The Chipper

A couple of days ago the chipper finally came to our house. It was during the day so Meg took this picture from the house and called me to let me know all but one little stump was gone. It has been six months since this stuff came down from the ice storm. We've been looking at it and dealing with it for far to long. Our street looks great!



On Monday while doing errands Meg and I got a little car for Henry. After a Memorial Day cook-out we put the car together. Henry jumped in the main body of it as soon as Meg opened the box and kept trying to get into the thing while I put it together. Assemblying it with Henry around and tired wasn't our brightess idea, but he seems to enjoy the thing and it was fun getting it for him.

This week just getting coin to search has felt like a bit of a victory. It's just one of those weeks. Last night's coin were fairly good.

Six large dollars, fourteen small dollars and five half dollars didn't produce anything. These six large dollars did bring me to 1,000 searched, however.

4,360 quarters turned up one silver Washington (1964), two Canadians, one UK 10 pence and a US dime.

3,050 dimes yielded three silver Rosies (1951, 1952, 1964D), eight Canadians and one UK 5 pence.

1,680 nickels had four Canadians (1 Ni) and one UAE 50 fil. One of the earlier Jeffersons I found was key, 1949S.

5,250 pennies produced sixteen Wheats, forty-one Canadians, two US dimes, one Bermuda 1¢, one MBTA token (still worth $1.25!), one Russian 50 Kopek and one Phillipino 10 Sentimo. The Wheats were:

1929S, 1944, 1944D, 1953, 1953D, 1955, 1956D(6), 1957, 1957D(2), 1958D

Found: 1 penny (at the Getty gas station), 1 foreign coin (a Ecuador 5 Centimos in Stop & Shop)

Not Too Much

Today we started our holiday weekend a bit slowly. We went to two garden centers, but didn't buy anything. We're closer! There's just a bit more to know about bushes and trees than we thought and we've been going with Henry. We'll have to leave him somewhere when we go for real. We did have a good time at Barnes & Noble today, however. Henry played very well on the train table for a good 1/2 hour while Meg and I sat and watched. At the store I heard him say, "Elmo." I think he also said "tree" and "fish" today.

The coins I searched produced much like our garden center visits. 8,000 halves turned up just two 90% silver halves (1942, 1945), two 40% silver halves (2 x 1967) and five mint set halves (2003D, 2 x 2004D, 2005D, 2008P). I can hardly complain being that the last four weeks were great, but in comparison this did seem like a lot of work for little reward. Hopefully next week will be better.

Found: 2 pennies (at Costco), 1 dime (at Costco), 1 quarter (at Target), 1 foreign coin (a Canadian dime at Shaw's)

'Nah

Life's easier with more words. That's what I've been remembering with Henry lately. Last night he impressed me again by remembering the word "scrub" and scrubbing his hair really well in the tub. Before long he'll be bathing himself! I was also happy to play "point to the bananas" (or "'nah" as Henry says) and "show the trees" while reading his books to him before bedtime. Just pointing at cars and trucks was getting old. ;)

Last night's coins were a little better than the night before.

400 quarters didn't produce anything.

3,250 dimes turned up two silver Rosies (1948D, 1964) and seven Canadians.

2,360 nickels yielded two War Times (1945P, 1945S), seven Canadians (3 Ni), one US penny and one US dime.

5,200 pennies had in them twenty-three Wheats, forty-two Canadians, six US dimes and one play coin. The play coin says "Play Dough" and "5" on it. At first I thought it was a new foreign coin and then I thought it was related to Play-Doh, but both assumptions were wrong. I think it is relatively old as it is made out of metal. The Wheats were:

1919, 1941D, 1944(2), 1945D, 1946, 1946S, 1950(3), 1952, 1952D, 1953, 1953D(2), 1955D, 1956D(2), 1957D(2), 1958, 1958D

Home Again

Meg and Henry returned home last night. Unfortunately the father/son reunion wasn't like I thought it would be. Henry was pretty cranky for the whole evening. He didn't sleep too well at his grandparents. Perhaps things will turn around for him today (and for his mother) as he slept well last night.

Last night's coins were blah. Perhaps my hot streak has worn off?

2,800 quarters turned up just four Canadians.

2,000 dimes yielded two Canadians and one US penny.

