Morgan Silver Dollars

When I was a young boy in the mid-1950’s, banks still had silver dollars. You could walk in and trade paper dollars for real silver coins. You could spend them at any store; some cash registers even still had a slot for these.

But paper bills were what people used. Silver dollars are big coins; more than two or three would be annoying in your pocket or your hand. A store would take them as payment, but they wouldn’t try to give them as change. Those coins usually went straight to the bank at the close of business.

The banks kept a few on hand because people gave them as gifts. They’d acquire more as some older cache of coins was turned in by someone who was once paid this way or had returned from a casino gambling trip with a pocketful.

Silver dollars were a common gift from grandparents, exhibiting a bit more thought than a dollar bill and more interesting because of their age, yet easily obtained from almost any bank.

So, for the most part, the only people using these coins were kids like me.

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