Funny money?

[bugo]

I've often wondered if there are more Canadian pennies circulating in the US today than there are in Canada. I often find Canadian pennies in circulation and at work. I sometimes buy boxes of circulated pennies to seach for wheats and other interesting coins, and I usually average maybe 5 per box which equals 1 every 5 rolls. I live way down in Oklahoma but I imagine there is much more Canadian money circulating in states like New Hampshire, Minnesota and Montana than down here.

[Scott5114]

I've had a good weekend. Picked up a 1963A $50 (the customer who cashed it in had two 1963As and two 1969s but I'm not really into $50s so I just took the better of the 63As), a 1950 $20, and another $20 of whatever series has Bañuelos/Schultz as the signatures.

Edit: I'm home now, so images:


I screwed up on the $50. After I bought that one I realized that one of the 1969s was a star note. Blah!

[bugo]

There is a small convenience store in the apartment complex I used to live in. I got to know the owner while I lived there, and he stuck back any coin larger than a quarter that he received for me. I got lucky and got a 40% Kennedy (1968) one day and I got an Ike but it was mostly post-1970 halves that he stuck back for me. Today I was visiting my friend who still lives in that complex and walked to the store to buy a Coke. The owner wasn't there, instead a woman was working there. I heard her talking to another lady behind the counter and it was obvious her English wasn't very good. She rang up my Coke and I asked her if she had any "big coins" and she said "yes". I thought she just didn't understand me at first. I was thinking maybe she had a clad Kennedy or possibly an Ike if I was lucky. She pulled out a large coin and my heart started racing. I thought it was an Ike (which would have still made me happy) but my jaw hit the floor when I saw that it was an 1884-O Morgan! I said "I want it!" and gave her 4 quarters for it. It is obviously nowhere near AU condition but has a tad bit of yellowish toning. This beats any of the finds I made at my old job at the convenience store by a long shot.  I'm still in shock but I'm buzzing. I'm guessing it's VF or XF, what do you think? Is it worth from $30-$40? This was the find of a lifetime.

[Scott5114]

Morgans seem to be going around. A fellow cashier at the casino had someone trade a 1900S in for a dollar bill to gamble with. Needless to say I'm jealous of both of you.

[Scott5114]

I don't usually collect based on the serial number (my goal is to get a star note of each small-size series, or barring that, just a note of each series) but this was too nifty to pass up.

[rickmastfan67]

Nice radar note! (not counting the letters)

[bugo]

I don't usually collect based on the serial number (my goal is to get a star note of each small-size series, or barring that, just a note of each series) but this was too nifty to pass up.

Nice radar.

Last week I was in Mena visiting family. One of my grandmother's friends knows I collect coins and she gave me an old coin a few months ago. I had 2 1972 Israeli mint sets so I decided to give her one of them and when she came over to get it she mentioned that she had a silver certificate and went and got it. She said she gave $4.50 for it at a flea market and said she would let me have it for what she gave for it, but I went ahead and gave her $5. I was admiring the bill's handsomeness when I noticed that it was a star note! I excitingly told her it was a star note and explained to her what a star note is. It's not in the greatest condition but it's a Series 1935C silver certificate star note. I don't know if I got a good deal on it or not but I'm happy with it for what I paid for it. I got it on my birthday, so I consider it a birthday gift that I bought for myself. As it's a pre Series 1957, it doesn't have the god shit on the reverse which is a bonus. The bill looks much more balanced without that stupid motto.

[bugo]

I took some better pictures of my bargain Morgan. It is more silvery and less gold than it looks in these pictures, but it does have some nice yellow toning. I posted the pictures to a coin forum and several posters said it was probably an AU, possibly around a 53. If not for the nasty scars on her cheek it might be even higher. I still can't believe I got it at face value. A deal that even SP Cook couldn't pass up...

[bugo]

There is a small convenience store near where I live. I got to know the guy who runs it, and he agreed to stick back any "large coins" (half dollars and larger) for me. One day I got an Ike, and another day a 40% silver half dollar. Last month I went in there and he wasn't working, but this lady who didn't seem to speak great English was there. I asked her if she had any "big coins" and she said "yes". I didn't think she understood me but she pulled out a big dollar coin. At first I thought it was an Eisenhower dollar but imagine my surprise when she handed me an 1884-0 Morgan silver dollar in AU condition! I paid face value for it. I've already been offered $50 for it but I declined. Finding a coin like this in circulation is priceless.

