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I've gone by fountains and looked at the coins trying to find silver, but no luck so far. Anyone have any stories about taking a silver coin out of a fountain (or even a donation box at a retailer) to swap it for a clad coin? I bet there might be some very entertaining stories here...

My only fountain find was as a kid when I plucked a 1902 Indian cent at our local mall. Walked by it over and over and was so reluctant to go for it, but I eventually did and threw in a clad dime to replace it.

I would dive into a fountain fully clothed for a silver quarter. Probably for an '02 Indian, too.

There's a water feature at the kids' center we volunteer at, and people toss change into it. Problem there is it's guarded by a snapping turtle. Big and mean.

Morsecode wrote:I would dive into a fountain fully clothed for a silver quarter.

The days of finding a silver quarter/dime in a fountain are long gone. The fountains are cleaned and the coins are usually collected every couple of months.

My wife snags any silver she sees at the school coin/penny drives. We always replace the coins at melt rounded up to the next dollar. I paid $4.00 each for seven 40% Kennedys last spring. The year before I got $0.35 face 90% and 93 clad Ikes.

I was dragged out of a mall by the ear as a kid by security for pulling coins out of the fountain. This was shortly after watching the Empire Strikes Back at the theater there, myself and friends waiting for parents to pick us up. That's about as far as my fountain hunting experience goes.

Zincanator wrote:I was dragged out of a mall by the ear as a kid by security for pulling coins out of the fountain. This was shortly after watching the Empire Strikes Back at the theater there, myself and friends waiting for parents to pick us up. That's about as far as my fountain hunting experience goes.

Obama has big ears. Hmmmm.... I wonder....