Economicly Stimulated

Today I saw that Meg and I got our Economic Stimulus Package sometime over the past few days. I like to refer to it as our loan from Henry. What are we going to get with it? A big shopping trip to Wal-Mart to buy cheap Chinese crap, of course! ;) Seriously, it just seems a bit dumb to me. I like checks of course, but what's the point besides making politicians in both parties able to profess that they did something about the economy. How lame. I want real, preventative solutions, not borrowed money that won't have much impact. Does anyone claim that we're avoiding a recession with these checks? If these checks are so great and work so well why not give double what we got? or triple?

A teller saved me a Wheat penny today (1957D) and I found a silver dime (1961D) on top of the coin counting machine. That's a good start!

Yesterday, after a great brunch Meg made for my sister's birthday we got a good surprise when I ripped up the carpet in our back room. The wood floors look great! I was worried they'd be damaged.

Found: 8 pennies (1 outside our house in Shrewsbury, 6 at the car wash, 1 at Sovereign Bank), 4 dimes (1 at the car wash, 3 at Sovereign Bank)

Looks Like We Made It!

Henry and I survived our man night. While Meg was at her sister's bachelorette party, we went to Cioci Nicole's house for BBQ'd steak and corn on the cob. I screwed up a bit and forgot Henry's bottle on our kitchen counter ... Ugh. Henry also rolled over twice for his Aunt. When we got home it was a little difficult to get him to go to sleep, but not too bad. When we got up we watched Man vs. Wild like most Saturdays and waited for mom.

I did some coin hunting while Henry was sleeping. Six boxes of halves produced! It seems like a while since I've gotten some decent half dollar boxes. 6,000 halves yielded eleven 90% silver halves (1940, 1941, 1951D, 1954, 1956, 1963D, 5 x 1964), nine 40% silver halves (2 x 1965, 1966, 3 x 1966, 2 x 1968D, 1969D), and six mint set halves (2003P, 3 x 2003D, 2004P, 2006P). Still looking for a 2008 half. Those Walkers and Franklins were the first ones I have gotten from this source.

Found: 4 pennies (2 at Bank of America, 1 at Hannaford, 1 at The Big Y)

Massport Token

Today at Hannaford, a grocery store, I found a new token sitting on top of the Coin Star machine. It's a Massport (Massachusetts Port Authority) token. The obverse and reverse are the same. They say, "Ground Transport Token - Value One Trip." I know of MBTA tokens, of course, but never heard of Massport tokens. Anyone know if it can still be used or what it might have cost? I presume it was used for buses near Logan airport. Here's a picture of a bunch of them I found online.



I also found a pure Nickel Canadian 5¢ in the same spot.

Found: 1 dime (at Hannaford), 1 foreign coin (a Canadian nickel), 1 token (a Massport token)

Untitled

(He's also a tax credit too!)

Last night I did a fair amount of coin roll hunting.

I searched 680 hand rolled quarters and found one Canadian and one Dominican Republic 25 centavos. It's worth .7¢. I'm sure it's metal content is worth more. Nice to know that someone else's currency is on a bigger slide!



I also looked at 450 dimes. They turned up one silver Rosie (1954) and two UK 5 pence pieces. The dimes have been good to me lately.

240 nickels didn't yield anything.

Lastly, a I hunted through a big batch of pennies. 10,350 of them turned up forty-seven Wheats, sixty-nine Canadians, two Bahamas 1¢, and one UK new penny (probably collected on the same trip as the other UK coins I found last night!). The Wheats were:

19XX, 1936, 1937, 1938, 1940(2), 1941(2), 1942, 1942D(2), 1944(5), 1945(2), 1946(4), 1947, 1948, 1950, 1951, 1952(2), 1953, 1953D(3), 1954D, 1955D, 1956, 1956D(3), 1957(2), 1957D, 1958, 1958D(4)

A teller also saved me a silver dime yesterday! It was a 1964 silver Rosie.

