2,000,000 Pennies!

Here's a shot of Hazel Meg took during the day. Henry has since taken possession of this blanket.



Here's a photo of his girls Henry took. This is definitely his best photo yet.



This a jungle scene Henry created. He's starting to make some cool scenes with his toys. I like how he uses these trees and animals now.

8,000 halves turned up ten 90% silver halves (1940, 1945, 2 x 1959, 6 x 1964), fifty-seven 40% silver halves (7 x 1966, 17 x 1967, 25 x 1968D, 7 x 1969D, 1976S-Ag Proof), fifteen proof halves (1972S, 2 x 1976S, 1976S-Ag Proof, 2 x 1978S, 1979S, 2 x 1980S, 3 x 1981S, 1982S, 1983S, 1989S) and three commemorative halves (1986S Statue of Liberty, 1989S Centennial of the Congress, 1995S Civil War Battlefields Circulation). That's my best haul of the year. It was a lot of fun going through these coins, lots of variety and good stuff in there. I've found two Civil War Battlefield coins before, but never the circulation strike variety. It's the rarest (by mintage) coin I've found now, 119,510.



7,200 quarters produced one silver Washington (1941), ten Canadians, one US dime and two UK 10 pence. In there was also one variety I needed, the 2010P Hot Springs quarter.

3,500 dimes yielded two silver Rosies (1957D, 1963D) and fourteen Canadians.

1,800 nickels rounded up one proof (2003S) and six Canadians (1 Ni). Three new ones in one week!

9,000 pennies turned up fifty-two Wheats, ninety-three Canadians and three US dimes. These pennies pushed me over the 2 million mark! The Wheats were:

1911, 1930, 1935(2), 1939, 1940(4), 1941(2), 1944(2), 1944D, 1945(2), 1946(2), 1947, 1948, 1949, 1951, 1952, 1952D, 1952S, 1953(4), 1953D(6), 1955, 1955D, 1956D(2), 1957D(3), 1958(2), 1958D(4)

Found: 5 pennies, 2 dimes and 2 foreign coins (a Canadian nickel and a Canadian dime)

A Tough One

This weekend was a tough one for us, sleep-wise anyways. Henry was woken up shortly after bedtime on Friday because of a thunderstorm. The sound scared him. On Saturday night he work very earlier, 4:30AM after a few hours of Hazel not sleeping. It was a rough morning here. Hope tonight is much better.



A picture of Hazel on our new couch. This is the one good one out of about a dozen pictures taken ... it's tough taking photos of newborns!



Little sister and big brother on the couch. Henry's been using a pacifier ever since Hazel started using one. :(



Henry built this entire track himself.

8,000 halves turned up just one 40% silver half (1967).

Found: 2 pennies

Yesterday morning my sister and I took Henry and his cousin Liam to a local big truck day. The boys got to crawl into all sorts of town vehicles. At first Henry was a bit shy about the whole thing, but soon after he did just great. Both boys were really good about waiting in line and moving on to let others have their turn. I think Henry could have spent hours there after he got the hang of it.









I've been trying to take some good open eye pictures of Hazel to put up, but so far no luck. I'll keep trying.

5 halves didn't have anything.

8,200 quarters produced one proof quarter (1999S DE), fifteen Canadians (one 1963, 80% silver), two Bahamas 25¢ and seven US nickels. That's the third Delaware proof I've found in nine proof quarters ... ugh.

4,700 dimes turned up three silver Rosies (1957D, 1964, 1964D), nine Canadians, two Bermuda 10¢, one UK 5 pence and one US penny.

3,240 nickels had nine Canadians (2 Ni), one Bermuda 5¢, one Brazil 10¢ (odd to find another one of these so soon) and one US penny. In the mix was also a key date Jefferson, the 1950.

9,500 pennies yielded sixty Wheats, seventy-eight Canadians, three US dimes, one Euro 2¢, one Euro 1¢, one Bahamas 1¢ and one clipped planchett. The Wheats were:

1923S, 1934, 1935, 1939, 1940(2), 1941(5), 1942(2), 1944(5), 1945(3), 1945D, 1946(5), 1947(2), 1948(3), 1948S, 1949(2), 1950D, 1952, 1952D(2), 1953, 1953D, 1954, 1954D, 1956(3), 1956D(4), 1957(2), 1957D(3), 1958, 1958D(2)

That's only the second 1923S I've found. It's a fairly rare one. Two "close ones" in two days ... yikes.

