You Found a Red Quarter

WHAT IS THAT QUARTER RED?

Have you ever been sifting through your coin jar and noticed a red-painted quarter? I have seen several of these in my lifetime and always wondered about it. Someone must have dropped that quarter into a bucket of paint right? It seems reasonable?

That's probably NOT why the coins are red.

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QUARTERS BEFORE 1990

If you've found a red quarter that was dated before the 1990's, you've probably found a quarter that was painted red by an arcade owner back before the 1990's, who painted the quarters red, for the instances when players complained about a glitch in the game, causing them to lose their quarter.

The employee would put a red coin in the machine to allow the disgruntled player to play again for free.

This isn't the only place red quarters were used. They were also used in laundry mats and in juke boxes.

'HOUSE COINS' & 'FREEBIES'

The quarters were called "House Coins" or "Freebies."

At the end of each week, the business owners would count all the coins in the machines (except the red ones,) whether it was an arcade game, a jukebox, washing maching or dryer,to find out what their actual profits were. Pretty clever, huh!

MAKING A PHONE CALL

The coins were also used by utility workers who were checking phone booths to make test calls to determine if the phones were working properly.

Are they worth anything? Unless you find a red coin collector, the answer is probably NO at this time. But you never know who might consider these coins valuable in the future. Watch the video below for more information on red quarters.

Bright Side/YouTube