Here's a picture of Henry watching TV this morning with his Mommy.



Found: 1 penny (at Sovereign Bank)

Back Home

Yesterday afternoon Meg and Henry returned home from their trip to my in-laws. They were only gone for a night and were only 2 hours away, but it felt longer and farther. I've learned that being a parent makes one a bit irrational. When they left I couldn't help but tell Meg to be safe on the highway. I was nervous for them. I'm not normally that way, but I was then. I told my sister about it and she mentioned still feeling the same way at times even though her oldest son is now about four. I think I'll be a bit more understanding when my mother says "be careful" to me, her 33 year old son, or when my father says, "don't say that, now", to the same person.

Found: 7 pennies (all at the car wash), 1 nickel (at the car wash), 1 dime (at the car wash), 5 quarters (at the car wash)

A Night Alone

Last night I had a night to myself. Meg and Henry went west to my in-laws. It sounds like things went well out there besides the biggest poo-plosion yet, according to Meg. At home things were quiet, a little dull.

I searched some nickels. 3,600 of them yielded just six Canadians. A little disappointing, but so be it!



Yesterday at work I finished listening to When You Are Engulfed in Flames, by David Sedaris. I'm a big David Sedaris fan. I've seen him read twice and have listened to most everything he's recorded. When I first got this book I was excited that none of his recent fairy tale-like animal stories were on it. Those are just plain dumb. Unfortunately, I was disappointed by this collection. The work is very disjointed. Only a few of the pieces are truly funny and most seem tired. The worst part of the book is certainly the piece in which Sedaris discusses some animal sex magazine his sister supposedly had. It's a live piece. While he's reading it you can hear the audience nervously laugh over the shock. Sedaris is better than that, isn't he? His previous material was witty and tight. This book makes me wonder if Sedaris is now washed up. Bummer.

Found: 1 penny (at work)

The High Chair

Last night Meg and I put Henry in the high chair during dinner. It was the first time. He looked very tiny in it and he's not going to be eating in it anytime soon, but we thought it'd help him adjust. We gave him some baby utensils to play with, but he was more interested in eating the sides of his seat.

I also did some coin roll hunting last night (Henry went to bed very early because he was tired.).

Forty-one small dollars and ten halves didn't produce anything. I thought I spied a 90% silver half in the teller's tray, but it must have been the lighting. I guess I'm starting to see silver mirages!

1,040 hand rolled quarters didn't produce either.

The dimes were excellent. 2,000 dimes yielded four silver Rosies (1953, 1953D, 1956D, 1958D), four Canadians, and one UK 5 pence. I sure wish the quarters I had came from this bank, but they didn't.

I also started working my way through a large amount of nickels I got from one bank, about 5,000. Last night I search 1,240 and found one War Time (1942P), one Canadian (1 Ni) and a US penny.

2,000 pennies turned up eight Wheats and five Canadians. The Wheats were:

1944(2), 1947, 1949(2), 1956D(2), 1958D(2)

Found: 1 penny (outside Sovereign Bank)

Coin Show

Yesterday morning I went to a coin show. I hadn't gone since Henry was born. It was fun. I got a few Canadian coins for my albums. I think it was good to have a break from the show as the dealers don't change too much and their stock of Canadian coins is rather stagnant.



I also finished a book I was reading, One For The Road, by Tony Horwitz. It is his first book and it covers a couple of hitchhiking journeys he took to explore Australia. Compared to his other books, I found this one to be very slow. Like the others it is well written, but without a theme to bind all of his adventures together it just wasn't as good. I almost didn't finish the book. I even told Meg I was disappointed with it and was moving on, but I pushed ahead with it. The last few chapters were some of the better ones in the book, so I'm glad I did. Hitchhiking in Australia, just doesn't seem that much fun, and there's only so many pub and drunk driving stories I wanted to read about.

In the evening we had my parents over for a nice dinner and walk around our neighborhood.

