Ho-hum

Last night I searched some coin. I didn't have a great feeling about the coin. Most of it seemed to come from one customer. In change yesterday, I did, however, come across a new quarter, 2008D Hawaii. My States quarter album is now full and I don't have to check every Hawaii quarter I come across!

4,160 quarters yielded seven Canadians, one UK 10 pence, three US nickels and one US penny.

3,100 dimes produced five Canadians, one UK 5 pence and one Barbados 10¢.

2,080 nickels had one War Time (1945P) and four Canadians.

5,800 pennies (two boxes and some hand rolled) turned up thirty-five Wheats, thirty-three Canadians and one US dime. The Wheats were:

1925, 1933, 1940(2), 1941, 1942, 1944(2), 1944S, 1946, 1948, 1949(4), 1951, 1951D, 1952(2), 1953D(3), 1955, 1956D(3), 1957D(2), 1958

Found: 1 penny (outside of work)

Red Seal Five

This weekend started well for me. At a regular bank of mine a teller gave me a red seal five dollar bill. She had gotten it from a customer sometime back and remembered she still had it. I got it for face value. It's a bit beat up, it's ripped slightly and it came with a staple in it, but it made my day. It's the first older five dollar bill in my collection.





Another reason to be cheerful is the weather. It's finally sunny! I can't remember the last sunny weekend day. So far Meg, Henry and I have gone to the park (he said "swing" and pointed the whole ride there, all 10 minutes), clipped bushes and redeemed a whole lot of cans. In a minute Henry and I am going shopping. I've got more bushes to trim tomorrow, the lawn to mow and hopefully Meg and I will work on Henry's sand box.

The coin I searched last night and this morning was better than last week, although that's not saying much as last weekend was a totally bust.

22 small dollars didn't have anything.

8,000 half dollars had two 90% silver halves (1942, 1964), nine 40% silver halves (1965, 4 x 1967, 3 x 1968D and 1969D) and two mint set halves (2002P, 2006D).

350 dimes produced one silver Rosie (1959D) and one UK 5 pence.

2,600 pennies yielded seventeen Wheats, twelve Canadians and three dimes. In the mix I found another 2009 Log Cabin penny. Perhaps I'll start finding a lot of these now. The Wheats were:

1941, 1945(2), 1945D, 1946(2), 1948, 1948D, 1952D, 1955, 1956D, 1957, 1957D(2), 1958D(2)

Found: 2 pennies (1 at Shaw's, 1 on the street)

Redeemed: $25.40

Last night's coins produced some decent variety.

2,000 quarters turned up four Canadians.

3,000 dimes yielded two silver Rosies (1957, 1962), three Canadians and two US pennies.

2,000 nickels produced four Canadians (3 Ni). One of the Canadians is now the oldest one I've found in a roll, a 1935, 3.9 million were minted. I was wondering when a George V nickel would turn up for me.



7,500 pennies had thirty-one Wheats, forty-five Canadians, three Euro 1¢ (3 x 2002, Italy), one Euro 2¢ (1999, Italy), one French 10 centimes (1963), one UK penny (1973), one Panama 1¢ and two US dimes. The Wheats were:

1919, 1927, 1941(4), 1944(3), 1945D, 1945S, 1946, 1947, 1948, 1949, 1950(2), 1950S, 1951, 1954S, 1956D(4), 1957(4), 1957D, 1958(2), 1958D





Found: 1 nickel (at work), 1 dime (at Stop & Shop), 1 foreign coin (a Canadian quarter at Stop & Shop)

Yesterday Meg took Henry to a children's museum with a few of their friends. It was a good escape from the rain. Here are some pictures she took.



The museum had a water trough with toys. Here's a picture of Henry before Meg had to take him away lest he bail out too much water with his little scoop.



Henry mixing colors.



Henry wrestling with a stuffed alligator. He definitely loves stuffed animals.



Henry playing pirate.



Henry was doing his downward dog yoga pose before dinner last night. I said, "say hello to Nana and Nonnie!," and this what he did.


I seached a few coins last night.

360 quarters didn't turn up anything.

1,100 dimes had just five Canadians. I also found two more 2009P dimes.

600 nickels yielded one War Time (1943P) and five Canadians (1 Ni).

4,350 pennies produced ten Wheats, twenty-five Canadians, two Euro 2¢ (2002, 2008 Austria) and one US dime. I also found one clipped US penny (1978). It has a decent sized clip on it. The Wheats were:

1935, 1942(2), 1946, 1947, 1948, 1950, 1952D, 1956D, 1958

Is that Iggy Pop?

