New here, just saying hello, random observation

[Ireland_925]

Hello, I have been reading the forum for a while and just recently decided to join. I'm mostly a pocket change picker but I do admire the dedication that a lot of you show in being serious hoarders. I find, like most here, sorting coins (and scrapping metal) is a very relaxing hobby that gets me away from TV and other unproductive things and whatever profit made is just a nice bonus.

Anyway, I recently visited a casino and noticed something. This particular time I cashed out several times and ended up with a pocket full of change at the end of the night. As I sorted through them, I found a very high number of certain coins that I routinely pluck out of my change. I would say at least 60% of the pennies were copper, about 1 in 4 quarters were bicentennial, and I found several pre-1950's nickels. Nothing really spectacular, but to see this many older coins in one handful was abnormal. Anymore, it seems like I find a bicentennial maybe once in $25 worth of quarters and rarely ever find nickels that old. I know a lot of casinos will cash change for people (knowing you will lose it back to them) and I wonder how many older folks are taking their old jars full of coins with them to the casino. I am considering going back at cashing out a lot more to see if what I saw this time continues.

So, if you're a casino visitor, you may try to cash out a lot and see what you may find. I know if nothing else, it would cause me to spend less time losing my money at a machine, so it's a win-win either way.

Like I said, just a random observation and thought, and hello to the board.

[Country]

WELCOME!!!

Please feel free to ask questions. Plenty of folks here with lots of experience.

[Ireland_925]

Thanks Country. I frequent a lot of boards and this one is the most diverse input (copper, silver, gold, scrapping, numismatics...) that I have found and has, by far, the most respectful members. I think this board will see a huge boom in the next few coming years, they will be interesting.

[HoardCopperByTheTon]

Welcome to the board Ireland_925. Is the 925 for sterling, or for your area code?

I have done opposite at casinos when I visit them. If I know I will be going to a casino soon, I bring a couple of bags of halves or dimes to dump. They generally have decent speed counters and it is a good way to diversify my dumping so I cut down on what I am dumping on my banks.

[Ireland_925]

Hey Hoard, glad to hear from the guru on my first post. Yep, 925 represents my interest in silver, and Ireland represents my family roots (in frugality and other things), which ultimately got me into metals and led me to a board such as this. Yes, I agree, if you have a casino near you that will take coins, then dump as many as you can. Most will not give you the grief a bank would to dump coins, they love any form of money that knocks on their door.

Haa, I like it. The redemption machines I see only give out quarters, nickels, and pennies. May have to ask what they do with the halves that people cash in. May be a good opportunity to grab some CWR halves that people bring, then return them to "play on".

Thanks for the reply.

[ed_vantage17]

Used to find a lot of 40% silver halves at my local poker room, but they changed their rake to even dollar amounts and no longer have halves. They switched over to coinless slots so the only place to get halves was in the poker room. The cage would sell you a roll if you asked, but there was no getting a ton of them to search through.

[psi]

Thought you were referring to Irish silver coins but I just discovered that those were .750 silver instead. I wouldn't mind having some of those, my family is from Ireland too and I like the wildlife and farm animals motif of their pre-Euro coins. The Irish coins I do have were brought back by my dad who made a couple of trips there to play music.

[Ireland_925]

Yeah, I like the animal theme too, plus they have kind of an old Celtic look to them. Very cool. I don't have many either but would love to put a type set together sometime. I figured I would wait until the silver price cooled off a little, as these would be coins I would want to keep and pass down, not collect for the silver value.

Sorry folks if this has gotten too off topic for the penny forum.

[csb3tennessee]

I went to Vegas about 10 yrs ago for a 2 day meeting. It was free and they put my wife and me up at the Venetian (wow- what a spread!). Anyway, I don't gamble, but found the slot machines, tables, and activity interesting. I came out ahead- I found a quarter on the floor. Its a little hard finding half dollars where I live (in quantity), so I decided to buy about $600-$700 worth to take home. No sweat until we went to the airport. Yep- they pulled me over, examined all the halves and wondered what in the heck I was doing with them. After I explained, the security guard said "son, don't you know its illegal to take money home from Vegas? You're supposed to lose it all here!"

BTW- welcome Ireland. I also have a lot of Irish in my blood (mom was a Murphy)!

[HoardCopperByTheTon]

I am mostly Irish as well. I like those animal themed coins as well, and have several in my collection. I have a bad habit of calling some of those ugly abes with the verdigris "Irish cents"

[Ireland_925]

I've never been to Vegas, we just go to the local horsetracks that have casinos at them every now and then.

Here's a firsthand example that makes me wonder if casinos would be a good place to keep an eye out for dumped old coins and/or collections. Back in college my brother wanted me to go down to a riverboat casino with him. I didn't have any money, so I decided I would take and cash in an old tin of pennies that I had been given and had sat for years. They cashed my $30 worth of pennies with no problems. It was $30 worth of true unsearched wheats that my grandpa had saved for years and years. At that time I didn't know anything about wheats other than you could get 2-3 cents for them maybe if you found the right person, so to me back then they had no real value over any other penny. One of those stupid things you wish go back and change. Always wondered what good stuff might have been in that tin. At least it was a good lesson to learn early in life that most people probably never learn.

Just got me thinking when I saw all those old coins in my pocket full of change recently. I wondered if they partly stock their redemption machines with coins people bring in. I'm sure there is no shortage of people bringing in old coin collections to casinos, either out of ignorance or desparation. I have heard the same happens frequently at liquor stores too. People bring in there silver coins as a last resort.