Finds can happen in mundane places… 

On a recent Saturday morning, I stopped by a local Stewart's* to pick up milk on the way to work (the particular job I was headed to was at a restaurant). While continually seeking the best way to hold four gallons of milk simultaneously (I've developed a reputation at this particular location as the guy who buys inordinate amounts of milk), I happened to glance at the transaction taking place in front of me. Interestingly enough, the individual, purchased a coffee and some lotto tickets, was using half-dollars as the main contributor to the payment. Interesting enough as this is— I've worked in retail for almost a year now, and have yet to have a transaction using any half-dollars, much less one where they form the majority of the amount being paid— a second glance revealed something even more exhilarating: what appeared to be a Kennedy dated 1967! At this point, my mind zeroed in on those half-dollars. This turned into a metaphorical obsession when a third glance to double check the date revealed what seemed to be the reverse of a Ben Franklin. By this point, the customer with the half-dollars had completed the transaction, and as I set the jugs of milk on the counter in a dazed fashion, nearly dropping one on to the floor, I observed that the clerk at the counter had called over a coworker in what appeared to a struggle as just what to do with what they had evidently only learned was legal tender just a few moments ago. Eventually it seems they decided to put it aside with a note. While the clerk rang up the milk, giving me a thinly veiled look of confusion— one I always seem to get now from whomever is at the register as the "milk customer"— I inquired if I could exchange cash  for the half-dollars at face value, to which the clerk readily agreed. Having secured the loot and paid for the milk, I paused for a moment in my car to tally the finding: not one, but five Kennedy's dated 1967, as well as a Kennedy dated 1968, a 1953 Ben Franklin, and a 1947 Liberty Walking (of added excitement to myself, as I am an enthusiast of this particular half-dollar design). I then completed the drive to work, delivering perhaps the most unique brag ever uttered in that kitchen— one which require some explaining afterward, including an explanation on premium over melt value and the changes in alloy-content over history.

(The photo attached with this blog is one taken of the half-dollars themselves shortly after I acquired them. I would posit that they are all at least VG, if not F, with one or two of those Kennedy's a solid EF)


*Stewart's is a regional chain of convenience store/gas station based in the Northeast, primarily NY, which is unique from other such businesses in that it also functions as a sort of chain of ice cream places, serving a plethora of flavors in cones, shakes, sundaes, etc., with most locations having a separate counter and section of the store devoted to that function.