VDB

Last night was an all penny night. After doing some work on our bathroom I went through 13,700 pennies (4 boxes and some hand rolled). It was good batch. It produced seventy-one Wheats, one hundred thirty-four Canadians, and one Bahamas 1¢. One of the Wheats was a new variety, a 1909 VDB! On the bottom of the back are the initials of the coin's designer, Victor David Brenner. They are extremely small and off center, Before the year 1909 ended public uproar over the vanity of placing one's initials on a coin caused them to be removed, and so there are four varieties that year, 1909 VDB, 1909S VDB, 1909, 1909S. I had never seen such a cent in person so it was pretty exciting to find it. It's hard to believe something so small caused a problem.



The above is a sample picture, mine is not in as good condition.



The Wheat breakdown was:

1909 VDB, 1918, 1919, 1920D, 1930, 1936, 1939, 1940(4), 1941(4), 1942, 1944(7), 1944S, 1945(6), 1946(6), 1947(2), 1948(2), 1950, 1950D, 1950S, 1951, 1952, 1952D, 1953D(4), 1955(4), 1956, 1956D(2), 1957(4), 1957D(6), 1958, 1958D(3)

Light Night

Last night I didn't do too much coin roll hunting. I had to reinstall the fixtures in our bathroom and clean the room up. That took a little longer than I thought.

I searched some hand rolled coin that I got during my Monday box pickup. Two rolls of halves (40 coins) produced nothing, fifty rolls of quarters (2,000 coins) produced one Canadian, and twenty-two rolls of dimes (1,100 coins) produced two Canadians. A little disappointing ... oh well.

1899 Indian Found, Sox Win!

This weekend was a good weekend. My wife and I painted our upstairs bathroom, we celebrated my nephew's baptism, and the Sox won the World Series. I'm a bit tired this morning from it all, but it was well worth it.

Things started out good on Friday. I searched 11,200 pennies, four boxes and some hand rolled stuff. This bunch pushed me over the 400,000 mark! In it I found one Indian Head (1899), seventy-two Wheats (one was a very rusty steel cent!), one hundred twenty-two Canadians, and one mystery coin (looks like some sort of slug). The Indian Head is the third I've found in a roll! It replaces a corroded one I had in my album.

The Wheat breakdown was:

1929S, 1931, 1935S, 1936(2), 1938, 1940(2), 1942(5), 1943, 1944(8), 1944D, 1945(2), 1946(6), 1946S, 1948(2), 1949(2), 1950(3), 1951(2), 1951D(3), 1952, 1952D(5), 1953, 1953D, 1955(4), 1956(3), 1956D(4), 1957(3), 1957D(3), 1958, 1958D(4)

I also looked through 340 hand rolled nickels. They only produced two Canadians and one Bahamas 5¢.

After dumping my waste coins on Saturday the teller sold me three rolls of halves she had. There were some silver ones in there so I decided to try to hit every bank of my way home. I only made it through half of the banks before my cash ran out. I found one more silver. In total I found one 90% half (1964) and five 40% halves (1966, 1967 x 2, 1968 x 2).

Found: 6 pennies (1 at Home Depot, 5 at Shaw's), 2 dimes (1 at Sovereign Bank, 1 at Shaw's)

Silver Load

Last night was a good night. The Sox won and I found lots of silver.

I searched 2,000 half dollars (2 boxes). In the boxes I found forty-six 40% silver halves (1966 x 18, 1967 x 27, 1968D x 2) and one mint set only half (2004D). The silver in the halves totals 6.8 troy ounces, about $95 worth!

I next hunted 3,280 quarters, all hand rolled. In them were seven Canadians, one US nickel, and an Indian Rupee, 1997. That's my first coin from the subcontinent.



I also went through 15,600 dimes (6 boxes and some hand rolled). The batch produced nine silver Rosies (1946, 1949, 1951D, 1954D, 1956, 1958, 1960, 1963), two Canadians, and one UK 5 pence coin. I was surprised to find that many silver dimes with no 1964's. The 1951D is one I needed! I now need just six Roosevelts to complete my album.

