Just Some Nickels

Yesterday was my wife's birthday and so I searched just one box of nickels after we got back from the Chinese restaurant. It produced three Canadians.

I also performed a science experiment. I read about cleaning coins using electrolysis and I decided to try it out. I took an old 12 volt adapter I had, split and stripped the ends, and connected them to two alligator clips. Then I attached one clip to a stainless steel fork and the other to a dirty silver half (just a spare for testing). I put both of these in a glass jar with one hefty spoonful of salt and some lemon juice. I turned the unit on. Immediately the water around the coin started to bubble, like soda. After a minute the water turned brownish yellow and then after three minutes it was brown on top and bluish below. I took the coin out. It was blackened, but it was such that I could wipe it off. Now the coin is extra clean, almost too clean to be honest. I tried it with a penny too, but it did some funky things to the copper. It was fun, but I don't think I'll use it to clean anymore coins.

Here's a picture of our baby's room by request of TP.



Found: 2 pennies (at Burger King)

600,000+ Pennies Searched!

Last night I broke the 600,000 penny mark. One of these days I'll get to a million. I'll have to celebrate that day somehow.

I searched 440 hand rolled quarters and 100 hand rolled dimes, but only found one Canadian quarter.

I next looked through 10,000 pennies (four boxes). They produced fifty-six Wheats, fifty-seven Canadians, and one Barbados 1¢. In the pennies I came across one stamped with an outline of Maryland. The Wheat varieties were:

1919, 1928, 1934, 1940(2), 1941(2), 1942, 1944(2), 1944D(2), 1945, 1946(2), 1947, 1948S, 1949D, 1950(2), 1950S, 1951(2), 1951D, 1952(2), 1953, 1953D, 1953S(2), 1954D(2), 1955(2), 1955D, 1956(5), 1956D(2), 1957, 1957D(6), 1958(3), 1958D(4)

Lastly, I hunted 2,000 nickels (one box). In it was one War Time (1943P) and two Canadians.

Found: 2 pennies (at the Tiger Mart), one nickel (at Sovereign Bank), one quarter (at Sovereign Bank)

Bad Luck

This weekend things went pretty poorly as far as coin roll hunting goes. Luckily, other things went very well. My wife and I had a good time at my company party, her second shower, and putting the wallpaper border up in the baby's room. The room is now all decked out. It looks great. Here's a stock photo; it shows the Zanzibar theme very well.



On Friday night and on Saturday morning I finished my coin from Thursday. It should have been a warning. In 2,450 hand rolled pennies I found four Wheats, eight Canadians, one US dime and one Panama 1¢ and in 1,200 hand rolled nickels I found four Canadians, one Bermuda 5¢, and one Guatemala 10 Centavos. The coin from Guatemala is a first for me.



The penny varieties from the past two posts were:

1929, 1934, 1936, 1938, 1940(8), 1941(5), 1942(3), 1944(5), 1945(11), 1946(10), 1946D, 1947, 1948(3), 1948D, 1949(3), 1950, 1951(3), 1951D(5), 1952, 1952D(2), 1953, 1953D(5), 1954, 1954D, 1955(5), 1956(2), 1956D(11), 1957(4), 1957D(8), 1958D(5)

My bank hunting on Saturday morning was terrible. About three or four banks told me, "yeah, we had some rolls of halves in the vault, but some guy took them last week." Ugh, I spent my day in someone's wake. He missed one bank. That bank produced my only silver keepers. In 1,718 halves I found eight 40% silver halves (2 x 1966, 2 x 1967, 4 x 1968D), three proof halves (1977S, 1980S, 2004S), and one mint set half (2002D). I also turned up eighteen Ikes. Oh well, better luck next weekend!

Found: 1 penny (at Costco)

109 Wheats!

Last night I did some serious CRH'ing. I got a big bunch of hand rolled coin from two banks and six boxes of halves.

