Dime profit on lifetime spent

I’m feeling old this morning. It just hit me. In less than two years – 15 months actually – the Kennedy half dollar will be 50 years old.

Where did the time go?

In 1964 I wanted to get the new half dollar as soon as I could.

In that, I was successful. I paid 90 cents for two.

No, I didn’t find some chump and cheat him, nor did I have some special access.

I was just an 8-year-old kid. The 10-cent profit was sweet, but the deal was open to all at the bank and it attracted so many people that there was a long line out the lobby door.

The bank in question in New Ulm, Minn., – and I do not remember the name – used sales of the new half dollar as a means of attracting change, which was in short supply at the time, so it could provide coins to its business customers.

Buyers simply had to pay for the halves with coins.

I was persnickety. I wanted to pay my 90 cents with more than just three quarters, a dime and a nickel. I made sure there were some cents, too.

Such is the logic of the mind of an 8-year-old.

However, these were still fairly early days in what was to become my lifetime numismatic adventure. Whatever logic I possessed at the time pushed me in the right direction.

But thank goodness the bank wasn’t charging $1.10 for the two halves. I knew the value of a dollar even at the age of 8. Would I have paid a premium? I don’t know. Then what course would my life have taken?

Buzz blogger Dave Harper is editor of the weekly newspaper "Numismatic News."