How many...?

[Finn235]

I've noticed that even though none of these coins are particularly rare or valuable (on average), they almost never show up in circulation. My hypothesis as to why is that they are widely publicized and easily recognizable, which leads to hoarding en masse.

 

An interesting question occurred to me, though: Are a majority of them evenly dispersed among a very large number of people, or have most of them been stashed away in large private hoards?

 

I personally have about:

 

85 state quarters

175 wheat pennies

30 half dollars

2 Ike dollars

50 SBA dollars

[ElleKitty]

I have a quart milk jar that I throw all my wheaties into. I used to find them in circulation somewhat frequently, but these days I never, ever see them except in plastic coffins at the coin store.

 

The rest I have a few of, and keep when I find them. I never see Ike dollars or Kennedy halves in circ, but I do find the bicentennial quarters often. I usually tuck them away for posterity regardless of knowing they're likely only worth 24 1/2 cents each. [sarcasm!]

[Mark Stilson]

On the bicentennial quarters, Ike's, sba's, clad halves just the mint and proof sets maybe a couple extra Ike's in boxes. I probably should have said full set. Only clad halves I may be missing is the years they did the souvenir sets only. Wheat cents I just take a quick look at and toss in with the rest I've stashed away.

[Saor Alba]

I have been doing good on hoarding Ikes lately with the help of my bank ladies, I have at least 800 of them presently. I once had over 6000 wheats, but I sold 5000 of them, but am slowly re-accumulating them from box searches. Don't care about the Bicentennial quarters.

[Finn235]

I have been doing good on hoarding Ikes lately with the help of my bank ladies, I have at least 800 of them presently.

 

Dang! So that's where they all went!

[just carl]

There are many reasons many of those are not in circulation. No one really likes spending or accepting those baby sized dollars. They get mixed up with quarters, no slots for them in conductors coin holders, many vending machines will not take them, most cash registers have no place for them and most look wierd. Basically the same with half and Ike dollars. In many banks now half dollars are being sent to the Federal Researve and not carried by banking systems anymore. Bank of America has told thier staffs not to order them any more for anyone. Halves are just on the way out completely. If you can find any anywhere, grab them.

As for those baby sized dollars many banks were told to try to popularize them and ask customers if they want them. Usually they just sit there.

[Drusus]

I dont collect US coins but have a few examples of all of the above. I still see all of them in circulation...less of the dollars than the others.

[Finn235]

There are many reasons many of those are not in circulation. No one really likes spending or accepting those baby sized dollars. They get mixed up with quarters, no slots for them in conductors coin holders, many vending machines will not take them, most cash registers have no place for them and most look wierd. Basically the same with half and Ike dollars. In many banks now half dollars are being sent to the Federal Researve and not carried by banking systems anymore. Bank of America has told thier staffs not to order them any more for anyone. Halves are just on the way out completely. If you can find any anywhere, grab them.

As for those baby sized dollars many banks were told to try to popularize them and ask customers if they want them. Usually they just sit there.

 

 

Technically, all cash registers have an extra slot for half dollars and dollar coins. But, in the past 2 years of working as a cashier, I have only seen about 5 small-size dollars and 3 half dollars come through circulation. We usually use the extra compartment to store paper clips and extra rolls of coins we don't need to break yet. The only denomination that's caused a real problem is the $2 bill. That always raises the question, "Do I put it under the singles, on top of the 5's, or in with the 100's and 50's?" I personally resolve this issue by making some quick change for it when nobody's looking

 

Still, Ike dollars notwithstanding, I have never seen a machine fail to take dollar coins. I read somewhere that the primary reason the '99 SBA dollars were made was for use in vending machines. Every time I go to the bank, they are usually sitting on top of about $300 worth of small-size dollar coins that they just can't get rid of. Most of the time I take 1 or 2 rolls, pick out all the good coins, and feed the junk into circulation slowly.

[hiho]

Most of my coins are dated before 1950. Like 1750...

[ccg]

I've not really into saving halves and dollars, unless they're UNC or aUNC. I've got $50 in halves waiting to be spent.

[Finn235]

Wanna ship 'em over here?