As my life has passed by I have had a lot of hobbies. Some of them were: collecting college pennants, collecting baseball cards, going fishing, hunting, and collecting old coins. At one point, I had 1,200 rolls of “wheat pennies” and 17 rolls of “zinc pennies”.

I also had various numbers of three cent nickels, half cents, 20 cent pieces, and miscellaneous other odd old coins. Coins come and go as time moves on. Have you seen any 50-cent pieces lately? I haven’t either. I used to get them in my pocket change. I think that they have been scooped up by coin collectors and are out of circulation.

When I was a boy, getting mercury dimes, walking liberty half-dollars and Washington quarters was the norm. There was an old man in Jena that told me that since childhood he had saved every dime he could get his hands on. He had collected for 61 years and put his dimes in glass milk bottles. When he finally counted his loot he gladly found out that he had the handsome sum of $919.20. Wow!

One of my relatives ran a country store for 35 years. He collected Washington quarters and put them in shoeboxes. When he finally counted his stash, he had $1,125 worth of quarters. Whew!

The U.S. dollar has numerous discontinued denominations. Denomination bills issued before and in 1934 and 1960 had nominations ranging from $500 to $100,000, although still legal tender, most are in the hands of collectors and museums. The reverse designs featured abstract scrollwork on 8 denominations, with exception of the $100,000 bills. These bills ceased production in the 1940’s, and recalled in 1969.

The $100,000 bills were printed only as a series 1934 gold certificate used only for internal government transactions. The United States also issued fractional currency for a brief time.

During the 1860’s and 1870’s, there were several denominations printed that were less than a dollar. Here is a list of some of the dollars mentioned: a 3-cent note, a 5-cent note, a 10-cent note, a 15- cent note, a 25-cent note, a 50-cent note, a $500 bill, a $1,000 bill, a $2,000 bill, a $5,000 bill, and a $100,000 bill. These and numerous other bills have been printed throughout the United States but are no longer in circulation. Some, like the halfcent coin, were removed due to inflation reducing their value.

Here are some coins that are either out of date or out of circulation – all are metal coins: a larger one-cent piece, a three cent nickel, a half dime, a 20-cent piece, gold dollars, and a 3-cent piece. There were: Eagles $10, the Eagles $10, and a double Eagle $20. Most of these coins are in collector’s hands or in the hands of companies who deal with rare coins.

I suspect most of you readers have some, or a lot, of the bills and coins mentioned above. Hang on to ‘em cause they ain’t going down in value!

(Narrative and photo provided by Jena native Gale Trussell)