You clearly missed the mess whereby people could order the coins online with
free postage, which was intended as a way to get the coins into circulation
by allowing people on the ground to obtain them, ...

A note on the Mint's web site says that they now charge a $12.50
service charge on orders of bulk dollar coins, and they don't accept
credit cards for them, so that trick doesn't work any more. If you
actually want dollar coins, it's now easier and cheaper to get them at
face value from your local bank. I got a nice roll of Garfields last
week.

And it had nothing to do with the particular coins being offered -- it
would have worked just as well with Statehood Quarters or Lewis &
Clark Nickels or any ordinary coins.

Sigh. If you'd ever actually looked at the Mint's web site, you'd
know that the bags of dollar coins are the only thing they sold there
at face value. You could (and can) buy a bag of 100 quarters, but not
for $25.

R's,
John

In Phil Kane writes:

The ATMs in Israel will dispense in dollars, Euros, or NewShekels. A
far cry from the time I lived there in the 1960s when non-Israeli
currency was available only on the Lilienbloom Street "private market"
which in fact was supported by the Bank of Israel but one had to go
through a "doorway transaction" suitable for a B-movie scene....and
the exchange rate "on the street" was published on Page 2 of the
papers right next to the official banking exchange rate !

Ah yes, the _three_ exchange rates. There was
the official one, the unofficial but winked
at black market one, and....

ok, Phil.. show us how good your memory was...
tell us the name for the third one.

(rot-13: vairfgzraq engr, sbe crbcyr jvyyvat
gb ohvyq n grkgvyr snpgbel)

onyctransit: with the new Cornell/Technion (Israel's
answer to CalTech) joint advanced college
tech grounds recently announced for Welfare
Island, some of the brightest minds in the world
will be eagerly trying to solve the problem
of an 8,000 mile range transporter.

--
__________________________________________________ ___
Knowledge may be power, but communications is the key

[to foil spammers, my address has been double rot-13 encoded]

On Jan 1, 2:05*pm, Phil Kane wrote:
On Sun, 1 Jan 2012 09:25:53 -0800 (PST), "Peter T. Daniels"

wrote:
Similarly, when all paper money stopped being
issued except Federal Reserve Notes, they simply stayed in circulation
until they wore out. I remember at least three different kinds --
their designs were almost identical (the engraved scrollwork may have
differed), but the seal and serial numbers were in different colors --
one of them was Silver Certificates, I think with a blue seal. (FRNs
have a green seal.)

Silver Certificates have blue seals and numbers (I have a few stored
with some $2 bills), FRNs are green, and U.S. Notes (very rare) had
red. *"Occupation Money" - specially printed for Hawaii after the
attack on Pearl Harbor and later used to pay GIs in Japan - had
yellow. *Rarest of all now.

Yeah, I thought I might have occasionally seen a red one! Hawaiian
money was not likely to turn up in NYC, especially more than a decade
later!

I did once see a Hawaii license plate -- on a car in Washington, DC.

About 20 years ago I asked a family friend who was a coin and currency
dealer what the value of my Silver Certificates was. *"Face Value", he
said. *I didn't have enough to buy the "mini-Hershey Bar" of silver
that the Treasury was offering as an incentive (gimmick?) to get them
out of circulation.
--

Phil Kane - Beaverton, OR
PNW Beburg MP 28.0 - OE District

On Jan 1, 3:17*pm, John Levine wrote:
You clearly missed the mess whereby people could order the coins online with
free postage, which was intended as a way to get the coins into circulation
by allowing people on the ground to obtain them, ...

A note on the Mint's web site says that they now charge a $12.50
service charge on orders of bulk dollar coins, and they don't accept
credit cards for them, so that trick doesn't work any more. *If you
actually want dollar coins, it's now easier and cheaper to get them at
face value from your local bank. *I got a nice roll of Garfields last
week.

And it had nothing to do with the particular coins being offered -- it
would have worked just as well with Statehood Quarters or Lewis &
Clark Nickels or any ordinary coins.

Sigh. *If you'd ever actually looked at the Mint's web site, you'd
know that the bags of dollar coins are the only thing they sold there
at face value. *You could (and can) buy a bag of 100 quarters, but not
for $25.

You really are as stupid as you appear. (Are you just itching to send
another email to my spam folder, like you did earlier?)

The scam WOULD HAVE WORKED JUST AS WELL with any coins that were
offered the way the commemorative dollars were offered. Presumably
that was a desperate attempt to get into circulation coins that no one
was interested in circulating, despite what a couple of crazed
congressmen wanted.

"Peter T. Daniels" wrote in message
...

(In 1992, when my Irish host drove us to Ulster for a day trip -- we
stopped at Downpatrick to see St. Patrick's tomb, and the most
unfortunate restoration of St. Patrick's Cathedral to its Victorian
splendor, as opposed to something approaching its original appearance
-- I rather doubt that they would have welcomed Irish pounds. He was
desperate to get back into Ireland before dark.)

As it happens I also visited Ireland in 1992 and spent time on both sides of
the border. My recollection was that retailers close to the border did tend
to accept both currencies, but after twenty years I could well have
misremembered


In 1965, when silver coins were replaced by clad coins, the old ones
weren't recalled or demonetized or anything; the ones that weren't in
the collectors pool were simply retired as they were deposited in
banks, presumably to eventually be melted down for whatever else
silver was used for.

