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change tales - the red quarter

January 6th, 2008 at 02:47 am

DH picked this beauty up from his change today. "Want to hear about red quarters?"

Do I!


According to DH, they're red because someone coated them with red nail polish. That someone was the jukebox owner. Often if a jukebox was quiet, it stayed quiet, and if the jukebox was played, then other people would put quarters in and play what they wanted.

So a bartender would "prime" the jukebox and play it using a red quarter. When the jukebox owner pulled in the take for that week, he'd give the bar back the red quarters to use for more priming. They weren't supposed to leave the bar...this one was an escapee.

Anybody else have change tales?

Posted in Emotional baggage | 16 Comments »

16 Responses to “change tales - the red quarter”

  1. denisentexas Says:
    January 6th, 2008 at 02:57 am 1199588276
    1199588276

    I've gotten red quarters before but never knew why they were red. Hmmm, I wonder if that's true! Even if it isn't, it's interesting. Smile

  2. mom-from-missouri Says:
    January 6th, 2008 at 03:07 am 1199588877
    1199588877

    A friend in junior high used to initial her dollar bills and date the in pencil. She once claimed she got one back a few yers later. She worked in a bank after school, so maybe she really did see it go through.

  3. luxliving Says:
    January 6th, 2008 at 03:56 am 1199591797
    1199591797

    Not about change, but ????? SOMEONE ????? has been writing savingadvice.com on the dollar bills that go thru 'their' clutches. hmmm....

  4. baselle Says:
    January 6th, 2008 at 04:19 am 1199593145
    1199593145

    savingadvice.com, eh? I've heard about the wheresgeorge.com site. Do we have one too?

  5. Broken Arrow Says:
    January 6th, 2008 at 05:49 am 1199598594
    1199598594

    Very interesting! A good way to calculate how much actually goes into the jukebox, and how much is primed.

  6. denisentexas Says:
    January 6th, 2008 at 12:34 pm 1199622841
    1199622841

    Oh, I haven't seen a bill with savingadvice.com on it but that sure makes sense. I do love wheresgeorge and am guilty, guilty of playing now and then.

  7. dmontngrey Says:
    January 6th, 2008 at 06:41 pm 1199644918
    1199644918

    What an interesting story! I had a red quarter years ago and I never knew why it was red. Thanks for sharing.

  8. ldyfaile Says:
    January 6th, 2008 at 08:15 pm 1199650548
    1199650548

    One holiday season my grandmother gave each of us kids a roll of dimes that she had nail polished red. That way when we passed by a salvation army bucket we would have change to put in there, and it being painted was supposed to remind us not to spend it. For the most part it worked. At least until the season was over and we didn't know that the last time we went by a bucket would be the last so we did wind up spending some of it in the end.

  9. TK Says:
    December 25th, 2008 at 02:43 am 1230173023
    1230173023

    I have heard about the red quarters for the jukebox, but I noticed one today that was dated 1998! Do jukeboxes still use quarters? I haven't even seen a jukebox since 1992.

  10. LF Says:
    June 12th, 2009 at 04:07 pm 1244822874
    1244822874

    I just found one of these in my pocket about 5 minutes ago & decide to Google Red Quarter & found your site.
    Year - 2004

    Thought it odd that someone would go through this much effort to color in the "depressed areas" of the coin leaving all of the raised areas silver.


    It is in perfect condition as VERY Little of the red is missing.

    Does anyone know if these are actually worth anything other then interesting reading?

    BTW - found in my pocket on Long Island, NY

  11. james Says:
    July 17th, 2009 at 02:10 am 1247796645
    1247796645

    yeah i took the change out of my pocket..i got a red one i live in houston lol

  12. ken Says:
    July 19th, 2009 at 12:18 am 1247962704
    1247962704

    I have the largest collection of juke box quarters in the world.

  13. farmboy Says:
    October 15th, 2009 at 02:47 am 1255574854
    1255574854

    I just took some quarters out of a roll I got from the bank. One is painted red and is a 2003 Arkansas state quarter. I'm in eastern Nebraska.

  14. Malik Says:
    November 17th, 2009 at 04:16 am 1258431375
    1258431375

    Hi, I'm goin through our piggy bank with my dad right now 100$ and countin' ;p.and found one. its so awesome im never going to spend it! Big Grin

  15. Red quarter finder Says:
    February 22nd, 2010 at 01:46 am 1266803208
    1266803208

    Ok so while ago when my mom was a kid,her mom and her dad (My grandpa and grandma) owned a resturant and this guy brought in a big arcade sized video game called Galaga and if my grandparents let him have it there he would let my mom,and my aunts and uncles play for free only if they marked the quarters so he could tell that it was theirs he could give it back to them. So my grandma marked it with red nail polish, to show it was theirs. So every now and then we find our old quarters, like today. I got change back and I put it on my counter and my mom noticed it and told me the story.They're special in our family.

  16. Frank Says:
    August 17th, 2010 at 09:54 pm 1282082076
    1282082076

    A few months before my brother died in 1993 he was digging in his change and he handed me a red quarter and asked if I ever got any red quarters in my change and he said he always wondered what they were painted red for. The juke box thing I guess is a good answer but I find new quarters painted red and the good old juke box thing is about gone here in Metro Atlanta. Seems like we would be getting old red quarters. But I now use them to place on my brothers grave on his headstone. I guess I have a few dollars worth just laying there in the open. Someone took them all a few years back they were gone when I went to visit him. Then upon my last visit someone brought them all back. I guess maybe they got some bad luck out of the theft and figured returning them would end it. Then again maybe they just felt guilty over it. No matter what they felt I was happy to see them returned. My brother would have been to.

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