Release: February 2, 2024
Harry Langenberg was an intriguing guy. He was an older gentlemen. In his heyday, gas was around 25-cent per gallon. He became a very successful stock broker and investment analyst with an impressive roster of clients. Similar to the old E.F. Hutton TV ads, when Harry Langenberg talked, people listened. I had the good fortune to know and work with him many years ago....
Harry was balding, not muscular and appeared every bit of his advanced age. But he was an avid player of rugby. (He died in 2005 at age 96.). His suits were old and baggy and he drove what I call a “buldgemobile” – an old clunky vehicle from the 1950s, It might have had a heater. Maybe a radio.
To avoid parking lot fees, Harry parked on the St. Louis riverfront levee. One day, heavy rains and flash floods hit. Harry’s car went fully underwater. It was heavy enough not to be washed away but was flooded and had to be towed. A week later, after having it blown out, here came Harry driving it to work again. No new car for Harry. As always, he parked it again on the levee.
For good reason, people called Harry a “gold bug.” He ardently believed in the precious metal. Every two weeks or so, he would stop by a local coin dealer and buy a gold coin. He would then walk over to the safe deposit vault at his bank and have the security guard slide out the drawer above his head. Harry would reach up and drop in the gold coin. He did that religiously for years.
One day, he asked if I would look over and assess the coins he had amassed. I agreed. We went to his bank and two large security officers slid out his safe deposit drawer. From years of deposits, it was so heavy the guards couldn’t hold it up. It dropped, hit the floor and exploded open. Gold coins covered the floor. King Midas would have been in awe. The guards and I certainly were.
Harry’s belief in precious metals extended also to silver. In 1963, he foresaw trouble when the government declared the discontinuance of silver dimes, quarters and halves. They announced a switch to clad coinage. Either ignorantly or deceptively the Treasury Department claimed the new clad coins “would seamlessly mix in with the silver ones without disruption.” Harry knew different.
In 1965, our silver coins were replaced with the cheaper clad variety. Back then, pocket change was still king. Downtown, where Harry worked, the biggest handlers of change were the newsboys selling daily papers to businessmen. Harry had a brainstorm.
Knowing silver would eventually rise in value, Harry sent out word to all newsboys in downtown St. Louis. He would pay $1.05 for every $1.00 in silver coins the newsboys brought him – an immediate five-percent profit. Before long, every evening, newsboys lined up in front of the brokerage firm where Harry worked to redeem their silver coins and take their profits.
For Harry, it wasn’t an overnight boom. Silver (and gold) prices remained comparatively low for the next decade. Eventually, they edged upward. When interest rates and inflation surged in 1979, so did precious metals. Gold went to $850 per ounce – silver to over $50 per ounce. With predictable patience, Harry’s bet had paid off. That’s assuming he sold at the time. We may never know.
The bellwether change in our change of which Harry took advantage happened sixty years ago right now – 1964. That was the last year our coins were struck from 90 percent silver. All change made after that is comprised of common and inexpensive copper/nickel. Consequently, any dimes, quarters or half dollars from 1964 or before contain 90 percent silver.
If all this sounds like chump change, consider this. Last week, coin dealers were paying more than 15 times face value for those “common” silver coins. That means, the value of one silver quarter can now pay for a gallon of gas – almost exactly what it could in 1964. Not bad.
I thought of that last week as I walked home from a store. On the ground I spied a quarter. As I would have eagerly done in the early ‘60s I picked it up. It was dated 1974 so it wasn’t silver. Still, it was half a century old. I would have still been in high school. Even though it wasn’t silver, I thought that was pretty cool. I’d wager Harry would agree.
For more collecting information and advice, log on to: http://prexford.com/.