Dollar Coin

Friday was a big first. I found a dollar coin at Papa Gino's. I spied it just under the jukebox while I was sitting down. It's a Jefferson.

I also searched 7,500 pennies (three boxes) while watching the Red Sox on Friday. In them I found one hundred Wheats, sixty Canadians, and one Barbados 1¢.

While dumping my coins on Saturday I came across twenty-eight halves. Nothing too exciting in them, though.

The Wheat breakdown for the last two posts is:

1919, 1930, 1937(2), 1940(2), 1941(2), 1941D, 1942, 1942D, 1944(17), 1944D, 1944S, 1945(8), 1946(6), 1946D(3), 1946S, 1947, 1947D, 1948(3), 1949(2), 1949D, 1950(2), 1951(5), 1951D, 1952(2), 1952D(5), 1953(3), 1953D(8), 1954D, 1955(3), 1956(6), 1956D(5), 1957(3), 1957D(6), 1958(3), 1958D(3)

Lastly, after getting home from a fun family weekend at the Cape I searched 4,000 nickels (two boxes). The boxes produced one War Time (1944P), thirteen Canadians, and one Bermuda.

Found: 3 pennies (2 at Papa Gino's, 1 at The Egg and I), 1 nickel (at Sovereign Bank), 1 quarter (at the The Egg and I), and 1 dollar coin (at Papa Gino's)

Return to Halves

Last night I returned to searching half dollars. I'm trying to complete a circulation set for trade. I got two boxes. In them were two 90% silver halves (2 x 1964), eleven 40% silver halves (2 x 1965, 1966, 3 x 1967, 4 x 1968D, 1969D), and one Canadian $2 coin. The Canadian twoonie is the first foreign coin I have found in the halves I've searched. It's the highest value foreign coin I've found (worth $2.05), too (interesting how this is only two days after my most worthless foreign coin find).



I also searched 10,000 dimes (four boxes) and found nine silver dimes (1942, 1953, 1954, 1957, 1961D, 2 x 1963D, 2 x 1964), fourteen Canadians, and one UK 5 pence piece.

And finally this morning I searched one box of pennies, 2,500 coins. In it was fifteen Wheats and fifteen Canadians.

Found: 1 nickel (at Sovereign Bank)

Record breaker

Last night was a slow night. I only searched pennies. I looked through 12,700 of them (four boxes and some hand rolled). In them I found sixty-five Wheats, ninety-seven Canadians, one Barbados 1¢, and one Guyana 1¢. The coin from Guyana is worth $.00005106 and so it is easily the most worthless one I've found yet. It is also the smallest in diameter, smaller than a dime.



The Wheat breakdown was:

1923, 1939(2), 1940(2), 1941(3), 1942(4), 1944(4), 1944D(2), 1945(4), 1946(6), 1946D(2), 1947, 1948(2), 1950(3), 1951D(3), 1952, 1952D(2), 1953(2), 1953D, 1955, 1956(2), 1956D(2), 1957, 1957D(6), 1958D(6)

Trading

Yesterday I got two packages in the mail that took my coin collecting to a new level.

The first package I got contained coins I had traded for with an Ontarian fellow I met online. A few weeks I ago I decided to trade some of my spare US coins for Canadian coins. In this way I can expand my Canadian collection rather cheaply and get more value out of the US coins I find and don't need. The envelope had thirty-seven varieties I needed and two upgrades. Thank you, CH! The breakdown is:

Canadian Pennies

1929, 1929, 1932, 1933, 1934, 1935, 1936, 1939, 1941, 1948, 1954 SS

Canadian Nickels

1922, 1927, 1928, 1929, 1930, 1931, 1932, 1936, 1940, 1941, 1942, 1947, 1960

Canadian Dimes

1968 50% Silver

Canadian Quarters

1992 NB, 1992 NWT, 1992 NF, 1992 Y, 1992 PEI, 1992 ONT, 1992 Q, 1992 BC, 1999 January, 1999 February, 1999 March, 1999 July, 1999 October



