Did You Ever Wonder.....

[Ryan1979]

I started thinking about this when I started this little hobby this Spring. Kinda stupid maybe, but kind of interesting yet besides.

Now, myself, I haven't found much in the way of 'monetary value'. Some clad, one wheatie, one minor silver ring, etc, but.....I do tend to wonder about the people that lost or dropped some of the finds that are posted on here. Do you?

For example, let's say you live in the 1800's and you're a normal Joe, whoever. For whatever reason, you drop or lose a 1/2 dollar, or a pocketfull of change. I don't know the exact 'nowadays' value of a 1/2 dollar compared to those times, but I'm betting that a 1/2 dollar then bought a whole lot more than it does now. I sometime wonder the story behind the loss, and how it affected the person or family. Too bad we don't know the whole story, but I guess that is what makes this hobby so unique. Think about it. Especially when you're talking about a large dollar loss for a poor family with kids. I'll bet a 1/2 dollar went a long ways in those days to 'feed the family' or pay a mortgage, etc. Or is this just a stupid thought? I guess maybe I like the history too much!

 

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[Tom_in_CA]

Yes, loosing a quarter, half or dollar back then, would be like us loosing $10, $20 or $50, etc.... I read in a history book, for example, that in the 1880s, a miners pay for a MONTH, was a $20 gold piece (with room and board provided). I found a $20 gold at stage stop leading to the very mines that I read this piece of history about, and it was strange to think that I was finding a miner's month's pay! I mean, if you subtract the room and board they were provided, wouldn't that still be like you or I loosing $1000-ish?

 

[Farmercal]

I have thought about that a lot and figure that is why in the rural areas I search a lot, the highest denomination coin I usually find is a dime. I talking coins from 1900 - 1950ish. Sure I find larger coins of clad composition but the old silver in the country is rare. Pennies are in abundance, so I guess loosing money was a bid deal back when you didin't have a whole lot.

 

[deepskyal]

I was walking in a grocery store a while back and an old woman with a walker was ahead of me......all her 5&10 dollar bills falling out of pocket as she inched along. She was totally unaware of what was going on.

I did the noble thing and collected it as she went til I caught up to her to return it. But....what lose to her had someone come along and snagged it for personal gain.

Would that woman been able to eat?

Detecting is a different story, but the scenario is the same.
Some poor sot out his food money. We dont know who lost it and they're probably dead anyhow.

But yea, when I was a kid, for a quarter...a bottle of pop, a couple candy bars (and not the little ones, full size like you pay a buck for now) and maybe some penny candy just to spend whats left.

Today, for the same..hmmm. dollar for the pop, 2 bucks for the candy bars...penny candy I only know one place to get that treat anymore.
So...that 25 cent is now 3.50/4.00 bucks.

 

[desertfox]

Not only was a 1/2 a buck a lot of money back in the 1880's it was also in the 1920's. My grandfather worked for a railroad in Maine in the 1920's and only made a buck fifty a day, that paid for the farm (30 acres) 10 kids and a wife, clothes, transpertation and most of the food on the table. Do you know what 50cents buys today?

HH and keep on finding those 50cent pcs.

Desertfox

 

[dahut]

Yep

Let me add a little dose of perspective to this talk of the intrinsic value that money once had. Since it was actually made of precious metal and valued more, by extrapolation it bought more... so you didn’t need so much of it.

This leads to the fact that people just didn’t carry around a pocket full of change like we do now. Dig into your pockets today and you’ll probably have a handful of clad rattling around in there. Of course we’re speaking in generalities and there are exceptions to every rule, but people just didn’t tote a bunch of pocket money around with them back in the good old days.

There were no vending machines and little of the impulse buying sources as we have now. Urban areas, by nature, afforded more opportunity to spend coin, on everything from newspapers to trolley fare. But even there, folks didn’t get around quite as much, sticking close to home. They didnt make much money and so pocketfuls of money wasn’t as pressing a need as we modern, metro-citizens feel it is. In the rural areas of the country, which predominated back then, this was especially so.

For the moment, realize too, that not everyone was a butterfingered clutz that dropped everything which came into their hands. We as come-after scavengers, searching for the leavings of others, fervently want this to be the case, but it aint so. Folks were pretty tight-fisted, in fact. A visit to a museum to see period clothes will reveal that they had stout pockets, usually made of canvas duck and double sewn - and they were deep! There was also the common use of coin purses to consider. Even men used them, without fear that their sexual orientation would be called into question.

Paper money has been around along time, as well. We also like to imagine that every human being in those days hated banks with every fiber of their being - and so kept every cent they ever had as silver coins in a mason jar, squirreled away somewhere. Most people had an "egg and milk" stash, yes, but it wasn't normally some miserly horde to rival that of King Midas himself. Those lurid visions are ours alone.

By the post civil war era, people were using paper money pretty freely, too. Sure, they still used coinage as a prominent exchange medium, but paper money was also in use. That has changed little in the last 100-150 years.

What usually happened is that they tended to carry enough moneyin either form for whatever it was they needed or wanted to buy and they made a deliberate, sometimes eventful trip to get it. Any change leftover was secreted away in a pocket or coin purse pretty quickly. I watched my grandmothers do just that often enough, when I was a small child. That was a long time habit, one THEY learned from their elders in hardscrabble times.

Those folks were more like us than you think. They watched their money pretty close and the rest of the time they had work to do or something else going on close to home and didn’t need their hard earned money clanking around in their pockets. When seen this way, and adding it to the talk of value already covered, it is all the more remarkable to find any coin more than a 100 years old.

 

[savant365]

I don't wonder so much about the coins as I do the jewelery I see people find on here. It amazes me that people lose wedding rings and expensive diamonds. Some of them could have been personal purchases but I always relate jewelery with being a gift from someone else. How did the person that lost a gift from a loved one or handed down through their family feel when they realized it was gone? How long did they retrace their steps trying to find it? How did they explain losing it?

 

[Green1]

great topic,, i think bout this stuff a lot.. especially when i find an older half dollar.... or something where there should be nothing at all....

 

[joya_dorado]

Something to keep in mind... a one ounce gold coin would buy in 1907 almost exactly what it will buy now. You could get a decent suit, a good meal and a night in a modest hotel for an ounce of gold 100 years ago just like you can today.

 

[ashleen]

okay...maybe i'm weird but......
I wonder about the diamond solitairs, the wedding bands.......
how many of them were THROWN away?? :P

 

[stoney56]

Very true dahut. When they worked 10 to 12 a day for $10-$20 a month and made numerous sacrifices in order to literally pinch a few pennies and maybe be able to stash $1-$2 in a Prince Albert can or other convinient container. The same goes for the wife's egg and butter money. Both stashed and didn't tell each other so as to have something for a rainy day. Remember too that back then there was a lot of bartering going on. Say just for example, this out of an old local or semi-local newspaper from July 15, 1880:

HAY WANTED. I have a good span of mules, a span of horses and wagon, a mowing machine and rake, nearly new, to trade for hay. To be delivered in Winfield or tacked in the field. For further information address E. L. HAZARD, Little Dutch, Ks.

 

[gallileo60]

Heres one for you.....The coins you find may have been touched by one of your ancestors, or by the president of the US.....I found a 1950 something penny in the drive of my home (was my parents home) it was more than likely dropped by my Dad, kinda cool.....These older coins are a part of history, and are worth far more than there face, or numismatic value........They are a piece of AMERICA...............