Found: 3 pennies (1 at Market Basket, 2 at Sovereign Bank)

Living the Title

Today Henry and I lived the title of my blog. He wore his "Cheap, Green and Happy" shirt. Together we went to some banks and then later we went to the recycling center. He was good for all of it. It has been a good weekend with him. Last night he behaved very well when we went out for Texas BBQ.

The slow streak continued for my coin roll hunting.

I rounded up 25 large dollars and 707 small dollars. In them I found four mint set dollars (4 x 2002P).

I also went through 8,316 half dollars. They yielded just three 90% silver halves (3 x 1964), and four 40% silver halves (1966, 1967, 2 x 1968D). The four boxes I picked up today at bank #3 were total skunks! Ugh. Two bank stops turned up a couple of loose silver halves. They saved me a bit.

The 5,000 dimes I looked through were also so-so. In them I found just one silver Rosie (1948D). It's a good one and like the 1955S I found last week it made me feel I was close to finding another album filler.

The mail today was good to me, however. My coupons for free Coke arrived. I decided to use all of my Coke points for free soda coupons. I tried one more time to scam Popular Mechanics into cutting me another $12 check, but it didn't work. So far I've received thirty coupons for free 20 ounce sodas. As bonus of sorts they accidentally mailed me a coupon for a free 12 pack. The only downside is I can only use one coupon at a time. It is going to take some effort to use them all up in three months.

I also got some sort of Olympics coin at the Bank of America today. I thought it was an actual Chinese coin at first, but it seems to be some sort of promotional item related to the 2008 Olympics and Bank of America's sponsorship of them.

Found: 1 penny (at Shaw's), 1 dime (at DCU)

Redeemed: $9.30

Tokens

Last night was an exciting parenting night for me ... I got to see Henry roll over. He did it twice in the afternoon for Meg and she was determined that he'd do it for me. It takes some coaxing with a toy. His neck control has improved a lot when he is laying on his stomach. The difference is quite amazing from a week or two ago. Meg, Henry, and I continue to feel better too. The walk we had last night sure was nice. I can't wait for this weekend. It feels like I've hardly spent any time with either of them this week.

The coin roll hunting I did yesterday stunk. It's a been a very slow couple of weeks.

Fifty small dollars didn't produce anything.

6,000 half dollars, six boxes, turned up just two 40% silver halves (1967, 1968D). I didn't have high hopes for the lot. The ten boxes I got had no silver coins showing at the ends of the rolls. I'm guessing the other four I have to go through will be the same, but perhaps I'll be surprised. One good coin can make the difference.

I also passed the 300,000 mark for quarters! I searched 3,720 of them and found six Canadians. One of the Canadians was one I needed though, a 2008 RCM.

400 dimes turned up just one Canadian.

I had my best luck with nickels (that's not saying too much). 440 nickels produced one War Time (1945P), one Canadian, and one Holland America token. The token is a first for me. It looks somewhat like the picture below, except mine is not a dollar token. It says 5 on the back and is presumedly worth 5 cents or so.



2,750 pennies turned up seventeen Wheats and nineteen Canadians. The Wheats were:

1929, 1939, 1940(2), 1941, 1942, 1944(3), 1946, 1950, 1952(2), 1953, 1955, 1956, 1957D(2), 1958, 1958D

When I was doing my pickups I got some teller saves too. One teller saved me a 1963D silver Rosie and another saved me a Canadian penny, a Canadian dime, and a Swiss 10 Rappen coin.