This morning I read this article about finding coins. I'm not sure I'd go as far to call the coins I find on the ground lost souls, but it does feel good to find money.

Found: 1 penny (at work on top of the vending machine), 2 dimes (at the Sovereign Bank)

13-1

Last night I didn't do any coin roll hunting. Instead my wife and I watched the World Series at a friend's house. Somehow she managed to bake muffins, too.

Before we left I went through a stack of 1965 Canadian pennies I had, about thirty coins. The 1965 penny comes in four varieties. To tell the difference I had to use my magnifying glass. It was tricky at first, but eventually I was able to spot the differences between them. I had to train my eye a bit. It was easy after that. I found all four varieties in the stack.

I picked up eight half dollars at Bank of America yesterday, but didn't find anything of note.

Found: 1 quarter (at Costco)

New Bank?

Last night on the way home I decided to check out the local credit union. It is open two nights a week until 7pm. That time fits my schedule and I've been thinking that it'd be in my interest to establish a relationship with another bank or two. They were friendly to me there and I can open an account with only $5! They had no halves (my opener), but they had no problem with me buying all the hand rolled coin they had. I bought a big, heavy bag.

Before I checked out the bag I finished a box of nickels from the night before. It had one War Time in it (1944P) and five Canadians. One of the Canadians, as I mentioned before, was one I needed, 1972, and one of the US nickels was a key date, 1950D. The 1950D is the rarest (by mintage) nickel.

From the credit union I got 2,850 hand rolled quarters. They produced nine Canadians, one UK 10 pence, one US dime, and one US nickel. No new varieties were in the bunch.

I also got 1,500 dimes. In them I found two silver Rosies (1960, 1963D), two Canadians, and a East Caribbean States 10¢.

They only had 450 pennies. Sadly, they only had one Wheat and five Canadians in them.

Lastly, I checked the 1,280 nickels I got. In the batch I found one Buffalo (1936) and six Canadians. I think I have about half a dozen spare 1936 Buffalo nickels at this point. More were minted in that year than any other, but my numbers still seem out of proportion. I'm still feeling good about the 1930 Bufflao I found a few days ago, however.

Nickel Push

Yesterday at the bank I was told they were running low on pennies and quarters, and so I got four boxes of nickels. Their stock of dime boxes is tainted with 2007P's, so I didn't bother with those.

Last night I searched three of the boxes (6,000 nickels). In them I found two Buffaloes (1930, date unknown), three War Time (1943P, 1944P, 1945S), twenty Canadians, one Singapore 20¢ (KM101), one Kenyan 50¢ (worth .7¢, KM19), and one proof US nickel, 1990S. The 1930 Buffalo is one I needed.





On the way home I picked up eleven loose halves, but didn't find anything.

This morning I started going through the fourth box of nickels. So far, so good, I've found a Canadian I need, 1972, and a key Jefferson nickel, 1950D.


I've also been giving a lot of thought on how best to organize all of the foreign coins I have. I've got a bunch from many sources over the years. I'd like to put them in some sort of album.


Found: 1 penny (at McDonald's), 1 dime (at Sovereign Bank)

Go Sox!

Yesterday was an extremely light day. I went through just one box of nickels (2,000) and found two Canadians.

Sixth Continent

Last night was a slow night. I searched 7,500 pennies (three boxes). In them I found forty Wheats and one hundred fifty-seven Canadians. I didn't find any new varieties, but I did find a 1954 Canadian. I hadn't found that one in a roll yet, my specimen came through trading.

This morning I finished up a box of nickels (2,000). It was a light box as it produced just one Buffalo (1927) and two Canadians. In the box was a 1949S. I have come across that one before, but it has been quite a while since I've found a key date Jefferson.

The biggest news is I came across an Australian 5¢ coin. It's the first coin I've found from that continent, the sixth this year.