As mentioned elsewhere in the thread, when the UK went decimal in 1971 the
former one shilling and two shilling coins remained unchanged, apart from
the details of the design, but became 5p and 10p coins. So a lot of coins
with 'one shilling' or 'two shilling' inscriptions remained in circulation
until the new, smaller, 5p and 10p coins were introduced in the early 1990s.
But in later years the oldest shilling or two shilling coins in widespread
circulation were from 1947, because the older coins had a higher silver
content and thus would have significant scrap value


When I was little and we went to Canada for several summer vacations,
merchants on either side of the border would take the other's
currency, at a stated premium/discount that was considerably higher
than the exchange rate. That was, at best, a courtesy. Montreal
probably got flooded with greenbacks during Expo '67 (I was 15, I
didn't get to do much spending), and to this day they probably are
happy to take US currency.

And back in London, it seemed every bank
(branch) had an ATM-like machine outside for currency exchange -- I
put in $100 in $20 bills and it gave me the appropriate amount in
sterling (less a hefty fee). In those days it had to deal with a dozen
or more currencies at least, so including US dollars was no big deal
-- but these days, does it accept anything but euros? Or is there
enough tourist trade from the odd-countries-out that they are so
publicly served?

There's a travel agent near me that advertises currency exchange and still
has rates for 8-10 currencies advertised outside. In practice I tend to
rely on ATMs when I travel these days, so I've no idea how many different
currencies they'd be able to handle over the counter

Martin

In article ,
(Martin Rich) wrote:

"Peter T. Daniels" wrote in message
.
..

(In 1992, when my Irish host drove us to Ulster for a day trip -- we
stopped at Downpatrick to see St. Patrick's tomb, and the most
unfortunate restoration of St. Patrick's Cathedral to its Victorian
splendor, as opposed to something approaching its original
appearance
-- I rather doubt that they would have welcomed Irish pounds. He was
desperate to get back into Ireland before dark.)

As it happens I also visited Ireland in 1992 and spent time on both
sides of the border. My recollection was that retailers close to the
border did tend to accept both currencies, but after twenty years I
could well have misremembered

It wouldn't have been that long then since Ireland had left the Sterling
Area. Until then the two sides of the irish border had the same currency.

--
Colin Rosenstiel

wrote:

...and when particular note& coins have been phased out some shops have
been more willing to accept them past the official withdrawal date than
others.

At some sort of discount for the retailers, I presume.

More that they believe the benefits of accepting the cash customers offer
(particularly goodwill) are sufficient to do it. Of course it's easier for
larger stores with multiple tils to do this than a small corner shop or
market stand - and it can create a mess for people not following the
intricacies of the changeover who find their coins suddenly aren't accepted.
I remember nearly coming accropper at a market stand in London Bridge
station when the 5p was downsized.

On Sun, 01 Jan 2012 19:21:04 +0000, "
wrote:

I don't quite understand how silver certificates worked. What I've
heard, you could take one to a bank and redeem it for silver. But how
would that silver actually be distributed?

I tried that once. I got a silver dollar. Neither the paper nor the
coin had $1 worth of silver metal, however!

Also, were silver certificates regularly used as general currency?

Yes, before the Federal Reserve Notes started to circulate in the
1950s.
--

Phil Kane - Beaverton, OR
PNW Beburg MP 28.0 - OE District

On Sun, 1 Jan 2012 20:19:11 +0000 (UTC), danny burstein
wrote:

Ah yes, the _three_ exchange rates. There was
the official one,

IIRC there were two "official" ones - one for changing hard currency
(dollars, sterling, francs, etc) into Israeli Lirot (IL - the plural
of Lira) and another for changing Lirot into hard currency. The
official "sell dollar" rate was $1 = 3.00 IL and the official "buy
dollar" rate was $1 = 3.05 IL during the years when I was there.

the unofficial but winked at black market one,

A day or so before we left the country I ventured into Lilienbloom
Street to convert as much Lirot into "real money" because the banks
would only convert as many Lirot into dollars when leaving the country
as dollars were converted into Lirot when one entered the country. I
walked down the street and within seconds a "character" appeared along
side of me and asked "dollars, sterling..." "Dollars" I replied.
"Buying or selling?" "Buying". "Go to the second doorway and wait."
About 30 seconds later another "character" appeared with a briefcase,
"Today is 3.12 How much do you have?" I told him. "OK that's xxx
dollars. Twentys or hundreds?" I told him. He started counting out,
but didn't have enough bills. "Wait here" he said, and walked across
the street to the main entrance of the Bank of Israel (equivalent to
the US Federal Reserve Bank) and came back with more bills. When I
asked him about that, he remarked "who do you think supports this
business?"

and....

ok, Phil.. show us how good your memory was...
tell us the name for the third one.

I cheated ---- my reader converts "on the fly" --

(rot-13: investmend rate, for people willing
to build a textile factory)

Was the "textile factory" referred to the one in Dimona with the big
dome, and when one drove on the highway near there a military vehicle
fell in behind your car to make sure that you neither stopped nor took
pictures?

onyctransit: with the new Cornell/Technion (Israel's
answer to CalTech) joint advanced college
tech grounds recently announced for Welfare
Island, some of the brightest minds in the world
will be eagerly trying to solve the problem
of an 8,000 mile range transporter.

Makes it easier to transfer "ha-deliverables" (a now-common word in
the Israeli technical lexicon). Maybe they can figure out how to
complete the SAS.
--

"Stand Clear of the Closing Doors, Please"

Phil Kane - Beaverton, OR
PNW Beburg MP 28.0 - OE District

On Sun, 1 Jan 2012 14:16:42 -0800 (PST), "Peter T. Daniels"
wrote:

Yeah, I thought I might have occasionally seen a red one! Hawaiian
money was not likely to turn up in NYC, especially more than a decade
later!

As I mentioned before, I did run across one in 1954.
--

Phil Kane - Beaverton, OR
PNW Beburg MP 28.0 - OE District