I had my best luck with the nickels I searched. In 1,480 there was one War Time (1944P), four Canadians (2 Ni), one US dime and a Brazilian 5 Centavos. The Brazilian coin is a new one for me.



4,000 pennies produced twenty-three Wheats, thirty-six Candians, nine US dimes, one Euro 2¢ (Spain) and one Bahamas 1¢. The Wheats were:

1918, 1942, 1942D, 1944, 1946, 1947(2), 1948, 1949D, 1951D, 1953D, 1957(3)

Found: 1 penny (on the street near our house)

My, My

Last night I was without the family. Meg took Henry to her parents. It sure is an odd feeling not having them around, especially when it gets dark and I can move downstairs and upstairs without worrying about waking him up. It's not as much fun to hang out watching TV and searching my coins without Meg to talk to as well. I've saved our favorite Monday show for us to watch later. :)

My good luck with the coins continued last night. I'm on a roll! Funny how that happens.

I searched 660 half dollars last night. A bank I went to had a partial box of machine wrapped halves, so I took a chance on them and picked them up. Now I'm wishing I scored the rest of the box! The rolls I got had four 90% silver halves (1964, 2002S-Ag, 2004S-Ag, 2005S-Ag), seven 40% silver halves and four proof halves (1982S, 2002S-Ag, 2004S-Ag, 2005S-Ag). Two of those silver proofs and two of the 40's were in one roll! Before this I'd never found more than one of those in one sitting. The 05S is a great upgrade to the one I have as well.

One of the halves made my top 10 chart!

Mintage	Description
162,013	1925 Lexington-Concord Half Dollar
163,753	1989D Bicentennial of the Congress Half Dollar
246,000	1921 Half Dollar
290,343	1993P 50th Anniversary of World War II
330,519	1995S Civil War Battlefields (2)
390,154	1992S Columbus Half Dollar
609,354	1994P World Cup Half Dollar (2)
804,565	1999S-Ag Half Dollar
888,816	2002S-Ag Half Dollar
892,229	2002S-Ag Indiana Quarter

13,400 quarters turned up one silver Washington (1947), four Canadians, one UK 10 pence (1997), one Bermuda 25¢ and one proof quarter (1974S). That turnout's a bit light considering that volume, but finding another proof quarter was great.

1,150 dimes yielded just one Canadian and one Spanish 5 pesetas(1997). The Spanish coin is a new variety for me.



480 nickels produced two Canadians, one Bermuda 5¢ and a key date Jefferson, the 1951S.

2,500 pennies had fifteen Wheats, twenty-three Canadians, two US dimes and one Bermuda 1¢. The Wheats were:

1935, 1940, 1944(2), 1944S, 1945(3), 1946, 1950S, 1952, 1953, 1955D, 1956D, 1957D

Found: 1 dime (outside Walgreens)

Good week, Good weekend

Things started off pretty good this weekend. On Friday during lunch I fund a dollar bill. It was the first paper money find I've made it some time. Later that day Henry rewarded Meg and I with good behavior during a family restaurant trip.

His good behavior lasted the whole weekend. He was very agreeable the errands we wanted to do and wasn't cranky at all, especially compared to the previous two weekends. We wish they all could be like this past weekend.

I searched twenty-one small dollars, but didn't find anything.

8,000 half dollars turned up some more good stuff. I found nineteen 90% silver half dollars (1935, 2 x 1942, 1958D, 1963, 12 x 1964, 2 x 1964D), ninety-six 40% silver half dollars (2 x 1965, 10 x 1966, 27 x 1967, 36 x 1968D, 19 x 1969D), sixteen proof halves (1976S, 1992S, 1993S, 2 x 1994S, 1995S, 2 x 1998S, 5 x 2000S, 2 x 2001S, 2006S), six mint set halves (2002P, 2002D, 2003P, 2004P, 2007P, 2008P) and four commemorative halves (1993P 50th Anniversary of World War II, 1994P World Cup, 2 x 1995S Civil War Battlefields). The new varieties are awesome. All of the commemoratives came from the same box! One was even showing at the end of a roll. All three commemorative varieties made my top ten rarities list.

