I mentioned silver dollars in my last post. It occurred to me that younger readers may not be familiar with the old U.S. silver dollar coins, which were big (an inch-and-a-half in diameter) and heavy.

They were the biggest coins the U.S. Treasury ever made and were quite impressive. You didn’t see them in circulation all that often, but kids got them for Christmas and I heard that in Las Vegas, the slot machines were made to handle silver dollars.

They were solid silver, or close to it, for many years and had an impressive ring if you dropped one on a table or floor.

My dad had a friend, an old boat captain, who would come by if I was sick and give me either a silver dollar or a Mexican one-peso coin, which was the same size and was also legal U.S. tender for at least a while, as I recall; I know they were accepted at some stores I shopped at in Texas, valued the same as a U.S. silver dollar.