The token I found last night made me think of making a list similar to my country list, but for tokens and other stuff. So far here is the exonumia I've found:

slugs (penny, nickel, quarter)
plastic toy penny
TILT arcade token
MBTA token
Holland America token
NH Highway token
Wal-Lex token
Princess Cruises token
NAMCO arcade token *
Connecticut Golf Land token
Theodore Roosevelt medal *
Jokers token *
Funspot token *
Davis' Mega Maze token *

* not found in a roll

Found: 8 pennies (7 at the car wash, 1 outside the Tiger Mart)

World of Coins

Yesterday I was thinking about all the countries for which I've found coins since I started my coin project last year in May. I made a list of the countries broken down by continent. Here it is:

NORTH AMERICA

United States
Bahamas
Bermuda
Barbados
Canada
Netherlands Antilles
Dominican Republic
Aruba
Cayman Islands
Mexico
Guatemala
East Caribbean States/British Caribbean Territories
Turks and Caicos Islands
Jamaica*
Trinidad and Tobago*
Panama

SOUTH AMERICA

Ecuador
Paraguay
Columbia
Brazil
Peru*
Guyana

EUROPE***

United Kingdom
Portugal (Euro)
Germany
Sweden
Ireland
Switzerland
Luxembourg
Iceland
Belgium
Czech Republic
Netherlands
Greece
France
Norway
Spain
Italy

ASIA

Israel
Taiwan
Singapore
Philippines
United Arab Emirates
Thailand
Hong Kong
South Korea
India
China**
Cambodia**
Japan*
Malaysia*

AFRICA

Kenya
Somalia
Morocco

AUSTRALIA

Australia
New Zealand

* non-roll find, mostly coin counter rejects
** collected in situ
*** Euro coins are only listed if pre-Euro coins have not been found

I'm constantly amazed at the variety and it never surprises me too much to find a coin from an obscure country in a roll. In my opinion, the list mostly reflects US travel habits; Africa is underrepresented, while Caribbean countries are well represented. My dream right now is find a really old foreign coin. I've read a handful of stories about other CRH'ers finding Roman or mideval coins. That would be incredible. So far my oldest foreign coin find is 1920.

At home things are improving. Meg and Henry are feeling much better. All of us were able to get some good sleep last night.

Found: 1 quarter (at Papa Gino's)

Shout From Little Sick One

Here's a picture of Henry right after he took his cherry flavored medicine. It is amazing how he can smile just after throwing up all over the place. It lifts our spirits!

Found: 1 penny (at Costco), 1 nickel (at Costco)

Cool Dollars, Sick Family

Yesterday day was good for coin roll hunting, bad for the family. Meg and Henry are pretty sick right now with some sort of cold. Hopefully they are both sleeping now, gaining energy to fight this thing. Henry sounded absolutely horrible last night, not like himself at all. It pained us both to hear and console him. I just feel lucky that I'm not sick too. Hopefully if I get this bug I get it after Meg so the two of us aren't sick at once!

In the morning at the bank I came across a silver dime (1964). A teller saved it for me. Later at lunch I noticed I had two old bills in my wallet, a 1963A and a 1969. The 1969 is in awesome shape. They inspired me to try my luck and search some more bills when I got home. I searched 300 $1 bills, but didn't find anything. I'll have to find my sheets detailing the number of bills I've searched, but here is a quick summary of what have (those in bold I have):

1963, 1963A, 1963B, 1963C, 1963D, 1969, 1969A, 1969B, 1969C, 1974, 1977, 1977A, 1981, 1981A, 1985, 1988, 1988A, 1993, 1995, 2001, 2003, 2003A

I'm still looking for upgrades for a lot of these. It is tough finding bills in good condition that are older than the 2003 series. Here is a good Q&A from the U.S. Treasury website, concerning the series date, as most people aren't aware of this.

Q: What is the significance of the series date on our currency? Doesn't the date change each year as it does with coins?

A: A new series will result from a change in the Secretary of the Treasury, the Treasurer of the United States, and/or a change to the note's appearance such as a new currency design. After the Secretary of the Treasury changes, a new series year is adopted. When the Treasurer of the United States changes, a suffix letter is added to the series year (e.g. 1999A). Additional changes of the Treasurer, whereby the Secretary of the Treasury remains the same results in subsequent letter changes to the current series year (e.g. 1999B, 1999C, etc.). On newly designed notes, the series year may appear on the right or the left of the note’s face side. The year in which the currency is actually printed is not indicated on the note. Beginning with Series 1996 Federal Reserve notes, there are two prefix letters to the serial number. The first prefix letter indicates the series year. The second prefix letter indicates the issuing Reserve Bank.