The second package I got was a shipment from Brent-Krueger, a coin supply store. In it was a magnifying glass (now I can tell which 1965 Canadian penny varieties I have), three Dansco albums (Indian Head Pennies, Buffalo Nickels, Mercury Dimes), three Gardmaster albums (Canadian Quarters pre-1967, Canadian Loon Dollars, Canadian Two Dollars), and an extra Gardmaster sheet (for my recent Canadian quarters). With the Dansco albums I'll have a nicer place to put the older US coins I find. In the future I might purchase some of the cheaper varieties. And with the new Canadian albums I can expand my Canadian collection a bit, collecting Canadian one and two dollars coins should be relatively easy through trading.



I also did some coin roll hunting last night.

I went through 3,080 quarters (all hand rolled). In them I found one silver quarter (1964), two Canadians, one South Korean 100 Won, one French Franc, and one UK 10 pence.

I also searched 5,550 dimes (two boxes and some hand rolled) and found five silver dimes (1953D, 1956, 1960D, 1964 x 2), three Canadians, and one UK 5 pence. One of my tellers saved me a very nice 1949 silver Canadian dime. It is one I needed! (* I missed one silver dime in this batch, the Coin Star machine rejected it two days later.)

Lastly, I looked through 760 nickels (all hand rolled). These produced just three Canadians.

It was a busy night as I also had a nice homemade pizza night with my wife (she has to spread though dough for me) and I watched some TV with her.

Before bed I finished reading The World Without Us by Alan Weisman. I got the book at Target for my trip, it is one of the few books I've bought new in the past few years. I had heard about the book on NPR. In the book the author explores what would happen to the world if humans suddenly vanished. The chapters in the book are very disjointed, but some of them are immensely interesting. It depressed me though, and I found I could only read a little at a time. We humans have done some terrible things to our planet. The book's closing chapter was also extremely disappointing. The author left it entirely up to the reader to combine all of the topics he discussed into a cohesive vision (nuclear power plants, sea life, urban decay, etc.). Despite its flaws I think I'll be thinking and talking about the book for some time.



Found: 1 penny (at Sovereign Bank)

Lots of Album Fillers!

Last week while still in California I hit a few more banks. I found six new varieties!

I searched 400 hand rolled quarters. In them I found a nice 2007D Idaho I needed. No banks seemed to have the Wyoming quarter just yet.

I also came across 1,004 halves. One bank had a whole box and another had four loose ones. I bought it on a lark. It produced two 2004P halves, a variety I needed. No silver halves though.

Later in the day I went to a bank with some really helpful tellers. They looked through their trays for me and found a 2002P Sacajawea (those are somewhat rare) and a 1999D Susan B. Anthony for me. That was the last circulation Susan B. I needed. My album is now complete!

At the same bank they had 100 Eisenhower dollars. That's the most I've ever come across at one bank. In them I found the three varieties I needed, 1977, 1977D, and 1978D as well as some upgrades. My Eisenhower circulation collection is now complete!

While in the Napa Valley I visited three wineries. One was particularly interesting to me, Prager's. Its tasting room was covered in bills (and some coins), most were American one dollar bills, but there were quite a few foreign bills there too. My guess is there was about $20,000 on the walls and ceilings. They also have a window sill that they haven't cleaned for some 20-30 years on display.





This weekend I also saw a new movie, The Kingdom. It was pretty good. As far as enjoyability goes, I'd put it up there with the latest Bourne film. It was just a bit preachy at the end. Justin Bateman did a surprisingly good job in an action film. He came off pretty tough at the end.



Finally a forum alerted me to a special that Coin Star is running. If you use one of their machines to count $30 worth of coins sometime soon and choose to receive an Amazon gift card in exchange, you'll get a $10 gift card in the mail for free! I'm trying to get two such gift cards, one to my work address and one to my home address. Here's the details.