Found: 2 pennies (1 at Boston Market, 1 at Auto Zone), 1 dime (at Sovereign Bank), 1 quarter (at Sovereign Bank), 1 foreign coin (an Australian 5¢ at Sovereign Bank)

Silver Dearth

Unfortunately this week has been a bad week for silver. So far I've only found two silver dimes and one War Time nickel. Perhaps next week will be better?

Last night I searched 2,000 half dollars. In the two boxes I found four mint set halves (1987D, 2002P, 2004P, 2004D). In certain years the mint only sold circulation halves directly to collectors in mint sets, 1970, 1987, and after 2001. Each run had a limited mintage of less that 3 million. Like proofs they show up now and then in circulation. Two of the ones I found were varieties I needed.



I also searched 2,000 hand rolled quarters. The produced only two Canadians.

This morning I went through 10,000 dimes. Two of the boxes were 95% 2007P's. I don't think I'll bother going through them. The other two boxes were disappointing. In them were only one silver Rosie (1964), six Canadians and one Bermuda 10¢.

I tried to turn things around with a box of pennies, 2,500, but it didn't work too well. In the box I found eleven Wheats and forty-five Canadians.

I did get a free lunch yesterday, however! Papa Gino's (a New England pizza chain) has several express lunches that they guarantee will be available in 3 minutes. I got mine in about 12 minutes, so it was on them. This was right after I won my battle with Chase Bank by proving to them that they "lost" one of my mortgage payments. It took about 6-8 phone hours to solve the problem, but it the work was obviously worth the time, just highly frustrating.

Found: 1 penny (Papa Gino's)

A Few Nickels

Last night I only went through a few hand rolled nickels. In all I searched 1,680 nickels. In them I found one War Time (1943P), three Canadians, one Bermuda 5¢, and one US penny.



I also sorted some Kennedy halves for trade. In two boxes of halves (2,000 coins) I found all pre-2002 circulation halves except, 1964D, 1993D, and 2001P. About four of the ones I found weren't very acceptable.

Crazy Dimes

Last night I went through four boxes of pennies and some hand rolled. It was a pretty good night. I searched 13,550 pennies. In the mix were 105 Wheats, 171 Canadians, eleven US dimes, and one UK 1 penny. I found a variety I needed, 1915D! That's an extremely large number of US dimes in the four boxes. It was very strange.

The Wheat breakdown for the last two posts is:

1909, 1915D, 1920, 1929, 1937(2), 1938, 1939, 1940, 1941(2), 1941S, 1942(7), 1942S, 1944(9), 1944S, 1945(8), 1946(6), 1946D, 1947(2), 1947S, 1948(2), 1949(2), 1949S, 1950(2), 1950D, 1950S, 1951(2), 1951D, 1952(4), 1952D(4), 1952S, 1953(2), 1953D(6), 1955(5), 1955D, 1956, 1956D(7), 1957(3), 1957D(6), 1958(2), 1958D(6)

This morning I finished up my new Canadian album sheets. The Gardmaster albums I employ a system which allows easy modification. The binders are composed of plastic sheets on top of paper sheets with dates. I made some Word documents to duplicate the look of the paper sheets and modified the dates on them to be more accurate and current. It took a bit of time to get the measurements and holes just right, but I'm very pleased with the results.



Found: 3 pennies (2 at Burger King, 1 at Staples)

A Little Piece of NH

Last night was a light night. I only searched some hand rolls.

I first looked through 1,440 hand rolled quarters. In them I found a Wyoming 2007P (one I needed), five Canadians, and a New Hampshire highway token (still worth 25¢, I think).



I then searched 2,900 hand rolled dimes. They produced one silver Rosie (1951), six Canadians and one UK 5 pence. I got two boxes from the bank, but they were all 2007P's so I didn't even bother to open them.

Lastly, I hunted 3,350 pennies. Sadly, this effort was mostly in vain. In the mix were three Wheats, thirty-one Canadians, one US dime, and one Euro 2¢. I had high hopes for the batch because 50 of the penny rolls came from one source. Such a large dump usually produces a high number of Wheats. Not this time, however.



