LOOSE CHANGE: NOVEMBER 16, 2025

My mother read a story that I wrote for The Wall Street Journal last month about silver-futures prices breaking a 45-year-old record. She mentioned her own small stash of silver coins and was ready to cash in.

The silver value of a quarter minted in 1964 or before is more than $8. A dime of similar vintage can be melted down into 0.0723 troy ounce of the precious metal, worth roughly $3.50. Old silver dollars and half-dollar coins fetch even more.

You probably won't be handed the most valuable silver coins by a cashier. They are more likely in that jar of change your grandfather kept, or in your mother's safe-deposit box.

My great-grandfather gave my mom and her siblings silver dollars and half-dollars on their birthdays, and said not to spend them because they would rise in value. She was a child, so she didn't always heed that advice.

But years later, she recalled his instructions when she was counting down the cash drawer at our family's hardware store in suburban Cleveland and when she worked as a bank teller at her local PNC branch. If she saw a particularly old coin or one larger than a quarter, she bought it for face value.

To read the complete article, see:
My Mom's Been Stashing Silver Coins. Would Record Prices Land Her a Windfall? (https://www.wsj.com/finance/commodities-futures/my-moms-been-stashing-silver-coins-would-record-prices-land-her-a-windfall-ba609a29?st=uwceMq)

 

Ukrainians withdrew 67.7 billion hryvnias ($1.61 billion) in the third quarter—an 8.2% increase since January—as Russia destroyed half of the country's generating capacity and triggered complete blackouts that halted digital payments for days.

The National Bank's data captures a behavioral shift playing out in millions of Ukrainian households as Russia destroyed more than half of Ukraine's pre-war generating capacity in the first six months of 2025. Cash in circulation reached 890.1 billion hryvnias ($21.2 billion) by 1 October, with officials explicitly linking the acceleration to "increased uncertainty about war ending and intensified air attacks that may cause prolonged power outages."

Ukrainians shifted toward larger bills, with 1,000-hryvnia notes growing 3.6 percentage points as a share of total circulation—the fastest growth of any denomination. The pattern shows households consolidating wealth into easily portable forms rather than simply withdrawing emergency cash for daily transactions.

To read the complete article, see:
Ukrainians hoard record cash as Russian grid attacks cut power (https://euromaidanpress.com/2025/11/06/ukrainians-hoard-record-cash-grid-attacks/)

 

In 1918, as World War I was ending, Charles I — the emperor of Austria-Hungary and a member of the Hapsburg dynasty — sensed the end of the empire.

Charles, a nephew of Franz Ferdinand, whose assassination had incited the conflagration, recognized mounting threats from Bolsheviks and anarchists. To safeguard jewels that the ruling Hapsburgs had owned for centuries, he had them transported to Switzerland.

One gem in the collection was a particular prize, a 137-carat diamond admired not only for its pear shape and yellow hue but also for its illustrious history. Before the Hapsburgs, it had been owned by the Medici family, the rulers of Florence.

The diamond's allure only grew when, soon after Charles and his family left Vienna for exile in Switzerland, it was thought to have disappeared.

For decades, it was rumored to have been stolen, or perhaps recut. Several films and novels, such as "The Imperfects," have anchored their plot on its disappearance.

But the real story of what happened to the diamond, now told for the first time by the descendants of Charles I, is that it never really went missing. It's been in a bank vault in Canada since the family fled there in the midst of World War II, according to three Hapsburg relatives who last month invited The New York Times to inspect the diamond and other jewels.

To read the complete article, see:
The Florentine Diamond Resurfaces After 100 Years in Hiding (https://www.nytimes.com/2025/11/06/arts/design/florentine-diamond-resurfaces-hapsburg.html)

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