Dad?

Yesterday when I called Meg at lunch she told me that Hazel said "Dad" when the phone rang and "Dad" when I left the house. We're not entirely sure, but it does seem like she says, "dah" for me and "bah" for Henry. My mother thinks she's saying "brother" for Henry. It's all exiting whatever she's saying and we're certainly having a lot of fun with her lately.

The coins ... (big week)

2,090 small dollars and 27 large dollars turned up six mint set dollars (2002D, 2003P, 2003D, 2005P, 2007D, 2008D), four Canadians (including a new one for me, 2008 RCM) and a UK 2 pence. That's the largest batch of small dollars I've ever picked up at one bank and I've now searched more small dollars in 2011 then I did in 2010 and also in 2009. I was hoping to find a proof dollar, but I'm pretty satisfied with the new mint set dollar. I now have just two mint set Sacagawea dollars to go, 2007P & 2008P. The 2008D dollar I found is the rarest by mintage, 1,820,000.

2,160 quarters produced just six Canadians and one UK 10 pence.

3,000 dimes turned up three silver Rosies (1948, 1961, 1963), fourteen Canadians and one Bermuda 10¢.

2,960 nickels yielded two War Times (1945D, 1945S), fifteen Canadians (4 Ni) and one US dime.

6,300 pennies rounded up thirty-five Wheats, twenty-nine Canadians, two US dimes and one button.

1935(2), 1940, 1942(3), 1944, 1945(3), 1946(5), 1946S, 1948(2), 1952, 1952D, 1953, 1954(2), 1955(2), 1955D, 1956(2), 1957D, 1958, 1958D(4)

Getting Spoiled

Last night I wasn't expecting much with my coins (I know it's all random, but still ...), but the coin gods were good to me again!

5,920 quarters produced one silver Washington (1964), twelve Canadians, two US pennies, one US nickel and a new National Park quarter (2011P Gettysburg).

2,200 dimes yielded one silver Rosie (1953D) and sixteen Canadians (including one 80% silver, 1956).

1,360 had just one Canadian.

8,600 pennies rounded up forty-six Wheats, ninety-three Canadians, three US dimes, two Bahamas 1¢, one Bermuda 1¢ and a British farthing (1884). As I was just starting these pennies I noticed one roll with a bigger coin in it. I assumed it was a new British penny (that's what it usually is). Not quite! It was an 1884 British farthing! It is in awesome shape. It's the third oldest foreign coin and eighth oldest overall that I've found in rolls! It's not worth that much, but to me it's awesome.

Two New Wheats!

Yesterday Nonnie came over to visit us. Meg and her took the kids to the playground. It's attached to the kindergarten Henry and Hazel will one day go to. Henry told Meg, "this my first day at kindergarten!" I think he misunderstood her a bit. ;) Hazel had her first chance to use the swings. Meg said she liked it and did pretty well. I'm looking forward to seeing her and Henry in them more.

Henry's been telling us a lot lately, "I hear you." I'm sure this is because we say the same thing after being exhausted from a seemingly infinite number of "I go outside?!" requests/demands from him (or something similar). Yesterday when Meg made a request of Henry he said, "I can't hear you" ... cute once, not so much the next time.

I had an awesome night with my coins. I guess my mother-in-law brings good luck.

403 small dollars had two mint set dollars (2002D, 2006P).

920 quarters brought me just one Bermuda 25¢.

1,200 dimes yielded one silver Rosie (1962), three Canadians and two US pennies.

3,080 nickels produced two War Times (1945P, 1945S), four Canadians, eleven US pennies (thanks!), three US dimes and one Brazil 10¢.

4,850 pennies turned up sixteen Wheats, twenty-three Canadians and one US dime. I thought I was going to do really well with the Wheats because two-thirds of these pennies were in really old wrappers. Those didn't pan out; most were 95% copper pennies (good for some, but not my thing), but there were hardly any Wheats in them. I had much better luck with the rest of the pennies. In them I first found a 1921S! I was flying high after that. I only found one new Wheat all of last year (in October). 15,274,000 were minted. That definitely made up for the lack of Wheats in the rolls. At that point I only had a few more rolls to search. In one of those rolls, however, was a 1928D ... yet another new one for me. I still can't believe it. I haven't found two new Wheats in one sitting/blogging since 2008! This particular penny has a mintage of 31,170,000 so I "knew" it'd turn up one of these days. It was worth the wait.

