Funny money?

[NE2]

Is a Series 1969A $10 bill in decent condition worth anything?

Yes.

[kphoger]

Is a Series 1969A $10 bill in decent condition worth anything?

Yes.

My guess would be at least ten dollars.

[Brandon]

Is a Series 1969A $10 bill in decent condition worth anything?

Ten bucks US.  You might get $9.95 Canadian for it at the current exchange rate. 

[kphoger]

I've gotten a couple of Eisenhower dollars in change.

Are Eisenhowers still valid money?  We have a couple we'd like to give to give to our son for lost teeth, but not if he can't spend them anywhere.  And, also, can you still get them from banks, or do they just float around out there?

Yep.  As far as I know, any American coin or bill is still legal tender no matter how old it is.

Looks like that's true.  Thank you!

[agentsteel53]

I'd pay you 11 bucks for that tenner.  maybe.  I might be lazy. 

look on eBay completed listings for a decent idea of what things are worth.

as for US issues no longer being legal tender: I believe there is one series which is not - possibly the Demand Notes of 1861.  but those are worth so much beyond their face value that to attempt to spend them is foolish.

[agentsteel53]

Whenever I see them in circulation, I keep them.   And I personally keep a 1943 Steel penny in my pants pocket as a lucky charm.

I keep a 1944 Canadian silver dime for good luck.  I got it in change in Whitehorse.  I tell people that they haven't received a shipment of new coins in over 60 years.

[ghYHZ]

Canada is putting VIA Rails iconic transcontinental passenger train, the "Canadian"  on the back of the new polymer plastic $10 bills.

[mgk920]

^^
Were those locomotives even built in Canada?  I'll have to check....



Mike

[Dr Frankenstein]

The locomotive shown on the note is an EMD F40PH-2D. I'm, indeed, not sure where those units were initially built (as F40PH's in La Grange, IL or London, ON?), but they were rebuilt (as -2D's) by CAD Railway Industries in Montreal.

However, the point of putting this on the $10 notes was more to illustrate the famous and symbolic "Canadian" passenger train route, which runs between Toronto and Vancouver (but used to go as far as Montreal) and the transcontinental railway, rather than the rolling stock itself.

[ghYHZ]

^^
Were those locomotives even built in Canada?  I'll have to check....



Mike

They're GMD (not EMD) F40PH2's built by General Motors Diesel in London ON in the late "˜80s......and as Dr. Frankenstein says.......they've all been completely rebuilt by CAD Railway Industries in Montreal. 

[Scott5114]

I wish the US would go to polymer notes...but the Crane company wields so much power for no discernible reason that it'll never happen.

the other day in Boston, I received a $50 in change for the first time in my memory - discounting collector shows where 100s and 50s are just about the only thing circulating. 

I paid $100 for a $30 purchase (two tickets to the Prudential Building's observation deck) and was surprised to see the change come back as only two bills.

When I ran a cash drawer, if I had someone pay with a $50, I would always use it as change for a $100 if one came in later. Reason being that then I would still have $20s available if a second $100 came in. It makes no sense to have to run to the back to get five $20s if I had a perfectly good $50 there I could hand back.

My guess for why this isn't done more often is policies dictating that the $50s go under the drawer, and cashiers forget they're under there.

[corco]

Yeah, I would always give 50s as change when possible. Part of this was because I was working the overnight shift and had very little available cash ($500), so if somebody came in and paid with a $50 and then a $100 bill (this was a hotel, so big bills), I needed to preserve my little bills as best as possible.

[bugo]

I've been finding silver dimes like crazy.  I've found 12 over the last 3 shifts.  I've gotten good at picking them out.  They're a dull grey color, while newer dimes are more silver and shinier.  I never thought to look through rolls of dimes before because I had no idea anything valuable would be there but boy was I wrong.

[bugo]

At work I am always on the lookout for interesting money.  I've found coins from Venezuela and Canada, countless wheat pennies (a customer brought in about 200 pennies to cash in and I found 8 wheats in the pile), 40% silver half dollars from 1967 and many other half dollars including a few bicentennials, a couple of 1971 Eisenhower dollars, and some silver (pre-1965) dimes.  I didn't even look through dimes until last week, and I have found 12 silver dimes in 3 days.  I'm now addicted to going through rolls of dimes.  The silver ones have a very distinctive look to them.  The only coin that I haven't found anything old is quarters.  I guess all the silver quarters are gone.  I find bicentennials all the time and I save them for my "almost" collection (odd money like $2 bills and half dollars that I keep set back as an emergency fund but that I don't really want to spend unless I have to.  I'm holding out hope for an Indian head penny, a buffalo nickel, a Mercury dime, a Standing Liberty quarter, a Franklin half dollar, or a peace dollar.