1963 is the first year Federal Reserve Notes were printed. In 1969 the treasury seal language was changed from Latin to English, but other than that a 1963 $1 bill looks much like today's bill except for the signatures, and so older $1 bills pass through circulation quite freely as long as they remain in good condition.

I also searched some coin.

Seventy-five small dollars produced one mint set dollar (2006D) and one Canadian Loonie. It was great to find an album filler so early in the week. Last week I didn't find one for any denomination. I now have $17 in Canadian money to spend next time I'm up there (this doesn't count all the smaller coins I've found as I throw them back into circulation if they're nothing special).

1,680 hand rolled quarters yielded one silver Washington (1964), three Canadians, two US nickels (one extra, one substitute), and one Italian 50 Lire. The Italian coin is a new one for me. I've got some from relatives, but never in a roll before.



I also hunted 2,000 hand rolled dimes. In them I found two silver Rosies (1960D, 1964) and three Canadians.

Next I went through 1,040 nickels. They produced one War Time (1943P), two Canadians, and a Moroccan ½ Dirham. The Moroccan coin was a first for me. It took a while to figure out where it came from. It is worth 7¢. It felt good to find a silver nickel too, as I hadn't found one in some time.



Lastly, 2,200 pennies turned up 11 Wheats, 15 Canadians, and one US dime. The Wheats were:

1923, 1935, 1939, 1941(2), 1945, 1947(2), 1949D, 1953D, 1955

Found: 2 pennies (at Burger King), 1 dime (at Sovereign Bank)

Father's Day

Sadly, my first Father's Day is over. It went well. I didn't expect it to be such a time of reflection, however. The weekend made me think about Henry and where we've come as a family. I'm looking forward to the next one.

On Saturday we went to Somerville to so that Meg and Henry could have breakfast with some of her friends. While they were busy, I walked around and went to ten banks. I went in search of halves. I only found halves in one bank! They were someone's dump too, I just bought 200 halves as I could tell they were searched already. In retrospect I should have bought the the small dollars that were offered to me. That would have been a better use of my time, but I didn't feel like it.

That night and the next morning we watched No Country For Old Men. We liked it. I thought it'd be more scary than it was, but I suppose some of that is because we watched it over two viewings and the second viewing had frequent pauses because Henry was being noisy (sometimes he coos a lot at his toys). We also got time to do house stuff, go to Home Depot and read.

For Father's Day I got some hiking pants and a framed photo of Henry. The hiking pants are just like Bear Grylls's pants! Now I just need his flint and knife. And the framed photo has Henry's hand prints. That'll be a great keepsake.

In the mail on Saturday I got some cool foreign coins and bills. A friend, Chris, just got back from Thailand and Cambodia. He sent me an excellent assortment of the coins and bills in circulation there (in Cambodia there are no circulating coins!). It is some really neat stuff.

BTW ... the big coin roll hunting chart on the right is a bit messed up. I'm not sure what is wrong with it, but it'll be fixed soon.

Found: 13 pennies (9 in Somerville), 2 quarters (both in Somerville), 1 foreign coin (a Canadian penny in Somerville)

Pre-Father's Day

Today for Father's Day the three of us went out to the Olive Garden. It was our first evening meal out with Henry. He did very well. He was a bit fussy, but the place was rather loud and there were other kids so it didn't matter. It was nice to be out again. We might have to try to do the same thing at some other restaurants in our area.

I had some Father's Day luck finding coins today. I found a nice Coin Star reject stash at the supermarket. It contained 88¢ in US coins and 15¢ in Canadian coins. One the Canadians was a 1946 silver dime!