Last night was a wild night at our house. I took Henry's shirt off after dinner because he got so much food on it. He then had a lot of fun running around a being crazy. We got some great shots and videos from it all.



Before the chaos began, Henry enjoyed his new sippy cup that has an integrated straw.



Releasing terror!







No encores, please.



After show, bear naked wrestling.





This morning his chatty, full energy self picked up where he left off last night. Hopefully his day at the children's museum tires him out for his nap.

I did pretty well last night with my coins.

5,520 quarters turned up three silver Washingtons (1942, 1954, 1964), eleven Canadians, one Bermuda 25¢, five US nickels, one US penny (a 1953D wheat) and one washer.

4,450 dimes yielded two silver Rosies (1953D, 1964D), six Canadians and a Swiss ½ franc. In the mix was a 2009P dime. That's one I needed. They should be rather rare as only 96.5 million were minted. That's one fourth the amount minted in 2008 and one tenth the amount minted in 2007.

920 nickels produced four Canadians (2 Ni). I also found one key Jefferson, the 1949S, and what might be a double clipped nickel.

4,200 pennies had twenty-three Wheats, twenty-eight Canadians, two UK pennies (1971, 1997) and two US dimes. The Wheats were:

1929, 1937, 1941, 1944(5), 1945, 1946, 1947, 1948, 1948D, 1940, 1952D, 1953D, 1955(3), 1957, 1957D, 1958D(2)

Found: 2 tokens (both NH highway tokens, at the Shell)

Liberty

To beat the rain blues yesterday Meg had several friends with kids over. She told me Henry was having a lot of fun with the two boys and that they were playing with each other, screaming, etc. I wish I had seen it. Later, she made finger paints for Henry out of food stuffs. She (and I) thought this would be a great idea because he's been into his chalk and crayons and he likes to rub food all over his dinner tray. Unfortunately, he wasn't that cooperative. I'm sure he'll be more up for it in the future. Meg will definitely have lots of good project ideas for him.



I did pretty well with my coins.

7 small dollars, 480 quarters and 500 dimes produced one silver dime (1948).

5,160 nickels (two boxes and some hand rolled coins) yielded one Liberty (1907), one dateless Buffalo, five War Times (1942P, 1943P, 2 x 1944P, 1945P), eight Canadians and one Bermuda 5¢. The Liberty nickel is one of the better ones I've found. The reverse is much clearer than others I've come across. It's just too bad it's a year I've already found. I also found two key Jeffersons, 1950 and 1955.



Lastly, 2,100 pennies turned up nine Wheats, thirteen Canadians and one US dime. The Wheats were:

1944, 1944S, 1946, 1948, 1956D(3), 1957D, 1958D

Found: 1 penny (a 1953 Wheat at Stop & Shop)

Father's Day!

This weekend was my second Father's Day weekend. Technically Father's Day is only on Sunday, but it felt like a holiday on both days for me. On Saturday Henry had and I had a fun time at several stores while Meg prepared food for a Father's Day get-together. We had a great slow cooked meal that afternoon. On Sunday we had another celebratory meal. We got a pair of lobsters from the store and served them up with some corn on the cob. Henry enjoyed playing with his corn on the cob, but didn't try any of the lobster meat. I also got a cool gizmo I'll be writing about more in the near future.

The bad news was the rain and the coins. We've been having days and days of rain for weeks. It's a bummer because on the weekend we can't do what we want to (some yard stuff and more outdoor activities with each other) and on the weekdays Meg's choices for entertainment are very limited. We think Henry is getting tired of it too. I hope it ends this weekend!

My coin seaching stunk.

Four small dollars and two rolls of quarters (80 coins) "produced" fourteen US nickels. One roll of quarters had fourteen purposely placed nickels in it. Thanks! That's the most blatant cheating I've ever been a victim of. That's not too bad considering the volume of rolls I've seen, I just didn't feel like being shorted $2.80 just before Father's Day.

8,000 halves turned up just nine mint set halves (2002P, 2003D, 3 x 2004P, 2005D, 2 x 2006P, 2009D). The new mint set half saved the experience, slightly.

On Friday I took the time to put together an album to hold all of the UK coins I've found. I have a pretty decent year-by-year and type (decimal) collection now, mostly from US circulation. I've come across a look of pennies, 5 pence coins and 10 pence coins. Rarely I come across 2 pence coins, 20 pence coins and 50 pence coins.