The six boxes of halves (6,000 coins) produced one 90% silver half (1964D) and nine 40% silver halves (3 x 1967, 4 x 1968D, 2 x 1969D). That's a bit light compared to last week, but it is better than six skunk boxes!

I also got 6,440 quarters. In them I found one silver Washington (1957D), five Canadians, and one Bermuda 25¢. I'm not quite sure what's up with the 1957D's. I've now found four on four seperate occations. I sure wish another variety would appear.

Next I searched through 1,400 dimes. They produced two silver Rosies (1963D, 1964D) and nine Canadians.

Lastly, I looked through 1,600 pennies. In them was one big mess of Wheats. In total I found 109 Wheats, 15 Canadians, one US dime, one Bermuda 1¢, and one Panama 1¢. That's my first Wheat stash find for 2008. It's strange how relatively common these seem to be. My fingers are crossed that the next stash I find will be silver quarters or dimes.

Found: 3 pennies (1 at Babies 'R Us, 1 at Bank of America, 1 at Tiger Mart)

Last Steelie!

Things went pretty well for me at the bank yesterday. I didn't get too much coin as my wife and I have a class tonight, "Make Way For Baby!," but a teller had some coins saved for me. The saves included thirteen Wheats and one War Time nickel (1943P). One of the Wheats was a rusty Steelie I needed, the 1943D!

At home I searched some hand rolled coin, 680 quarters and 800 dimes. They didn't turn up anything.

I next went through 1,000 pennies. They produced eleven Wheats and six Canadians. The varieties (including the teller saves) were:

1921, 1935, 1937(2), 1939, 1940(4), 1941(3), 1942, 1943D, 1944, 1945, 1948, 1952(2), 1952D(2), 1955, 1955D(2)

Lastly, I picked through 520 nickels. In them was one War Time nickel (1944S) and four Canadians. The 1944S is a rare one. I found my first a two months ago. This second one is for CH.

Found: 3 pennies (at Sovereign Bank)

S Means Silver!

This weekend was excellent!

I started things out with 5,750 pennies (hand rolled). In them I found thirty-one Wheats, forty-five Canadians, two US dimes, one UK penny, and one German 2 Pfennig. The Wheat varieties were:

1929, 1934, 1938, 1940, 1941, 1944(5), 1946(3), 1947, 1948, 1949, 1951D(3), 1952, 1953D, 1953S, 1954D, 1955, 1956(2), 1956D(3), 1957, 1957D(2), 1958, 1958D(2)

I next looked through 1,080 hand rolled nickels. They produced one War Time (1942P) and two Canadians. In the bunch was also a key date Jefferson, 1939S. One for CH.

And then on Saturday morning I went out to do my bank run. I only found 356 halves, but the keeper rate was great. At one bank I found one whole roll of 90% Kennedys and one whole roll of Franklins, both firsts for me. And then after another few banks I found a roll marked "S". In it were one 90% half and nineteen 40% halves. I guess "S" means silver! In total I found 41 90% halves and 27 40% halves. I found eight Franklins I needed for my album. The variety breakdown was:

1951, 1952D, 1953, 1953D, 1954D(2), 1958D(2), 1959, 1960D, 1961D(2), 1962D, 1963D(7), 1964(5), 1964D(16), 1965(2), 1966(3), 1967(7), 1968D(10), 1969D(5)



Found: 2 pennies (at Shaw's), 1 dime (at Shaw's)

Redeemed: $5.10

Two Good Boxes!

Last night felt good. I finally got two good boxes of halves. It sure had been a long time.

I searched 6,000 halves (six boxes) and found eleven 90% silver halves (1951, 1963, 1963D, 8 x 1964) and twenty-six 40% silver halves (2 x 1965, 3 x 1966, 6 x 1967, 11 x 1968D, 4 x 1969D). The 1951 Ben Franklin was one I needed for my albums.

I also looked through 4,680 hand rolled quarters. They produced nine Canadians, one UK 10 pence, and one Bermuda 25¢.