I was hoping my Father's Day luck would continue with my coin roll hunting, but it was not to be.

512 small dollars produced one mint set dollar (2002P). That's not a bad ratio for small dollars. Two of the small dollar rolls were direct from the mint rolls. That's the first time I've found such rolls at a bank. I was hoping they would be post 2001 dollars, but they were just common 2000P's. I also thought all the coins in the rolls would be in pristine condition, but they were kind of stained. Oh well, still a cool find!



4,009 halves turned up just one 90% half (1964) and one 40% half (1968D). Even though these were from a completely different source than Thursday's the results were the same. I was disappointed.

The dimes I searched were better. I looked through 5,000, two boxes, and found three silvers (1937, 1955S, 1964). The 1955S is a good find. It is a rare one and finding it made me think I was close to finding one I need for my album.

Found: 10 pennies (8 at the Big Y, 1 at the hospital, 1 outside Sovereign Bank), 3 dimes (at the Big Y), 2 quarters (at the Big Y), 2 foreign coins (a Canadian nickel and a Canadian dime at the Big Y)

Mythical Milestones

This week has been a busy one. On Tuesday my car wouldn't start after lunch. I called a co-worker. He came and tried to jump, but it didn't work. I then called AAA. They came in 15 minutes (a record, I think) and were able to jump me, but the battery didn't recharge. It was too dead. I had to get another jump to get home and then had to buy a new battery. :( It seems fine now.

This week Henry hit another milestone! In the presence of Meg he rolled over, back to front, a 180. He did it twice. Like his laughing I haven't experienced this one first hand. I kid that it is a "mythical milestone." I've got three days this weekend, however, to witness such events so there is a good chance I'll see one or both soon.

My coin roll hunting from pickup #2 didn't go so well last night. At least the Celtics won in style against the Lakers though and a teller did save me a silver Rosie (1946) and two Wheat pennies.

I searched ten boxes of halves, 10,000 coins, and came up with one 90% half (1964), six 40% halves (1965, 1967, 4 x 1968D), and one proof half (1999S). Let's hope the halves from pickup #3 produce just a bit better!

4,120 quarters, 450 dimes, and 120 nickels produced just one Canadian quarter and one Canadian dime.

I fared better with the 5,800 pennies I searched. In them I found thirty-seven Wheats, forty-seven Canadians, and one Euro 2¢. Including the teller save, the Wheat breakdown was:

1916, 1925, 1927(2), 1934, 1941, 1944, 1944D, 1945, 1945S, 1946(2), 1946D, 1947, 1948, 1951(2), 1951D(2), 1953(3), 1953D, 1955(2), 1955D, 1956D(4), 1957(4), 1957D, 1958(3), 1958D(2)

Found: 24 pennies (1 at Burger King, 2 outside Newbury Comics, 15 at the car wash, 1 at Home Depot, 1 at the Mobil Mart, 4 at the Sovereign Bank), 4 nickels (1 at Burger King, 1 outside Newbury Comics, 2 at the car wash), 2 dimes (both at the car wash), 1 quarter (at the car wash)

No crib

Last night Henry reached a new developmental milestone ... he slept the whole night outside of his car set in his crib. It was even more amazing because it was a very hot night. Perhaps he likes the heat?

When I got home I searched some hand rolled coin. 2,280 quarters, 200 dimes, and 80 nickels produced one silver Washington (1942) and one Canadian nickel.

Found: 7 pennies (2 at the Shell, 4 at Sovereign Bank, 1 at Costco), 1 dime (at work), 4 quarters (all at Sovereign Bank)

Reviews

This weekend was a pretty quiet ... HOT! weekend for us. Yesterday I helped my Dad install a attic door he made this past week. It should work wonderfully. It is like a thick industrial freezer door. The heat up there in the attic was unreal. It's a good thing it only took 15 minutes to install. When things cool off I'll finish up the sides of it with some insulation.

