Keeper Coins in Unexpected Places

KYshooter

Elite Member
Joined
Dec 8, 2008
Messages
1,092
Location
Cadiz, Kentucky
I know this isn't exactly metal detecting, but ... I have a unique source of coin treasures.

I am the pastor of a church. Every summer during our Vacation Bible School for kids, we take up a week-long offering for a missions project. For instance, last summer the kids' gifts paid for veterinary supplies for a team serving in Peru. This summer, their offerings bought chickens for families in Africa through Samaritan's Purse. We kind of make it a competition thing ... boys against the girls. The kids really get into it. Every day we weigh buckets with their offerings. It's all in great fun, and all for a great cause. For the past two years the kids gave over $600 to help people in other countries.

A couple of summers ago, I spotted a silver dime in one of the buckets when we made our daily trip to the bank (it has a coin counter ... awesome). I quickly grabbed it and dropped a dime out of my pocket into the bucket. I realized that there was truly no telling what these kids were dropping in the buckets each day.

So ... since then I have carefully checked these buckets full of change before redeeming them at the bank each day. If I see a coin that's a keeper, I replace it at face value ... after all, that's all the bank would give us for it.

Over the past three summers I've salvaged several collectible US coins and a plethora of foreign coins (even a few Chucky Cheese tokens ... aren't kids great?!!).

Here's a picture of the keepers. My silvers are on the left, including three war nickels. I've found one buff, several wheaties (including two 1943 steels) and many, many pre-1959 Jeffersons.
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Pretty cool, huh? And it might get a few of you to volunteer to work in VBS in your churches next year. ;)
 
that is cool....I remember VBS (or VBF as we all {fun in place of school}) was always great fun
 
i know a guy who goes through the coins local fire depts get in their boot drives and then if there is anything old of valuable he ebays it and donates the profit back to the department.
 
Great idea, KYshooter!
I keep my eyes open any time I get change. It's surprising how little most people know about the coins they spend (or donate :lol:) these days.
Nick
 
Thats really cool. I have a similar story... I worked at a resturant for two years. Often times I had to come in early in the morning to prep the veggies and meats for the days service. The carry-out had a change till with a clear plastic slide holding the coins. Every morning I would look at the edges of the coins for the silver. I would usually average 1 or 2 silver Rosies a week, 1 silver Washington quarter a month and lots of wheats and pre-1959 nickels a week. One morning I came in to do food prep and found that one of the stacks was all silver!!:shock: I couldn't believe it. I asked the manager if he would mind opening the safe so I could look at the rolls that were used to fill the till. He did so and I found four more rolls of silver dimes!!!! That was a one day total of 200 silver dimes which were all uncirculated. I'll bet some kid got grounded for that one! The dimes dated from 1946 to 1964. Take care, HH and Happy New Year!!

HDF
 
Anywhere there is change, there are old coins. It's coin roll hunting just without the rolls!:D It is a very good idea to get someone who works in retail or at a bank to watch out for rare coins for you. It can really pay off.
 
I have been helping my dad count money for our church for a while, and i have got one silver nickel and two silver qaurters... also 10-15 wheats... you never know what you will find you got to keep your eyes open all the time
 
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