My Silver Dollars

KLS Silver Dollars ALS - MLS 10-01-2013

For as long as I can remember, Dad carried some silver dollars in his pocket they had been there so long they were nothing but slick disks. I don’t know why he carried them, but I always liked to think it was to remind him of my two brothers and me.

When Son Matt came along on September 27, 1975, I went right out and got a silver dollar from the bank and started carrying it.

When Son Adam came along on July 7, 1980, I got a second dollar. I needed a way to tell the coins apart, so I snatched up the photo department’s engraver and scrawled Adam Lynn 7/7/80 on his.

I got the date wrong

In a burst of enthusiasm, I scratched Matthew Louis on his coin. Unfortunately, I was so caught up in my new son’s birth day that I inscribed Matt’s date as 9/27/80 instead of 1975. My only option was to scratch the 80 out and put 75 beneath it.

What brought this to mind was Daughter-in-Law Sarah asked if I had an engraver. We traded emails where I said that Adam still had it from the birth of Grandson Elliot, but she was welcome to use it.

Adam responded by writing, “I’ve still not engraved Elliot’s dollar. I’m too scared to mess it up.”

In 50 years it’ll be slick

I told him the story of Matt’s coin and said that even if he makes a mistake, it adds a certain character to the token. “Besides, in 50 years or so, it’ll be slick anyway.”

I don’t know why Dad carried his silver dollars, but I know that every time I rattle the change in my pocket, I think of my two sons. I hope they do the same with their boys.

5 Replies to “My Silver Dollars”

  1. My dad valued silver dollars also. He sort of collected them–I assume by just keeping the ones he acquired from general circulation. One year he cashed some into to buy himself a canoe. He showed me where he hid them–just pull up the vent in his bedroom and reach under for a shoe box. After he died, his coins were put into tin boxes and given to his grandkids.
    Silver dollars–an honored and valuable memory.

  2. From the time I can remember, our dad carried a silver dollar as well. As a kid I can recall it as clear as today. It was a silver disc, totally devoid of any evidence it had once been minted as a dollar coin, piled on his dresser at night with his watch and other pocket things. One day it disappeared. I don’t know how long he had carried it, perhaps since WWII, but it was simply gone. So he got another and still carries it today together with the $2 bills he dispenses to one and all. Go figure.

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