Last night's coins were so-so.

37 large dollars, 13 small dollars and 96 halves didn't produce anything.

3,240 quarters turned up one Canadian, one US dime, one US nickel and an Austrian 5 Schilling.

500 dimes and 280 nickels yielded just one key date Jefferson, the 1949S.

2,650 pennies produced seventeen Wheats, nineteen Canadians and one Euro 2¢ (Ireland, 2003). The Wheats were:

1917, 1940, 1944, 1945, 1946(4), 1947D, 1947S, 1948, 1950, 1952D(2), 1957, 1957D, 1958

Found: 1 penny (at Stop & Shop), 2 dimes (at Stop & Shop) and 1 quarter (at Stop & Shop)

New Words

New words seem to be coming pretty steadily from Henry. Last night I he pointed to a few flags in a book and said, "flag." It was a bit difficult to discern, but if I paid attention closely I could hear all the letters in his pronunciation. Henry's also said "outside" and "cookie" lately.

In addition to saying new words he's also been "counting." Now when we ask him how many of a particular item he sees he often points to each instance and "counts" by utter some sound. I think he's just gotten used to us pointing and courting off the various things in his books.

Last night's pennies treated me very well. 6,450 of them turned up thirty-two Wheats, fifty-six Canadians, two US dimes and one UK penny. In this batch was a new Wheat variety for me, the 1928S! 17,266,000 were minted. I also got another clipped penny and a penny with JFK's portrait stamped into it. The Wheats were:

1913, 1928S, 1929, 1936, 1937, 1940, 1941(2), 1942, 1944(2), 1944D, 1945, 1945S, 1948, 1950, 1951(2), 1953, 1953D(2), 1955(3), 1956(2), 1956D(2), 1957, 1957D(2), 1958D



This morning I finished reading another book, Lake Ngami, or Explorations and Discoveries during Four Year' Wanderings in the the Wilds of South West Africa, by Charles J. Andersson (1827-1867). The book was originally published in 1856. The copy I have is a reprint done by Rediscovery Books in 2006. The facsimile is pretty good, except that the prints are clearer on Google Books and the map is printed so small as to be almost unusable.

The narrative details expedition Andersson made with Francis Galton to explore what is now Namibia. Their goal was to reach Lake Ngami. Most of the journey was completed by riding oxen and was done on the cheap. Galton went home to England before the completion of their goal and Andersson continued and completed the quest. Sadly, when Lake Ngami was reached the results were a bit disappointing.

The book like a lot of narratives from this era is lengthy (530+ pages). Andersson has personal writing style that was easy to read once I got used to the mid-19th century wording and included many stories about the peoples and wildlife of the area that I enjoyed. The many prints throughout the book are fantastic. The cover of the reprint gives some idea of the others. I'm looking forward to reading Andersson's two other books about his African travels and one day reading Galton's book on the first half of this expedition (I was able to find a map from Galton's book online and that was very helpful to have while reading the first half of this book).

Just a quick coin update ...

7 halves didn't have anything.

1,800 quarters produced five Canadians and one US nickel.

1,950 dimes yielded one silver Rosie (1964D) and seven Canadians.

960 nickels turned up one Canadian.

5,000 pennies rounded up thirty Wheats, thirty-two Canadians and one US dime. In the mix was a penny that had the state of Missourri stamped on the obverse of it. The Wheats were:

1941(3), 1944(5), 1945(2), 1946(4), 1950, 1950D, 1951S, 1952(2), 1952D, 1953D, 1956, 1956D(2), 1957(2), 1957D(3), 1958D

Whole Lotta Nothing

12,000 quarters yielded three Canadians, two Bermuda 25¢, one UK 10 pence and one washer.

150 dimes, 40 nickels and 100 pennies turned up one Wheat (1944).

Found: 1 nickel (at Wendy's)

Enjoying the Fall

Today despite Henry being a little sick still Meg and I got to enjoy the nice season. We didn't want him near other kids so we decided to spend the day outside at the nearby botanical garden. We had a lot fun just being outside together and at this time of the year the place is beautiful.







At the bank on Friday things started pretty well for me, a teller saved me a silver dime (1958D). My boxes didn't look so good with no silver showing, but in the end I did alright. 8,020 halves had three 90% silver halves (1939D, 1964, 1964D) and twenty-nine 40% silver halves (2 x 1965, 3 x 1966, 7 x 1967, 12 x 1968D, 5 x 1969D). The new variety made the batch for me.

Yesterday was Meg and I's third anniversary. We didn't celebrate it too much as Henry had a fever and needed some extra TLC. He did well in the morning and had a lot of fun with his friends at a botanical garden, but in the afternoon in evening he was a bit cranky, not too bad though. This morning he's doing better.

