Bailout

Last night and this morning during my commute I searched a big mess of coins, all types.

31 large dollars, 165 small dollars, and 100 half dollars turned up just two 40% silver halves (1966, 1969D).

I didn't have much better luck with the quarters. 1,360 hand rolled quarters yielded just one Canadian. In four rolls, however, I found $3 in extra coins. I've now gotten to the point where I can identify rolls with extra coins in them, not just one extra coin, but if there are several in the roll I can tell. It's a bit sad, but it is useful. At the bank a teller saved me a silver Washington (1950) and sold me a roll of new quarters (2008P AK). That's two I needed!

2,450 dimes were pretty good. In them I found three silvers (1936, 1946, 1957), seven Canadians, and one Aruba 10¢.

The nickels were much like the quarters. There were no keepers in 760 coins, but I did find 30¢ in extra coins.

My results improved with the pennies. I searched 5,100 pennies and found twenty-three Wheats, thirty-nine Canadians, three US dimes, two UK pennies, one MBTA token, and one New Zealand 1¢. With these pennies I passed the 900,000 mark! The march towards 1 million continues. The Wheats were:

1940, 1942, 1944(2), 1945, 1946(2), 1948(2), 1950, 1951D, 1952D, 1953, 1954, 1955, 1956, 1956D(3), 1957D, 1958D(3)

Found: 6 pennies (4 at Sovereign Bank, 1 on the street in Belmont, 1 at Bank of America), 1 dime (at Sovereign Bank), 1 foreign coin (a Cayman Islands 1¢)

A Night Out

Yesterday morning I searched 8,038 half dollars. They turned up seven 40% silver halves (2 x 1966, 2 x 1967, 3 x 1968D), one proof (1989S), and twelve mint set halves (2 x 1987P, 2004P, 3 x 2006P, 4 x 2006D, 2007P, 2008P). All but one of the silver halves came loose from one bank. I'm glad I made that stop. I had a feeling that silver pickings would be slim so I checked all shiny rims. I'm glad I did and found two I needed 1987P and 2008P. I had gotten the former from a contest, but this is the first time I had found one in the wild. Only about 2.9 million were minted.

Later in day Henry's Nonnie and Pops came over for a quick visit and in the evening his Nana came over to watch him while Meg and I went to friend's birthday party. It was the first time in a while we had been out. Socializing felt strange, but we had a good time.

Found: 1 dime (on the street in Marlborough)

Debate

Last night just before the debate I searched 2,000 nickels. They produced two War Times (1942S, 1945S), nine Canadians (1 Ni), one Bermuda 5¢, and one Netherlands 5¢. The Netherlands coin is a first for me. In the bunch I also found a key date nickel, the 1939D. Sure wish that was the 1938D!



In the afternoon I picked up 600 halves at a bank. I didn't find anything in them.

A Tooth

Last night was a great weekend night. I got home a bit early and was able to spend more time with Meg and Henry. That felt good as I had been feeling about down a bit about only getting to spend one hour with Henry on weekdays. Before I got a chance to take my coat off I checked out Henry's mouth for evidence of his first tooth poking out (Meg had felt it early that day.). Henry was very willing to have me poke around in his mouth with my finger, but I wasn't able to feel anything. Meg showed me where it was. It is his lower right front tooth. I've had canker sores bigger than this thing, but it was still very cool. We then when on a nice long walk and had turkey dinner with stuffing and mile high apple pie. It was all very good.

While watching TV I searched a bunch of coin.

Six small dollars and twenty-four half dollars didn't produce anything.

1,000 quarters, all hand rolled, turned up seven Canadians and one Peru 5 Soles (worthless). The Peru coin is a first for me and the first one I've found in a roll from that country.



The dimes I searched were better. 5,000 of them yielded six silver dimes (1944, 1952S, 1961, 1962D, 1964, 1964D), eight Canadians, two UK 5 pence, and one US penny. That's a pretty good number of silver dimes for that amount of coin. I wish the 1952S dime was one I need like the 1951S, but alas it was not to be.

I also searched some pennies. In 5,000 pennies I found sixteen Wheats, thirty-six Canadians, and one US dime. In the mix was two new US varieties I needed the 1911D and 2008D. I had received a 2008D penny from a friend earlier this year, but this is the first one I've found in the wild. The 1911D penny is great. It is in good condition and it is one of the rarer ones I've found as only 12 million or so were minted. The Wheat varieties were:

1911D, 1918, 1941, 1942, 1946(6), 1946D, 1949, 1953(2), 1955, 1956

Found: 7 pennies (at the car wash), 1 nickel (at the car wash), 2 dimes (1 at work, 1 at Shaws)

Error Nickels

Last night after a great Indian meal made by Meg (the same meal she made us just before Henry was born) I searched some coin.