Mintage	Description
162,013	1925 Lexington-Concord Half Dollar
163,753	1989D Bicentennial of the Congress Half Dollar
246,000	1921 Half Dollar
290,343	1993P 50th Anniversary of World War II
330,519	1995S Civil War Battlefields (2)
390,154	1992S Columbus Half Dollar
609,354	1994P World Cup Half Dollar (2)
804,565	1999S-Ag Half Dollar
892,229	2002S-Ag Indian Quarter
965,921	2000S-Ag Half Dollar

I never thought I'd find two commemoratives in one sitting (like last week), let alone four in one box. It almost overshadows finding another Walking Liberty half I needed for my album. Here are some pictures of the types. I'm still working on a good way to photograph proof coins.







Found: 4 pennies (1 on the street, 1 outside Dunkin' Donuts, 1 inside White Hen, 1 outside White Hen), 1 quarter (on the street), 1 $1 dollar bill (on the street)

The Remaining Ones

About a year ago I made chart to show the Wheat pennies I still had to find. At that point I had searched about 750,000 pennies. Since then I've searched about 575,000 more and found nine pennies that were on that list (shown in white below).

Variety	Mintage
1914	75,237,067
1936-D	40,620,000
1930-D	40,100,000
1918-S	34,680,000
1928-D	31,170,000
1936-S	29,130,000
1934-D	28,446,000
1925-S	26,380,000
1938-D	20,010,000
1928-S	17,266,000
1913-D	15,804,000
1921-S	15,274,000
1938-S	15,180,000
1939-D	15,160,000
1927-S	14,276,000
1911-D	12,672,000
1932-D	10,500,000
1912-D	10,411,000
1923-S	8,700,000
1922-D	7,160,000
1933-D	6,200,000
1913-S	6,101,000
1910-S	6,045,000
1915-S	4,833,000
1926-S	4,550,000
1931-D	4,480,000
1912-S	4,431,000
1914-S	4,137,000
1911-S	4,026,000
1924-D	2,520,000
1909-S	1,825,000
1914-D	1,193,000
1931-S	866,000
1909-S V.D.B.	484,000

Found: 11 pennies, 1 nickel, 1 dime, 1 foreign coin (a Canadian penny)

The 36D!

This morning I finished going through a massive amount of pennies. 26,600 pennies yielded one Indian Head (1???), one hundred seventy-five Wheats, one hundred fifty-seven Canadians, twelve US dimes, one Jamaica $1, one Bahamas 1¢, one Trinidad & Tobago 1¢, 1 German 1 Pfennig and one Euro 2¢ (Spain). They were a good bunch! That's a lot of wheats. I found my first new Wheat penny variety since January, the 1936D, my first Indian head penny since August, three new foreign varieties and a steelie. It felt great to find the 36D. The Wheats were:

1910, 1918, 1926, 1935(2), 1936(2), 1936D, 1937(3), 1938, 1939, 1940(5), 1941(11), 1942(6), 1942D(2), 1942S, 1943, 1944(20), 1945(8), 1946(8), 1946S, 1947(4), 1948(4), 1949(6), 1950(3), 1951, 1951D, 1951S, 1952(6), 1952D(4), 1953(8), 1953D(8), 1954D(3), 1955(8), 1955D, 1956(5), 1956D(8), 1957(6), 1957D(13), 1958(4), 1958D(5)







It's official too. Henry has a new consonant in his repertoire. He's been saying, "nah" a lot. Like "dah" it has many meanings for him. Sometimes it means banana, sometimes Nonnie and sometimes just things that are yellow. This is some good progress, I think. I've noticed him getting better at repeating words I say while reading to him as well.

Found: 1 dime (at Bank of America), 1 quarter (at Stop & Shop)

Good Stuff!

Here's a good picture of Henry and two movies of him. I took one and Meg took the others.



The above picture shows Henry pointing at a donkey (his Nana's favorite animal) while sitting at a desk made by his great-grandfather, Dziadek.



I like this video because it is a good summary of Henry's stuff, spins, dancing and saying, "ball."



This video shows Henry using his spoon to eat lunch. Dinner has been much better now that we (mainly Meg) don't have to feed Henry as much. He's very proud of this new skill and always wants to give it a try, although he does sometimes try to cheat and use his fingers.