Later that day I got hair cut and a free ice cream cone at Friendly's. They gave me some good coupons too that hopefully my sister's family can use.



Because Henry was playing so well by himself during the day I read some 100 pages of my book, A Pirate of Exquisite Mind: The Life of William Dampier by Diana and Micheal Preston. I had started the book a few weeks ago. It's a bit tough finding time to read these days. I liked the book a lot. Dampier was an English privateer in the later 1600's. While going through all sorts of adventures, including sinkings, he kept a journal that documented all of the natural phenomenon he witnessed. Somehow he and the journal survived it all. When he returned to England he wrote one of the first travel books and was given command of a expedition to New Holland (Australia) which he also wrote about. Diana Preston has a great way of transforming journals and other historical documents into smooth, flowing chapters. I look forward to reading two other books she has written.

Today while running into the grocery store to get some sodas for a movie I found a good assortment of Coin Star rejects. In the mix was a silver dime (1952), a US penny, a Bahamas 10¢, a Mexican peso, a British pound (worth $1.97), and two Davis' Mega Maze tokens. I checked the Maze website and unfortunately the tokens aren't good for admission.





The movie I went to was Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. I took my father as part of his payback for all of his help with our attic. We both were disappointed. The other Indy films had the same campy, fun humor, but didn't try to have as much as this film. The effects and action sequences in the other films added to the story. In this film they were the story. Indy seemed so unstoppable that there wasn't much suspense at all and it was impossible to get into the film. What a shame.

Found: 10 pennies (7 at the car wash, 1 outside Newbury Comics, 1 at Stop & Shop, 1 at Price Chopper), 2 nickels (1 outside Supercuts, 1 at the car wash), 2 dimes (1 at Shaw's, 1 at Price Chopper), 1 quarter (at the car wash), 3 foreign coins (a Bermuda 10¢, a British pound, and a Mexican 1 peso, all at Price Chopper), 2 tokens (both for Davis' Mega Maze)

Stinky Pt. 2

This morning before the heat set in, Henry and I did some bank errands. We picked up my weekly coins at Bank #3. Unfortunately, when I checked them at home I found out it wasn't worth the trip. :(

Sixty-nine small dollars didn't produce anything. That's not too much of surprise, as the sample was quite small. I'm just making an effort to ask for these at every bank, customer service desk, and cashier I can.

4,000 halves (four boxes) yielded just four 40% silver halves (1967, 3 x 1968D). Because I was unable to pick up my weekly 10 boxes from bank #2 (the coin order was missed) these halves were going to have to really produce to keep up my average. They didn't. Oh well. They did help me complete a roll of 40%'ers and it is always fun to add to my stash.

5,000 dimes (two boxes) didn't produce anything. Luckily I've given up searching boxes of paper rolled dimes, so searching these took no time at all. Those plastic wrappers are great.

Found: 1 penny (at work)

Silver Washingtons!

The past few nights have been a bit rough for us. More so for Meg. Henry hasn't slept that well and has been cranky during the day. He doesn't see sick though, so I think it is just a bad stretch. There has been some big progress with him though. Meg has seen him laugh a few times. I have yet to see it. I'm trying to think of ways I can be silly with him, however.

Besides coins, I've had some good moments at home. On Wednesday I successfully replaced one of the hinges on our laptop with a hinge I salvaged from a computer carcass here at work. It looks good. Last night I put in a 30db antenna amplifier in our attic and so far it is working great. Seeing HD on our TV again is amazing.

Last night while watching TV, mostly the NBA Finals, I searched through some coin.

515 small dollars produced two Canadian dollars, one US quarter, and one US penny. The penny was an extra, but the quarter was not, and so I came up 74¢ short. Oh well.

