A Canadian Teller Save

Today I got a big batch of foreign coins from a teller friend. An early birthday/Christmas gift perhaps? The mix included one US dime, thirty-two Canadian pennies, eighty-six Canadian nickels (84 Ni), two Canadian dimes, one Canadian quarter, one UK 10 pence, one Bermuda 1¢ and one Dominican Republic 5¢. She got these all during the past few months. Presumedly someone turned in a small collection of Canadian nickels. The Canadian nickels were:

1937, 1944, 1945, 1946(2), 1947, 1951 Steel, 1952(4), 1953 SSNF, 1955, 1956(2), 1958(2), 1959, 1960(3), 1961(10), 1962(4), 1963(3), 1964(11), 1965(2), 1966(5), 1968(4), 1969(5), 1971(3), 1972(4), 1973(4), 1974(6), 1975, 1977, 1982, 1986

I already have all of these in my collection, but the 1937 is now the oldest Canadian nickel I've come across.

There has also been a little Henry news. Last night I saw him clap after seeing us make his stuffed monkey clap and today Meg saw him clap after he saw people clapping on TV. I always wondered what he was able to make out about both things. Now I know!

Found: 2 pennies (1 at work, 1 at Shaw's), 1 nickel (at Shaw's), 1 dime (at Costco)

Nice Surprise

Last night I got a nice surprise. As I was picking up coin from a regular spot I noticed the teller had some rolls of halves. I asked to buy them all. When I got to my car I looked through a roll. Sweet! Silver!

170 half dollars produced seven 90% silver halves (1963D, 4 x 1964, 2 x 1964D) and seventy-four 40% silver halves (2 x 1965, 7 x 1966, 22 x 1967, 25 x 1968D, 16 x 1969D).

In 1,760 quarters I found just five Canadians.

2,050 dimes yielded two silver Rosies (2 x 1964) and five Canadians.

1,600 nickels turned up just four Canadians (1 Ni).

The pennies were also so-so. In 2,500 of them I found six Wheats, ten Canadians and one US dime. The Wheats were:

1939, 1944(2), 1944D, 1955, 1958

I also got a new 2008 HI quarter in change yesterday. I forgot about that coin. I'll have to get a roll of them.

Found: 1 penny (in East Cambridge Savings Bank), 1 dime (outside the post office)

Finally

Last night I searched a big bunch of coin ... quickly. I was urged on by the exciting Amazing Race finale!

150 small dollars didn't produce anything.

10,120 quarters finally broke me out of my no-silver-quarter-streak! The last roll of 253 rolls produced one silver quarter. It was a 1964D. That's the most good I felt about finding a 1964D quarter in a while. It had been one long dry spell. In total I found one silver Washington (1964D), four Canadians, two Bermuda 25¢ and one South Korean 100 Won.

100 dimes, 160 nickels and 600 pennies just turned up one Canadian dime, two Wheats (1948, 1957D) and five Canadian pennies.

My biggest score of the night, however, was a big one. When I got home I found out that a large internet store starting with "A" had mailed me six of one item (it's a Christmas present so I'm not saying what it is) instead of just one like I ordered. They only charged me for one. Typically these items sell for $18-$24 on E-Bay! Those five are going for sale sometime soon. :)

Found: 2 pennies (at Stop & Shop), 1 nickel (at Stop & Shop), 1 quarter (at Stop & Shop)

Christmas Time

This weekend was a time for Christmas activities. We had a good time doing them and wish they would have last longer. Every activity seemed to go so fast. :(

On Saturday we went to church to visit Santa. Henry did a pretty good job with the picture taking. He didn't smile, but he didn't get upset either. He was just overwhelmed. Right after that we bought a Christmas tree in the parking lot. The proceeds benefit our church. We set it up as soon as we got home. It was a bit tougher to set up than we thought it'd be. We first thought we'd be able to set it up with Henry just crawling around. What were we thinking?! As soon as we put him in his high chair with a snack things went much smoother. We'll have to repeat that trick when we decorate it.





Today we dropped Henry off at his Aunt and Uncle's for a play date with his two older cousins. Meg and I went shopping. We did pretty well. I just wish we had more time. It was great for us to be out buying stuff for Henry. We'll have to make time to do this more in the future.

