Sunday, April 19, 2009

Devil's Haircut

This weekend has a scary start for Meg and I. We took Henry (and me) for a haircut before dinner on Friday. It was not the easy experience I had with him at the place the last time. It was worse than the first. He was squirming the whole time and so his haircut is a bit screwed up on one side and in the back. It should grow back. Needless to say we didn't bother with dinner. After the haircut we had had it. Meg needed a run. I can't blame her!

On Saturday we did a lot of chores around the house. It felt good. In the evening my parents helped us out by watching Henry while Meg and I went out for dinner. We needed it. Today went well, but were still tired. Henry did pretty well at a party we went to. Everyone brought one kid and so everyone was also very understanding of each other. It was a good time.

Before I forget there are two funny things Henry did I wanted to mention. On Thursday he sat himself in a chair for the first time and today when I wanted to get him out of the way of the fridge door I just made a beeping sound (like a big truck would) and Henry back out!

I searched some coin on Friday and Saturday.

200 small dollars turned up my first mint set dollar in ages (last October), a 2005P. It was a big upgrade for the totally blackened one in my album.

8,001 yielded two 90% silver halves (2 x 1964) and twenty-four (2 x 1965, 2 x 1966, 9 x 1967, 7 x 1968D, 4 x 1969D). It's not my best showing, but it was good to add to the pile. I found one stamped half that got me thinking.

3,000 dimes produced seven Canadians and one UK 5 pence (1990). The seventh Canadian was the 1,000th one I've found!

2,000 nickels got me one War Time (1945P), eight Canadians (1 Ni), one US penny and one Belgian 1 franc. The silver nickel is really corroded, but it is the first one I've found in a bit. I also found a key date Jefferson, the 1955.

5,000 pennies had twenty Wheats, twenty-six Canadians, two US dimes and one Bermuda 1¢. The Wheats were:

1909, 1937, 1940, 1941, 1941D, 1942, 1944, 1945(4), 1946(2), 1948, 1950, 1951, 1952, 1953, 1955, 1957D

Over the past two years I've found a lot of stamped coins and plated coins. At first I just threw them back into circulation, but then I started to save the stamped coins for a friend and the plated ones as curiosities. Here's some of the ones I have one hand.





The above two pennies are stamped with a Masonic symbol. The stamps are slightly different. I've also found a penny with a similar stamp, but with the stamp located to the right.





Online I saw a picture of fifty pennies, each with a different state stamped on them. Here are two I've found, one of Maryland and another of Indiana.



I found the rose stamped penny around Valentine's Day this year.



A stamp for Thanksgiving!





Above are two pictures of the only stamped nickel I've found. The obverse has "999" stamped on it. I'm pretty sure it is not "666", but that was probably the intent.



This is the only stamped quarter I've found.



I found a couple of these from the same source.





Whoever stamped the above coin must have been quite prolific in my area at some point. I've found halves and small dollars stamped with "RB" in my region on multiple occasions at different banks!



I and other CRH'ers have found tons of coins plated and stamped like the above. Supposedly they celebrate the 20th anniversary of JFK's inauguration. Someone made a lot of money on such coins. I've even seen an ad for such coins. It's plated in gold, but the plating is quite poor and most of the copies I have lost a lot of luster.



Five years later the same company must have tried to make even more money from suckers. I haven't found as many of these.



This is the coin I found this Saturday. Its gold plating has mostly worn off. I suppose it was made to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the Kennedy half dollar.



I've found a lot of coins that have simply been plated or spray painted silver or gold. Besides halves I've found a 1945 penny plated to look like a Steelie, a really nice silver plated nickel, a silver plated state quarter I almost mistook for a real silver state quarter, a gold plated Ike dollar and this great gold plated Susan B. Some plating jobs are really good and others are very poor. Some plating jobs are just plan stupid. I've found a chrome plated Walking Liberty and Franklin half dollar! A lot of the copies I've found even show evidence of people trying to tell if they are real by scratching the surface or taking a small chip out of the coin.

Found: 2 pennies (at Stop & Shop)

Redeemed: $9.00

5 comments:

James (UK) said...

I love doing that reversing "Beep beep", or even the recorded gruff-sounding "Warning! Vehicle reversing!" voices, when I'm pushing a shopping cart around our local supermarket. Usually just elicits stares from the other shoppers...

I've never seen a single stamped UK coin ever... and the only plated one I've ever seen was a 20p coin that had been wrapped expertly in silver paper (like from a candy bar), so well that it looked like it had been sprayed on.

That sort of thing is normally done to "jam" parking meters.

JK said...

I have a couple stamped coins myself. Funny thing, one of your Kennedy halves has Abe Lincoln stamped on it, I have a 1973 memorial cent with Kennedy's head stamped on it.

kestrelia said...

JK, I've come across a penny like, but passed it on before I scanned it. I guess you see everything and anything when you're a coin collector.

James UK, with Henry fewer people look at me strange when I talk to myself in the supermarket. They just assume I'm talking to Henry.

sassymom said...

Maybe we should take the cousins for a haircut together next time at Snip-Its now that I know how to get the discount.

Man said...

That is very nice collection of counterstamped coins. I've never found one myself in circulation.

I like the Thanksgiving cent and the ones with women's names. I can imagine some guy going to his girlfriend "look especially for you" and he has a bucket full with different names.

Not sure this applies to the RB stamp but sometimes collectors put their initials or an X on coins that have been cleaned or altered this way others don't get duped into buying them.