kranky
Elite Member
- Oct 9, 1999
- 21,019
- 156
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In the early 1960's, coin collectors were saving new coins by the roll. Some were saving hundreds of rolls. You could get a new roll of cents at the bank for face value - 50 cents - and sell it the next year for $1.50. There was a shortage of coins at the time, and the Mint believed the collectors were causing it. In fact the real problem was the billions of coins sitting idle in vending machines. At the time vending machines weren't being emptied very often although they were becoming more and more popular. So you had many more coins being put into vending machines, but not coming back out.
But since the Mint felt the collectors were the problem (and there never was enough collectors to affect the overall availability of coinage), they decided to take action to thwart the collectors at the same time they removed the silver from the dimes/quarters. First, they kept minting 1964-dated coins, figuring they would make so many, collectors would give up saving them by the roll. And they removed the mintmarks from the coins, meaning collectors wouldn't be saving rolls from each mint.
Some years later, the Mint realized the collectors had nothing to do with the coin shortage.
But since the Mint felt the collectors were the problem (and there never was enough collectors to affect the overall availability of coinage), they decided to take action to thwart the collectors at the same time they removed the silver from the dimes/quarters. First, they kept minting 1964-dated coins, figuring they would make so many, collectors would give up saving them by the roll. And they removed the mintmarks from the coins, meaning collectors wouldn't be saving rolls from each mint.
Some years later, the Mint realized the collectors had nothing to do with the coin shortage.
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