I searched 8,000 halves on Saturday. In them I found twelve 90% silver halves (2 x 1943, 8 x 1964, 1964D, 1999S-Silver), forty-two 40% silver halves (6 x 1965, 4 x 1966, 16 x 1967, 11 x 1968D, 1968S, 4 x 1969D), three proofs (1993S, 199S, 1999S-Silver), two mint set halves (2002P, 2004P) and a flattened penny. The modern silver proof is awesome. It is in even better shape than one I found a few weeks back and is one of the rarer coins, by mintage, I've found. Only about 800 thousand were minted. The 1968S is a nice upgrade to the other one I've found. The most unusual event of the searching exercise was the flattened penny. It was in a roll of twenty halves. It is one of those pennies people at an attraction with a machine that puts an image on it. On this one is an alien and the text states that is from The International U.F.O Museum in Roswell, NM.



Henry in his favorite place. When the refrigerator door opens he moves as fast he can to get in there!

Found: 5 pennies (1 at Sovereign Bank, 1 in Kohl's, 1 outside Target, 1 in Old Navy, 1 in Eastern Mountain Sports), 1 dime (at Barnes and Noble, Meg actually found this one, but I'm counting it)

Toothy

Henry now has a third tooth (and maybe a fourth). One of his top teeth came down and looks like the other will come down sometime this weekend. You can see them clearly when he smiles a certain way. We haven't seen that many smiles lately as this teething experience has been troubling, but when he has it's been very cute.

I searched a major load of coin last night. One bank seemed to have a ton. It didn't produce that well, however.

142 small dollars didn't have anything in them.

3,120 quarters yielded seven Canadians and two US nickels. No silver Washington was in the batch. :(

6,900 dimes turned up four silver Rosies (1948D, 1962D, 1963D, 1964D), seventeen Canadians, one UK 5 pence, one Barbados 10¢ and one Bermuda 10¢. That's not too bad. I don't come across many mint marked dimes from before the late 50's.

3,800 nickels produced one War Time (1945D), five Canadians (1 Ni) and two Bermuda 5¢. I was hoping for more silver nickels, but the 1945D is a pretty good one for me. It is the fourth one I've found. I also found one nickel that was struck off center. It is definitely a keeper.

In 3,150 pennies I found twenty-seven Wheats, seventeen Canadians, one UK new penny, one US dime, one Panama 1¢, one Euro 5¢, one Euro 2¢ and one Euro 1¢. The Wheats were:

1919, 1929, 1934, 1939, 1940, 1941(3), 1942D, 1944, 1945, 1946(2), 1950(2), 1951D, 1953D(2), 1953S, 1955(2), 1956(2), 1956D, 1957, 1957D(2)

The other day I got a surprise. A co-worker gave me two Ukranian coins, 10 Kopiyok and 25 Kopiyok. Those are the first coins from that country in my collection.





Found: 2 pennies (in Belmont center), 1 dime (in Belmont center)

9 Months!

Yesterday Henry turned nine months old. He's now lived about the same outside of the womb as in it. He's still very attached to his mommy, however. Meg took him to the doctor's yesterday for a check-up. He now weighs 21 lbs. 10 oz and is 29½ inches tall. He's also learned a new sound, "ffffuh."

I searched some coin last night.

640 quarters and 800 dimes produced just one Canadian quarter and two Canadian dimes. The hunt for a silver quarter goes on.

4,440 nickels yielded one War Time (1943P), fourteen Canadians, one Bahamas 5¢, one Bermuda 5¢ and one Singapore 20¢. I've decided to start a big push on the nickels in an effort to find the remaining two for my album, 1938D and 1943D.

1,700 pennies turned up fourteen Wheats and sixteen Canadians. The Wheats were:

1916, 1931, 1940, 1944(3), 1946, 1948, 1951, 1956D(2), 1957, 1957D, 1958

The 1931 is a bit rare, it is only the third or fourth I've found.

Found: 1 penny (at Sovereign Bank)

Making Sounds

Lately Henry has been making a lot of sounds. He's not talking yet, but it sure has been fun to hear him learn new constonants. His sounds include bah, dah, gah, mah, nah and puh. The best one is puh. He makes the sound with a lot of enthusiasm and it is possible to go back and forth with him over the sound. Meg and I have been trying to encourage him to use certain sounds when he holds particular toys, like his ball, etc. It seems to work a bit. So far he seems to get four words, "clap clap," "shake," "night night" and "milk."



Over the weekend I completed another book. It was a quick read, The Englishman's Daughter by Ben Macintyre. It covered the hiding of a small band of UK soldiers during the First World War in France. The author covered the occupation of one particular village in detail and the soldiers various attempts to hide and then to escape. Unfortunately most of the soldiers were executed for being spies and a good number of the villagers were incarcerated for hosting them. Those villagers who weren't imprisoned were moved out of the town in 1917. After the war they all came back to a village that was totally flattened. One French cavalryman did manage to hide for the entire war in a cupboard. It is difficult to imagine.