British Penny

This weekend Meg, Henry and I went to my in-laws. We went for a visit and so that we could attend Meg's grandmother's 80th birthday party. We had a good time. We didn't feel very rushed at all and so had plenty of time to talk to everyone. Henry did very well to. He's getting much better at sleeping well at his grandparents. We also got to go out on a date on Saturday night. We had dinner without Henry and then went to a movie, Gran Torino.



I've decided to read primary source material when it is readily available and interests me. While away I wrapped up reading the first such book, A Description of the Kingdom of Siam by Engelbert Kaempfer. The book is a reprint of the first three chapters of a 1727 translation of his manuscript on Japan, The history of Japan : giving an account of the ancient and present state and government of that empire ... of the chronology and succession of the emperors ... together with a description of the kingdom of Siam. (They had a way with titles back then!) On his way to Japan with the Dutch East India Company in 1690 Kaempfer, their physician, visited Siam (Thailand) for two months. While there he kept copious notes and drawings in hopes of publishing the material. He was not able to publish the material before he died, but a later translator of his work sourced his notes to supplement his manuscript on Japan. I found it enlightening to read the original work. The book is small, just 100 pages, and came its own box.





After shoveling snow I searched some coin.

Forty-one small dollars didn't produce anything.

8,004 half dollars turned up thirteen 40% silver halves (1965, 1966, 4 x 1967, 2 x 1968D, 5 x 1969D), two proof halves (1983S, 2008S), thirteen mint set halves (2 x 2003P, 3 x 2005P, 5 x 2005D, 2006P, 2 x 2007D) and a British penny (1929). The 2008S is now the newest proof I've found. It's in good shape and cleaned up nicely with some Windex. The British penny is a first for me. I've read about others finding them. I was excited to find it, but my example has chipped rims and lots of green crud on the bottom half. It's sandwiched inbetween two halfs of a potato right now in hopes of cleaning off the crud. Here's a picture of the type.