I searched 1,900 dimes (all hand rolled) and found two silver dimes (1943, 1952D), six Canadians, and one Ireland 5 pence. The Irish coin is a new one for me and that Mercury is the first one of 2008.



Lastly, I went through 1050 hand rolled pennies. In them were five Wheats and seven Canadians.

Found: 1 penny (at Bank of America), 1 quarter (at Sovereign Bank)

Light Night

Last night was a light night. I only went through two boxes of nickels, 4,000 coins. In them I found one War Time (1945S) and five Canadians.

I also found 41 halves at four banks over the last few days. In them I found just one mint set half, 2005D.

Indian Head

Last night I searched a little. I started out by looking through 720 hand rolled quarters. They produced only one Canadian and one US nickel.

I next searched 5,400 pennies (two boxes and some hand rolled). In them I found one Indian Head (1895), fifty-seven Wheats, sixty-four Canadians, and one Bermuda 1¢. The Wheat varieties were:

1919, 1940(3), 1941(4), 1942, 1944(4), 1945, 1946(5), 1947S, 1948(3), 1949, 1950(4), 1950D, 1950S, 1951D, 1952D, 1953(2), 1953D, 1954, 1955(4), 1955D, 1956(5), 1956D(4), 1957(3), 1957D(4), 1958D

A teller friend also saved a silver Rosie for me (1964). It was much appreciated.

Found: 9 pennies (at work), 1 dime (at work)

Silver Dollar! ... Snow Day

Today is a snow day. We got about 10 inches of snow in my town and my workplace was kind to us all and shut the office down. :) It was a lot of shoveling.

This weekend I did more baby stuff. I finished painting the baby's room, moved in a dresser from my parents (one that was mine and my Uncle's), bought a rug, switched the outside lights to CFL's, and replaced our two hallway light fixtures to better looking ones that can take CFL's.

I also did some coin roll hunting.

On Friday I searched through two boxes of pennies (hand rolled) and found twenty Wheats, twenty-three Canadians, one Euro 2¢, and one UK penny. The Wheat varieties were:

1936(2), 1941(2), 1942, 1945, 1946(3), 1948(2), 1950(2), 1950D, 1953(2), 1956D(2), 1957, 1957D(3), 1958D

Then on Saturday morning I did some bank hunting. Things started out bad. The first eight banks produced no keepers ... and few halves. I kept thinking, "it's like I'm asking for Ikes!" The ninth bank produced one 40% half. Things continued on slowly until the 16th bank. I saw some silver halves in the teller's tray. I asked for them and any others. She let me buy those and said that she had some others. I saw they were large dollars and when I saw one had a silver edge I immediately said I'd buy them too. When I got in my car I realized what I bought, a 1986S Statue of Liberty/Ellis Island Commemorative Dollar. It's a bit heavier than an Ike and it is 90% silver! My goal for the year was to find one silver dollar. I would have settled for a 40% Ike, but I'll take this one any day. The 18 banks I hunted turned up 310 halves that produced three 90% silver halves (3 x 1964), nine 40% silver halves (2 x 1966, 2 x 1967, 5 x 1968D), 14 Ikes and the silver dollar.



Found: 5 pennies (2 at Papa Gino's, 2 at Shaw's, 1 at Home Depot), 1 nickel (at Papa Gino's), 1 dime (at Home Depot), 1 quarter (at Shaw's), 1 dollar bill (outside the Mall), 1 foreign coin (a UK penny at Shaw's)

13,380 coin night!

Last night was a big night for searching. I went through 13,380 coins! Kind of crazy, I know.

I first searched 5,420 quarters (all hand rolled from two sources). In them I found one silver quarter (1950D), five Canadians, and one UK 10 pence. The 1950D was one I needed for my album. That's my second such find of the week and my fourth silver quarter found this week ... of course I went through a lot of quarters this week, but that's still a high find rate. I also found $1.50 in extra quarters (rolls with more than 40 coins in them). I decided to use my scale to see which rolls had extras in them (for about half of the rolls). It was easy to do while searching.

