Mindbender #1216

[SMLCHNG]

The average one will last between 28 and 30 years.

[SeattleParrotHead]

Marriage

[LIPH]

coin (I read that somewhere many years ago. In fact, it may have been 28-30 years ago.

[SeattleParrotHead]

I've been married 36+ years... I have no coin.

[SeattleParrotHead]

Pickup truck

[Saltx3]

I've been married 36+ years... I have no coin.

37 on 6/11/20 -- me neither

[PetalMel]

mobile home.

[SMLCHNG]

coin (I read that somewhere many years ago. In fact, it may have been 28-30 years ago.

[Bicycle Bill]

So what happens to them after 28-30 years?  It's not like they dissolve, or the government recalls them and replaces them with newly minted coins.  Do they just get lost, or just hoarded by collectors?

I grant you, you don't see too many pennies from prior to 1959 around (when they switched the design on the reverse from the 'grains of wheat' to the Lincoln Memorial), but there are still some in circulation.  Ditto the Jefferson nickels.  And about the only reason you don't see dimes, quarters, or half-dollars from prior to 1963 is because that was when they switched them from silver to a copper core clad in silver (later nickel), so people are hoarding them (or have already melted them down) for the value of the silver in them.

But with a few exception (such as the bi-centennial quarter, half-dollars, and dollar coins — again, most of which are in the hands of collectors or hoarders), any US coin minted since 1965 has as much chance of being in circulation now, 55 years later, as one released from the mint just yesterday.

-"BB"-

[Saltx3]

So what happens to them after 28-30 years?  It's not like they dissolve, or the government recalls them and replaces them with newly minted coins.  Do they just get lost, or just hoarded by collectors?

I grant you, you don't see too many pennies from prior to 1959 around (when they switched the design on the reverse from the 'grains of wheat' to the Lincoln Memorial), but there are still some in circulation.  Ditto the Jefferson nickels.  And about the only reason you don't see dimes, quarters, or half-dollars from prior to 1963 is because that was when they switched them from silver to a copper core clad in silver (later nickel), so people are hoarding them (or have already melted them down) for the value of the silver in them.

But with a few exception (such as the bi-centennial quarter, half-dollars, and dollar coins — again, most of which are in the hands of collectors or hoarders), any US coin minted since 1965 has as much chance of being in circulation now, 55 years later, as one released from the mint just yesterday.

-"BB"-

Is this why we're having a coin shortage right now