Why most older Americans have coins stashed away

There is a reason that many older people have coins that have been saved.  First of all, coin collecting was in it's hay day in the 1960's.  It' was a popular past time that many people enjoyed.  Something interesting happened in the mid 60's that would attract people to save certain coins.  The U.S. government decidied to reduce and ultimately eliminate the silver content in standard circulation currency.  1964 was the last year that half dollars, quarters, and dimes were made with 90% silver.  From 1965-1969 the half dollars only were 40% silver. 
People were pretty savy, knowing that silver was and is a precious metal and could possibly increase, if the spot price of silver increased.  So over the years people would recognize silver coins in their change, or business owners would see them in the cash register and set them aside.  Coins would be save and passed down.  Today coin collecting is not popular, therefore people are more willing to sell the old coins that they have.  Very often people are surprised at how much their coins are worth.  Granted, most of the coins that were pulled out of circulation are not rare and are valued based on the silver content, still they can be worth real money.  Mixed in with the silver coins, are wheat pennies, buffalo nickels and silver dollars.  We see lots of silver dollars as well in people's silver stashes.  Silver dollars were very popular, especailly after the silver was eliminated.  The Morgan silver dollar and the Peace silver dollar are a special part of U.S. history, plus they look different that any other coin.