Found: 6 pennies (1 at O'Hare, 1 at Logan, 2 at Shaw's, 2 at Price Chopper), 1 nickel (outside Border's), 1 dime (at Shaw's), 1 quarter (at Etude winery), 1 foreign coin (a Canadian penny at Shaw's)

Redeemed: $24.75

Sweet Day

Yesterday was a good day. Especially for finding and coin roll hunting.

Things started off well when I found 2 pennies and 1 British pound (worth $2.04!) in the security line at Logan Airport. Later I found a quarter and 2 pennies at McDonald's and then a dollar bill in the self check out lane. I had been thinking one of these days someone would forget to take their paper change in those machines and I'd spot it.



I also hit about a dozen banks looking for pennies. I accumulated 15,450 pennies, three boxes and some hand rolled. In the bunch I found seventy-six Wheats, fifteen Canadians, five US dimes, two Euro 2¢, two Taiwan 1 Yuan coins, one Bahama 1¢, and one Ireland 1 penny. One coin roll even had twenty-nine Wheats in it! It was a mini-hoard with one 1943 steel penny. In all I found one US variety I needed, 1937S, and two Canadian varieties I needed, 1928 and 1930 (also in one roll).



The Wheat break down (so far) is:

1929, 1934, 1937S, 1940(2), 1941, 1942D, 1943, 1944(3), 1944D(2), 1944S(2), 1945D(2), 1945S, 1946, 1946S(2), 1947D, 1947S, 1948D, 1950, 1950D(2), 1950S, 1951D(2), 1951S, 1952D(3), 1952S(2), 1953D(3), 1953S(3), 1954, 1954D(2), 1955D, 1956(3), 1956D(10), 1957D(8), 1958D(7)

While at the banks I found one Eisenhower dollar and a teller gave me a 1943S steel cent. Two steelies in one day!

I'm not sure if I'll have more time to coin roll hunt. This might be it. I have to dump these coins and that might take all the free time I have.

Found: 4 pennies (2 at Logan, 2 at McDonald's), 1 quarter (at McDonald's), 1 one dollar bill (at a grocery store), 1 foreign coin (a British pound at Logan)

Busy Weekend

This weekend I didn't get too much coin roll hunting (or coin dumping) done. There were too many other things to do. I finished sealing our driveway, installed our dryer, mowed the lawn, and went to a Red Sox game. The environment will suffer a bit now that we won't be using the clothes line. It felt good using it, but it was difficult to find enough sunny weekend days to dry everything.

In the off time I searched 4,360 nickels (2 boxes and some hand rolled). I found one War Time (1943S), nine Canadians, and one US penny. The turnout was a bit light. I did find one really cool nickel that has a double clipped planchet. It is my first such nickel find, so far I've only found two pennies with single clips. I went through these nickels slower as I was looking for certain dates for my trading buddy.

I also went through 12,500 pennies. In them were sixty-six Wheats, one hundred three Canadians, and one Netherlands Antilles 1¢. No new varieties turned up. :(



The Wheat break down over the past two posts was:

1910, 1913, 1919S, 1929, 1930, 1936(2), 1937(2), 1938, 1939(2), 1940(3), 1941(6), 1942, 1944(9), 1945(5), 1946(7), 1946D, 1946S, 1947(2), 1948(3), 1949S, 1950S, 1951(4), 1952(3), 1953(7), 1953D(5), 1954D, 1955, 1955D, 1956, 1956(10), 1957(3), 1957D(8), 1958, 1958D(9)

Tomorrow I am off to Redwood City, CA (near San Fransisco) for a programming conference. I plan to search pennies like crazy. Let's hope some good Wheats with mint marks turn up!

Found: 5 pennies (1 outside Staples, 1 at Home Depot, 1 at Shaw's, 2 on the street near Fenway), 1 foreign coin (a Canadian penny at Shaw's)