US Coin help

[Hello17]

oh and not wheat backs

[VickySilver]

That is a trick question. Most coins issued since the 1790s are legal tender. If you were to say: "such as one might reasonable or possibly encounter", I would say silver prior to 1965 (dime, quarter, half, dollar). Nothing since then except for mint errors or hypervarietals; unfortunately there are no freebies in circulation unless you get lucky.

[andyscouse]

Living over in the US, I can tell you that $1 coins are rarely found in circulation, despite being minted since 2000 (ignoring the Susan B Anthony ones of 79-81 & 99). The situation is similar to the UK in 1983-85 - because the £1 note was still being printed, people simply didn't use the coins. It was only after the gov't decided to stop printing, remove old notes from circulation and then eventually demonitise them (1988, I think) that the coins came into their own.

The US is about the only place that is more conservative about their coinage than the UK. So, they'll only start using $1 coins if they have to (ie, the $1 bills are removed - but that's unlikely).

That being said, in NY and Boston, $1 coins are more often seen, as vending machines in their underground systems vend $1 coins as change (buy a ticket for, say $2 with a $5 bill, and you'll get three $1 coins back).

Half-dollars are pretty much never seen, unless someone like me gets some from a bank (where they give you a strange look if you ask for them!) and then spend them. Then you have to put up with retailers (usually under 25) who have either never seen one or refuse to believe they're legal tender.

The advantage to getting halves is that there's a real chance you can get silver ones (90% 1964 and before, 40% 1965-1970). You can still find the occasional silver quarter (25¢), dime (10¢) or nickel (5¢ - made with 35% silver 1942-45) in change. Unlikely, but possible. I've found two dimes in about ten years.

Does that help?

[scottishmoney]

I search cent boxes purchased from my several banks - I go through anywhere from 1-3 boxes(2500 cents each) a week. Back in May I found this:

Lately I have been getting quite a few steel cents from 1943 in searches, yesterday I found three of them in a box. Really if they are machine rolled coins it should be impossible to get them because they should be picked up by a magnet. But then again I get 2 eurocent coins from Germany and France fairly often too.