[Scott5114]

Today's find:


This the oldest star note I own now. Unfortunately there's a tear about 1 cm long coming down from the top. Still pretty impressive that a star note could last for this long in circulation.

[bugo]

I got this on my birthday.

[bugo]

I remember the time we got 1$ and 2$ bills. There was a time we got 50¢ coins as well. I still one 25¢ coin commemoration who celebrate the 100th anniversairy of the RCMP in Canada.

I have a set of centennial Canadian coins: penny, nickel, dime, quarter, half dollar and dollar. They are dual dated 1867-1967 and the reverses have special designs with different animals on each coin.

[hotdogPi]

I remember the time we got 1$ and 2$ bills. There was a time we got 50¢ coins as well. I still one 25¢ coin commemoration who celebrate the 100th anniversairy of the RCMP in Canada.

I have a set of centennial Canadian coins: penny, nickel, dime, quarter, half dollar and dollar. They are dual dated 1867-1967 and the reverses have special designs with different animals on each coin.

And the dime, quarter, half dollar, and dollar were still silver at that time in Canada.

[bugo]

I regularly go through rolls of nickels and pennies looking for old dates and die varieties. Two of the most recent "funny money" finds would be an Indian Head Cent and a dateless San Francisco minted Buffalo Nickel (later revealed to be from 1921 after some acid treatment).

I do the same. I've found an Indian head penny and a 1909 VDB penny. The 1909 was minted in Philadelphia and is worth somewhere around $10-$15. If it were a San Francisco minted coin it would be worth hundreds of dollars.

[bugo]

OTOH, according to that linked article, the lowest-value coin with the highest buying power is currently from Norway (1 Krone).

Norwegians are smart! They got rid of the ore coins a long time ago because they were worthless

The silver ones aren't...

[bugo]

The ATM at the Citibank near my old office in DC dispenses $50s. Quite useful if you need to withdraw over $200.

The worthless thing I paid a decent sum for was paying $50 to get a Zimbabwean $100,000,000,000,000 bill that was worth less than $10 USD at the time.

I paid less than $5 for mine.

[bugo]

I remember the time we got 1$ and 2$ bills. There was a time we got 50¢ coins as well. I still one 25¢ coin commemoration who celebrate the 100th anniversairy of the RCMP in Canada.

I have a set of centennial Canadian coins: penny, nickel, dime, quarter, half dollar and dollar. They are dual dated 1867-1967 and the reverses have special designs with different animals on each coin.

And the dime, quarter, half dollar, and dollar were still silver at that time in Canada.

1967 was the last year of silver in Canadian coins. Dimes and quarters contained either 50 or 80% silver. I am not sure if there's a way to tell them apart.

[1995hoo]

The ATM at the Citibank near my old office in DC dispenses $50s. Quite useful if you need to withdraw over $200.

The worthless thing I paid a decent sum for was paying $50 to get a Zimbabwean $100,000,000,000,000 bill that was worth less than $10 USD at the time.

I paid less than $5 for mine.

So? I bought mine from a guy in Harare right when the currency collapsed. Figured he needed the $50 more than I did.

[rickmastfan67]

I remember the time we got 1$ and 2$ bills. There was a time we got 50¢ coins as well. I still one 25¢ coin commemoration who celebrate the 100th anniversairy of the RCMP in Canada.

I have a set of centennial Canadian coins: penny, nickel, dime, quarter, half dollar and dollar. They are dual dated 1867-1967 and the reverses have special designs with different animals on each coin.

And the dime, quarter, half dollar, and dollar were still silver at that time in Canada.

1967 was the last year of silver in Canadian coins. Dimes and quarters contained either 50 or 80% silver. I am not sure if there's a way to tell them apart.

Nope.  1968 was the last year for silver in Canadian coins.

[oscar]

I regularly go through rolls of nickels and pennies looking for old dates and die varieties. Two of the most recent "funny money" finds would be an Indian Head Cent and a dateless San Francisco minted Buffalo Nickel (later revealed to be from 1921 after some acid treatment).