I did a little exploring to figure out who was on the Euro 2¢ I found. It's Queen Beatrix, the current queen of the The Netherlands.

Found: 1 penny (Gulf)

Dollar Coin

Friday was a big first. I found a dollar coin at Papa Gino's. I spied it just under the jukebox while I was sitting down. It's a Jefferson.

I also searched 7,500 pennies (three boxes) while watching the Red Sox on Friday. In them I found one hundred Wheats, sixty Canadians, and one Barbados 1¢.

While dumping my coins on Saturday I came across twenty-eight halves. Nothing too exciting in them, though.

The Wheat breakdown for the last two posts is:

1919, 1930, 1937(2), 1940(2), 1941(2), 1941D, 1942, 1942D, 1944(17), 1944D, 1944S, 1945(8), 1946(6), 1946D(3), 1946S, 1947, 1947D, 1948(3), 1949(2), 1949D, 1950(2), 1951(5), 1951D, 1952(2), 1952D(5), 1953(3), 1953D(8), 1954D, 1955(3), 1956(6), 1956D(5), 1957(3), 1957D(6), 1958(3), 1958D(3)

Lastly, after getting home from a fun family weekend at the Cape I searched 4,000 nickels (two boxes). The boxes produced one War Time (1944P), thirteen Canadians, and one Bermuda.

Found: 3 pennies (2 at Papa Gino's, 1 at The Egg and I), 1 nickel (at Sovereign Bank), 1 quarter (at the The Egg and I), and 1 dollar coin (at Papa Gino's)

Return to Halves

Last night I returned to searching half dollars. I'm trying to complete a circulation set for trade. I got two boxes. In them were two 90% silver halves (2 x 1964), eleven 40% silver halves (2 x 1965, 1966, 3 x 1967, 4 x 1968D, 1969D), and one Canadian $2 coin. The Canadian twoonie is the first foreign coin I have found in the halves I've searched. It's the highest value foreign coin I've found (worth $2.05), too (interesting how this is only two days after my most worthless foreign coin find).



I also searched 10,000 dimes (four boxes) and found nine silver dimes (1942, 1953, 1954, 1957, 1961D, 2 x 1963D, 2 x 1964), fourteen Canadians, and one UK 5 pence piece.

And finally this morning I searched one box of pennies, 2,500 coins. In it was fifteen Wheats and fifteen Canadians.

Found: 1 nickel (at Sovereign Bank)

Record breaker

Last night was a slow night. I only searched pennies. I looked through 12,700 of them (four boxes and some hand rolled). In them I found sixty-five Wheats, ninety-seven Canadians, one Barbados 1¢, and one Guyana 1¢. The coin from Guyana is worth $.00005106 and so it is easily the most worthless one I've found yet. It is also the smallest in diameter, smaller than a dime.



The Wheat breakdown was:

1923, 1939(2), 1940(2), 1941(3), 1942(4), 1944(4), 1944D(2), 1945(4), 1946(6), 1946D(2), 1947, 1948(2), 1950(3), 1951D(3), 1952, 1952D(2), 1953(2), 1953D, 1955, 1956(2), 1956D(2), 1957, 1957D(6), 1958D(6)

Trading

Yesterday I got two packages in the mail that took my coin collecting to a new level.

The first package I got contained coins I had traded for with an Ontarian fellow I met online. A few weeks I ago I decided to trade some of my spare US coins for Canadian coins. In this way I can expand my Canadian collection rather cheaply and get more value out of the US coins I find and don't need. The envelope had thirty-seven varieties I needed and two upgrades. Thank you, CH! The breakdown is:

Canadian Pennies

1929, 1929, 1932, 1933, 1934, 1935, 1936, 1939, 1941, 1948, 1954 SS

Canadian Nickels

1922, 1927, 1928, 1929, 1930, 1931, 1932, 1936, 1940, 1941, 1942, 1947, 1960

Canadian Dimes

1968 50% Silver

Canadian Quarters

1992 NB, 1992 NWT, 1992 NF, 1992 Y, 1992 PEI, 1992 ONT, 1992 Q, 1992 BC, 1999 January, 1999 February, 1999 March, 1999 July, 1999 October