1921S, 1927, 1928D, 1939(2), 1941, 1942, 1944, 1948, 1950, 1952D, 1953D(2), 1955, 1957D, 1958D





I now have have found 123 of the 140 Wheat varieties available (I don't count some small/large mint mark sizes that some people do). I've got 17 varieties to go, four have mintages over 10,000,000 and seem likely to be found to me; the other seven will take some good luck.

Variety	Mintage
1938-D	20,010,000
1913-D	15,804,000
1938-S	15,180,000
1912-D	10,411,000
1922-D	7,160,000
1913-S	6,101,000
1910-S	6,045,000
1915-S	4,833,000
1926-S	4,550,000
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: 1 dime

Yesterday I searched some coin.

145 small dollars didn't have anything.

8,000 half dollars had three 90% silver halves (1935, 2 x 1964), sixty-five 40% silver halves (1965, 15 x 1966, 22 x 1967, 19 x 1968D, 8 x 1969D) and thirty-seven proofs (1979S, 2 x 1982S, 26 x 1987S, 8 x 1988S). That's the first Walking Liberty half I've found in 2011. I found all of the 1987S and 1988S proof halves in one box. That might be the most of any proof half I've found in one sitting.

5,000 pennies (I've decided to up my weekly take by two boxes each week) produced sixty-two Wheats and forty-one Canadians. That's a pretty good Wheat percentage for me.

1935(2), 1939, 1941(4), 1944(3), 1945(5), 1946(5), 1947, 1947S, 1950, 1950D, 1951(2), 1951D(2), 1952D(2), 1953(3), 1953D(4), 1953S(2), 1954S, 1955(3), 1955D(2), 1956D(4), 1957, 1957D(2), 1958(2), 1958D(8)

Found: 1 penny, 1 nickel

Big Boy Bed!

Last night was a big night for Henry. In the daytime Meg converted his crib to it's day bed mode (took off the front, replaced it with a lower piece). Now Henry can crawl in and out of bed at will (kind of a mixed blessing). He did really well last night. He didn't fall out and didn't seem to mind the situation at all. He didn't even use the side piece we bought at Target.

Hazel's got a slight sniffle and what we think are more teeth!

31 small dollars had nothing.

2,840 quarters produced four Canadians, two UK 10 pence, two Bermuda 25¢, one French 1 franc and one US penny.

100 dimes had nada (that's right they only had two rolls of dimes, very strange!).

1,920 nickels yielded two War Times (2 x 1943P), three Canadians, two Bermuda 25¢ and a Guatemala 10¢.

4,000 pennies rounded up twenty-seven Wheats, forty-three Canadians and one US dime.

1939, 1940, 1941, 1944(2), 1946(2), 1948, 1951D(2), 1952, 1953, 1953D(2), 1955, 1955D(5), 1956, 1956D(4), 1957D, 1958

I also had a little teller score yesterday as a teller friend gave me a bunch of foreign coins. In the bag was $1.97 Canadian; six Canadian quarters, one Canadian dime, two Canadian nickels, twenty-seven Canadian pennies, one Euro 2¢, one Bermuda 25¢, one Jamaica $5 and one UK 10 pence.

Found: 1 dime

70 small dollars turned up nothing.

1,360 quarters had just one Canadian 25¢, one US dime and one US nickel.

550 dimes and 400 nickels produced nil.

8,700 pennies yielded thirty-six Wheats, sixty-eight Canadians, thirty-eight US dimes (one roll was almost half dimes, strange!) and one Bahamas 1¢. In the Wheats was one I found only once before, the 1930D.

1930D, 1937, 1940(3), 1941D, 1942(3), 1944(4), 1945(2), 1946(2), 1948(2), 1949, 1950, 1950D, 1952, 1953D(2), 1955(2), 1956D, 1957D(4), 1958, 1958D(3)

Yesterday I had a pretty good score at the bank too. A teller told me I could just have all of the coins in the internal reject bin of their coin counter (with all the junk and dust in there too). I had dreams of some good old coin or new foreign stuff, but it wasn't in there. I still did very well, however. In there was $10.45 in US coins, 89¢ in Canadian coins and one of the US dimes was a silver one, 1964.

