For this weeks Show Us Your California contest by Hive account@thesocalhive I headed to the recycle center and ended up...

Trading Aluminum for Silver (kind of)!

I had been saving up my aluminum cans for awhile and I had a couple big trash bags full so I decided to make a trip down to the recycle center. I went to San Bernardino Recycling which is connected to the Jimmy's food store (which is really just a liquor store) because they usually seem to pay pretty well. But on this day what I didn't yet know was that they were going to pay even better than usual. I dragged over my bags of cans and emptied them into the baskets and then waited in line. There was an old man in front of me who was trying to recycle all kinds of non-recyclable plastic and they were making him go through his baskets and pull it all out. So I had to wait for a bit, but before long it was my turn. They threw my baskets up on the scale and then gave me my voucher to take into the store to get my money. I took it in and gave it to the cashier. He came back with my payment and when he put it in my hand I immediately noticed a silver dime in the change. Being a person who is very much into precious metals it was obvious to me, but as I looked back up at the cashier I could tell he had no clue and I wasn't going to say anything. So I just put the money in my pocket and smiled and thanked the cashier and then headed out to my truck. Once in my truck I immediately pulled the dime out of my pocket to check it out and it turned out to be a 1945 Mercury Silver Dime which is also commonly referred to as the Winged Liberty Head Dime and is composed of 90 percent silver which is just over .072 troy ounces of silver which at todays current silver prices is worth about $6! It's got quite a bit of tarnish, but it's still a beautiful piece and I was beyond stoked to have been lucky enough to get it. Needless to say I felt like I really got an extra great return on my aluminum cans this time!