When I was in my late teens and early 20s I was a bank teller at Seafirst bank/Bank Of America. I bought every silver coin and silver dollar that came through my line. Which was a fair amount in the mid 90s. I gave it all to my dad who had his coin collection stolen from his house by a burglar. I still have a ton of $2 bills and have been slowly giving them to my son.

During the WW2, nickle was a scarce war material, and the nickles were made of silver. They have a large mint mark on the back, and they have a dark color. I got one of those in change just a few years ago. I have a handful of them from when I was a kid and they were common. Pennies during WW2 were made of steel since copper was scarce, and needed for the war effort. Those would of course rust, and looked very different, so a lot of people kept them. I have not seen one in circulation since I was a kid.

As a kid I likely drove a local hobby shop nuts by browsing for hours looking for coins on display. I wanted an buffalo nickle, so I finally mowed enough lawns to buy the one I wanted, and in change they gave me some really worn buffalo nickles likely worth 6 cents each. I was thrilled. I know I still have them, but I have not looked at them in 30+ years as they are locked away.

I have worked retail in the past and got all sorts of stuff that way, silver, wheat pennies, and various unusual old style bills (red ink, blue ink, etc...).

I have also received silver coins as change.

I worked at a bar in the mid 90s. That bar intentionally got $2 bills from the bank to stock the register every day. I started every day with either $200 or $400 in $2 bills. I assume you could probably still order them from a bank if you wanted them. I remember once years ago flipping through channels and some home shopping channel was selling uncut sheets of them.

wasnt aware of war nickels as a kid, and 35% silver nickels didnt have enough appeal to me as an adult. They look pretty dingy as you say. I am sure some have passed through my hands. I hardly ever see change these days so I may never actually find a silver coin in the wild.

I think the steel pennies were only made in 1943. I think I've got at least 2 or 3.

I still see the occasional wheat penny, but dont recall seeing a buffalo nickel in the last decade or so at least in the wild. same design as the beautiful American buffalo bullion coin

https://coinweek.com/wp-content/uplo...ex_buffalo.jpg

Back in the late 1950s Vance, AFB in Enid, OK had lots of young pilot trainees going into town and chasing the local ladies, and acting like jerks. The local city council and mayor even discussed talking to the national congressmen and senators about shutting down the base. There were complains from citizens of the noise of the jets flying overhead.

The base commander was pretty smart. On the next payday he paid all the employees, military and civilian employees with two dollar bills. It was likely a pain for guys paying rent and larger transactions. Withing a day every single person in Enid had two dollar bills in their pockets. The city leaders did a Homer Simpson forehead slap, DOH! and realized that the base was a vital part of the local economy. Suddenly the city was offering more land to expand, and improving roads into and out of the base. Anyone that complained of the noise were then told just accept it as the sound of money and prosperity!

Vance AFB is still a vital pilot training center. My dad was stationed there when I was an infant. My wife grew up there.

I have rarely carried cash in a long time, but yes, the buffalo nickels were super rare, presumably because they were so obviously different. Hell, I suspect if you tried to use one today, most folks would refused to take it thinking it wasn't really a nickel. Wheat Pennies and <'64 dimes and quarters look like the others, so those can be easily passed and missed.

Hell, in years past, I've actually received old liberty head dimes either as change or as payment (when I was in retail).

I've also heard of (I think it was a member here) someone trying to use a $2 bill to pay for food at a fast food place. The cashier refused to take it thinking it was fake, so they called the manager who also thought it was fake. That person then called the police. I can't remember what the outcome of the cops showing up was.

Many years ago, I tried to use an old $100 bill at Fry's electronics, and despite the fact that the date on the bill was in the 1940s or 1950s or something like that, they actually tried to find the security strip in the bill. They thought it was fake and refused to take it (but they didn't try to keep it or call the cops).

Great story, thanks for sharing!

I recently had my father's and FIL's small coin collections appraised. Shoe box of sorted/assorted coins.
Silver content value and face value for the rest. I think they offered me $100 for the silver ones and nothing for the others.
How do you cash in 50 year old German coins?

I forgot about the $2 bills. I have a sheet of uncut $2's my dad picked up YEARS ago, just sitting on a shelf in the basement. Reminds me of a video I saw a while back. Some guy got sheet of uncut bills, he perforated them, went to a shop to buy something and just tore a few off to pay the cashier. Got some pretty funny looks.

Many years ago my parents owned a laundromat that accepted only dimes. washing was two dimes /drying was one etc. So I started collecting Mercury dimes. I believe I had all of them except one. It was extremely rare (1916-d). I sold the whole set for around $25.00 to one of my buddies shrewd father (a lawyer)

Those old German coins will be best sold on an auction site like EBay. Somewhere there is someone that might want them, don;t expect much for them.

I still snag a wheat penny or pre-64 silver out of circulation if I run across 'em.... which is rare these days. Don't think I've ever seen a Buffalo nickle in circulation my whole life. I do have some Buffalos though.... sez $50 on the face... I musta been taken for a fool when I paid a bit more than that though! Same with the Golden Eagles ... they gotta be worth at least a Benjamin each :D.

I wonder why they even put $50 on them .... anyone know?

That seems like good advice. My guess is you'll find folks that are specifically looking for German coins, especially if they are from war time or before. Otherwise, I suspect coins from post war will not be worth much. WHen I was a kid and "collected coins" with my allowance and money that I made mowing lawns, I'd often be able to get foreign coins for next to nothing. Unless there's something REALLY special about them, I assume they are still the same.

I worked as an assistant manager at a Hardees in the 70s and was surprised to get a few silver dollars and half dollars from the register when counting the money at night. My manager said he got a 5 and a 20 dollar gold piece from the register. They were taken in by a cashier as a nickel and a half dollar.

Probably stolen, but who knows? Our cashiers did not note that they were of any value.

^^^ From Dad's collection..no doubt.

When I worked retail, it was ok to take any valuable coins or bills...as long as you replaced them with reg money immediately.

I acquired this one recently. It was a gift.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1644355582.jpg
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1644355582.jpg

I don't know if the AFB story is apocryphal or if the technique was just borrowed and reused because it worked, but the story has been told before. Jan Levy wrote in her biography of Sandy Koufax that the then-Brooklyn Dodgers did the same thing during spring training when the locals were giving them grief about having Black ballplayers on the roster.

The Dodgers' owner (Walter O'Malley, who was a complete cheapskate in all other respects) had someone go to the local racetrack and buy as many $2 bills as he could. He had his office staff stamp each one with the Dodger's old fashioned ink authenticating stamp we all used before modern things like word processors and copy machines were invented. He gave the team the day off and gave some bills to each of the ballplayers and their families and told them to treat themselves to a holiday. A few days later there were no further complaints about integration in Vero Beach Florida.

It's entirely possible the trick was used multiple times, to the same effect.