Found: 1 penny (at work), 1 dime (at the Getty), 1 quarter (at DSW)

Leader of the Pack

Last night Henry and I had some fun drawing on the kitchen floor. It's pretty exciting to draw something and have him recognize it. Meg bought some beginner crayons and chalk recently. We've both been encouraging him to use them. So far he's just scribbled, not on the walls yet, but he did use chalk on the house.



Meg's also been able to really get Henry going playing ring-around-the-rosie. Even though Henry gets really dizzy with it after a few times he keeps asking for her to do it more. I tried to step in and take over so Meg could recoperate, but she seems to be able to be a bit more silly than me (at least for now). I'll have to take a video of it soon.

This morning Henry had a good time playing with his rocking worm. I think it looks a bit like he's riding a motorcycle when he's on it.



Last night I picked up some more coin.

1,960 quarters turned up just five Canadians and one Jillian's token.

1,150 dimes produced one silver Rosie (1952), two Canadians, one Aruba 10¢ and a US penny.

800 nickels yielded just one Canadian and a Namco arcade token.

2,100 pennies had twelve Wheats and nineteen Canadians. One of the Wheats was my oldest Wheat in near pristine condition. It's a 1928, but it is hard to believe it. The Wheats were:

1918, 1928, 1935, 1940(2), 1945, 1946D, 1950D, 1956, 1956D, 1957, 1957D



Found: 2 pennies (at Costco)

Log Cabin

Last night after taking Henry to Home Depot (he sure likes those special carts with the car or truck attached to them), eating dinner and mowing the lawn I searched some coin. (Meg watched two boys for part of the day, cleaned and cooked ... she was more wiped out than I was.)

240 quarters, 150 dimes and 40 nickels produced one Canadian quarter and a War Time nickel (1945P).

8,200 pennies yielded forty-nine Wheats, sixty-seven Canadians and one Panama 1¢. In one box was two new 2009 Log Cabin pennies. That's the first of those I've come across. Only 284,800,000 were minted! An additional bonus of the night was a Canadian I found. It was a 1920 George V penny. That's the second copy of that variety I've come across. The Wheats were:

1919, 1926, 1927, 1936, 1940(2), 1941(3), 1944(5), 1944D, 1945(6), 1946(5), 1947(2), 1950(3), 1950D, 1952D, 1953, 1953D(3), 1954, 1955, 1956(3), 1956D(5), 1957, 1957D

Here's the second part of the video. I finally got it to upload.

Here's a good video of Henry we took last week. In it he's turning his play shopping cart about with ease. There's a second part to it, but I've had trouble uploading it. :( Tonight I'll have to try and get some video of Henry scribbling on the driveway with his new chaulk.



My luck continued last night with the coin.

5 large dollars didn't have anything in them.

8,800 quarters turned up seventeen Canadians, one Ecuador 25¢, one UK 10 pence and three US nickels. The Ecuador coin is a new type for me.



1,200 dimes yielded one silver Rosie (1961D), three Canadians, one UK 5 pence and two US pennies.

800 nickels produced four Canadians (2 Ni) and one Euro 20¢ (Italy, 2000). The Euro coin is a new type for me! I also found a beat up, key date Jefferson, the 1939S.



3,700 pennies were good to me. In them I found eighteen Wheats, twenty-six Canadians, two UK pennies and one US dime. In the Wheats was one I needed, the 1930D! That's the second new penny I've found in five days. I'm on a little roll of some sort. With a mintage of just over 40 million it is not particularly rare, but here in the northeast it's tough to come across any pre-1940 pennies with a mint mark on them. The Wheats were:

1930D, 1935, 1940, 1944, 1945(2), 1946(2), 1949, 1949D, 1955, 1956, 1956D(2), 1957D(3)

Found: 1 penny (at White Hen Pantry)

Last night before going to the hair salon Henry and I went to a pet store. We had ten minutes to kill. He really liked it. We saw fish, birds, rodents and turtles. We'll have to spend more time there later and get to the lizards, dogs and cats. He didn't like the haircut so much. It came out better than the previous cut, but the experience was similar. :( His next cut might be a buzz cut at home.

Last night's coin was OK.

The best part about last night is that I finally got my hands on a decent amount of mixed small dollars. 1,500 produced two mint set dollars (2002P, 2005D) and three Canadians. I was hoping to find a proof dollar, but oh well.

