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Two weeks ago, I noticed my mother had three large tins filled with coins from 20, 30, and even 60 years ago. Among the hundreds, and perhaps a little over a thousand coins, I found a small silver coin from 1960.
GR 1.25 LEI 835
  • Intrinsic value (based on silver content): $1.27
  • Numismatic value: Between USD 2.50 and USD 4.80 for coins in good condition (VG to UNC), although at auction or with certificates they can reach higher prices (up to USD 38.99 or more in exceptional cases).
Venezuela's highest denomination banknote
The Central Bank of Venezuela (BCV) has launched the new Bs. 200 and Bs. 500 bills, which will begin circulating progressively throughout the country. These new denominations, valued at approximately $5.4 and $13.6 according to the official rate of August 16, seek to complement the current monetary cone, adapting to the current demands of the economy
As of today, August 14, 2025, this bill is worth $3.68, which means it has devalued approximately 73.53%.
That is its value if we use the rate of the Central Bank of Venezuela
and this is its value according to Yadio
The value of the lowest denomination bills according to yadio is: Bs 200 - $1.04 Bs 100 - $0.52 Bs 50 - $0.26 Bs 20 - $0.10 Bs 10 - $0.05 Bs 5 - $0.03
Part of the search process
Fun fact: The last time I used a coin to pay in Venezuela was 15 years ago. Since then, I've needed a lot of bills to pay for even the smallest things.
Do a lot of people have similar stockpiles of these coins or is your mom unusual?
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So far, I've only seen my mother with this kind of exaggerated amount of coins. I've recently seen people on websites interested in buying coins from 40 years ago by the kilo. The last time I checked, they were offering between $3 and $5 per kilo for coins from 1975 or older. My mother was even tempted to sell her coins at the height of the crisis; I don't know how much they offered her.
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A relative of mine and I went through a big jar of her old coins last week, looking for pre 1964 dimes, which still had silver and are now worth around $3, just for the silver. It was quite a process, to go through them in bulk. Kind of like treasure hunting.
Sadly, we had no luck. We started out with that treasure hunting enthusiasm, but nothing.
I've heard and read numerous stories of how people who owned retail stores, back in the 60's, actively went through all their dimes and saved off the silver ones before giving the money to a bank. I guess that's what's happened. Probably banks had some kind of silver detecting machine they used, to segregate out the silver dimes.
(though that's illegal, right?)
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0 sats \ 0 replies \ @AG 15 Aug
this is a @plunda job!
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love stuff like this. how easy would it be to sell the coins? could you sell them on ebay for example? or would there be shipping issues etc?
do they still mint coins in Venezuela, or not even bother?
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eBay wouldn't be an option; shipping would be too expensive. They don't bother minting coins, the last time in October 2021, but not at all because they were useless within a few weeks.
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0 sats \ 2 replies \ @OT 15 Aug
Nice find!
It reminded me of when we were kids we went through my parents old shilling coins. Some were "rare" depending on the year they were printed. We didn't have any luck unfortunately
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Do you still have some?
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0 sats \ 0 replies \ @OT 15 Aug
Probably. My parents are horders.
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that’s fascinating! I love how you compared the silver coin’s intrinsic and numismatic values it really shows how coins can be both a small piece of history and an investment.
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