I have all of mine, starting with the original obtained around 1972 and two for name changes due to marriage. All are with “important papers.”
Yep. I have a metal card clip that I keep in my pocket, and my Social Security card’s in it.
I was thinking about this, because the other day my youngest asked if we knew where hers was. Apparently she had allowed her passport to expire. Maybe she needed the card for a new passport, or a Real ID driver’s license. A few years back, we gave each of the three kids any “important papers” of theirs we still had. if we had it, we would have given it to her then. When our kids were born 30-ish years ago, we applied for SSNs for them in the hospital before taking them home.
Recently my wife ordered a copy of our marriage certify from the county. Apparently she needed it for some IRA/retirement stuff, and for the past 34 years all we had was whatever the preacher gave us.
With the number of people/institutions that have had my SSN over the years, it seems odd that this piece of cardboard would be considered significant.
I’m 43. I’ve been carrying it around my wallet for a couple of decades now.
Since you work there, you can confirm that the SSA will provide only a limited number of replacements for the card over a person’s lifetime–isn’t that correct? I think the number is three. So answer me this: Why is the SSA so stingy about replacing this "high-tech piece of cardboard? Especially since it’s so easily torn, or getting ruined in the wash.
Since you ask now and not two months back ------- yes; yes I do. Back during the Lincoln Administration (it seems) when I got my original one I did what everyone else did back then; went to the “five and dime” and blew 50 cents getting the number stamped on a metal version that lived in my wallet all this time. The paper original was placed in the proverbial safe place and never seen again. Fast forward to this year where I need to assemble things to get a “PA Real ID” since our standards on drivers licenses are not up to national standards and that one made by the cheap machine in the basement of HL Greene’s ain’t going to fly if I want to fly so ----------- I had to blow several hours down the Social Security Office getting a replacement paper one. It was actually quite a lark all in all despite being a morning out of my life I will never have again. You meet some interesting life forms at the SS Office in McKeesport PA on a Tuesday morning. 
Nope. It disappeared when I moved away from home back in the 70s. I’ve never had anybody ask for it.
I’m 54; I first got a card when I was 10, in 1975.
I had a card, which I kept in my wallet. My wallet was stolen in 1989, and with it, that card. I never replaced it, and I’ve not been asked to produce an actual card in the 30 years since then.
- I have it in the safety lockbox thingy under my bed with my birth certificate and some other things.
I’ve used it as identification for a number of jobs in the last few years so I’m a bit surprised at how many people haven’t seen it in decades.
I still have my original in a drawer in my desk at home. It was issued in 1948.
It says emphatically “Not to be used as identification”. Seems to be quite firm on that.
I’m in my fifties I have the original I got when I was about 12. The signature looks weird.
I had mine in a wallet when I was a kid, maybe 12 years old, and lost the wallet while on a trip to Michigan. Is there any benefit to carrying these things around? I can only think of risks & hassles.
Several years ago my wallet was stolen in Madrid. In order to get a new driver’s license I needed to get a new SS card. But first I needed a new birth certificate. I don’t remember what I needed to get before that, but now I’ve got a complete set of documents in a safe place. All because of some creep in Madrid.
I know about as much as anyone about the narrow area of SS that I work in, but pretty much NOTHING about any other area. So on something like this, I’m essentially as ignorant as anyone. (I DO have a general idea where I could go on-line, over the phone, and in-person to find out, but that isn’t anything I would do for recreation! 
I do… I had lost it for a long time, but my last job required me to show it for some bizarre reason, so I had to go to the local SSA office and apply for one, and get it in the mail a few weeks later.
Yes, in my vital documents file. I got a new card when I had a legal name change as a young adult. I’ve had a physical card for 45 years.
Hijack: Besides my SS card, I’ve also got my original birth certificate, the one that was issued when I was born over 39 years ago. It looks like it was typed on an actual typewriter! I think my parents kept it in their safe deposit box for the first 20-something years, then gave it to me when I applied for my first passport. Once I had it it went it my “important papers” lockbox.
I got my SSN and social security card when I started work at McDonald’s when I was 16 years old. A few months later, I lost the card when my wallet was stolen during swim team practice.
I didn’t think I had any particular need for a social security card for the next 15 years, because my SSN was printed on my military ID card. When I got out of the military and started work in the civilian world, they accepted my expired passport for employment eligibility verification. At some point around 2008 or so, I learned that they were no longer accepting expired documents for this purpose (including passports), so I finally went in to the Social Security office to replace my card (more than 20 years after I lost it). I haven’t needed it yet, but put it away for safekeeping.
According to the current Form I-9 (Employment Eligibility Verification Form), all documents much be unexpired. If you don’t have a valid unexpired passport, you either need your Social Security card or certified copy of your birth certificate to prove employment eligibility.
I have my original, with birth certificate and passport, locked up safe. I got it back about ‘69 or ‘70. I’m over 60.
I have one, and I keep it in my safe, after I ran my original one through the wash in my wallet.
I’m surprised at how many haven’t had to use it. I did a bit of job hopping last decade, and had to produce it for every one. I could use Birth certificate, but why? Out of all the employees that I’ve hired in my life, which has to be something over a hundred, I have had 2 passports, 3 birth certificates, and the rest have been SS cards.
Of course, there is also the fact that hiring managers sometimes don’t know what they are doing. I’ve had my birth certificate rejected (since I was down an SS card from the wash incident), and when I went to get a new SS card, they also wouldn’t take the receipt as temporary proof of employment eligibility. Both of which put them in the wrong, but they wouldn’t believe me, even when I pointed this out on the I-9’s instructions.