Last night I did pretty well with my coins.

17 small dollars and 47 half dollars turned up two 90% silver halves (1964, 1964D) and five 40% silver halves (1966, 1967, 2 x 1967, 1969D).

2,200 quarters had three Canadians, two US nickels, one US penny, one US dime and a religious medal (is it a sin to deposit one of these for 25¢?). The rolls were mostly solid rolls of one particular state quarter or another. I hate going through such rolls. This time I got a bit lucky with them and found $2.75 in extra quarters.

880 nickels turned up a Buffalo (1936), nine Canadians (2 Ni), one Bahamas 5¢ and one Netherland Antilles 25¢ (1977). That's the first Buffalo I've found since August and the first dated one I've found since June! The Netherland Antilles coin was a new type for me. In the mix was also one key date Jefferson, the 1939S.



1,250 pennies yielded five Wheats and twelve Canadians. In the bunch was a new penny for me, the 2009 Professional Life variety. The Wheats were:

1946, 1952D, 1956, 1956D, 1957

Happy Anniversary!

Here are some pictures we've taken recently.



Meg took this photo yesterday. In it Henry is coming out of his new fort which has a tunnel and a "building." He was a bit disappointed when he first got it because based on the box he thought he was getting a car, but he has since warmed up to it.



Here are the three cousins enjoying their common interest, fire trucks, in our kitchen. I wasn't going to even try to get everyone to look at the camera at once. We had everyone over for my mother's birthday this weekend.



I got these flowers for Meg last week, but Henry didn't seem to know that.



Henry and his potty!

Last night and the night before I searched a bunch of coin.

7,120 quarters broke me out of my no silver streak. In them I found one silver Washington (1964), nine Canadians (including a 1968, 50% silver) and one US nickel.

3,350 dimes yielded eight Canadians (including a 1963, 80% silver), one East Carribean States 10¢, a UK 5 pence and a Bermuda 10¢.

2,800 nickels turned up three Canadians (2 Ni), one Singapore 20¢ and one US dime.

In 3,300 pennies I found eleven Wheats, twenty-one Canadians and one dime. In these was also one clipped penny. The Wheats were:

1937, 1941, 1944(2), 1944D, 1946(2), 1949, 1956D, 1957D, 1958

Found: 1 penny (outside a Tiger Mart)

Happy Birthday Mom!

(I'll have to write more later, but right now I have some other matters to attend to.)

The coins from the end of last week and this weekend were OK.

26 large dollars didn't turn up anything.

8,020 half dollars yielded five 90% silver halves (4 x 1964, 1964D), twenty 40% silver halves (1965, 1966, 11 x 1967, 3 x 1968D, 4 x 1969D).

1,760 quarters produced four Canadians.

2,900 dimes had one Canadian and one Panama 1/10 Balboa.

1,400 nickels rounded up one War Time (1943P), four Canadians (1 Ni), one US dime and one US penny.

4,050 pennies had one Indian Head (1900), twenty-four Wheats, thirty-eight Canadians and three US dimes. The Wheats were pretty good, but unfortunately none of the mint marked ones were new varieties.

1924, 1925D, 1926, 1934, 1937D, 1941(2), 1942, 1942S, 1944(2), 1944D, 1946, 1948, 1952D(3), 1953D(2), 1956, 1956D(3), 1957D

Found: 2 pennies

Last night when I got home I heard some good news ... Henry had been good all day long. That's just the sort of news I enjoy hearing any day of the week! He was good for us yesterday evening too. I had lots of fun with him and especially seeing him make a tunnel out of a special rug his Nana got him on Monday. He's definitely into tunnels lately. I might take some boxes home and make him a fort this evening.

2,640 quarters produced just four Canadians. I'm in a bit of a silver drought with the quarters.

2,400 dimes turned up two silver Rosies (1950, 1964), five Canadians and one Bermuda 10¢.

320 nickels had two Canadians and one proof (1974S). It was definitely nice to pull out new US nickel variety out of a roll.

6,900 pennies yielded twenty-six Wheats, thirty-one Canadians and one US dime. The Wheats were:

1938, 1940(4), 1942, 1944(2), 1944S, 1945(4), 1946(2), 1948, 1953, 1953D, 1955(2), 1956, 1956D, 1957, 1957D

This weekend Meg, Henry and I had a good three day weekend. We had a really good time at Meg's parents' house. Meg and I got to go to the movies together to see The Informant! (it was OK, wait to rent it). I lost my keys at the theater, but we found them eventually (after two hours) and put it behind us. We also got to take Henry to a cider making party. Henry had fun using their swings, eating cheese and rolling around in big pile of hay. Today my mother came over to take Henry to his favorite park. He was still tired from the cider party!