Yesterday at lunch I spotted something different in a teller's cash draw. I noticed a bill with a slightly lighter shade of green on the back. I asked if she had any $2 bills and she sold me the two she had. Both were red seal bills! They're very worn and one has writing on it as well as all four corners torn off. Here's a picture of the better one.





I did some research yesterday online and found out the following:

These notes are printed with the words "United States Note" in the scrollwork at the top center of the note. These notes, issued at a time when money was redeemable for gold or silver, were backed only by the credit of the United States Government. They were issued in $1, $2, $5 and $100 denominations.

My good luck continued in the evening when I searched coin I got from two main sources.

10 large dollars, 12 small dollars and 17 half dollars turned up just one mint set dollar (2002D).

3,480 quarters produced two silver Washingtons (1945, 1964) and one Canadians. It is odd that there weren't more Canadians or foreign coins in that mix, but two silver quarters in that amount of searching is a good thing.

4,950 dimes yielded four silver Rosies (1959D, 2 x 1964, 1964D), four Canadians and one Aruba 10¢.

3,320 nickels had one Buffalo (dateless), three War Times (1943S, 1944D, 1945P), eleven Canadians (3 Ni), two Bahamas 5¢, one Bermuda 5¢, one US penny and a Italian 5 Lire (1953). The Italian coin is a new variety for me. It's one of the oldest foreign coins I've found.



Here's a quick chart of the oldest foreign coins (excluding Canadians) that I've found. I'd make a similar one for US coins, but it'd be pretty boring. The top ten oldest US coins I've found would be all Indian head pennies.

Year	Country	Denomination
1831	Britain	Farthing
1915*	Austria-Hungary	1 Ducat
1929	Britain	Penny
1941	East Africa	10 Cents
1947	Spain	1 Peseta
1953	Italy	5 Lire
1954	Scotland	1 Shilling
1956	Columbia	10 Centavos
1958	Switzerland	2 Rappen
1960	France	1 Franc

*The date 1915 is on the coin, but such coins were struck between 1920 and 1936.

Rain Barrels

Last night after a walk Henry and I used our back rain barrel. I installed one in the back of the house that's connected to a gutter from the main portion of the house. A storm on Saturday that produced .36 inches of rain filled it, 55 gallons. I filled up a couple of watering cans with it and watered a couple of areas I've seeded with grass. Henry was amused by it for some reason. He likes water a lot. I used eight gallons. After Henry went inside I hooked up a second barrel, this one painted to match the color of the house, to a downspout in the front of the house. I think we're going to have to think of more uses for this water!

I searched some coin last night, but the results were a bit ho-hum.

25 small dollars didn't produce anything.

9,200 quarters turned up one silver Washington (1964), eight Canadians, one UK 10 pence and a Bermuda 25¢.

1,300 dimes had just one Canadian in them.

640 nickels yielded one War Time (1942P) and two Canadians.

Lastly, 3,700 pennies produced just nine Wheats and twenty-two Canadians. The Wheats were:

1934, 1940(2), 1941, 1942, 1949, 1950, 1952, 19??D

Found: 21 pennies (1 at Shaw's, 1 at Dunkin' Donuts, 2 outside White Hen, 17 at work), 2 dimes (1 on the street, 1 at Shaw's), 1 foreign coin (a UK 5 pence at work)

Nope, It's Mommy's Little Monster

Looking back at my previous post title made me cringe a bit. Unfortunately, things are not back to normal. Henry (and his mom) has been having a terrible time with an ear infection and a stuffed up nose. At times it is next to impossible to get him to stop crying. Hopefully today's nap helps a bit and he'll be distracted enough by our mother's day shopping.

This morning we picked up two rain barrels. I'm going to paint them and set them up later today. I'll post some pictures when that's done.

Last night I did well with my Friday coins for the third week in a row!

Forty small dollars didn't produce anything.

8,006 half dollars yielded twenty-four 90% silver halves (1963, 21 x 1964, 1964D, 2003S-Ag), seventy-seven 40% silver halves (2 x 1965, 5 x 1966, 28 x 1967, 27 x 1968D, 15 x 1969D), eleven proofs (2 x 1993S, 1995S, 1997S, 1999S, 2000S, 2001S, 2002S, 2 x 2003S, 2003S-Ag), four mint set halves (1987P, 1987D, 2007D, 2008D) and two commemoratives (1986S Statue of Liberty, 1994P World Cup). I already have the 2003S-Ag half, but it's a beauty and a nice upgrade to the previous one. It always feels great finding those. The World Cup half is a new one for me. I tried to take a picture of both of these halves, but I got too much of the camera in the reflection. I'll try a different technique later. This the first time I've found two commemoratives in one sitting. The Statue of Liberty half is the fourth one I've found. Unfortunately, it's in very bad shape.

