Silver Certificates

[Trigger Time]

They have simple machines you can make or buy to sort coins. You can sort real copper pennies from the modern pot metal ones. You can sort silver coins from modern ones too. Its cool.
You can go to the bank and just buy lets say $1k in dimes. Sort them in your free time for the silver ones, because there will be some silver ones in that. Then roll up all the left over dimes and deposit them back into your bank account. You lost nothing but time and gained some silver coins.
You can do the same thing to get copper pennies. A real copper penny is now worth more in copper than the money it represents.
The U.S. i believe will eventually ditch the penny. If they do that you will be free to melt them down for their copper. Some people will be rich overnight. Im not joking. Some people have storage units full of copper pennies.

 

[JeepHammer]

Don't know what it's collectable value is offhand, but once upon a time, it could be exchanged for 5 oz of silver. Silver is currently going for $15/oz. Which means that inflation has eaten $70 of the $75 original value since 1934. Sigh...

It could be exchanged for $5 worth of silver at the current market value, not 5 ozs.
A British pound sterling isn't worth a pound of silver anymore either, but they still have currency based on hard currency.
Once the US went off the gold standard, the US dollar is simply paper, the only value is an agreement of exchange rate, that's why the US dollar value goes up & down like a yo-yo on exchange markets.

 

[AtTheMurph]

If you can get someone to pay you more than $5 for it , do it. I have had lots of silver certificates handed down from my dad. He saved them from the till of the restaurant he ran for years. Silver coins too.

The coins had value but the paper is pretty much worth what the face value is, unless you are a dealer trying to screw someone.

 

[JeepHammer]

There are actually federal laws about scrapping coins, but it didn't stop the gold & silver places from scrapping them when the price shot up.
Silver certificates were recalled when the US switched from the silver standard to the gold standard.

The silver certificate is historical because it was the last 'Barer Bond' you could directly exchange for hard currency (silver).
Silver became an 'Essential To National Defense' so they got recalled.

The real reason was the depression.
Rich people were afraid of government collapse, so they were training paper dollars for silver...

The national silver stockpile came in handy during WWII since a lot of things were steel and silver soldered together, power plant generators and even elelcteic arc welders were wound with silver since there was a critical shortage of copper.
(I'd like to find one of those old welders at a junk sale! They still show up once in a while)

 

[NKBJ]

It's said 15000 tons were used for magnet windings for Oak Ridge.

 

[Mr Evilwrench]

I got a $20 "US Note" (series 1952, I think) in change one place. In fact, I checked the treasurer and secretary of treasury and it was printed roundabout when I was. Anyway, it still says all that business about "pay to the bearer on demand" etc. that you don't see on the FRNs. It doesn't say what they would pay you in if you demanded, gold I presume. It would be a flake now, but back when we were on the gold standard the price was fixed at $35/oz.