’s a scrap metal store in Houston that pays “in two dollar bills!” If you ask me, that’s kind of a weird gimmick.
Would anyone else prefer to be paid with a little more common currency?
posted by Amy on 7-5-2007 at 1:58 pm
With today’s copper prices you could collect the old pennies and make a small fortune…
posted by priscilla on 7-6-2007 at 9:02 am
Quarters and halfs 1964 and below are 90% silver and are worth more than face value. To say that only quarters 1940 and below are worth more than face value isn’t quite true. If you truly believe that I’ll gladly pay you the face value of any quarter or half made from 1940 to 1964 no questions asked…
posted by Kyle on 7-30-2007 at 11:08 am
The guy who painted the back of the $2 bill (Durrand B. Hedden, sp??) is from my hometown, Maplewood, NJ. It’s about Maplewood’s only claim to fame, other than some story about Washington during the Revolution, and there’s a museum and everything for the guy. I’m pretty sure that his house was pink. (I never went to the museum, never really wanted to.)
posted by greenstrawberries on 8-27-2007 at 3:40 am