I didn't have high hopes for my half dollars this week as I didn't see any keepers in them at the end of the rolls, but things went really well. In them I found twenty-nine 90% silver halves (1924 Huguenot, 1963D, 25 x 1964, 2 x 1964D), thirty 40% silver halves (2 x 1965, 5 x 1966, 9 x 1967, 11 x 1968D, 3 x 1969D), three proof halves (1971S, 1976S, 1977S) and a whole bunch of mint set halves. The best of the bunch was definitely a new commemorative for me, the 1924 Huguenot, 300th Anniversary of New Netherlands half. It's the 2nd rarest half, by mintage, that I've found. Only 142,080 were minted. The obverse of the half is in pretty good condition, but the reverse was really bad when I first found it and was covered in red paint and glue. I normally don't clean coins, but this stuff I just had to get off. It looks better. With these halves I decided to stop saving mint set halves. I just have too many of them.



I thought I'd do well with a batch of lower denomination coins I found as they were mostly in old wrappers, but they stunk.

2,240 quarters had one Canadian.

1,450 dimes also had one Canadian.

1,600 nickels produced one War Time (1944P) and two Canadians.

2,500 pennies yielded just one Wheat (1955), thirteen Canadians and one US dime.



On Saturday I finished reading a book I had been reading for the past few weeks, My Life as an Explorer by Sven Hedin. In each book I've read about Central Asia references to Hedin have been made. Sven Hedin was born in Switzerland in 1865. This book covers his life up until 1908. With little discussion about his childhood the book moves quickly to his explorations. I found reading about his early trips to be enjoyable, but his later trips throughout Tibet got quite monotonous. I hope other autobiographies I read are a much more introspective.

Found: 11 pennies (10 at the mall, 1 at the pizza parlor), 1 quarter (outside the Mobil Mart)

Mr. Neat

Lately Henry has been getting a bit neater. We think this is a good sign. The other day Meg and her friend came into the living room after hearing him and his little buddy say, "Ut oh." Henry had knocked over a lamp while wiping it with tissue. (It didn't break.) Last night after I brushed his teeth, Henry grabbed a hand towel. I thought he was just grabbing it to play with it, but instead he wiped his mouth with it and threw down. Let's hope this continues! His helping to put toys away and occasionally wiping the table has been a bit useful.

I just searched pennies last night. 4,200 of them turned up twenty-six Wheats, thirty-three Canadians and eight US dimes. There were some good Wheats in there, but no new ones. The Wheats were:

1912, 1915D, 1918S, 1920, 1940(2), 1944, 1944S, 1945, 1945D, 1946(2), 1946D, 1948, 1950D, 1954D, 1955, 1956D, 1957(3), 1957D(2), 1958D(3)

Found: 1 foreign coin (a small 1¢ coin from Peru at Stop & Shop, a Coin Star reject)

Last night ...

4,080 quarters turned up five Canadians, two UK 10 pence, one US penny, one US nickel and an Australian 10¢ (2007). The Australian coin is a new type for me. I've gotten one from my sister-in-law, but this is the first one I've found in a roll.

3,500 dimes yielded two silver Rosies (1950, 1958D), eleven Canadians, one UK 5 pence and one US penny.

1,200 nickels had one War Time (1943P), five Canadians, two US dimes and one US penny.

1,100 pennies produced four Wheats and ten Canadians. The Wheats were:

1934, 1936, 1941, 1958D

1,000,000

Last night was a pleasant night with Meg and Henry. We took a walk, had some silly time outside, played with some new toys and gave a stress free bath. Henry in fact wanted to take a bath before supper. After begin outside he went to the stairs, I followed him up there, he went right for the tub and then kept saying, "please." That's definitely a first. We've come a long way!

I searched some coin while we watched TV.

4,000 dimes produced three silvers (1941S, 1948, 1964), six Canadians, two Bermuda 10¢ and one UK 5 pence. This lot of dimes pushed me past the 1,000,000 mark!

1,600 nickels turned up one War Time (1945D), five Canadians (2 Ni) and one US dime.

2,450 pennies had ten Wheats and twenty-nine Canadians. The Wheats were:

1942, 1944, 1946(2), 1951D, 1953, 1953D, 1957D(2), 1958

Found: 1 dime (at Wendy's)

Farms

Henry's been visiting a lot of farms lately. It seems like every couple of days there's some sort of farm experience for him, seeing animals of some sort. So far he hasn't gotten bored of it all and, personally, I've been enjoying it a lot. I always liked the petting zoo my mother tells me.

A week an a half ago Meg took him to a living history museum. They have a great play area there for kids his age. He got to dress up a little.



