I have a dutch ducatoon and a piece of eight from 1635, salvaged from a shipwreck. I found it the day I was snorkelling over a shipwreck in Grand Cayman. Unfortunately, I found the coins in a coin store, and it wasn’t from the shipwreck I was snorkelling over. Still, they’re damn old and really nifty looking.
My brother once received a WW2-era steel penny in his change. It’s been years, so I don’t know if he still has it.
I have an ancient Roman coin but it needs to be cleaned.
I HAD an American penny (I’m Canadian) from 1942. I kept it especially because they had just entered the war and maybe it would be worth more… I think I lost it though :smack:
When my father and I started collecting in the late 1950’s, there were some interesting things you could still get out of circulation. We completed an entire collection of Lincoln cents to date (1958, IIRC) except for a 1931-S and a 1909-S-VDB completely from circulation, and were approaching this on buffalo and Jefferson nickels and Liberty and Roosevelt dimes. Got about a dozen Indian head pennies out of circulation, too. (One advantage – we were friends and neighbors with the people who owned the city bus company, and so would take $10 or so in pennies home at a time to sort through from their receipts before they deposited it.) Best find: a 1909-VDB in almost-uncirculated condition – it looked as though it’d been handled only once or twice in the 50 year span since being minted.
I have a mint 1909 S-VDB, sucker is worth a nice chunk of change. My grandfather helped me build a nice collection when I was a kid. I have no idea where he got it, or how long he held on to that one penny. That and my 1899 Silver Certificate dollar. I dont’ think it’s worth much, but those two things I’ll never sell.
I once got a 1907 nickel in my 7-11 change. Where do they get those things? I’m holding onto it till 2007.
More recently, I found a mint condition 1940’s dime on the street. And I once found a 1956 shilling in the parking lot behind my apartment house.
I save all these things. Might need to turn them in some day.
Years ago, when I was an avid coin collector, I found in my change a 1982 dime with no mintmark (all dimes minted since 1980 are supposed to have a mintmark, but that year the Philadelphia mint produced a couple of thousand without one). The list price for an uncirculated specimen was around $150-200; mine was well used, but I was still able to get about $50 for it at a coin shop.
Some guy found an 1800’s silver dollar in my city & put up a sign in his yard giving thanks
that he found it. But someone must have reported him or the cops saw the sign cause in this city if you find
something you have to give it to the cops for 90 days & his sign was down in a day. lol
I was selling Scout-O-Rama tickets (the hateful things) door to door once and a guy bought one with five $1 silver certificates. I still have three of them. I believe I used the other two to buy candy from my sister. I hope she saved them.
Hmm, actually I just looked it up (oh the joy of the internet) and they’re worth…[drumroll]…$1.25 in “circulated” condition. Or probably $1.00 in beat-to-hell condition, which is what mine are.
Osip said
Well, here’s the problem. You contend that you have Mexican Pesos from the 1850’s.
Mexico never heard of Pesos as a coin until 1864 when Maximilian became the Emperor.
So, either change your dream sequence or dig those puppies out and tell me what their dates/denomination are.
My local coin dealer has a small bucket full of Indian-Head/Buffalo nickels that he sells for 20 cents each. That’s his selling price; the price he’d be willing to pay to buy one from some guy off the street would of course be less.
So unless the buffalo on the back of that 1937 nickel is missing one of its legs, I wouldn’t bet on being able to sell either of those nickels for more than 15 cents or so.
:eek: Ye gods! Those were the Barber-head V-back nickels that were minted before the Buffalo nickels! Whoo.
I don’t know about them thar fancy-chmancy non-U.S. coins like “shillings”. Must be from some durned furrigners. 
As to the dime, was it post-1946 or pre-1946? I.e. did it have Roosevelt’s picture on the front, or a pictue of Lady Liberty wearing a winged shower cap? (I once found a 1933 S variety of the latter in a campground about 27 years ago, but it was so dirty it looked like a penny at first.)
It was 1940, with the Lady Liberty on it. Mint condition. How much?
Depends on what you mean by “mint condition”. If you found it on the street, it isn’t in true Mint State (uncirculated) condition. It might, however, qualify for “About uncirculated” condition.
Unfortunately, being “shiny” is not an indicator of a coin’s condition. Anyone can dunk a silver coin in Tarn-X and polish it. No, the condition of the coin is based on the degree of wear. One way to tell if it’s in About Uncirculated condition or not is to look at the fasces on the back. That’s the pillar with the axe head sticking out of one side. Notice that across the fasces, there are three horizontal bands. Look very closely at the middle band. No, closer. Really closely. You’re not close enough yet. There! If the coin is in pristine shape, you should be able to see a horizontal split down the middle of the center band, i.e. it’s actually two horizontal bands, squished one right on top of the other.
If you don’t see the split at all, or if the split doesn’t run the full width of the band, then it’s not About Uncirculated condition. The split-band is one of the first things to wear off when people handle such a dime with their fingers.
The other question is, does this 1940 dime have a mint mark? That is, is there a little letter “D” or “S” on the back, near the rim, right after the big “E” in “ONE”? That will have an effect on its value.
Well is what I was told… what were they called exactly?
I Know they are Mexican, silver and have the dates correct.
Will run down to the bank SD box next week.
I just always assumed it was a peso.
<tracer, now in the comfort of his own home, hauls out his copy of R.S. Yeoman’s A Guidebook of United States Coins, 2002 edition>
There is no price listing for About Uncirculated quality dimes in this book for that year. However, if your 1940 dime is in Extra Fine condition (the next tier below About Uncirculated, which is a reasonable guess), it’s worth $1.25 regardless of whether it’s a 1940 D, 1940 S or 1940 plain.
The rarest bill i have is a Canadian $50 bill from 1950’s that i received from the bank. the bill had the infamous devil’s face in her hair and was shortly after being issued was changed.
As far as short-lived coin issues go, I have a 1917 Vairety 1 standing liberty quarter. That was the one where Lady Liberty’s left boob was hanging out in the breeze for all the world to see. (Not that you can see much from a tiny image on an inch-wide worn-down disc of metal, of course.)
This design was changed soon after its introduction so that Lady Liberty’s breast was covered. Too bad. I think we could all use some more boobs on our money.
Keep the faith.
I have it on good authority that they will print a set of notes in the near future featuring portraits of Clinton, Rush, Ann Coulter, etc.