I next went through 2,200 dimes (all hand rolled). They produced eight Canadians, two Bermuda 10¢, one UK 5 pence, and one Iceland 1 Krona. The Iceland coin is a first for me. It is worth 1.6 ¢. I also found $.50 in extra dimes.



After that I searched 6,009 halves (six boxes and a few loose ones). In them I found three 90% silver halves (1937, 1943, 1964) and seven 40% silver halves (2 x 1967, 5 x 1968D). The boxes are slowly improving. It felt good to find those two Walkers.

Lastly I looked at some hand rolled nickels and pennies. 960 nickels turned up six Canadians, one Czech Republic 2 Koron and one Cayman Islands 10¢. One of the Canadians was a 1949 George VI, the first one of those I found in a roll. The two other foreign coins were new ones for me, the Czech coin is worth 11.4¢ and the Cayman Islands coin is worth 12.2¢. 800 pennies produced just four Wheats and one Canadian.

Tilt

Last night I did just a little CRH'ing. I went through two boxes of nickels, 4,000 coins. In them I found one Buffalo (1927), one War Time (1945D), fourteen Canadians, and one arcade token. The token is for a family amusement center called TILT. They have two in my region. Supposedly it is redeemable for prizes only. The 1945D nickel was a nice upgrade to the one in my album.

Good Penny

Last night was an all penny night. I searched three boxes of pennies, 7,500 coins, and found thirty-six Wheats and fifty-seven Canadians. One of the Wheats was a variety I needed for my album, 1912. Now I only need one more Philadelphia mint Wheat, 1914! The Wheat varieties from the last two posts are:

1911, 1912, 1938, 1939, 1941(2), 1942(3), 1944, 1945(2), 1946, 1947, 1948, 1949, 1950, 1951(2), 1951D, 1952D(2), 1953(2), 1953D, 1955, 1956(3), 1956D(4), 1957, 1957D(5), 1958(4), 1958D

First Album Filler

Yesterday they had an unusually number of hand rolled quarters available at the bank, four boxes. They were from a business customer. I took my chances with them. The 8,000 quarters produced three silver Washingtons (1956, 1957D, 1964). Strangely there were no Canadians. Three silver quarters in one night is my second best showing! Furthermore, the 1956 is one I needed for my albums, the first album filling find of 2008!

I also searched 2,500 pennies (one box) and found nine Wheats and twenty Canadians.

In the mail yesterday I had a funny surprise. I got a check for $12 from Popular Mechanics. The attached letter says:

Thank you for your recent renewal order; your loyalty is appreciated. However, your request for an additional renewal subscription or gift subscription at this time would exceed our system's maximum number of issues. Therefore, we are refunding your payment.

I got a good chuckle out of that letter as I had been trying to get as many free yearly subscriptions of Popular Mechanics and Smart Money as I could by using My Coke Rewards points (I'm up to 2013 at this time). Now I know how to convert my points into dollars!

Found: 6 pennies (at Sovereign Bank), 1 dime (at Sovereign Bank), 1 foreign coin (a Canadian quarter at Sovereign Bank)

Baby Prep

This weekend was a weekend of change. OK not so much really, but I'm getting pretty tired of that word. It was a different sort of weekend though because I devoted to the two days to baby prep. That's OK with me! On Saturday we went to an all day birthing class and on Sunday I finished painting the baby's room.

I did only a little bit of coin roll hunting. I searched 6,000 pennies (2 boxes and some hand rolled). In them I found forty Wheats and forty-eight Canadians. The Wheat varieties were:

1918, 1935, 1937, 1940, 1941, 1944(3), 1944D(2), 1946(5), 1947(2), 1948(4), 1950D, 1952(3), 1952D(2), 1953, 1955(2), 1956D(2), 1957(3), 1957D(3), 1958D(2)

Found: 6 pennies (1 at Burger King, 2 at work, 1 at UMass Memorial, 2 at Spag's 19)

Wal-Lex

Last night I started 2008 ... for CRH'ing, anyway.