31 US quarters, 21 US dimes, 8 US nickels, 20 US pennies, three Canadian quarters, one Canadians dime, 4 Canadian pennies, one Euro 1¢, one Belgian 1 franc, one Las Vegas Slots-A-Fun game token

Found: 1 penny

I did pretty well with last night's coins.

27 small dollars didn't have anything.

4,040 quarters produced one silver Washington (1956), eleven Canadians, two US nickels, one Bermuda 25¢, one Euro 50¢ (1999 Italy, worth 71¢), one Italian 200 Lire (1993) and one Italian 10 Lire (1954). That's the first Euro 50¢ I've found and one of the Italian coins has a new reverse for me.





5,600 dimes weren't that good to me. They had one silver Rosie (1959) and fourteen Canadians (one was 1963, 80% silver).

3,720 nickels turned up two Buffaloes (dateless, 1936D), seven War Times (3 x 1943P, 1944P, 2 x 1945P, 1945S), eight Canadians (1 Ni) and one Euro 5¢ (Finland). That's only the third mint marked Buffalo I've found in the 101 Buffaloes I've turned up! This one is the least rare by mintage, 24,814,000.





Found: 2 dimes

Guilt

I got this funny e-mail from Meg yesterday:

Here's a funny one. I just glanced at Henry for no reason, without saying anything to him. He said to me, in a defensive tone, "I not pooping, Mom. I not!" Of course, he was pooping. I guess at least he was aware of it.

I didn't turn up much coin at all yesterday.

4 small dollars, 120 quarters and 300 dimes had nothing.

200 nickels produced one War Time (1945P) and two Canadians (1 Ni).

350 pennies yielded one Wheat (1955) and three Canadians.

Found: 3 pennies, 1 nickel, 2 dimes

This weekend we didn't do too much exciting (at least not together), but despite Meg being under the weather we did get a lot done. I put in some moulding with my Dad, sanded some for painting and Meg got to see her college friends after a long absence. Henry was a bit moody later today (he's very into going outside and doesn't understand that one day it can be really nice out and the next day pretty cold out), but otherwise he was really well behaved. Hazel hasn't been sleeping too well lately, but was also well behaved and cheery.

224 small dollars didn't have anything.

8,038 half dollars produced six 90% silver halves (1961, 5 x 1964), twenty 40% silver halves (1966, 9 x 1967, 6 x 1968D, 3 x 1969D, 1976S-Ag Proof) and three proofs (1979S, 2000S, 1976S-Ag Proof).

Found: 1 penny

Spring is coming! It sure does feel good. Yesterday I came home to find Henry playing in the driveway in his little car, Meg nearby cleaning flowerbeds and Hazel watching it all in her exer-saucer. Henry, Hazel and I then got to run around the backyard and take the very short walk with both of them in the wagon. Hazel absolutely loved this (so did Henry). I think this is the first time she was in this thing. She was kicking her legs and making her gleeful sounds. We don't go far as I had to hunch down to make sure she was sitting ride at the same time I was pushing/pulling the thing, but it was worth it.

Usually in this blog I don't complain about things at home. Who wants to remember such things when they re-read them one or two years from now, right? This week, however, has been a tough one. These things come and go, I know, but some weeks have multiple "no for everything" days with Henry and that makes it really tough. Meg gets the brunt of this. :( Last night I told him I was going to count to five and then he'd have to pick a book to read before bedtime (bedtime has been tough for me and him). He did something cute, however, and after I started counting, "one-two," he stopped me, "no I count. one-two-three-four-five" and then he picked out a book!

8,560 quarters produced one silver Washington (1953), three Canadian 25¢, eight US nickels, one US penny, one NH token, one Bermuda 25¢, one UK 10 pence and one Panama 25¢ (2005). The Panamanian coin is a new one for me. It's kind of lucky that I spotted it as it is one of the few coins with the same dimensions and composition as US quarters. That sure was a lot of work this week to find one silver quarter ... better luck next week, I hope.



1,400 dimes yielded just one Canadian dime.

1,480 nickels rounded up six Canadians (3 Ni) and three US pennies.