4,440 quarters turned up one silver Washington (1941), four Canadians, one East Carribean States 25¢, one Bermuda 25¢ and one US penny. The 1941 quarter is a beauty.

1,150 dimes produced just two Canadians.

Likewise 480 nickels yielded two Canadians (1 Ni).

The pennies I searched were pretty good. In them was thirty-one Wheats and Canadians. The Wheats were:

1936(2), 1940, 1941, 1942, 1944, 1944D, 1945, 1946(3), 1947, 1948D, 1950(2), 1950D, 1951D, 1952D(2), 1953, 1953D(2), 1955, 1956, 196D, 1957, 1958, 1958D(3)

I found this nice foreign coin under a Coin Star machine. It's a new type for me, a 10 Sen piece from Malaysia.



Found: 2 pennies (at work), 3 nickels (at work), 1 foreign coin (a Malaysia 10 Sen at Shaw's)

Here's a good video we took on Sunday. It is Henry using a kazoo. It is his first wind instrument. Maybe he'll play the clarinet like his mother did or play another wind instrument like his aunt and uncle.

Three Day Weekend?

This past weekend I took an extra day off. Meg needed to leave early for a well deserved moms' night out. I took the opportunity to visit my grandparents and Meg went to Boston with five of her friends for a nice dinner, stay over and nice breakfast. She had fun, but unfortunately she came home sick. :( My parents came over on Saturday. My mother made biscuits for our church fair, my Dad propped up the neighbor's fence (it was threatening our backyard) and I worked on Henry's sandbox. On Sunday we an early Father's Day event at my sister's house. It was a very manly affair, beer, pigs-in-a-blanket, ribs and potato salad. It all tasted very good. Henry had a great time in their church hall being lead along by his older cousin and playing with his cousins' toys.



We've also heard a lot of new words lately. Henry has begun to say a lot of "S" and "T" sounds. His new word-likes this past weekend were, "steering wheel," "stroller," "cheese," "shoes," "toes," "swings" and "hole."

Being a three day weekend I was able to search some coin.

60 small dollars produced one mint set dollar (2004P). One roll had two extra dollar coins in it and two extra quarters. It was an easy $2.50!

8,000 halves didn't turn up too much. In them was two 90% silver halves (2 x 1964), four 40% silver halves (4 x 1967), two proof halves (2 x 1978S) and six mint set halves (2002P, 2003P, 2003D, 2004P, 2005P, 2009P). Thankfully I found that new 2009 half! That saved the batch a bit. I've now searched over 700,000 halves! In one roll of halves I found a 1964 and a smooshed penny with a New England Aquarium design on it (see below).

While making a deposit at one bank I was told that they had a lot of hand rolled coin one customer had brought in. "He was saving it for twenty years ... there should be old stuff in there," the teller said. I didn't get my hopes hope as I've heard such things before, but I figured my chances were slightly better than normal.

4,240 quarters yielded one silver Washington (1944), fifteen Canadians, one French 1 Franc (1976), one German 1 Mark (1977) and one Fun & Games arcade token.

2,250 dimes produced five silver Rosies (2 x 1946, 1947D, 1962D, 1963D), seven Canadians, one Bermuda 10¢ and six US pennies. The 1947D was a decent upgrade to the one in my album.

1,440 nickels had one War Time (1942P), three Canadians (2 Ni) and four Namco arcade tokens. The 1942P was a great upgrade to the one in my album.

6,000 pennies turned up twenty-nine Wheats, fifty-five Canadians, seven dimes and one Euro 10¢ (France, 2000). In the Wheats was a great one, the 1931D. It's a new one for me, in decent condition and it's now the rarest penny I've found. Only 4,480,000 were minted. The Wheats were:

1919, 1919S, 1920, 1924, 1931D, 1939, 1942, 1944(7), 1945, 1946(3), 1948, 1950, 1951, 1951D, 1952D, 1953D, 1955, 1955D, 1957D, 1958D(2)



Here's a small gallery of the three smooshed pennies I've found.



I found this alien penny in a box of half dollars. I suspect that some coin counters toss these into the half dollar bag.



This one came from a Coin Star machine. It was lying on top.



Above is the penny I found this past weekend.

Found: 1 penny (at Bank of America), 1 dime (at Home Depot)

Changes!

What's going on? Why does your blog look like crap?

