Two Good Ones

Yesterday, I was a bit bummed after picking up four boxes of halves that have the dreaded "10/30/07" date on them. I've gotten four of those so far and they have all been silver skunks. Now I've got four more. So far, so bad, but I haven't gone through them all yet.

Last night though things improved with the quarters I picked up. I searched 5,480 hand rolled quarters and found one silver quarter (1952D) and eight Canadians. The silver quarter is a variety I needed for my albums. My silver quarter streak is now at three weeks!

After that I quickly went through a few hand rolls of nickels (240 coins) and dimes (300 coins) I turned up. They only produced two Canadian dimes.

Lastly, I searched 10,650 pennies. In them I found one Indian Head (1901), forty-six Wheats, and seventy-nine Canadians. That's a pretty low result for Wheats, but finding the Indian Head was awesome. It's my fifth of the year and is an upgrade for the one I had in my album. I also found my first 1938 Canadian penny and my first clipped planchet Canadian penny. The Wheat varieties were:

1926, 1935, 1936, 1939, 1940(2), 1941(3), 1942(2), 1944(2), 1945(5), 1946(3), 1946D, 1948, 1949, 1950D, 1950S, 1951, 1951D, 1953(2), 1953D(2), 1955(4), 1955D, 1956(2), 1956D, 1957D(3), 1958D(2)



The above is a sample picture of a clipped planchet. Mine is even slighter than that.

Found: 3 pennies (2 at Costco, 1 on the street near work), 1 nickel (at Sovereign Bank), 1 dime (at Sovereign Bank)

Redeemed: $.10

Buffaloes and Keys

Last night was an all nickel affair ... my bank was low on pennies and couldn't give any out. I searched 8,000 (four boxes). In them I found five Buffaloes (1935, 4 x Unknown), thirteen Canadians and two Bermuda 5¢. The Buffaloes were all very crappy, oh well, finding five in one night is a record for me. I was really surprised no War nickels showed up. I've never searched that many nickels and not found one. The last one I need for a complete roll is proving to be difficult to find. The good news is I found two key date nickels (another one sitting record), 1939D and 1951S.

At the bank I bought a silver Rosie (1954) off of some guys at the coin counting machine for 10¢.

I also found out last night that my town is no longer picking up bagged leaves. We're a bit screwed on that one. I should have known better and done them all sooner.

Thanksgiving

This weekend was a nice long four day holiday weekend. My wife made a fabulous feast for both sides of the family at our new house. Others brought dishes, wine, appetizers and desserts. It all came together well. Our only mishap was our sink clogged and then the drain pipe under the sink broke! Chamfer, my father, was able to fix it the next day in under 3 hours (most of the time was spent at Home Depot). I wasn't much help, but I think I'll be able to do better next time. It's been awhile since I've helped him do home repairs. It's got to all come back to me fast!

We also did some leaf raking and bagging (more next weekend), reading, relaxing, and of course coin business! Well to be honest there wasn't much "we" in the coins.

Over the weekend I searched 11,400 pennies (four boxes and some hand rolled) pushing me over the 500,000 mark for the year! I found eighty-three Wheats and eighty-nine Canadians. Two of the Wheats were ones I needed, 1911 and 1929D! The varieties were:

1910, 1911, 1926, 1929D, 1939(2), 1940(2), 1941(4), 1942(3), 1944(7), 1945(2), 1946(11), 1946D, 1948(2), 1948D, 1949(2), 1950D, 1951, 1951D(2), 1952(5), 1952D(2), 1953(6), 1954, 1955(4), 1955D, 1956, 1956D(10), 1957(2), 1957D(4), 1958, 1958D(4)

I also searched 2,150 dimes and found one Mercury (1944) and 680 nickels and found two Canadians. All of those were hand rolled.

I went through a big batch of hand rolled quarters, 9,320. They produced one silver quarter (another 1964), three Canadians, and one South Korean 100 Won.

During the weekend I managed two half dollar hunts. I turned up a massive amount and also went through two boxes of halves. In total I looked through 5,148 halves! The two boxes were total skunks, but the bank finds were great! I rounded up seven 90% silver halves (1935D, 6 x 1964), sixty-two 40% silver halves (2 x 1965, 8 x 1966, 18 x 1967, 27 x 1968D, 7 x 1969D), and thirteen mint set halves (2002D, 2003P, 3 x 2003D, 2004P, 2004D, 2005P, 2005D, 2006P, 2006D, 2 x 2007P). That's my second Walker found and the oldest half I've found to date! Plus, the mint set halves were by far my biggest find of those. I needed five of them for my album!

I also made a trip to my local coin store. I picked up a big bunch of Canadian coins. I thought I had discovered all the good buys at the store and was about ready to leave when I got talking to the owner about how hard it was for me to find modern Canadian silver coins. He told me they had some bins that I could go through. I stayed another hour and found a big bunch I needed for my albums for melt value. The bins had about every date I needed, but I picked through them and bought only the better specimens, some were very worn.

On Sunday I went to the Westford Monthly coin show. It was almost twice as big as the Auburn show I went to two weeks back. About half of the dealers were the same. I found a lot of bargains. I've now just about completed my Canadian nickel album and made big progress on some others. Nobody seems that interested in Canadian coins. Oh well, their disinterest is my gain!

I got too many Canadian coins to list, but here are some stock photos of my favorites with some comments:



This is a Newfoundland penny. On the back is the national plant, a carnivorous plant! My specimen isn't as corroded as this one.



Above is a Newfoundland dime. I picked up four of these for cheap.



This is a Prince Edward Island penny from 1871. They only made these for one year. I found one for $1! The three trees on the left symbolize the three counties of PEI and the big tree on the right symbolizes Great Britain.



