Merry Christmas, Hive! I'm not doing any travel for the holiday, but I did make a short excursion into Montana a couple days ago. I had finally recovered for the most part from the chronic health flare sparked by a difficult day last week when the Mother Thing asked for my help driving to Montana to meet some extended family to swap stuff. We stopped at the 50,000 Silver Dollar Bar & Gift Shop, and it's definitely the sort of place to share here!
I remember this as the 10,000 Silver Dollar Bar, because that was its name cough years ago when we moved west, but even then, their collection of silver dollars was well above that advertised in its name. According to their website, this started with a single silver dollar embedded in the bar on October 1st, 1952 by the proprietor.
The original bar top is still intact and in use. It contains 2,115 pieces and all the other coins in the collection are embedded in boards and displayed around the barroom. Each coin is the possession of the individual who left it and many people, or their children or grandchildren, return year after year to visit their coin.
[...]
Of those 50,000+ coins, 12,623 are REAL silver dollars. The rest are Eisenhower “sandwich” dollars. In 1972, when silver prices began climbing, people no longer wanted to part with their silver coins. However, they still wanted to donate a dollar. The Eisenhower dollar is a dollar worth a dollar and so, the tradition continues. (From the website linked above)
As of today, those 12,623 silver dollars are worth about $55 each, or almost $700,000 in total, even before considering any odd mint marks or condition which might affect collector value.
They did have some silver coins and other objects for sale, but the prices seemed higher than what I would expect at a coin shop. You can find estimated melt values for silver and base metal US coins at coinflation.com. Coin dealers tend to ask a modest premium above spot price for bullion and "junk silver" (circulated 90% silver coins), so keep that in mind if you go coin shopping, but these seemed to have a tourist trap premium on top of that.
I wrote earlier this year about the history of silver money and how badly inflation has devalued the dollar especially since it was decoupled from silver after 1964. This year has been incredibly volatile, and even since that post from early 2025, it has more than doubled in value. This suggests significant uncertainty about fiat money and economic stability into 2026.
Enough numismatic and economic tangents. Back to the attraction! I wanted to snap a picture of the cowboy statues at a table, but there were patrons at that end of the bar, and I don't like taking pictures of people to share online without their consent, and I didn't want to interrupt them. Fortunately, the other end of the bar was unoccupied, so I snapped a photo including some of the soaring ceiling with its panels studded with dollars suspended overhead.
An oddity of Montana is the proliferation of video gambling machines. Many bars, restaurants, and gas stations have some kind of casino section with these digital versions of one-armed bandits. This is just a few of the twenty or so machines there.
There is also a restaurant if you want a proper meal instead of a drink, but I neglected to snap a good photo of that end of the building. The majority of the space is dedicated to souvenirs and general gift shop kitsch. Puzzles, toys, t-shirts and sweatshirts, baseball caps, etc. all featured Montana themes galore. The decorations were a blend of native, faux native, and cowboy.
There was also a display with knives, swords, and axes. These decorative wall-hangers are absolute garbage, and you should save up for a quality reproduction sword or training feder if you're interested in historical weapons and swordsmanship. If you want a good knife, at least buy a Ka-Bar, Buck, or similar serious hunting and woodcraft knife. Just say no to made-in-China stainless steel fantasy crap. [/rant]
Anyway, after the wild drive back west over the passes again, I attended a pre-Christmas family gathering. The food was good, but there's a degree of tension and stress with some of them due to political and theological differences. We kept it civil though, The niece and nephew were demanding my attention as well, but not too severely. Still, it was tiring. Late that evening, I made some turkey burgers and had a Ninkasi Megalodom Triple IPA to wind down.
Too much people-ing meant another recovery day. Still, I survived. The beer was good. 10% ABV is perhaps the strongest I have tried. They claim it has notes of stone fruit with a tropical and balanced profile. I thought it was a bit on the pine side of PNW IPA flavors. Not bad, but I didn't get a sense of their marketing terms. 70 IBU is pretty bitter, but it wasn't too unbalanced at least. I didn't hate it. I might try it again. I don't think I'd go out of my way to find it though.
Anyway, have a merry Christmas. Remember the reason for the season. Enjoy the Peanuts Christmas Special, or whatever your preferred traditions and entertainment might be. I plan to take it easy for the most part, but I also need to take another look at the headlight for the Friend-Shaped Car. Yay.
If you're not on Hive yet, I invite you to join through InLeo or PeakD. If you use either of my referral links, I'll even try to delegate some Hive Power to help you get started.