Well right now I'm shaking things up and changing the design a bit. Don't worry the same news and facts will be available as were before. It just might look a bit prettier.

Two years with the same design was a bit much.

Found: 5 pennies (1 at Costco, 4 at work), 2 dimes (2 at work), 1 quarter (at work)

Word-Likes

Recently Meg and I have witnessed a lot of progress from Henry.

Most evenings when Meg tells me about a play date of theirs there is a story about Henry mimicing the behavior of another kid. Last night she told me Henry started saying "nah" in Target because he heard another kid do it. She wasn't sure, but she thinks a third kid might have started up after Henry. He also copies a lot of things we do around the house. A few nights ago after seeing me pick up his crumbs and put them on plate, he bent down to the floor to join me and started pretending to pick up food and put it on the plate.

We've also noticed that Henry has started to say many new words. In the past few days he's made seperate sounds for hole, broom, stripe, turtle and gears. It's tough to call them words exactly because they don't sound much like the actual word, but he definitely repeats them for the same object. For broom, for example, Henry says "siss." Meg and I are guessing the derivation is "sweep."

I searched a whole lot of coin last night and this morning.

101 small dollars produced one Canadian dollar (1996).

5,660 quarters turned up four Canadians, one East Carribean States 25¢, two US nickels and one US penny. That breaks my streak of finding silver quarters.

5,000 dimes yielded two silver dimes (1941, 1961), tweleve Canadians and one US penny. After searching one roll of dimes I noticed someone wrote "50 silvers" on it. There wasn't any silver in the roll. Perhaps someone wrote it as a joke to get me going? If I were a teller I think I'd do that once in while to someone like me.

2,600 nickels had two War Times (2 x 1943P), three Canadians (1 Ni), one Bermuda 5¢, one US penny, one US dime and an Irish 6 Pence (1960). The Irish coin is a first for me and is one of the older foreign coins I've found. It's also my first Irish pre-decimal coin. In addition I found a 1951S key date Jefferson.



5,000 pennies were pretty good to me. In them I found forty-one Wheats, thirty-seven Canadians, two US dimes, one Euro 2¢ (France, 1999) and one Panama 1¢. I had one roll that had many Wheats in it. Sure wish I got more like that. The Wheats included a steelie (1943) and a 1916S clipped planchet coin. That's only the second 1916S penny I've found. I found the last one about two years ago. The breakdown was:

1916S, 1918(3), 1919(4), 1920(3), 1930, 1934, 1940, 1942S, 1943, 1944, 1944D, 1945(2), 1946(2), 1948(3), 1950, 1951D, 1952, 1952D(2), 1953, 1955(4), 1956(3), 1956D(3), 1957D, 1958(2), 1958D(2)

Found: 1 penny (outside work), 1 dime (at work)

Barber Dime

After a nice evening with Meg and Henry I searched some coin. (He had been good the whole day!)

8,800 quarters turned up one silver Washington (1961D), five Canadians and one Bermuda 25¢. These quarters pushed me over the 600,000 mark!

3,900 dimes produced three silver dimes (1913, 1946, 1954), eleven Canadians, and one Bermuda 5¢. At the bank they had a box of dimes saved for me. I'm not sure why they saved them as the box contained the standard fifty machine wrapped rolls, but I'm glad I took it. In it was my first Barber dime! A 1913 dime! It's not extremely worn, but very stained (see picture). It's the oldest dime I've now found. The second oldest is 1917. I might try to clean it somehow. Here's a picture of it in the condition I found it.





1,120 nickels yielded one beat-up War Time (1943P), four Canadians and a Czech Republic 1 Koruna. The Czech coin is a new variety for me.



1,600 pennies had six Wheats and twenty Canadians. The Wheats were:

1944(2), 1951, 1951D, 1953, 1956D

Crazy H

Althought this weekend was tiring (When isn't it when one's a parent?), we had a good time. On Saturday Meg and Henry went to a bridal shower and I went to the corresponding stag party across town. Both were for Meg's brother and future sister-in-law. We had a good time. I'd never been to a stag party before and based on this experience think they are a good idea. It definitely fits a family man's schedule a lot better and allows all family members to give a male member of the family a good time.

Here are some good pictures and videos Meg and I have taken recently of Henry.



I'm not sure what he's up to in this video, but it's funny and he didn't need a changing right afterwards.



During meal times Henry likes to work "product" a.k.a. food into his hair.



