Almost everyone thinks of coins and currencies that are used as a medium of exchange or as a store of value. But have you ever thought about how you can use money for other purposes?
Coins and paper money are made of materials. They have shapes, weights, and chemical properties that are sometimes useful for purposes other than financial purposes. Here are just a handful of examples.
Perhaps the most common other use of coins is in jewelry. You can buy or make your own rings, pendants, bracelets, necklaces, earrings, cufflinks, watches, and other shapes that show off the beauty of the coins. Sometimes coins are even embedded in trophies and awards.
Several times than I can count I have seen coins used as a washer to stabilize furniture with uneven legs or on an irregular floor. Almost every week someone in my company’s store brings a coin with a hole in the middle so it can be used as a washer when assembling something with a screw or a bolt and nut.
In addition, we regularly see coins (mostly groschen) in our shop that are warped on a small area at the edge. Apparently these were used as emergency flathead screwdrivers.
Back when most households had a fuse box instead of a fuse box, blown fuses could be replaced by the older, almost pure copper cents in an emergency. This was unsafe as it prevented the fuse from blowing in the event of an electrical overload. But it would work temporarily until the homeowner had time to purchase the correct fuse to replace.
You have likely seen products that have coins embedded in hard plastic, such as paperweights, bowls, ashtrays, dishes, toilet seats, letter openers, and the like.
When today’s Michigan State Capitol laid the foundation stone in 1872, the foundation stone was laid on October 2, 1873. For placement in the cornerstone, the US Mint provided a complete 1873 proof set, including gold coins with a mintage of only 25 each. When the Cornerstone opened a few decades ago, my company donated appraisals so that the Michigan Historical Museum could display the set. Although the coins had been mishandled at some point, the value of the gold coins was so high due to the rarity of the gold coins that the insurance company only issued one gold coin at a time.
For those interested in a brawl, you might find an advantage wrapping your fingers around a roll of quarters or filling a sock with a bunch of loose coins. We do not tolerate this.
It has been known that people who want to impress others with their apparent prosperity light a piece of paper money in front of those who want to impress them and then use the lit currency to light a cigar. For those in dire straits, they could use paper money to start an emergency fire.
If you look back in history, silver and copper coins were widely used for their antibacterial and anti-algae properties. It was common practice among ancient Romans, Greeks, Egyptians and others to put silver coins in water cisterns to kill bacteria.
American pioneers traveling the west regularly put silver and copper coins in their water supplies to protect them from bacteria and algae.
Before there were refrigerators, many Americans gave their milk silver dollars to keep it fresher longer.
There are a number of numismatists who collect short snorts. People who often traveled or served in the military together signed paper money as souvenirs.
In the same vein, a website (WheresGeorge.com) called “Where’s George?” Was created in 1998. as a means of tracking the hands through which listed notes have passed over time. Users can go to the website to write down the serial numbers and the date and location of the notes they have in their possession. This website currently lists more than 300 million currencies, mostly US and Canadian. The site’s name comes from the use of the portrait of George Washington on the front of all dollar bills for more than a century.
The above list of non-monetary uses for money is certainly not exhaustive. Feel free to add other uses.
Patrick A. Heller was honored as FUN Numismatic Ambassador 2019. He also received the American Numismatic Association’s 2018 Glenn Smedley Memorial Service Award, the 2017 Exemplary Service Award, the 2012 Harry Forman National Dealer of the Year Award, and the 2008 Presidential Award. including twice in 2020), the Professional Numismatists Guild, the Industry Council for Tangible Assets and the Michigan State Numismatic Society. He is the communications officer for Liberty Coin Service in Lansing, Michigan, and writes Liberty’s Outlook, a monthly newsletter on rare coins and precious metals. Past newsletter editions can be viewed at www.libertycoinservice.com. Some of his radio commentary, entitled “Things You ‘Know’ That Just Are Not So And Important News You Need To Know,” can be heard on Wednesday and Friday mornings at 8.45am at the WILS in Lansing at 8.45am (the broadcast live). and becomes part of the audio archive on www.1320wils.com).