2,000 pennies pulled in fourteen Wheats, twenty-one Canadians and three UK pennies.

1914(2), 1916, 1916D, 1923, 1940, 1944, 1944D, 1945, 1946D, 1951D, 1952, 1956, 1956D

Here's a coin update from last night ...

15 small dollars and 4 large dollars didn't have anything.

1,160 quarters produced just two Canadians and one US nickel.

2,100 dimes yielded three silver Rosies (1957, 1963D, 1964), three Canadians and two Bermuda 10¢.

1,160 nickels rounded up one Canadian, one Bahamas 5¢ (1969) and one semi-key Jefferson, 1950 (that's two of these in two days ... I suppose it is not that rare).

9,500 pennies brought home fifty-three Wheats, sixty-two Canadians, seven US dimes, a Euro 2¢ and a German 2 Pfennig. The dimes in this batch included a really worn 1916, silver Mercury dime. That's the second Mercury dime I've found in pennies over the years.

1916, 1917, 1918, 1919, 1926, 1929, 1930, 1935, 1937, 1939, 1940, 1940S, 1941(2), 1942(3), 1944D, 1945(3), 1946, 1948(3), 1950S, 1951D, 1952, 1952D, 195392), 1953D, 1955(3), 1956, 1956D(5), 1957(3), 1957D(5), 1958, 1958D(2)

Found: 2 pennies

Hazel listening to her Nonnie.



Henry and I opening his presents during his third 3rd birthday party.



Nonnie couldn't decide which cake to make ... so she made two.



Yesterday Meg caught Hazel crawling under her exer-saucer to get an old cheerio or puff.



Henry doens't like most bugs at all. In fact he told us once about a nightmare of his that involved bugs chasing him. Ladybugs are OK however.



Hazel being silly!

Last night's coins turned up some good stuff.

4,560 quarters had seven Canadians, two US nickels, one US dime and a US penny.

3,700 dimes produced six silver Rosies (1948, 4 x 1964, 1998S-Ag), one proof (1998S-Ag), eight Canadians, two US pennies and a Polish 10 Grozy. The proof coin is a great new variety for me. It's the first modern silver proof dime I've found. Only 878,792 were minted!



(As you can see in the photo although the condition of the coin isn't bad it does have a lot of finger grime on it. I think I might try to give it an acetone bath to see if I can get that gunk off nicely.)

Modern silver proofs have been minted in low numbers since 1992, are made in 90% silver and are sold only to collectors. I've only found ten such coins (not counting any 40% silver 1976 coinage or silver commemoratives). Once I found three such halves from a partial box; sure wish I could have gotten that whole box!

Type	Date/Mint	Mintage	Notes
Dime	1998S	878,792
Quarter	2002S IN	892,229	Coin Star reject
Half	1999S	804,565
Half	2000S	965,921
Half	2002S	888,816
Half	2003S	1,040,425	found two
Half	2004S	1,175,934
Half	2005S	1,069,679	found two

2,080 nickels turned up one dateless Buffalo, one War Time (1945S), five Canadians (3 Ni), two US dimes, two US pennies, one Bahamas 5¢ and a semi-key Jefferson, the 1950.

I searched a bit of coin last night. It was so-so.

1 small dollar, 40 halves and 2,440 quarters had nothing.

1,600 dimes produced one silver Rosie (1953D).

1,360 nickels yielded one Buffalo (1923, date is extremely faint) and two Canadians.

3,850 pennies turned up eighteen Wheats, twenty-two Canadians, two US dimes and one Panama 1¢.

1911, 1931, 1934, 1940, 1940S, 1944(2), 1945(2), 1948, 1951D, 1953D, 1956, 1956D, 1957, 1957D(2), 1958D

Found: 3 pennies, 1 dime (a 1964D silver dime!), 1 quarter

Last night I got two things that helped me forget about things (one Meg could enjoy more than the other, you decide) a well behaved, tasty dinner out and really cool coin find.

We took Henry and Hazel out to the "Red Diner." That's not it's real name, but that's what Henry calls it (it's mostly silver colored, however). Meg and I had some pretty good fish and chips. The best part is the kids were great. We had no problems at all with them.