Found: 8 pennies, 1 dime

The First Week Home

Last week's really hot weather didn't allow us to do as much fun stuff with Hazel and Henry, but we certainly had a nice time at home together (inside) and had some good moments outside of the house! Henry still hasn't asked us to take Hazel back to the doctor yet. Hazel really seems to like running around with me after Henry. Already they're playing hide and seek together! ;)



Last week I took Henry to take a hearing test. He did pretty well with the instruments they put in his ears. He didn't like the sounds coming from one speaker or the other (left or right) too much.



Henry building his new rocking chair with Pops.



KFC here Henry comes!



Henry's first picture of Hazel (he actually took this).



Hazel sleeping.



Hazel just after her second bath (first at home).



Henry playing around.

I'm very behind reporting my coin finds ...

8,000 half dollars rounded up three 90% silver halves (1943, 2 x 1964), eighty-two 40% silver halves (2 x 1965, 9 x 1966, 25 x 1967, 38 x 1968D, 8 x 1969D), one proof half (1990S) and a Mexican one Peso (1979). That's the most silver I've found in my weekly dose of halves in some time. It was mostly from the same source with some sort of weird, pinkish corrosion on the halves (who cares!). The Mexican coin is a new type for me. I was surprised one of these hadn't shown up before.



The week after 8,000 half dollars produced three 90% silver halves (2 x 1964, 1964D), fifteen 40% half dollars (3 x 1966, 5 x 1967, 4 x 1968D, 3 x 1969D), two proof halves (1971S, 1995S) and one commemorative half dollar (1986S Statue of Liberty).

This past weekend 8,000 halves had six 90% silver halves (1951, 2 x 1958D, 1959D, 2 x 1964), eighteen 40% silver halves (3 x 1966, 6 x 1967, 7 x 1968D, 1969D, 1976S Ag-Proof) and eight proof halves (1976S Ag-Proof, 1977S, 1979S, 2 x 1980S, 1985S, 1990S, 1991S). The 76S half is the first new half variety I've found in some time. I had found the other three varieties of that half, but the silver proof was elusive.

Last weekend I also searched some smaller denominations.

6,440 quarters turned up one silver Washington (1963), nine Canadians, four US nickels, seven US pennies, one Bermuda 25¢ and one Namco token.

7,200 dimes yielded three silver Rosies (3 x 1964), fourteen Canadians, three US pennies, one Bermuda 10¢, one Swiss 10 Rappen and one UK 5 pence.

3,400 nickels produced eight Canadians (1 Ni), one Bermuda 5¢, one slug and one Brazil 10 centavos (1996).

9,100 pennies had thirty-five Wheats, 187 Canadians, one Barbados 1&162; and one Romanian 1 Leu (1992). The Romanian coin is the first coin I've found from that country. It's the first new country I've found this year (the last one was August 2009!). The Wheats were:

1918, 1920, 1921, 1937, 1940, 1942(3), 1942D, 1944, 1945, 1948(2), 1949D, 1949S, 1951, 1951D, 1952, 1952D(2), 1955, 1955D, 1956D(2), 1957D(4), 1958D(6)





This past weekend I also finished a book I had been reading for some times, Travels on the Mekong: Cambodia, Laos, and Yunnan, by Louis de Carné. It was originally published in 1869 and has since been reprinted by White Lotus Press of Bangkok, Thailand. (White Lotus Press is great in that they've reprinted four volumes of the original Mekong Exploration Commission Report and this additional volume, they even went to trouble of translating four of these books from French to English!) It was a bit of a slow read, but I am aiming to read all books about this expedition that I can as I find it particularly interesting. I have since moved on to Garnier's two volume report on the same expedition. So far this second report (published later) seems to be far more detailed and personal.

Found: 6 pennies, 1 nickel, 1 dime, 2 quarters and 1 foreign coin (UK penny)

Homecoming

Today was the big day. Henry and I picked up Meg and Hazel at the hospital around noon. Henry was very excited to have Hazel in the car and when we got home he rushed into the house to show her his cars and give her some of his pretend food. Henry's behaved badly a couple of times today, but nothing too bad. We'll be OK, the next few weeks are just going to be very tiring.



Hazel after her first bath.



The family just before we departed.