He's getting into more dangerous places these days. Here's some evidence. If I could predict the lottery like I can predict him hurting himself I'd be a rich man. This coffee table of ours is a death trap.





On Sunday we went to a local farm to get ice cream and see some animals. Henry fed the goats a bit. After he saw what others were doing, he grabbed some grass from the nearby lawn and tried to feed it the goats. He then got bored and started pushing his stroller around. This happens alot.



After the ice cream trip we went to the toy store. We picked up a gate for our stairs. (It's really impossible to be up there with him when one parent is watching the stairs.) We also picked up three toys, a play watering can, a small broom and a shopping cart. Hopefully pushing this cart around generates a lot less frustration than his pushing his high chair around.



I found this one on Meg's camera. Henry calls his grandparents "nah." It's pretty cute.

My weekend coins were poor this week.

32 small dollars turned up a new one for me, 2009P John Tyler.

8,000 half dollars produced just ten 40% silver halves (5 x 1966, 5 x 1968D), two proofs (1986S, 1993S) and eleven mint set halves (2002D, 2 x 2003P, 2004P, 2004D, 2005D, 2 x 2006D, 2 x 2007P, 2007D, 2008P). The 2008P half I found was chrome plated.

Found: 4 pennies (1 at Dunkin' Donuts, 1 at White Hen Pantry, 1 at Stop & Shop, 1 at Home Depot), 2 dimes (1 at White Hen Pantry, 1 at Friends')

The new words just keep coming from Henry. Last night I heard him say "tree." It sounded more like "tah," but he kept saying it when pointing to trees (and flowers) in his books last night. If only he could tell us what he wanted more or how he's feeling.

I had pretty good luck with the coins I searched.

2 half dollars turned up one 40% silver half (1965).

2,200 quarters produced two silver Washingtons (1954, 1954D), two Canadians and a silver plated state quarter. The silver plated quarter fooled me for a second as it is pretty good. The two real silver quarters came out of the same box. That's only the second time I've found two in a box, I think. I've had really good luck with quarters lately.

1,800 dimes yielded one silver Rosie (1956), three Canadians and one Bermuda 10¢. One of the Canadians was 50% silver, 1968.

2,840 nickels pushed me over the 500,000 mark! In them were two War Times (2 x 1943P), five Canadians (1 Ni), two Bermuda 5¢, one US penny and a Costa Rica 5 Colones. The Costa Rica coin is a first for me from that country. Now I only need two more countries from Central America, El Salvador and Belize. (El Salvador might be tough as they stopped using their own coins in 2002.) It's worth .01¢.



1,250 pennies turned up six Wheats, seven Canadians and two US dimes. The Wheats were:

1940, 1944, 1947, 1952D, 1953D, 1956D

Found: 1 penny (smooshed with an image of a sky lift from Stone Mountain Park in Atlanta, Georgia on it, at Stop & Shop)

Yesterday Henry's doctor appointment went well. Meg says he behaved OK and that he recovered from his one shot very quickly. He weighed in at 25 1/2 pounds and is now 32 inches tall.

His vocabulary continues to amaze me. Last night I got him to say "turtle" and recently I saw him identify a "boy" in a book and a "triangle" in his toys. He probably can understand over a hundred words by now.



Late last night, late for me anyway, I finished reading another book, White Gold: The Extraordinary Story of Thomas Pellow and North Africa's One Million European Slaves, by Giles Milton. The book follows an English boy who is captured by Barbary pirates in the early 18th century while working on an English boat in the Mediterranean Sea. He's taken to Morocco. There he is sold into slavery and along with thousands of other Europeans forced to build the palace of Moulay Ismail. Eventually, after torture, he "converts" to Islam. His conversion allows him more freedom. A wife is assigned to him, he has one daugter and he is given command of a military unit. After several failed escape attempts and the death of his family, he escapes to England in 1738. Two years later he writes a journal about his experience. Like the other work by Milton I read, Samurai William: The Englishman Who Opened Japan this book uses many sources contemporary to a narrative to flesh out the life of an obscure figure caught in a broader historical moment. I think this book did this in a more effective manner than the other book. It took me a while to read it because of all of the other stuff I've been doing, but I did find the book enjoyable. I'll definitely read Milton's other books.