125 small dollars turned up two proof dollars (2 x 2001S), one mint set dollar (2002D) and a Dominican Republic $1 Peso coin. I have already found one 2001S dollar, but these are both in better shape than one. The Dominican Republic coin is a new one for me. Let's hope I don't find more of these. I don't mind paying $1 once for such coin (that's the price of the hobby), but I don't want to buy more than one at that cost! ;)





8,000 halves yielded six 90% silver halves (2 x 1963D, 4 x 1964), seventy-five 40% silver halves (1965, 7 x 1966, 25 x 1967, 27 x 1968D, 15 x 1969D) and a British Honduras 50¢ (1901). The British Honduras coin is really cool. It's the only Queen Victoria coin and the third oldest foreign coin I've found so far. It's slightly smaller than a US half dollar, just 10,000 were minted and it's 92.5% silver. I looked it up in my catalog and found a few similar ones that have sold on E-Bay. Based on that I'm guessing it is worth $25-$30. It was feeling like it was a long time since I found what I call a stunner. This fits the bill I think!

Just a coin update ...

3 large dollars, 333 small dollars, 6 half dollars produced four mint set dollars (3 x 2002D, 2004D) and one new Presidential dollar, the 2011P Andrew Johnson.

2,520 quarters had one silver Washington (1943), two Canadians and one US nickel.

3,300 dimes turned up three silver Rosies (1963, 1964, 1964D), five Canadians and six US pennies (gee, thanks!).

1,680 nickels rounded up just four Canadians (1 Ni).

3,700 pennies lassoed in twenty-one Wheats, twenty-eight Canadians, two US dimes and a Taiwan 1 Yuan.

1917, 1937, 1940D, 1941(2), 1944(2), 1945, 1946, 1947, 1951(2), 1952D(2), 1956, 1956D, 1957, 1958, 1958D(3)

Found: 2 pennies

9,100 pennies had forty-nine Wheats, sixty-seven Canadians, ten US dimes and one Bermuda 1¢ I've noticed that my Wheat percentage has been down for this year (so far anyway, everything can change with one big Wheat score). My Wheat percentage is .58% for 2011 and .66% for 2007-2011.

1909 V.D.B., 1918(2), 1937, 1939, 1940, 1941(4), 1942(2), 1942S(2), 1944(5), 1945(3), 1946, 1946D, 1947, 1947D, 1949(3), 1950, 1950D, 1950S, 1951D, 1952, 1952D, 1953, 1955(2), 1956(3), 1956D, 1957(4), 1957D(2), 1958

Curling

On Monday I went curling with my office. It was a team building exercise. I had never gone curling before and didn't know too much about it. It was a lot of fun. The ice they use has a texture to it so it wasn't as easy to slip as I thought it'd be. There's also a lot more team work involved than one would think. I hope we go next year.



Here's a picture of Hazel attempting to climb our stairs. So far this is the closest she's gotten to pulling herself up to a standing position. She can reach and pull up to the second stair. It frustrates her a bit as you can see in this picture. Hopefully she can channel her frustration more into attempts like this and less into complaining. Crying or not, however, it definitely was a lot of fun to watch her try. All three of us were very happy. She sure misses Meg when she's not in the room or upstairs!

I had some pretty good luck with my coin last night.

6,920 quarters turned up one silver Washington (1960D), two proof quarters (2001S Vermont, 2003S Illinois), eight Canadians (including a new one for me, the 2009 Speed Skating quarter), six US nickels, two Bermuda 25¢, one Indian 1 Rupee and one Ecuador 25¢. I can't believe how many proof quarters have been showing up recently. My extra effort has been paying off, I guess. This is the first time I've ever found two proof quarters in one sitting. Fortunately, both are new ones for me!





As you can see in the above photos they are a bit scuffed up. I don't mind too much as it's great to find any new coin. All of the clad state quarters I've found do not have much of a cameo appearance. I wonder if this is true of all proofs for these years?

4,100 dimes produced four Canadians (including a 1944, George VI, 80% silver dime) and one Chinese 1 Fen. I haven't had too good of luck finding silver US dimes lately.

1,840 nickels yielded three War Times (1942P, 1943P, 1945P), six Canadians (2 Ni) and one Connecticut Turnpike token. I did a bit of research on the token. Such tokens were used from 1958-1985 and were last sold for 35¢. The Connecticut Turnpike (since renamed) consists of parts of I-95 and I-395.