I do the same. I've found an Indian head penny and a 1909 VDB penny. The 1909 was minted in Philadelphia and is worth somewhere around $10-$15. If it were a San Francisco minted coin it would be worth hundreds of dollars.

Cool!  I do same at a lower level, looking at the dates on pennies I get in change (useful exercise to find out if I need new glasses) and occasionally a few rolls from the bank, as well as scanning the nickels and other coins I get in change looking (with no luck in the past ten years or so) for anything with silver. EDIT: Got lucky in March 2015, got in change a part-silver wartime 1945-S nickel, with the prominent mint mark only for wartime nickels ("S" above the Monticello dome) helping me spot it. Later, in July 2015, I got a silver 1964 dime in change at a gas station in northern Arkansas.

My only semi-interesting finds, in addition to common dates for "wheatback" (1909-1958) U.S. pennies and the occasional Canadian coin, are the occasional modern Bahamas or British penny, some 2-cent Euro coins. a 50 öre Swedish coin (the last four of these all roughly similar in size and composition to a U.S. penny), and a Panama quarter. The last is identical in size and composition to current "clad" U.S. quarters, and the Panama dollar is at par with the U.S. dollar, so it's worth pretty much exactly 25 U.S. cents, but I kept it anyway.

bugo and florida, since it sounds like you sift through a lot more penny and nickel rolls than I do, I'm curious what you do with the coins once you've filtered out anything interesting. With the relatively small quantities passing through my hands, I just use self-checkout machines to spend down on small purchases the coins I don't want to keep.  I'd assume my bank would look at me cross-eyed if I purchased a lot of rolls from them, then rolled up and re-deposited the discards.

[bugo]

I remember the time we got 1$ and 2$ bills. There was a time we got 50¢ coins as well. I still one 25¢ coin commemoration who celebrate the 100th anniversairy of the RCMP in Canada.

I have a set of centennial Canadian coins: penny, nickel, dime, quarter, half dollar and dollar. They are dual dated 1867-1967 and the reverses have special designs with different animals on each coin.

And the dime, quarter, half dollar, and dollar were still silver at that time in Canada.

1967 was the last year of silver in Canadian coins. Dimes and quarters contained either 50 or 80% silver. I am not sure if there's a way to tell them apart.

Nope.  1968 was the last year for silver in Canadian coins.

Typo. Although I'm not sure that all Canadian silver coins (dime and up) were silver in '68.

[rickmastfan67]

I remember the time we got 1$ and 2$ bills. There was a time we got 50¢ coins as well. I still one 25¢ coin commemoration who celebrate the 100th anniversairy of the RCMP in Canada.

I have a set of centennial Canadian coins: penny, nickel, dime, quarter, half dollar and dollar. They are dual dated 1867-1967 and the reverses have special designs with different animals on each coin.

And the dime, quarter, half dollar, and dollar were still silver at that time in Canada.

1967 was the last year of silver in Canadian coins. Dimes and quarters contained either 50 or 80% silver. I am not sure if there's a way to tell them apart.

Nope.  1968 was the last year for silver in Canadian coins.

Typo. Although I'm not sure that all Canadian silver coins (dime and up) were silver in '68.

I once found a silver '68 quarter in circulation.  Proved it via the magnet trick.  The magnet refused to pick it up, unlike all the other '68's I had found before it.

[Scott5114]

Had someone bring this to a coworker. I got first dibs on it because I was right next to her and my supervisor was on the other side of me. The customer couldn't figure out why the slot machines wouldn't take it. Another customer in line told her it was probably fake.

[kkt]

Had someone bring this to a coworker. I got first dibs on it because I was right next to her and my supervisor was on the other side of me. The customer couldn't figure out why the slot machines wouldn't take it. Another customer in line told her it was probably fake.

Cool!

[empirestate]

Had someone bring this to a coworker. I got first dibs on it because I was right next to her and my supervisor was on the other side of me. The customer couldn't figure out why the slot machines wouldn't take it. Another customer in line told her it was probably fake.

I got me one o' them. Except mine is Series 1963, so it doesn't have the "bearer on demand" language and the "legal tender" verbiage is briefer. Otherwise it's substantially identical.