Sounds like me, but I’m pretty sure I got mine when I was 16 (when I started my first “real” - athough parttime – job). It’s in a file folder in one of my desk drawers with other vital records stuff.
For years, I used to have a metal file box (about 10 x 12 x 6) that my mom gave me that was the same as the one she used. It was always called “the can.” When my brother moved to Costa Rica, he left some of his paperwork with us in one of these, and when something comes in the mail that he wants us to keep for him, he just says “put it in the can.”
Edited to add: My old company used to use the ssn as the employee id number !!! I can still remember the huge kerfuffle when my group selected a population for a mailing and sent the file to the mailroom with the ssns still on the address that showed in the window of the envelope. Kerfuffle!
It is a good idea to NOT laminate your Social Security card, because some identity verification policies, including Real ID, will not accept a laminated card.
I’m 44, and I don’t recall ever seeing my social security card. I’m sure at some point I must have needed to produce it for something (though I’m not sure what. Drivers license?) But I have never had need for it in my adult life, and I simply have no recollection of ever seeing it.
I’m 52, and I still have the one I signed when I was probably twelve, judging by the handwriting. When I was in college I worked at a video store where ewe had a laminating machine (for membership cards); I laminated my SS card so it wouldn’t fall apart. I know it’s in a drawer somewhere in the house now, but I can’t recall where.
I have my original card somewhere - I usually use my passport for I-9 purposes, but I recall seeing my SS card in the not-too-distant past. I’ve had it since I was a little kid; I don’t know when my parents got it for me.
Yep, have my original paper (gawd, who thought that was a good idea?) complete with childish-looking-to-me signature. My parents were naturalized when I was, dunno, 7 ish, so it would date back to the mid 80s.
I actually have two copies. I got a replacement for my original lost one when I had to have it for a job. Then I found the original several months later.
Both now reside in the important stuff storage safe.
I don’t think it was really even an idea at the time they took their current form. Paper was what every other document was made of too (passports had recently taken the form of booklets with hard covers, but were just plain paper inside with a stuck-on photograph, and in any case almost nobody had one). And since then, it’s just inertia.
I don’t have mine any more. In the unlikely event that I ever move to the US again I’ll need to apply for a new one (the card only, the number I remember by heart).
Spain has two equivalents used for different purposes: my UHC card has the Número de la Seguridad Social; my passport, National ID and Driver’s license have my Tax ID (in a slightly different format for the passport and the other two). They’re both linked, so if I need to access the healthcare system and don’t have my card I can just show any of the other three.
I never learned my Swiss one by heart but I think my old insurance card which I keep as a souvenir does have it; as in the US, the same number works for all tax purposes. In any case, if I ever move to Switzerland again I expect they’ll be able to find my old number.
I had a job with the state for about 10 minutes and I had to order a copy of it to finalize the paperwork. Still got the card in my wallet but that job was ridiculous.