I also broke out of my silver Washington-less streak! It had been 18,680 quarters since I had found one of those beauties. My previous 19,370 silver less streak was beaten by an eleven silver mini-hoard, so I was hoping lightning would strike twice. It didn't, but there are no complaints. I did pretty well. 8,440 hand rolled quarters turned up three silver Washingtons (1942, 1959, 1964), four Canadians, and one Cayman Islands 25¢. It is possibly that the 1959 is a proof. It is so shiny that it is almost freaky. It is a new circulation find for me, but I haven't replaced the one I bought in my album with this one because this one looks so out of place.

1,100 dimes produced two silver Rosies (1952, 1964D) and one Canadian; and 560 nickels yielded one Canadian and one US penny.

I also had great luck with the pennies I searched! I looked through 2,450 hand rolled cents and found twelve Wheats and eighteen Canadians. One of the Wheats was one I needed, the 1914. It is worn smooth and has a bad stratch, but that's the last P mint Lincoln I needed (excluding the small date, 1960)! By mintage it is by far the most common one I hadn't found, 75,237,067. The next highest mintage one still to be found by me is the 1936D, 40,620,000. The Wheat breakdown was:

1914, 1936, 1937, 1944, 1952, 1952D, 1953, 1953D, 1953S, 1955, 1957, 1957D

Found: 2 pennies (1 at Costco, 1 on the street near our house), 1 dime (at Sovereign Bank), 1 quarter (at Sovereign Bank), 1 foreign coin (a Canadian nickel at Sovereign Bank)

Stinky

When I got home last night I found a small packet waiting for me. It was the half the dollar I won in a contest last week. Instead of a 40% silver half, I requested a 1987P half, Immy obliged me. It felt good to plug that hole in my album. I'm sure I've passed by one or more of them by this time, but these days I don't have time to do more than rim search the halves.

Henry had another good evening. He was content as he gets. We went for a walk with him and then he played with his froggy a bit. I've noticed that his new hair is coming in. If it grows anywhere near as fast as mine he'll have a full head of it before long.

I did some coin roll hunting too. It stunk! 4,000 nickels, two boxes, produced just nine Canadians (4 Ni). Furthermore, 2,400 pennies, all hand rolled, turned up nothing! It's been a long time since I've gotten nothing out of so many pennies.

Found: 2 pennies (at work), 1 dime (at work)

Good Rejects

This week in coin roll hunting for silver has started out much better than last week. Last week it wasn't until Saturday that I found my first silver coin of the week.

Today at the coin counter I bought the rejects off of two women who used the machine before me. I paid $1.50 for them (I just quickly estimated what they had.). I got $1.62 in US and Canadian and so I came out ahead (I spend Canadian like US.). I acquired one US quarter, three US dimes (1959D, 1964), one US nickel, one US penny, three Canadian quarters, two Canadian dimes, one Canadian nickel (1 Ni), one Canadian penny, three Malaysian 1 Yen coins (worth .3¢), one Euro 10¢, one UK 20 pence, one UK 5 pence, one UK 1 penny, one Japanese 50 Yen (worth 48¢), and one Bermuda 25¢. The Malaysian and Japanese coins are new to my collection. And as always buying silver for face is good.







Found: 1 penny (at Sovereign Bank), 1 token (a NH highway token, formerly worth 25¢)

3.75 Hours!

Last night Henry and I set a record ... 3.75 hours together! It seems small, but it is the longest time Meg has been away from him. She went to book club with her friends. He and I stayed home. We went for a nice long walk to look for change, ate supper together (he took the bottle pretty well), and then began his bedtime rituals. I almost got him to sleep for the night before Meg came home, but was unable to pull off the final part, getting him from my arms into the crib. Meg and I are were proud.

Found: 11 pennies (1 at Stop & Shop, 1 at Meinke, 9 at the car wash), 2 nickels (1 at Meinke, 1 at the car wash), 5 dimes (1 at Stop & Shop, 4 at the car wash), 2 foreign coins (a Canadian penny at Meinke and a Canadian quarter in our house)