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As I’ve mentioned I’ve been going through half dollar rolls recently looking for silver halfs, including the 1965-1970 40% silver coins. The inevitable consequence of this however is you end up with a bunch non silver half dollars. These are a neat novel coin to carry around but 20 of them is bulky (and WILL make your shorts wear funny). Unfortunately it makes for some less than funny things too.

I wouldn’t consider myself OLD at 30, but I do note some disparity with the folks behind the average retail counter. Little things like remembering Ronald Reagan being on TV as a kid. Knowing what garbage pail kids are. That sort of thing. I also remember though coming across half dollars here and there growing up, and certainly knowing a half dollar was worth 50 cents. Until today I’ve never had anyone try to question that fact, though I have gotten strange looks and comments.

As I said much of this is due to age. Apparently your average 19 year old has not come across the odd half dollar. That said I have gotten looks from folks with a decade or two on me. Older folks are generally happy to see them, know exactly what they are and usually say something along the lines of ‘I have not see one of these in ages’. Some folks do express some dissatisfaction that there’s not usually a spot for them in the cash register. (Actually in my experience there is, however with their uncommonness it’s been re-tasked for extra rolls, or folded travelers checks, etc.) Typically though average whatever look or comment my legal tender is accepted and I’m on my way.

Today however, as I was buying a new pair of pants at ‘the gap’ was the first time I encountered a problem. The girl behind the counter stared for a few seconds. *normal* Then she leaned over to the other girl and said, I quote, “Hey can we accept these?”. To the credit of the other girl I don’t think she saw them before replying ‘Are they American?’, although with Kennedy’s iconic profile on the coin it’s ironic in the extreme to hear. Either way the second girl mentioned as long as they’re American they can accept them. This prompted the question ‘how much are they worth?’. Now for crying out loud, while the Kennedy half does not read as does the paper dollar ‘Legal Tender for All Debts Public & Private’ it does quite clearly say “Half Dollar”, not unlike a Quarter says “Quarter Dollar”. I suspect the girl must know that there’s 50 cents to a half dollar if she’s working a register (though with the prevalence of credit cards who knows).

All of this quite concerns me. I get looks when I pay using dollar coins as well. This makes sense to me though since they’ve never been in major circulation, and they’re image changes every several months to a year. I would hope anyone with a basic high school education though could easily recognize a 50 cent piece. Apparently this is hoping for two much. I’m still quite shocked in that I was pretty close to denied my purchase (well at least being forced to break a hundred dollar bill for 2$) on account of ignorance. If not for the practical other girl things could have gotten nasty; I’d have had to request a manager who no doubt being in the same age group would also be iffy (and usually those sorts stand by the clerk when it comes to disputes.

This all reminds me of literally being denied an alcohol purchase for only have a passport ID. You know the one actual verified federal form of ID. Not one as flimsy as some other states laws, and easy to fake when going to another region. That’s a rant for another time though. Either way. If there’s a teacher out there reading this, thin about mentioning the half dollar to students, and that yes like the dollar it’s legal (and in fact it really is a crime not to accept them). Now I’m quite tempted to purchase me some uncut sheets of 2 dollar bills, and cut them up when purchasing gas (also perfectly legal). Now that could get fun.

by George Edward Green III

Recently I posted an article about a literal ‘free lottery’; the ability to search rolls of coins for rare, easy to identify, silver coins worth much more than face value.  In this article I noted that you can go to the bank and exchange dollars for rolls of coins, and for zero cost, search through them for valuable coins gthe bank probably doesn’t even care might be inside.

There’s a lot of different ways to accomplish the same thing with zero cost but here’s another; Vending machines.  Next time you go to buy a Coke or Pepsi bring a few extra dollars; if you hit the return change button chances are you’ll get quarters.  These machines aren’t setup to refund bills (and anyone who’s used one knows it’s a challenge enough to get on IN the machine!).

The advantage of this is the exposure to a wide variety of coin sources.  At the bank you’re as likely to get a roll of coins a collector looked through as you are one with valuable silver coins.  At a vending machine however even if your coin collecting competition has dropped coins he already knows are not very valuable, there is as much if not more of a chance that folks who wouldn’t know a valuable coin if you traded them a buck for a few were there too.

Just as in sales you want to be exposed to a variety of new customers from different groups to keep business booming if you’re looking for rare coins you want to get out and introduce yourself to as many new and unrelated sources as possible to maximize the size of your ‘market’.  Grabbing a soda, and a few bucks worth of change from a vending machine is just one more way to go about this.

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A lot of folks I know play the lottery or scratch offs, always hoping to find some jackpot. As a financial advisor I always find it silly. Not to say I have never bought a scratch-off, but usually for fun, or because the day had been pretty lucky thus far. Another thing I’ve done though is investing, and not just in stocks, or mutual funds, but also real estate, precious metals, businesses, etc. A sort of tie in to that is coin collecting.

I would never describe myself as some sort of avid or professional coin collector but I d always check my change for re-1965 quarters, dimes, and half dollars as these are worth a fair bit more than their face value. I also keep jars to ill with pre-1982 pennies because people practically throw away pennies and pre-1982 pennies are worth more than face value due to their copper content.

Relatively recently I have started occasionally to get a roll of quarters or half dollars at the bank.  The chances of finding a silver coin are small, but a lot better than your chances of winning something on a lotto ticket.  Further with rare coins in circulation, often simply because a thief spent it for the face value rather than the collector’s value, it’s worth a shot.

You get the potential for massive appreciation.  You get the thrill of going through from coin to coin each with a chance of epic win.  And it’s FREE! And if you lose you still have your 10$ or whatever the coin roll costs, and you just roll em up and exchange it for another.  It really is a free lottery, and with rare coins like a penny that recently was found and sold for over a million the chance for huge payouts exist (frankly no more silly a chance of jackpot than the lottery and again it’s bloody FREE).

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