3,720 quarters yielded one silver Washington (1964), three Canadians, one UK 10 pence and one US dime. That's the 60th silver quarter I've found in a roll so far!

The dimes stunk. 1,800 of them didn't produce anything. I did, however, get a silver dime (1964) from a teller at the bank. She also gave me a Snickers bar.

The nickels were much better. In 1,040 nickels I found two error coins! I first found one with a slight clipped planchette and then a few rolls later found one with a small cud on the reverse (about the length of "AMERICA"). I was quite surprised to find two error nickels in one night, especially with such a small batch of them.

The pennies were also pretty good. I searched ~6,050 and found forty Wheats, fifty Canadians, two US dimes, one US nickel (a first for a penny roll) and one Trinidad and Tobago 10¢. The Trinidad and Tobago coin is a first for me. It is worth about 1.6¢. The decent mix of Wheats was:

1917, 1935, 1936, 1937, 1940(2), 1941(2), 1942(2), 1944(2), 1944D(3), 1945, 1945S, 1946(2), 1948, 1948D, 1949, 1951, 1951D, 1952, 1952D(2), 1953, 1955(2), 1956(3), 1956D(3), 1957D, 1958, 1958D



Found: 1 penny (at Home Depot), 1 foreign coin (a Canadian nickel (1 Ni) at Sovereign Bank)

The Walk

Yesterday Meg, Henry and I join our family in walking the Jimmy Fund Marathon Walk. We only walked three miles with Henry, but some of my family walked 26.2 miles. They were doing pretty well at the end of it too! In all we had a great time visiting with family this weekend. Some of the sleeping with Henry was rough, but as long as it is past us now, it seems worth it.

After the walk yesterday I used the T for the first time since last year's Walk. I got to use all of the T tokens I found in rolls over the year. Each was worth $1.25. I'm guessing that's what they worth when they were phased out. A ride costs $2 now. Oh well, I had six of them.



I also finally finished reading a book yesterday, Livingstone, by Tim Jeal. It was really good. I could tell immediately I was going to enjoy it as I took a liking to Jeal's writing style. I had wanted to read a book about Dr. David Livingstone for some time. One can't read any book about African exploration without learning a bit about Livingstone. Without a doubt he's the most famous African explorer. He's also known as a missionary, but only converted one person who lapsed quite quickly. As an explorer he didn't have to many firsts, but the breadth of this travels and his endurance became legendary. He's probably most famous for being "found" by Henry Morton Stanley, but his most enduring legacy is really the impact he had on British Colonialism after his death. I'm looking forward to reading Jeal's biography of Stanley next.

Found: 1 penny (just after the Jimmy Fund walk)

Welcome Home!

Yesterday I got a big welcome home I forgot to write about. When I got in the door Meg put Henry on the floor and then he crawled to me. It was about a twenty foot journey and he even went over a toy to get there. That made me feel great!

I searched some coin this morning. Sixty-two small dollars didn't yield anything, but 8,081 half dollars turned up twelve 90% silver halves (1945, 11 x 1964), twenty-two 40% silver halves (2 x 1966, 11 x 1967, 9 x 1968D), and five mint set halves (2002P, 2003D, 2 x 2006P, 2006D). No new ones for me in that mix, but it was a decent haul. This source has been good to me lately.

A Quick Note

Last night I just searched some pennies. 2,000 of them turned up forty Wheats and three Canadians. Amongst the Wheats was a 1940D. That's only the second one of those I've found so far. 81 million of them were minted, which is fairly common, but they are still tough to come by here. Most of the Wheats were in the same roll. They had a strange discoloration that I've noticed on several other hoards of Wheats I've found, they're not browned, but are not a nice red either. In that roll was also a steel Wheat. The Wheats were:

1935, 1939, 1940D, 1941(2), 1942(2), 1943, 1944(4), 1945(5), 1945D, 1945S, 1946(5), 1948, 1950, 1952D(4), 1953(2), 1953D, 1955D, 1956, 1956D, 1957D, 1958

Golf & More

Today was my company's annual golf day. It was great fun. We only played nine holes this year and it went much quicker. We finished in time to have a fun dinner together. My team didn't win, but we did get a $10 Dunkin' Donuts card to share amongst us for getting the most balls in the water. Perhaps next year will be my year.

