Pretty unassuming, huh?
Well, what if I told you that some quarters tell history just by their use, or even their existence?
Go reach into your pockets, your couch cushins, your spare change bowl you keep for laundry or the tolls. Pluck out every quarter you have.
Go on, I'll wait.
You back?
Ok.
Out of the ones you found, set aside the new "State Quarters". You know, the ones that have a different state featured on each reverse "tails" side? Set those aside. Oh, yeah, now is the perfect time to weed out the Susan B. Anthony dollars & Sacajawea "gold" dollars. Those Susan B's are always mistaken for quarters.
Score $1 if you found one! (good luck finding a vending machine that distinguishes that from a quarter -- ITS IMPOSSIBLE!!!)
Check out the dates you find on the coins. For the most part, you should have a vast majority of coins with the range of 1990-2000. You should still see some stragglers from the 1970's and even sometimes the 1960's. Can you figure out what you don't see?
Coins, quarters mostly, from 1978-1988 are some of the hardest to find coins in your pocket.
Why?
Hmm. What happened within that 10 year or so span that caused quarters to virtually dissapear?
Arcades.
It started with pinball, then evolved into Pong. Then, console cases became huge with Donkey Kong, PacMan, Ms. PacMan, DigDug & Galaga.
What did they require?
Quarters. An entire allowance worth of quarters. The machines were held in arcades where the sound levels alone would cause hearing-loss after 10 minutes exposure. It was truly the golden age of computer games. Within that expanse of 10 years, games evolved from simple 8-bit games like DigDug to 16 bit games such as The Simpsons & Teenage Mutant Ninja Turles.
My addiction was SEGA's Out Run (which carried over into the SEGA Master System).
Within this time, the coins took a beating. Imagine the constant use of putting them thru the coin slots, pockets, then back into coin slots. Remember going to Chuch-E-Cheeses & Peter Piper Pizza and shelling out your dollars into the coin changers and greedily grabbed the quarters from the bin? Many of the coins wore out 10 years prematurely due to the unreal use in arcades. If you do have a coin (quarter) from this age, look at its condition. It's probably worn smoother than coins of similar design and of older mint.
Imagine how many games of Terminator were played with that one coin, or how many times another round of PacMan was played because you were "in the zone".
I doubt you care like I do. Just thought I would share.
Oh, by the way. Now that you've looked at your coins, here's an explination on the smell of the coins.
5 comments:
I call BS on this "theory". People used quarters in pinball machines before the vid era. They used them in redemption games. They used them in vending machines.
Maybe those years are less common because they MINTED LESS OF THEM. And maybe you're just making assumptions.
Quarters may have been used more when arcades were at their peak, but why would you think that only quarters between 1978 and 1988 would show the most amount of wear? Any quarters minted before the arcade boom would have been used as well...I think your theory needs some work.
Who dugg this? Why?!
Ray B.:
Pinball machines never had the concentrated popularity of arcades in dollar amouns. That means more quarters in more video machines. Pinball games last longer (3-5 balls, opportunity for buyback, etc). Pinball machines were leisurely. Video games ate quarters like crazy. Most of them gave you squat back no matter how well you did. Unless you managed to spend the money to get good enough at pac-man, you were never going to make a quarter last 10-15 minutes like they can in a pinball game. Video games didn't wait for you, so the designers could gear the games to demand more quarters to continue (hello? Remember Gauntlet? "Elf... needs food badly" Gaaaah! insert quarter! insert quarter!).
Anonymous:
WRT why that era of quarters would receive more activity, I think it makes sense because among the largest consumers of the coins would be video arcades and stores with a handful of games, the coins would come from the mint (via the bank) fresh and packed up in rolls to be loaded into the change machines, and from there they'd stay in a closed loop. From the change machine into a grubby hand into a machine, to be emptied out and put back into the change machine.
i have a 1980 quarter i had gotten when i made change for a dollar. it was along time ago i got it, but i saved it because that was the year my family n i came to america. august 28 1980. so i got it i saved it and still have it put in my purse. it feels like my lucky quarter illnever part with it nomatter how bad i need it for something lol.
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