I also searched one box of pennies. 2,500 pennies yielded ten Wheats, eighteen Canadians and one Bermuda 1¢. The Wheats were:

1917, 1928, 1940, 1942, 1946, 1947, 1953, 1955, 1956, 1958D

Found: 4 pennies (at Costco)

Ha

This morning Henry uttered a new word, "ha." It was in reference to his new helicopter. He said it multiple times. It's just in time for his 15 month check-up today at his new doctor, too! What sounds that rhyme with "ah" will he say next?

Last night's coin worked out fairly well.

Nine small dollars and three half dollars didn't turn up anything.

5,360 quarters produced one silver Washington (1963D), ten Canadians, three US nickels and one French franc (1964).

4,000 dimes yielded three silver Rosies (1946D, 1951, 1952), twelve Canadians and two US pennies. I really wish the 1946D were the 1946S, one I need for my albums. It is, however, a great upgrade to the one in my album. It's in really good shape.

1,200 nickels turned up two Canadians (1 Ni) and two US dimes.

5,200 pennies had twenty-six Wheats, forty-seven Canadians, three US dimes and one German 5 Pfennig. The German coin is a new variety for me. The Wheats were:

1936, 1938, 1940, 1941, 1944, 1946(5), 1947S, 1948, 1950, 1951, 1951D, 1952D, 1953(2), 1955D, 1956(3), 1957D(2), 1958D(2)



Found: 14 pennies (at Shaw's), 1 nickel (at Shaw's), 8 dimes (1 at the Mobil Mart, 7 at Shaw's), three foreign coins (2 Canadian quarters at Shaw's and a Charlie Horse arcade token)

Ruff!

Although it is early it has already been a busy day for Meg and I. Henry woke up early again (a bad trend). Already he's pulled down a chair, the Diaper Genie and a trash can. I guess it is just too much fun to pull down all of these and play with them :(. Meg's already left the house with him today. He's got too much energy for the house! I sure hope she can keep up with him today.

I searched some coin last night, but forgot to bring in my cheat sheet (and my watch).

6,800 quarters produced two silver Washingtons (1947, 1956), three Canadians and one proof quarter (1985S). That's the seventh new silver quarter and the fifth proof quarter I've come across this year. The 1985S is the second copy of that proof quarter I've found.

850 dimes turned up one silver Rosie (1958).

440 nickels yielded one Buffalo (1937), on War Time (1944P) and one Canadian. The Buffalo is in pretty good condition.

7,750 pennies had thirty-eight Wheats and fifty-four Canadians. A teller also saved me one Wheat penny (1954D). The Wheats were:

1919, 1925, 1935, 1937, 1938, 1941(2), 1942D, 1944(5), 1945, 1946(6), 1948, 1949(2), 1949S, 1951(3), 1951D, 1952(2), 1957(2), 1957D(3), 1958D(4)

Found: 1 quarter (at DCU)

Toys

This weekend I didn't do too well with the coins and I failed to finish a book I'm reading, but I had a great weekend otherwise.

Meg and I did some good work this weekend during Henry's nap times. We got a lot done in a 5-6 hours. During that time we planted two bushes, started our rock garden and finished the backyard edging. Soon I think we'll tackle replacing the front lamp post.

We also managed to get in some good walks, some shopping at three nurseries, a dinner with my parents and two movies (on DVD, at home, of course). I had a fun time going out shopping yesterday with Henry too. I got him a small helicopter, a playground ball that's just his size and two pairs of shorts.

The coins searching results are:

10 small dollars didn't turn up anything.

My half dollars didn't start out too well. One box was missing two rolls, $20. Ugh. 8,000 halves produced two 90% silver halves (1960, 1964), five 40% silver halves (1967, 1968D, 3 x 1969D), three proofs (2 x 1976S, 1986S), thirteen mint set halves (4 x 2002P, 2 x 2002D, 2 x 2003P, 2003D, 2 x 2004P, 2 x 2005P) and one commerative half dollar (1994P World Cup). With that 1960 half dollar I now need only four more Franklin halves to complete my album! That's also the third World Cup commemorative half I've found in four weeks. They must all be related some how as that half is quite rare.

200 dimes and 480 nickels yielded just one Canadian nickel.

3,200 pennies turned had twenty Wheats, twenty-six Canadians and two US dimes. The Wheats were:

1917, 1928, 1939, 1940(2), 1944(2), 1944D, 1946, 1948(2), 1950, 1952D, 1953, 1956(2), 1956D(2), 1957D, 1958

Found: 2 pennies (1 in our yard, 1 at Klem's), 1 dime (at Dunkin' Donuts)