The second package I got was a shipment from Brent-Krueger, a coin supply store. In it was a magnifying glass (now I can tell which 1965 Canadian penny varieties I have), three Dansco albums (Indian Head Pennies, Buffalo Nickels, Mercury Dimes), three Gardmaster albums (Canadian Quarters pre-1967, Canadian Loon Dollars, Canadian Two Dollars), and an extra Gardmaster sheet (for my recent Canadian quarters). With the Dansco albums I'll have a nicer place to put the older US coins I find. In the future I might purchase some of the cheaper varieties. And with the new Canadian albums I can expand my Canadian collection a bit, collecting Canadian one and two dollars coins should be relatively easy through trading.



I also did some coin roll hunting last night.

I went through 3,080 quarters (all hand rolled). In them I found one silver quarter (1964), two Canadians, one South Korean 100 Won, one French Franc, and one UK 10 pence.

I also searched 5,550 dimes (two boxes and some hand rolled) and found five silver dimes (1953D, 1956, 1960D, 1964 x 2), three Canadians, and one UK 5 pence. One of my tellers saved me a very nice 1949 silver Canadian dime. It is one I needed! (* I missed one silver dime in this batch, the Coin Star machine rejected it two days later.)

Lastly, I looked through 760 nickels (all hand rolled). These produced just three Canadians.

It was a busy night as I also had a nice homemade pizza night with my wife (she has to spread though dough for me) and I watched some TV with her.

Before bed I finished reading The World Without Us by Alan Weisman. I got the book at Target for my trip, it is one of the few books I've bought new in the past few years. I had heard about the book on NPR. In the book the author explores what would happen to the world if humans suddenly vanished. The chapters in the book are very disjointed, but some of them are immensely interesting. It depressed me though, and I found I could only read a little at a time. We humans have done some terrible things to our planet. The book's closing chapter was also extremely disappointing. The author left it entirely up to the reader to combine all of the topics he discussed into a cohesive vision (nuclear power plants, sea life, urban decay, etc.). Despite its flaws I think I'll be thinking and talking about the book for some time.



Found: 1 penny (at Sovereign Bank)

Lots of Album Fillers!

Last week while still in California I hit a few more banks. I found six new varieties!

I searched 400 hand rolled quarters. In them I found a nice 2007D Idaho I needed. No banks seemed to have the Wyoming quarter just yet.

I also came across 1,004 halves. One bank had a whole box and another had four loose ones. I bought it on a lark. It produced two 2004P halves, a variety I needed. No silver halves though.

Later in the day I went to a bank with some really helpful tellers. They looked through their trays for me and found a 2002P Sacajawea (those are somewhat rare) and a 1999D Susan B. Anthony for me. That was the last circulation Susan B. I needed. My album is now complete!

At the same bank they had 100 Eisenhower dollars. That's the most I've ever come across at one bank. In them I found the three varieties I needed, 1977, 1977D, and 1978D as well as some upgrades. My Eisenhower circulation collection is now complete!

While in the Napa Valley I visited three wineries. One was particularly interesting to me, Prager's. Its tasting room was covered in bills (and some coins), most were American one dollar bills, but there were quite a few foreign bills there too. My guess is there was about $20,000 on the walls and ceilings. They also have a window sill that they haven't cleaned for some 20-30 years on display.





This weekend I also saw a new movie, The Kingdom. It was pretty good. As far as enjoyability goes, I'd put it up there with the latest Bourne film. It was just a bit preachy at the end. Justin Bateman did a surprisingly good job in an action film. He came off pretty tough at the end.



Finally a forum alerted me to a special that Coin Star is running. If you use one of their machines to count $30 worth of coins sometime soon and choose to receive an Amazon gift card in exchange, you'll get a $10 gift card in the mail for free! I'm trying to get two such gift cards, one to my work address and one to my home address. Here's the details.