Last week Meg took him to a nearby farm with some friends to pick apples and get a pumpkin.



This weekend we went to a nearby farm that seeks to educate people about organic farming and sustainable agriculture. The place was holding a harvest festival. We went with my parents. There they had a maze made out of hay with animals in the dead ends, a hay ride, a camel, tons of farm animals both inside and outside and a global village. I think we'll go back there sometime soon.







Henry, Meg and I also had some fun with some homemade Play-Doh (Meg's special recipe). The ricer worked wonders!



This week's half dollars were about the same as last week's. 8,000 halves produced two 90% silver halves (2 x 1964), ten 40% silver halves (2 x 1967, 5 x 1968D, 3 x 1969D), one proof half (1999S) and one hundred four mint set halves (1987P, 6 x 2002P, 8 x 2002D, 18 x 2003P, 4 x 2003D, 12 x 2004P, 10 x 2004D, 32 x 2005D, 11 x 2006P, 2 x 2006D). That was a lot mint set halves!

On Friday I found a pretty big load of coins. In the reject bin of a coin counter (not a Coin Star machine, James UK ;) I found thirty-four dimes and sixteen pennies!



Throughout the weekend while Henry played quietly at the table, I whipped through a book I got on Friday, Two Early Maps of Southern Africa: A Discovery in Sweden by Christer Blomstrand. The book is only forty pages and concerns two early maps of Namibia that were recently rediscovered in Swedish archives. The maps were made in 1852 by Charles John Andersson, a Swedish explorer, hunter and trader. Andersson was the illegitimate son of an English gentleman and his Swedish mistress. He was born in 1827. His father, Llewellyn Lloyd was a avid bear hunter and his love of nature transferred easily to his son. Andersson made several explorations of south western Africa and wrote two popular books about his travels. He died on one such journey at the age of 40 in 1867. More books were published from his notes after his death. I enjoyed reading the book a lot as I have one of Andersson's books in my reading queue and learning his story has been a bit difficult. The only other published biographical work about him I am aware of is from 1936. This small book fills a gap. It has some great pictures in it and the maps are fascinating.

Found: 16 pennies (at DCU), 35 dimes (1 outside CVS, 34 at CVS)

Redeemed: $1.55

Last night I searched a bit of coin.

48 small dollars and one half dollar didn't produce anything.

2,320 quarters turned up nine Canadians, one French franc, one Bermuda 25¢, one US penny and one Canadian penny.

800 dimes yielded just one Canadian.

480 nickels had one War Time (1943P).

4,500 pennies rounded up fourteen Wheats (one Steel), thirty-nine Canadians, three US dimes, two Bermuda 1¢ and one plastic penny. The Wheats were:

1943D, 1944, 1944D, 1945(3), 1946, 1946D, 1950, 1951, 1951D, 1953, 1953D, 1956D

Found: 1 penny (at Stop & Shop)

This morning Meg and I continued to feel better. We've been slowed down by colds and work has been very busy for me, so I haven't had too much time for posting and coin searching.

Yesterday while picking up coins a teller gave me a big cupfull of foreign coins she had been setting aside. The cup contained thirty-two coins. The coins were five corroded US pennies, three Wheat pennies (1919, 1944, 19?5), one UK 5 pence, two UK pennies, one Ireland penny, one Euro 5¢ (Greece, 2002), four Canadian dimes, two Bermuda 25¢, one Cayman Islands 25¢, one Aruba 50¢, two Canadian qaurters, one Ireland 2 pence, one Hungarian 20 Florint (worth 11¢), one Swedish 50 Ore (worth 7¢), two Ireland 5 pence, one UK 20 pence, one Bermuda 10¢, one NH highway token and one History Channel Club token. A few of the coins were new varieties for me.









Last night I searched 6,320 quarters and found one proof quarter (1992S), four Canadians, one Bermuda 25¢, one US penny and two US nickels. It is always great to find proof quarters. This one is my fifth. It's a bit scuffed up, but it was easy to spot because of it's extra thick edge (seems like 150% the width of a circulation strike).

I also went through 3,150 dimes. In them I found three silver Rosies (1946, 1964, 1964D), four Canadians, one Australian 5¢, two US pennies and one Bermuda 10¢. I'm getting even closer to 1,000,000 dimes! Maybe I'll pass that milestone by the end of next week.

I didn't find many nickels. 280 nickels produced three Canadians.

Lastly, 1,550 pennies yielded nine Wheats, twelve Canadians, two Euro 2¢ (Greece & Germany, 2002) and one UK penny. The Wheats were:

1937, 1944, 1945, 1946, 1948, 1951, 1953D(2), 1957D