I got a few coins from four banks on my way to the course.

Twenty large dollars didn't produce anything.

561 halves turned up some good stuff. I got most of them at one bank. When they brought them out I saw rolls with writing on them, "1967," "1968," etc. Boy, did I have a good feeling with those dates on them. I got forty-nine 40% silver halves (22 x 1967, 12 x 1968D, 15 x 1969D), one proof half (2002S), and two mint set halves (2003P, 2003D). The greedy coin hunter in me, immediately thought, "where are the rolls marked '1964' or 'Franklins?'" I always want more silver coins, I guess. That was a great find.

160 quarters and 200 nickels didn't yield anything.

2,550 hand rolled pennies turned up nine Wheats, fourteen Canadians, and one US dime. The Wheat varieties were:

1909, 1944, 1945, 1950, 1953D, 1957, 1957D(2), 1958D

Found: 1 penny

A Mix of Nickels

Last night I searched some nickels. 3,000 of them turned up one Buffalo (1927), four Canadians (1 Ni), one Bahamas 5¢, one Bermuda 5¢, one Swiss 20 Rappen, and three MBTA tokens (good for three subway rides!). The only thing missing was a War nickel. The Buffalo is in pretty good condition, but it is coated in some sort of clear coating.

Found: 1 penny (at Burger King)

Some Coin

Last night I searched a whole lot of coin. The results were sub-par.

846 small dollars, 20 halves and 3,400 quarters, all hand rolled, produced a mint set dollar (2007D). That was a lot of quarters to go through to find nothing, but that happens with them. I've decided to for go getting boxes of small dollars from one of my source banks. I keep getting whole boxes of brand new president dollars. I thought I'd just work my way through those boxes, but after about four or five of them, I've had enough. I'll just try to gather small dollars at nearby banks. They tend to accumulate like halves once did.

2,700 dimes yieled better results, two silver Rosies (1962D, 1964D), six Canadians, one Bermuda 10¢, and one US penny. I've also decided to change my tactic with these. The plastic wrapped dimes I got from one of my source bank were extra fast to search, but didn't seem to produce at the same rate and definitely had much less odd stuff in them. For now I'm going to stop getting them that way and see if I can find more hand rolled dimes. This might be tough as I never seem to get the quantity I need of them.

Lastly, 1,900 pennies produced five Wheats, eight Canadians, and two US dimes. The Wheats were:

1944, 1953D, 1955(2), 1958

Found: 1 penny (at Sovereign Bank), 2 quarters (1 at Sovereign Bank and 1 on the street in Belmont)

More Feats & Coins

Things here have been going well. Meg and I continue to be impressed by Henry and his skills. We have continued his Ferberization and it seems to be working well. So far only the first night was bad. The three nights after the first he didn't even wake up. Naps aren't as good, but he does seem to be able to put himself to sleep in under ten minutes. If this keeps working I'm definitely going to have to recommend Solve Your Child's Sleep Problems by Richard Ferber, M.D. Meg got the book for the library and read it for us.

There have been four other development worth mentioning. On Wednesday Henry had his first meat product and began his life as an omnivore. He ate some beef. Today Meg is making him fruity chicken with squash. I hope he likes it as there are multiple servings being made. On Friday we took Henry out to our favorite Indian restaurant. He did well there and for the first time sat in a high chair at a restaurant. Yesterday at a graduation party for my cousin Henry had his first opportunity to try out a swing set using a baby swing. He loved it. We might try to take him to the park today. Lastly, since last week I've been noticing more improvements in his standing ability. Every time he gets himself up to a standing position it just seems like a miracle to me and today I saw him take multiple steps forward while I held his hands. Soon he'll be able to run after his cousin Liam. I know he wants to do so.

I searched some coin last night.

6,002 halves, six boxes and two from a teller's tray, produced nine 90% silver halves (1939, 1941D, 1942D, 1944, 1963D, 1964(4)), twenty-one 40% silver halves (1966(3), 1967(6), 1968D(5), 1969D(7)), one proof half (1973S), and one Panama ½ Balboa (worth 50¢). One Walker, one Franklin, and a bunch of clad halves were chrome plated. Strange how one would chrome plate a silver coin. As always it was good to find a new coin for my album, the 1941D, and get a new foreign coin.



