Worth how much?
June 4, 2012 (Monday)
“That’s the $64.00 question!” I used to hear that sentence repeated often. It meant that the issue under consideration was unresolved and the solution was evading us. The expression came from a very popular radio show in which an audience member was asked a question. If the person knew the correct answer, he/she received one silver dollar. If they answered a second question, two silver dollars. With each question, the reward was doubled: 1,2,4,8,16,32,64. Payment was always made in silver dollars. You could hear them clinking on the radio. Each coin was worth its face value: one dollar. The name of the program was, “Take It Or Leave It.”
My mother took me with her to the Metropolitan Theater in Houston when I was a little boy, and we saw a radio program performed in the theater that day. I think it was “Doctor I.Q.” My mother became a contestant and won some silver dollars, if I remember correctly. I was very young with a vivid imagination but I’m sure there is some truth to this story.
A silver dollar made of silver today is worth almost $22 in silver alone. Silver dollars have become collectibles, worth up to many thousands of dollars each.
The mint gets around the issue of metal values by using cheaper metals for the coins, with a thin layer of a metal with a higher value. For instance, the layer of copper on a penny now is so thin you could not keep it intact if removed from the coin.
So many people hang on to their pocket change that special machines are now in banks for people to use in computing the value of their coins. Every once in a while, people are reminded by charities that those coins — often neglected or forgotten by their owners — would make nice donations.