Found: 1 penny

Poop Me

It wasn't supposed to be, but this weekend was a three day weekend for me. Meg wasn't feeling well on Friday so I took the day off to watch the kids. To get them out of the house I took Henry and Hazel to my sister's house. Henry said, "Dad, Hazel and me go Evan and Liam's house. That makes three of us." While there Henry spelled his name for the very first time (He did it a few more times over the weekend.). There was a lot of fussing going on there so we left in a bit of hurry. In the car Henry asked me, "why Liam not say bye to me?"

On Saturday we took Grandpa to Sturbridge Village for his birthday (quick, but fun) and to a new BBQ restaurant (great food, chaos reigned).



Henry in Kidstory.



Hazel in Kidstory.



The boys at the BBQ restaurant.

On Sunday we saw Evan's pageant at our church, the transfiguration of Jesus. Afterward we all went to my parent's for my father's birthday party.



Evan reading to Henry.

After farting today, instead of saying, "excuse me," when prompted Henry said, "poop me" a couple of times. I'm not sure what that means.

8,000 half dollars produced three 40% silver halves (2 x 1968D, 1969D) and one proof half (1992S).

Found: 4 pennies

No So Happy Birthday

Yesterday was a rough day for Henry (and Meg). He was sad in the morning and asked to go upstairs to sleep. That was an odd request for Henry. He slept until just before his friends came (Meg woke him up for his party). At that point she realized he had a fever, he went back to bed, but his friends still came over for his party. Henry came down for a little bit of his party, but wasn't himself at all and slept throughout most of the afternoon. No one had any cupcakes. :(

Let's hope that's the worst birthday for him for some time!

He seems to be doing much better this morning. Now we're worried this thing is moving on to Meg.

Yesterday I rounded up quite a bit of coin.

481 small dollars and 58 half dollars produced a proof dollar (2007S Madison). That's the second Madison proof dollar I've found. Coincidentally I found another, in much better condition, at the same bank in January. It is tied for my rarest small dollar coin, 2,002,812 were minted. I've got to find a way to find more dollar coins, finding these proofs feels pretty cool.



3,080 quarters yielded three Canadians, one US dime, one UK 5 pence (1980) and one UAE 1 Dirham.

4,350 dimes rounded up thirty Canadians, one UK 5 pence and one French ½ franc. Bummer, not finding any silver dimes in this batch; that's a lot of dimes to go through and not find one.

1,800 nickels had one War Time (1943P) and three Canadians (1 Ni).

5,700 pennies found me thirty-five Canadians, twenty-eight Canadians, four US dimes, one Trinidad and Tobago 1¢ and one Euro 1¢.

1935, 1937, 1939(2), 1940, 1941, 1942(6), 1942D, 1944(2), 1945, 1946(2), 1948, 1950S, 1952, 1952D, 1953D(2), 1954D, 1956(2), 1956D, 1957(4), 1957D(2), 1958D

Happy Birthday Henry!

Today it is Henry's 3rd birthday! Fortunately I got to see him before I went to work (Miss Hazel was still sleeping). Instead of the usual "Mommmmmm," he cried out "Daddddd" to let us know he wanted to get up and out of bed. Strangely, I was touched. Later this morning his friends will be coming over for a small party. Hope it goes well.

2,520 quarters rounded up one silver Washington (1957D), seven Canadians, two Bermuda 25¢, one Dominican Republic 25¢, one US nickel and one Brazil 50¢. The Brazilian coin is a new one for me.



2,900 dimes yielded one silver Rosie (1962), eight Canadians, two US pennies, one Irish 5 pence and one UK 5 pence.

960 nickels produced two War Times (1943P, 1944S) and two Canadians. There was also a 1955 in there. This is only the third 1944S nickel I've found. The last time I found one was July 15th, 2008!

3,800 pennies had twenty-five Wheats, thirty-six Canadians, three US dimes and one UK penny.

1919, 1920, 1924, 1926, 1935, 1940(2), 1941(2), 1942(2), 1944(3), 1944D, 1946(2), 1949, 1950D, 1953, 1956D(4), 1957