5,000 dimes turned up just one silver Rosie (1964).

Found: 1 dime (at Papa Gino's)

Ferberization

Last night Meg, Henry, and I began Henry's Ferberization. Ferber is a doctor who developed a modified cry-it-out technique to help infants sleep on their own. It's modified in that it involves comforting the child at regular, increasing intervals, while still getting the child to not depend on the parent or other crutches to soothe themselves. I took the first shift and Meg took the 2nd. Tonight we'll switch and today Meg will continue the practice for his naps.

At the bank yesterday a teller I hadn't seen in a bit had a silver Washington for me (1964) and a whole lot of coin. I searched it while on duty.

10,480 quarters (all hand rolled) yielded three silver Washingtons (1941, 1964(2)) and one Morocco 1 Dirham. It was pretty cool to find a new Washington and to find a new foreign coin. It had been 51 days since my last new US quarter find from a roll. It's strange how I found that odd foreign coin, however, in a batch (mostly from the same customer as best I can tell) that had no Canadians.



450 dimes and 440 nickels produced five Canadian dimes and four Canadian nickels (2 Ni).

The pennies in this bunch were so-so. In 5,000 pennies I found eight Wheats, twenty-three Canadians, one US dime, and one Bermuda 1¢. The Wheat varieties were:

1944, 1944D, 1945, 1946, 1949, 1951, 1952, 1954

Vacation

Here's a picture of Henry before we left in his special new corner. He's always getting stuck here somehow.

Yesterday we returned from our mini-vacation. It was great, cheap too! We stayed on Cape Cod at a house owned by a friend of ours. We went on some nice walks with Henry (not so nice when he was crying, but we survived) and took him to the beach twice. We went to the beach in the evening so the sun wasn't as harsh. He seemed to like it and was pretty content there. He also liked the new toys and ceiling fans at the house and we appreciated all of the baby equipment that was already there. I think our first family vacation was a good success. Just being in a different location for a few days was relaxing for the two of us.



Henry and Meg at sunset. Henry likes to chew the straps on this backpack.



Henry in a kid chair. We'll have to get him one of these.



This is Henry during a picnic we had on the beach.



Henry pulled all of these books down. Fortunately it wasn't on top of him.

I searched some coin last night. 6,000 hand rolled pennies produced fifteen Wheats, fourteen Canadians, and two US dimes. The Wheats were:

1936, 1937, 1942, 1944, 1944S, 1945, 1948, 1949, 1951D,1952, 1956, 1956D(2), 1957D, 1958D

Found: 2 pennies (at Stop & Shop), 1 nickel (at Stop & Shop), 5 dimes (4 at Stop & Shop, 1 near our house on the street)

Redeemed: $14.60

More Silver

Today didn't go exactly as we planned. After we postponed our vacation we decided to help my family go through my God mother's stuff. She has to leave her apartment to go into a nursing home. It was a bit sad. We got some dishes, moved some stuff for others, and I got two containers of coins. :) One of the containers had some recent coin and the other had mostly half dollars and some various other goodies. I could see that silver halves were among the stash.

When I got home I checked things out in detail. $189.75 in US coin and over $5 in Canadian money, including $121 in halves, produced fifteen 90% silver halves (1940, 1943D, 1944, 1945D, 1957D, 1964(9), 1964D), one 40% half (1968D), one War Time nickel (1943P), one Indian Head penny (1905), two Wheat pennies (1942, 1954D), and one Canadian 80% silver quarter (1963). It seems strange that there wouldn't be more 40% halves in the mix, but I'm not complaining. I'll cut a check to my aunt for the stash sometime soon.

We also completely finished our back room and moved everything in it! Here's some pictures.





Found: 1 penny (Rte. 9 Carpet Store)

Hannah

Yeah! I finally completed transforming the back room in our house from a tired, gross carpeted, purpled walled 1950's TV room into a pleasant playroom/guest room. It sure took a while to get done with this parenting thing. ;) Henry even watching me paint the last bits and put the fixtures back up while he hung out in his exer-saucer in the middle of the room. Now we just need to clean the floors, put in the rug, and move in the furniture. Henry and Meg will have a safe place to hang out during the day now.

Unfortunately our mini-vacation was postponed by one day. We don't want to go Cape Cod right now with the storm approaching. It should be fine later.

The silver gods made up for the extension of our staycation with some silver!