I searched 4,000 half dollars (four boxes). In those I found three 90% silver halves (1963D, 2 x 1964) and four 40% silver halves (1965, 1966, 2 x 1968D). The Franklin was the first one I've found in a box. It's one I already have, but it was good to find. Although this was my best batch of half boxes in some time, I sure wish it was even better. It has been a long time since I've gotten some really good boxes.

I also searched 480 hand rolled quarters and found one Canadian and one Arcade token. The token is for a family fun center that used to exist near the bank called Wal-Lex. I've got a bunch of these tokens at my house. I didn't realize they could be cashed in at the bank. ;)





I next went through 5,600 dimes (two boxes and some hand rolled). They produced two silver Rosies (1961, 1964), six Canadians, one Bermuda 10¢, and one Netherland Antilles 10c. The coin from the Netherland Antilles is a first for me.



Lastly, I looked at 280 nickels and found one Canadian and one Bermuda 5¢.

Found: 1 penny (at the Mobil Mart)

Albums

Last night I didn't do any coin roll hunting, but I did get some coin albums in the mail. I got five albums, Walking Liberty Halves, Franklin Halves, Canadian silver five cents, Canadian Halves (2), and large Canadian Dollars. It was great to put my halves and five cent pieces into the albums. The coins are much more enjoyable when they are presented in such fashion. I don't have any large Canadian dollars and only a few Canadian halves, but I plan to get some more soon. I'll probably collect those more slowly, however, as they are generally more expensive.

Found: 1 penny (at Costco), 1 dime (at Work)

2007, 2008

Wow, 2008 has arrived. Feels like 2007 was hardly here. A lot sure happened in 2007, but hitting 2008 seems huge. I'm sure the baby will change everything. Meg and have sure been moving fast! In 2006 we got married, in 2007 we got a house, and in 2008 we'll have a kid.

We didn't celebrate too much. We just went out for Chinese. Yesterday I painted the baby's room some more and shoveled. I also decided on a few green resolutions for the year:

1) Replace all bulbs in the house with CFL's. There are some fixtures outside that still have energy wasting bulbs and inside there are two hallway light fixtures that don't support regular size bulbs, so they'll need to be replaced.

2) Learn more about composting. We have a big compost pile in the back. I need to spend more time turning it, I think, so it is more useable.

3) Insulate the attic and basement. I meant to do this before winter, but I didn't. I should do it in the spring before the attic gets too toasty.

I did a little coin roll hunting. I got all these coins in 2007 so they still count towards last year's totals.

I searched thirty half dollars. I just stopped at one bank on the way home on Monday. The stop produced one 40% silver half (1968D), one proof half (2006S), and four mint set halves (3 x 2006D, 2007P).

I also searched eighty quarters and 500 dimes, all hand rolled. I didn't find anything in them.

I looked through 4,520 nickels (two boxes and some hand rolled) and found one War Time (1943P), fourteen Canadians, one Bermuda 5¢, and one Bahamas 5¢. One of the Canadians was my oldest Canadian nickel found to date, 1940, and one of the US nickels was a key date nickel, 1950.

Lastly, I went through 11,200 pennies (four boxes and some hand rolled). In them were ninety-two Wheats and eighty-four Canadians. There were no new varieties in the mix, but there were an awful lot of shiny Wheats. The varieties were:

1918(2), 1925, 1936, 1938, 1941(2), 1942(2), 1944(8), 1944D, 1945, 1946(12), 1946D, 1947(5), 1947D, 1948(11), 1949(5), 1950(2), 1951D, 1952(5), 1952D(5), 1953(2), 1953D(3), 1954S, 1955(2), 1956(2), 1956D(6), 1957D(4), 1958(2), 1958D(2)

Found: 2 pennies (1 at Circuit City, 1 at Stop 'N Shop), 1 quarter (at Chic-Fil-A)