This is a very old Canadian penny with Queen Victoria on it, made before Confederation. They made so many of these that they didn't need to make more pennies until 1876!



Above is a picture of a silver five cent piece. They made these before nickels. They have half the silver that a dime does and so are very small. This one has Edward VII on it. I don't have an album to put these in just yet.



This is a relatively modern nickel that celebrates the discovery of nickel.







The above three coins, a dime, a quarter and a fifty cent piece, are old Canadian George V coins. I like these a lot. It has so far been a bit challenging to find good examples that are low cost, but aren't too worn (especially on the back, I saw many with barely legible reverse writing, but passed on them).

Found: 3 pennies (1 at Sovereign Bank, 1 at LCU, 1 at WaldenBooks), 2 foreign coins (1 Canadian dime, 1 Canadian quarter, both at Soveriegn Bank)

Keep Trucking!

Last night I went through two boxes of nickels and some hand rolled. In total I searched 4,420 nickels and found one dateless Buffalo, one War Time (1945P), nine Canadians, one Belgium 1 franc, and three Bermuda 5¢. One of the nickels was a 1951S (a key for Chris H!). It was good to find a Buffalo and a War Time. The last few nickel batches haven't produced either of those.



Happy Thanksgiving!

Pennies

Yesterday was a pretty good afternoon. At the bank I found some change near the coin counting machine including one silver Rosie (1957). I think I'm getting spoiled, however, as finding a silver dime used to make my day, but now it is not the same. The teller also saved me a nice 90% silver half (1964). Six dollars in easy silver isn't too bad!

At home I searched 12,650 pennies (four boxes and some hand rolled). In them I found 70 Wheats, 99 Canadians, and a US dime. The Wheat varieties were:

1927, 1929(2), 1934, 1935, 1939(2), 1941(2), 194293), 1944(8), 1945(2), 1946(3), 1947, 1948, 1949, 1951(2), 1951D(3), 1952(2), 1953D(3), 1955(4), 1955D, 1956, 1956D(3), 1957(5), 1957D(10), 1958, 1958D(5)

I also looked through 250 hand rolled dimes and three loose halves, but they didn't produce anything.

Found: 1 penny (at Sovereign Bank), 1 nickel (at Sovereign Bank), 4 dimes (at Sovereign Bank, one silver, 1957), 2 foreign coins (2 Canadian quarters at Sovereign Bank)

1940D, Franklin

The good times continued this weekend. I now know how gamblers get addicted. I felt unstoppable this weekend.

On Friday night I went through 11,350 pennies (four boxes and some hand rolled). In them I found seventy-seven Wheats and eighty-five Canadians. One of the Wheats was one I've been looking for for a long time (it seems), the 1940D! It felt great to finally find that one. Here's the Wheat breakdown:

1918, 1919S, 1920(3), 193692), 1939(2), 1940, 1940D, 1941(4), 1942(2), 1944(3), 1945(5), 1946(5), 1948(4), 1950, 1950D, 195193), 1951D(2), 1952D(2), 1953D(2), 195492), 1954D(2), 1955(5), 1955D, 1956(4), 1956D(3), 1957D(4), 1958(4), 1958D(4)

On the way home from the bank I picked up forty-four halves. Only one bank out of five had any. They were great. Including one skunk box I finished on Friday night, I searched 1,044 halves and found three 90% silver ones (1960D, 1964 x 2) and two 40% silver ones (1965, 1969D). The 1960D is my first Franklin half! It was great to find that one.



I also picked up two boxes of dimes which I was able to search extremely fast because the wrappers were clear plastic (I'm going to have to make this bank my dime source from now on). The 5,000 dimes produced two silver Rosies (1964, 1964D) and one silver Canadian (1952). The 1952 Canadian is one my album needed.

I was feeling great after all that. Because my wife left me to my own devices until Sunday, I checked out five nearby coin shops I found in the phone book. The first one had no Canadian, but it did have some fairly priced US silver, the next three were busts, and the last one was great. It's a fairly big store in an old mill. They sell coins, stamps and supplies. They didn't have too much Canadian, but I did search their "Better Canada" box (didn't find the "Worse Canada", although I asked). I found a lot of good coins, cheap. I'll have to go again soon and pick up more!

Canadian Pennies:

1902, 1903, 1907, 1915, 1916, 1917, 1918, 1919

Canadian Nickels:

1943, 1944, 1945







The above pictures aren't the actual coins I bought. They are just photos of the types. The nickel I bought is pretty cool. It is made of copper and zinc, a mix they call Tombac. It was made during the war to save nickel.

Found: 6 pennies (2 at Sovereign Bank, 1 at Shell, 1 at Bank of America, 2 at Stop 'N Shop), 1 nickel (Pearle Vision)

My Ship Has Come In!

Sweet mercy! My ship came in last night. I found a silver quarter hoard!

Previous to last night I had found 11 silver quarters (plus one Canadian silver quarter) in 125,180 quarters searched, zero in the last 19,370. I last found one on October 10th. And then last night just as I was thinking, "man, why I am still searching these, I should just buy a few," the last roll of the 3,320 quarters I was searching produced 11 silver quarters! I was ecstatic. I yelled out and ran downstairs to show my wife. The varieties were:

1937, 1944, 1947, 1951, 1954S, 1962D(4), 1964, 1964D

Five of them were varieties I needed and the 1937 is now my oldest quarter found. What a night! I also found five Canadians.



During the evening I also searched one box of halves (1,000 coins) and found one mint set half, 2004P.

This morning I finished searching 16,000 dimes (breaking the 400,000 mark for the year). They produced six silver Rosies (1954, 1956D, 1959, 1961, 1964, 1964D), eighteen Canadians, and one Panama 10¢.