I searched 6,000 halves, six boxes, and found a whole lot of good stuff! Sweet. The boxes produced twenty-three 90% halves (1921, 1941, 1942D, 1943, 1945S, 1946D, 1950D, 1951S, 1952, 1953(2), 1958, 1958D, 1959, 1963(2), 1963D, 1964(4), 1964D(2)) and twenty-one 40% silver halves (1965, 1966(5), 1967(8), 1968D(4), 1969D(3)). That's five new varieties in one day. The 1921 is one of my best finds. It is worn, but only 264,000 were minted. It is definitely a key in the series as it is the second rarest by mintage. The 1946D isn't too bad either as only about 2 million of those were minted.



I had a decent find in the two boxes of dimes, 5,000 coins, as well. They produced two silver dimes (1943D, 1960D). The 1943D is the first album filling dime I've found in 125 days!

Found: 1 penny (at Bauhina's)

First Consonant

Henry's language skills have reached an important milestone. Over the past few days he started saying, "DAH-DAH-DAH ..." There might also be a "GAH" in there, but it is difficult to discern. Life would be difficult without being able to pronounce consonants!

I searched some coin last night while he slept. 5,000 hand rolled pennies yielded thirty-four Wheats, thirty-three Canadians, eighteen US dimes, one Euro 2¢, and one Barbados 1¢. Oddly, one roll of the pennies had fifteen dimes in it! The Wheats had some good variety:

1917S, 1936, 1941(2), 1942(2), 1944(4), 1944D, 1945(3), 1945S, 1946, 1949D(2), 1950D, 1951, 1951D, 1953, 1953D, 1956, 1956D(4), 1957D(4), 1958(2), 1958D(3)

The 1917S is only the second I've found. The first one I had to go all the way to the west coast to find!

Found: 4 pennies (at Home Depot)

Standing

Yesterday was a big day for Henry and today looks like another. Meg called me in the afternoon to tell me that Henry stood for the first time! He was holding onto something, but it was still a big event. She saw him do it one more time in his crib. We tried to get him to do it again in the evening, but he did not. Because of this we lowered his crib to the toddler setting. Now there's no chance he'll get out during the night. Today he's going in for six month checkup and taking his first swimming lesson at the YMCA. Hopefully I'll have some pictures of this to post later.

I also searched some coin last night. I got a big batch of hand rolled coin from a friendly new source.

425 small dollars didn't produce anything besides two Sacagawea dollars stamped "RB" on the obverse. I've seen this person's handiwork before as I've gotten half dollars with the same stamped letters.

Nine half dollars turned up one 40% half (1965).

800 quarter yielded just three Canadians, kind of boring.

I did better with the dimes. 4,000 of them produced one silver Rosie (1952S), eight Canadians and five US pennies. The silver dime was a good one. I've only found one other of that variety so far. One of the Canadians was a new one for me, the 2008 RCM. That was a good find. I can't believe I've found the 2008 Canadian before either of the 2008 US dimes.

Lastly, 2,000 nickels yielded four Canadians (1 Ni) and one Mexican 1 Peso.

I'll search the pennies tonight. I gathered 5,000 of them.

Six Months! - The Red Sox

Yesterday Henry turned six months old! It is hard to believe, but we've made it through his first summer. This morning I saw him get just a little closer to crawling. As Meg put it, "it he's going for a cell phone or a remote control he can move fast." He likes electronics, I guess. He also seems to be handling a small cold he got pretty well too.

Last night I went to a Red Sox game with a fellow coin hunter, Chris. We didn't have any coin finding face off, but had a good time at the game. I got to see how a pro gets players' autographs and enjoyed some good seats. I say seats because we switched seats about seven times. I let Chris do all the talking and just enjoyed the results. All the seats we sat in were far better than the ones we had tickets for, most were perfect and better than anything I had enjoyed before. They were great to watch all of the Red Sox offensive power that was one display throughout the game.

I did some coin roll hunting this morning. 760 quarters, 100 dimes, and 40 nickels turned up five Canadians and one East Caribbean States 25¢.

In the morning at the bank someone gave me a silver quarter, 1951D, and a teller saved me two Wheat pennies (1941, 1951).

Found: 7 pennies (outside Fenway Park), 2 nickels (1 at Home Depot, 1 outside Fenway Park), 2 dimes (outside Fenway Park), 2 quarters (1 at Sovereign Bank, 1 outside Fenway Park), 1 token (a Princess Cruise token ... I sure seem to be finding a lot of these. Am I being told to go on a cruise?)