The two good coins from this weekend got me thinking about the rarest halves I've found. By mintage two of the ones I found last night are in the top ten. Here's a chart that shows the rare US coins I've found.

Mintage	Description
162,013	1925 Lexington-Concord Half Dollar
163,753	1989D Bicentennial of the Congress Half Dollar
246,000	1921 Half Dollar
390,154	1992S Columbus Half Dollar
609,354	1994P World Cup Half Dollar
804,565	1999S-Ag Half Dollar
892,229	2002S-Ag Indiana Quarter
965,921	2000S-Ag Half Dollar
1,000,546	1946 Booker T. Washington Half Dollar
1,040,425	2003S-Ag Half Dollar (2)

Found: 6 pennies (1 near a parking meter), 1 dime (near a parking meter)

Redeemed: $.05

Last night's coins were OK.

255 small dollars turned up one new variety for me, the 2009P Sacagawea. I'm not sure if this variety was issued for circulation. I know the 2009D was. I've found plenty of those.

2,160 quarters yielded just five Canadians and a Bermuda 25¢.

3,300 dimes produced three silver Rosies (1953D, 2 x 1964), four Canadians and a UK 5 pence (2004).

I did well with the nickels. In 920 of them I found two Buffaloes (1919, 1935), one War Time (1944P), three Canadians, a US penny and a US quarter. The Buffaloes both have readable dates. The 1919 is in pretty good condition, especially for its age, but on the obverse is some pink paint. I might try and see if I can get that off somehow. I at first thought the quarter was a mint error as it is the size of a nickel, but now I'm not so sure. The thickness of the coin is similar to a quarter, so I think someone just chopped it down to nickel size for some reason. I also found a key date Jefferson, the 1955.

2,300 pennies rounded up just seven Wheats, nineteen Canadians, seven US dimes and a UK penny (1998). The Wheats were:

1934, 1944, 1945(2), 1946, 1957D, 1958, 1958D

Back to Normal?

This past weekend Henry had a minor ear infection. He was a bit cranky and didn't sleep that well. Now we keep hoping he's "back to normal." It's tough to know what that means these days, but good naps, a sleep through the night and good, long periods of playfulness seem to be his normal. Yesterday he was cranky during the day and didn't sleep well, but in the evening we had a lot of fun with him. I especially liked it when he had a fun time pushing Meg and I around. He likes to think he can push on us and move us where he wants to go, like across the kitchen. It really makes him laugh hard.

Last coins were so-so.

I searched 7,600 quarters. In them was one silver Washington (1942S), twenty-two Canadians, five US nickels, one US dime and a gold plated 2003D Arkansas quarter. I've had good luck with quarters recently. So far, this year, I've found eleven new varieties. That's the most Canadian quarters I've come across in one sitting.

4,500 dimes yielded two silver Rosies (1962D, 1964D), twenty-one Canadians, one US penny and a Mexican 5 Centavos (1973). The Mexican coin is a new variety for me.



920 nickels produced five Canadians (3 Ni), one Bahamas 1¢, four US pennies and what I think may be an error nickel. The nickel looks a bit like an error dime I found a while back. I'm keeping it until I can take some photographs of it and ask for opinions of it.

5,200 pennies had twenty-two Wheats, thirty-eight Canadians, four US dimes, one Bahamas 1¢, one East Caribbean States 10¢ and one Euro 1¢ (Germany). The Wheats were:

1927, 1928, 1935, 1940, 1941, 1942, 1944, 1946(2), 1946S, 1951, 1953D, 1957(2), 1957D(5), 1958D

Found: 1 quarter (at Costco)

Mulch

Last week we had a huge pile of mulch delivered to our house, eight cubic yards! I should have taken a picture of the pile. I wanted to take one of it with Henry on top of it or at least besides it for scale purposes, but it didn't work out. He was excited to see it and to play in it at times.