Found: 6 pennies (1 at O'Hare, 1 at Logan, 2 at Shaw's, 2 at Price Chopper), 1 nickel (outside Border's), 1 dime (at Shaw's), 1 quarter (at Etude winery), 1 foreign coin (a Canadian penny at Shaw's)

Redeemed: $24.75

Sweet Day

Yesterday was a good day. Especially for finding and coin roll hunting.

Things started off well when I found 2 pennies and 1 British pound (worth $2.04!) in the security line at Logan Airport. Later I found a quarter and 2 pennies at McDonald's and then a dollar bill in the self check out lane. I had been thinking one of these days someone would forget to take their paper change in those machines and I'd spot it.



I also hit about a dozen banks looking for pennies. I accumulated 15,450 pennies, three boxes and some hand rolled. In the bunch I found seventy-six Wheats, fifteen Canadians, five US dimes, two Euro 2¢, two Taiwan 1 Yuan coins, one Bahama 1¢, and one Ireland 1 penny. One coin roll even had twenty-nine Wheats in it! It was a mini-hoard with one 1943 steel penny. In all I found one US variety I needed, 1937S, and two Canadian varieties I needed, 1928 and 1930 (also in one roll).



The Wheat break down (so far) is:

1929, 1934, 1937S, 1940(2), 1941, 1942D, 1943, 1944(3), 1944D(2), 1944S(2), 1945D(2), 1945S, 1946, 1946S(2), 1947D, 1947S, 1948D, 1950, 1950D(2), 1950S, 1951D(2), 1951S, 1952D(3), 1952S(2), 1953D(3), 1953S(3), 1954, 1954D(2), 1955D, 1956(3), 1956D(10), 1957D(8), 1958D(7)

While at the banks I found one Eisenhower dollar and a teller gave me a 1943S steel cent. Two steelies in one day!

I'm not sure if I'll have more time to coin roll hunt. This might be it. I have to dump these coins and that might take all the free time I have.

Found: 4 pennies (2 at Logan, 2 at McDonald's), 1 quarter (at McDonald's), 1 one dollar bill (at a grocery store), 1 foreign coin (a British pound at Logan)

Busy Weekend

This weekend I didn't get too much coin roll hunting (or coin dumping) done. There were too many other things to do. I finished sealing our driveway, installed our dryer, mowed the lawn, and went to a Red Sox game. The environment will suffer a bit now that we won't be using the clothes line. It felt good using it, but it was difficult to find enough sunny weekend days to dry everything.

In the off time I searched 4,360 nickels (2 boxes and some hand rolled). I found one War Time (1943S), nine Canadians, and one US penny. The turnout was a bit light. I did find one really cool nickel that has a double clipped planchet. It is my first such nickel find, so far I've only found two pennies with single clips. I went through these nickels slower as I was looking for certain dates for my trading buddy.

I also went through 12,500 pennies. In them were sixty-six Wheats, one hundred three Canadians, and one Netherlands Antilles 1¢. No new varieties turned up. :(



The Wheat break down over the past two posts was:

1910, 1913, 1919S, 1929, 1930, 1936(2), 1937(2), 1938, 1939(2), 1940(3), 1941(6), 1942, 1944(9), 1945(5), 1946(7), 1946D, 1946S, 1947(2), 1948(3), 1949S, 1950S, 1951(4), 1952(3), 1953(7), 1953D(5), 1954D, 1955, 1955D, 1956, 1956(10), 1957(3), 1957D(8), 1958, 1958D(9)

Tomorrow I am off to Redwood City, CA (near San Fransisco) for a programming conference. I plan to search pennies like crazy. Let's hope some good Wheats with mint marks turn up!

Found: 5 pennies (1 outside Staples, 1 at Home Depot, 1 at Shaw's, 2 on the street near Fenway), 1 foreign coin (a Canadian penny at Shaw's)