[1995hoo]

It's funny, when it comes to quarters I see more older quarters (including the bicentennial ones) than I do the current national park series (the Mint calls them "America the Beautiful" quarters). I'm still in the habit of glancing at quarters from the days of the state and territorial series, but it's more a surprise than anything else when I get a national park one.

I may just wait until they've finished the series and then order a set from a coin dealer.

I've found weird foreign coins on the sidewalk periodically. I might expect to find some kind of Middle Eastern coin because there are some people with "Diplomat" plates living up the block, but the coins I've found have run the gamut from Venezuelan to French pre-euro coins. I found an old Indian Head nickel on the ground at a gas station one day. It's so worn that I can't find the year of issue, but it was still a neat find.

[formulanone]

Yeah, I rarely see the National Park quarters...get lots of state quarters, though. A vending machine gave me back a "silver" 1942 nickel last week. Someone really polished it up, because it was absurdly shiny (must have been a property of its silver-magnesium alloy), even though it was probably in Very Good condition, at best.

For those unaware, Very Good is actually quite worn, but would be impressive for a 200 year-old specimen.

[agentsteel53]

For those unaware, Very Good is actually quite worn, but would be impressive for a 200 year-old specimen.

the scale is a bit unusually worded. 

"good" is numerically equivalent to 4.

... the scale goes up to 70.

[oscar]

I found an old Indian Head nickel on the ground at a gas station one day. It's so worn that I can't find the year of issue, but it was still a neat find.

Sounds like one of the Buffalo nickels (named for the buffalo on the back side), ca. 1913-1938.  Due to a design error, the date was one of the first things to wear off those coins.

[agentsteel53]

Sounds like one of the Buffalo nickels (named for the buffalo on the back side), ca. 1913-1938.  Due to a design error, the date was one of the first things to wear off those coins.

given that the mint found out about the problem a few years into circulation, I am surprised they did not make the date incuse after about 1918 or so.

[oscar]

Are Canadian retailers doing rounding for electronic purchases too?

Electronic Transactions are still for the actual amount. Only cash transactions are rounded.

I can imagine some customers deciding at the last minute whether to pay in cash or with plastic, depending on whether rounding helps or hurts them on a particular transaction, if retailers don't round electronic purchases too.  (I can especially imagine me doing that.)

What!........The most you're going to save is two cents!

Yeah, it's more about the fun of gaming the system than the actual amount saved.

I'm in Canada right now, but have been focusing more on making the most of the dozen or so French phrases I've mastered ('til I make my way south into the Maritimes over the next few days), than on gaming the rounding system.  Everybody I've encountered is rounding, some more automatically than others.  The French-language screen at a Tim Horton's seemed to handle it best (to the extent I could understand the French), showing the exact amount in dollars and cents, and explaining the rounding adjustment to the nearest 5 cents since they weren't able to give pennies in change.  A PFK (French for Kentucky Fried Chicken) register made the cashier round manually, which in that instance resulted in my getting 50 cents in change for a $5 bill and a $2 coin on a $6.54 item, rather than 45 cents from a proper rounding.  Other places just gave me a rounded final total, before asking how I wanted to pay.

[oscar]

Sounds like one of the Buffalo nickels (named for the buffalo on the back side), ca. 1913-1938.  Due to a design error, the date was one of the first things to wear off those coins.

given that the mint found out about the problem a few years into circulation, I am surprised they did not make the date incuse after about 1918 or so.

I think they had the same problem with the Standing Liberty quarters (ca. 1916-1931) at first, but quickly recessed the background under the date, so the date wouldn't wear off so quickly.

[kphoger]

Other places just gave me a rounded final total, before asking how I wanted to pay.

This makes sense.  It avoids the last-minute decision of cash or card, and it's unlikely you'll care how it was rounded on your credit card statement.

[Takumi]

I think they had the same problem with the Standing Liberty quarters (ca. 1916-1931) at first, but quickly recessed the background under the date, so the date wouldn't wear off so quickly.

I think it was 1925 when they fixed the problem. I've found a few Standing Liberty quarters over the years, and they all have the dates obliterated.

[Road Hog]

I discovered the other day the soda machine in the breakroom at my work accepts Canadian coins. Had a Canadian nickel and I tried it, and it accepted it.

[1995hoo]

I found an old Indian Head nickel on the ground at a gas station one day. It's so worn that I can't find the year of issue, but it was still a neat find.

Sounds like one of the Buffalo nickels (named for the buffalo on the back side), ca. 1913-1938.  Due to a design error, the date was one of the first things to wear off those coins.

I've heard both names over the years, both buffalo nickels and Indian Head nickels. We always called them Indian Head growing up. But yes, you're right as to the buffalo being on the other side of the coin I found. It wasn't just the date that wore off on that one; the coin had apparently either seen some heavy use or been lying outside for a very long time because it's REALLY worn out. I have it in a box somewhere.


(Edited to fix a bad typo)