This weekend I took an extra day off and Meg worked on spreading the mulch, doing weeding, raking up sticks (there are still many from the ice storm) and cutting back bushes. It was a lot of work, but it looks great.

We didn't do too much else, but Meg did take the time to participate in a local 5K run. She did better than she thought she would and felt good about it. Henry was very excited to see her finish as well.

I searched some coin from a different, new bank yesterday.

11 halves produced one mint set half (2005D).

3,000 dimes turned up one silver Rosie (1961) and six Canadians.

1,920 nickels yielded one War Time (1945P), two Canadians (2 Ni) and one US dime. In the batch were two key date nickels, the 1950 and the 1949S.

10,000 pennies had fifty-one Wheats, seventy-one Canadians, one Euro 2¢ (Spain), one US dime and one Panama 1¢. The hunt for the next new Wheat variety goes on! The Wheats were:

1911, 1916, 1919S, 1920, 1936, 1938(3), 1939, 1941(2), 1941D, 1942(2), 1944(6), 1944S, 1945(4), 1946(3), 1947, 1948, 1949, 1950S, 1951D, 1952D, 1953(2), 1955(3), 1956(2), 1956D(5), 1957D(2), 1958, 1958D(2)



On Saturday I finished looking through a coin book I recently got, Coins of England and the United Kingdom 2009, by Philip Skingley. It wasn't the best read, but the pictures were fun to look at. It is very comprehensive and attempts to cover all coins from Celtic times to present day. That's quite a task and so the book is almost 500 pages long. I only wish it were spiral bound and included mintages for later dates. Finding the 1831 English farthing got me thinking about collecting more UK coins.

Found: 2 pennies (at Papa Gino's), 1 nickel (outside the post office), 1 quarter (at Shaw's)

Redeemed: $11.65

Here's a cute picture of Henry I took the other night. He's about to show his belly in it.



Yesterday Henry ate a whole bowl of applesauce with a spoon! He's doing it again this morning. We're also trying to introduce a spork to him.

(We just realized he did something pretty funny this morning while I wasn't watching. He threw his ball into the trash! That wasn't such a good idea.)

Last night's coins were pretty good. Almost the same as last weekend.

Fifty-one small dollars didn't produce anything.

8,000 half dollars turned up seventeen 90% silver halves (1963, 2 x 1963D, 13 x 1964, 1964D) and one hundred 40% silver halves (1965, 10 x 1966, 36 x 1967, 42 x 1968D, 11 x 1969D). No new ones in that group, but that's a fine amount of silver!

Show Us Your Belly

Last night after supper Henry showed me one of his new tricks, showing his belly. Meg can really get him going by asking him to, "show us your belly!" He lefts up his shirt and laughs a lot, even without us tickling him there. It's adorable. We also showed him our bellies which made him laugh. I tried to get a picture of him doing it, but it was too late and the mood had passed. Maybe I'll have better luck tonight.

Last nights coin hunting turned up a lot of weird stuff.

20 Large dollars and 18 half dollars were skunks.

2,800 quarters produced four Canadians, one US penny and a Samoa 10 Sene. The Samoan coin is a new one for me. It's a tiny island nation north and east of New Zealand. There are less than 200,000 residents and the primary export used to be taro. (The plant is on the reverse of the coin) The coin I found is worth 3¢.



5,000 dimes yielded one silver Rosie (1962), seventeen Canadians (one was a 1968, 50% silver dime), two Bermuda 10¢, one Panama 10¢, one Ecuador 10¢ and one Swiss ½ franc.



1,600 nickels had in them one dateless Buffalo, five Canadians (1 Ni), two US pennies and two Swiss 20 Rappen.

4,000 pennies turned up twenty-two Wheats, twenty-eight Canadians and one UK penny (1988). The Wheats were:

1916, 1919, 1934, 1941, 1942(2), 1944, 1944D, 1945, 1946, 1947S, 1949(2), 1951, 1951S, 1953D, 1956(3), 1957D(2), 1958

Found: 7 pennies (2 at Shaw's, 4 at Stop & Shop, 1 at Citgo), 1 nickel (at Stop & Shop), 2 dimes (at Stop & Shop), 1 quarter (at Stop & Shop) and 1 foreign coin (a Canadian dime at Shaw's)