Welcome to what I hope will become a new off-and-on series entitled Pocket Change Peculiarities! Although I am not an ardent coin collector, I have picked up some interesting items, many of which I literally found in my own pocket change, and the rest of which were certainly someone's pocket change at some point in the past. At any rate, I set aside strange stuff I find, and the really peculiar stuff gets a cardboard coin sleeve with a plastic window as shown below.
I live in the US, and have always lived in one state or another that borders Canada. As a result, plenty of Canuckistani Kopeks find their way into circulation here despite the variable exchange rate between the countries. Usually these are regarded as a nuisance, but I have discovered that they can be an interesting treasure hunt. Canadian coinage is nearly identical to the US equivalents in size, and differs primarily in the portrait on the obverse and the emblem on the reverse. Apparently Queen Elizabeth II really is worth only ±80% of a male privilege portrait?
This, however, is a silver 1946 Canadian dime with King George VI on the obverse. The Bluenose schooner has been on the reverse of this coin since 1937, but the Commonwealth coinage changes to depict the current monarch, and King George VI ruled from 1936 until 1952. Canadian silver coins were minted in an 80% silver and 20% copper composition starting in 1920 after being officially debased from 92.5% silver, also known as sterling silver. When US coins were 90% silver and Canadian coins 80% silver, the exchange rate between them was easy to calculate based on the commodity values of the melted tokens, but the various central banking shenanigans of the countries never really allows this to be as obvious and fixed as it could have been, and in the 1960s both the US and Canada began further debasing their coins to the present cupronickel US alloy and steel Canadian alloy.
There's good old Queen Elizabeth II! This must be a newer Canadian dime! Wait... It says, "Cayman Islands" around the edge. And on the back, it looks like crayfish next to the numeral 5? Odd...
Yes, this 5-cent piece from the Cayman Islands was handed to me as if it were a US dime at one point when I received my change for a purchase. This coin reacts to a magnet, so it seems to be a nickel-coated steel composition. A little research online as I type this indicates this is the first year this particular portrait was used on the obverse, and it is the third such portrait used. The Cayman Islands 10 cent piece is cupronickel and slightly smaller than a US nickel. If it weren't for the inertia of silver coinage influences determining coin sizes in the US and Canada, it would actually make more sense to have the five cent piece smaller than the 10 cent piece like the Cayman Islands.
This is by far the strangest thing I have personally seen turn up in circulation. That is not a dime. That is not even from the western hemisphere. That is an aluminum 2 Lira coin from Vatican City. It turned up in the change for the library, indicating that at some point in the past month someone paid for fines or copies with it.
What is the strangest thing you have discovered in your pocket change? Tell your story in reply!
I love to look through pocket change, although it is harder these days as I use less cash than I used to. I have found many wheat pennies, and even the occasional silver quarter/dime, but one of my favorite finds was the 1943 steel penny!
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I have a few steel pennies, although I have never found any in my pocket change. I have found the occasional wheat penny, silver quarter, silver dime, and even one silver nickel from WW2.
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All good scores! Keep on looking!
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I do, and there us more in part 2!
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My father had this huge water cooler jug, one of the old school ones made of glass. It was about half filled with pennies that he would throw in there whenever he got too many in is pocket. His silver coins he would throw in a cigar box and roll up and cash them in whenever it filled up, only keeping the rare, old or valuable coins. My brother and I decided to dump all the pennies out and sift through them at one point and we found that there were some really old rare pennies in there. At least ten of them were from the mid to late 1800s and several dozen were wheat pennies. When he was younger he would junk cars for extra cash and you always find old change under the seats when you junk cars. All of that stuff went into the jar or the box, so I'm assuming that's why he had so many old rare ones. He also had a few real silver dollars. I remember they were enormous in size compared to the dollar coins that have been minted more recently. Thanks for reminding me of that. I had forgotten about it.
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I have occasionally remembered to ask whether the cupronickel Eisenhower dollars are availabke at the bank, and I have gotten a few that way. They are about the same size as the old Peace and Morgan silver dollars
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Not so much a single coin, but three simultaneously. I'm from the UK and our pre-1947 10p and 5p coins had a much higher silver content. This made them much more valuable than their face value.
They are quite rare to find in the wild anymore, but somehow by the end of the day I ended up with three of them!
Even though the value only totaled about £30 at the time, it was still more than I started the day with.
I'very kept them as good luck charms of sorts.
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Gresham's Law at work! The same happens when I find 1964 or earlier dimes and quarters, or these Canadian equivalents.
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Some years ago we were in the US, while there we only saw a $1 coin at Las Vegas, and only as change for the monorail.
Once we had them, we couldn't spend them anywhere. Only paper $1 were any good, we brought the coins home to gove to the grandees.
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I once worked at a business where there was a vending machine that accepted Susan B. Anthony, Sacagawea, and Presidential dollars. It can be fun to use them at fast food joints just to watch the kids behind the counter get confused.
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Everywhere we went the person behind the counter asked for paper, not that.
They were even happy to count out a pocket full of change, rather than accept them.
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I find that a bit odd. But perhaps it is because cash registers rarely have an extra slot for even half-dollars, much less dollar coins.
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