A Thanksgiving Report

(Henry had such a messy lunch we made him go without his shirt for a bit ... just kidding.)

Things have been going well here. Sadly, only one vacation day remains, but it won't be long until another nice break arrives (Christmas).



Thanksgiving here was excellent. Meg's cooking came out great. I especially enjoyed Meg's stuffing and my grandmother's fudge. We also had a good time socializing with our relatives. The three boys cooperated and everyone was able to hang out a bit long than usual. I even go to watch about 1/3 of the "Cars" with my oldest nephew. Henry's biggest moment came when I found him with a beer bottle cap in his mouth. His cousin Liam had thrown them on the floor and these days anything on the floor is fair game to Henry (today we found a small stick in his mouth). Henry did quite well at the dinner table too.

On Friday we didn't do too much besides rest. We got to go for a nice walk in our neighborhood and enjoyed leftovers. I searched some coin in the evening.

Seventeen large dollars and six halves didn't produce anything.

My "no-silver-quarter-streak" continued. 2,400 quarter only turned up one Bermuda 25¢.

3,000 dimes yielded three silver Rosies (1952, 1952S, 1964), three Canadians, one US penny and a Swiss ½ franc. The 1952S is a relatively rare dime, just sure wish it was another one, one that I need!

1,480 nickels turned up four Canadians (4 Ni).

The pennies were poor. 2,600 of them yielded just five Wheats, four Canadians and one Irish 1 Penny. The Wheats were:

1940, 1945, 1946, 1949D, 1958

Today in the morning I searched some more coin.

8,000 half dollars produced four 90% silver halves (1958, 2 x 1964, 1964D), eleven 40% silver halves (1965, 1967, 7 x 1968D, 1969D, 1969S), eight proof halves (1969S, 1973S, 2 x 1980S, 1982S, 3 x 1986S) and six mint set halves (1987D, 2002P, 3 x 2003D, 2006P). Compared to my previous weeks, that's a poor showing for silver, but the two new proof finds are great, especially the 1969S. Only 2.9 million of those were minted.



In the afternoon before some leaf blowing, Henry, Meg and I went to a nearby park run by the city. It was great. They have small farm there with some animals. Henry seemed to enjoy watching the birds (including some peacocks) and a small horse. Meg and I also liked the goats and two big pigs who were sleeping. We'll definitely go back there when it is warmer. There seemed to be many trails to check out.

This evening I had my first phone conversation with my almost 2 year old nephew. He said, "hello ... bye!"

Found: 2 pennies (1 at Bank of America, 1 at Green Hill park), 1 dime (at Sovereign Bank)

Moe's

Tonight Henry, Meg and I went for our Mexican. Meg just couldn't think of cooking more. Who can blame her? She's been very busy preparing for Thanksgiving. It looks good so far! I haven't been this excited for the holiday in a long time, if not ever. It is great thinking it is Henry's first. Can't wait for Christmas.

Today I finally got to do some decent coin roll hunting, at least in quantity.

Eighty-one half dollars turned up two 90% silver halves (2 x 1964) and two 40% silver halves (2 x 1968D).

3,700 quarters yielded three Canadians, one French franc, one US nickel and one US penny. I still haven't found a silver US quarter. :(

1,250 dimes turned up three Canadians and one Bermuda 10¢.

2,120 nickels, one box and some hand rolled, produced one War Time (1943S), three Canadians (1 Ni) and one Bermuda 5¢. That's the first silver nickel I've found in almost two weeks.

The pennies were just so-so, 1,000 of them yielded six Wheats and five Canadians. The Wheats were:

1944, 1951D, 1952D, 1953, 1957D, 1958D

Found: 1 penny (at Moe's), 2 dimes (at White Hen Pantry)

Proud Uncle

This morning I got a call from my sister with a story that made me proud. She was with my 4½ year old nephew at Wal-Mart the other day and he ran from her shouting, "there's something over there Uncle Brian told me to always check out!" It was a Coin Star machine. In the machine's reject bin he found over $2 worth of coins (including a dollar coin) and a bunch of Canadian coins. That little story made my day. I'll have to keep working on Henry. He's an even better height for this kind of work than his cousin, but his pincher grasp could use some work (although it is good enough to pick up everything from the floor and put it in his mouth).

Last night I searched just a bit of coin (the banks don't seem to have too much this week). 1,000 quarters, 150 dimes, 40 nickels and 50 pennies produced one Canadian quarter, four Canadian dimes, and one Wheat (1940).

Found: 1 dime (at Sovereign Bank)

Zahara

Yesterday morning I finished reading Skeletons on the Zahara: A True Story of Survival by Dean King. I read it quite quickly as I enjoyed it so much. It told the survival story of about dozen men who shipwrecked in 1815 off the coast of Morroco. The men were robbed and made to be slaves. Eventually their captain convinced a trader to buy a few of them and take them to the English consul who then ransommed them. Along the way they suffered from the sun, starvation and dihidration. King constructed the story from two published accounts, one by the captain which became quite famous in the 19th century and another more obscure account by another shipmate who's survival story was slightly different. He also added bits he obtained from other sources and his travels to the area. Although I knew that at least these two men survived considering the conditions they were existing in I couldn't imagine how. My curiosity kept me reading this book all day on Sunday.

Last night I searched a tiny amount of coin. Fifty dimes and two hundred nickels produced just one Canadian nickel.

Found: 1 penny (outside Sovereign Bank), 2 nickels (at Sovereign Bank), 1 dime (outside the Mall), 1 quarter (at Sovereign Bank)

W is for Wheats

This weekend Henry, Meg and I went to Maine for a wedding. One of my good friends was getting married and I was the best man. My parents also came along. These assisted us a lot by watching Henry during the rehearsal and the wedding. Although the weather never go above 30 much, even during the day, Henry and Meg were able to go swimming in the hotel's heated pool. It was very cute to watch.

Before we left I searched some coin.

Seven large dollars and fifty-one half dollars produced one 90% silver half (1964).

2,400 quarters turned up just four Canadians.

I fared better with the dimes (seems to be the case lately). 3,450 of them produced four silver dimes (1943, 1957, 2 x 1963D) and six Canadians.

620 nickels yielded just one key date Jefferson, 1955.

I also did well with the 3,800 pennies. Two rolls were marked "W" and a third was marked "Wheats." They were all solid Wheat rolls, unfortunately the Wheats in them were all corroded. In total I got one hundred sixty-seven Wheats, forty-seven Canadians, one plastic penny and one Bermuda 1¢. The Wheats were:

1929(2), 1937, 1940(3), 1941(10), 1942(7), 1942D, 1944(18), 1945(7), 1946(13), 1946D, 1947, 1947D, 1948(5), 1949(2), 1950(3), 1950D(3), 1950S, 1951, 1951D, 1952(7), 1952D(12), 1953(4), 1953D(2), 1954D(6), 1955(3), 1955D(6), 1956(4), 1956D(15), 1957(4), 1957D(10), 1958(5), 1958D(9)

After we got back from our trip I finished sorting a bunch of coin I got early Friday.

119 small dollars didn't produce anything.

I did pretty well with the halves. 8,002 of them turned up fifteen 90% silver halves (1944, 1952, 1952D, 1954D, 1957D, 1962, 2 x 1963, 1963D, 6 x 1964), twenty-seven 40% silver halves (1966, 18 x 1967, 6 x 1968D, 2 x 1969D), one proof (1978S) and twenty-nine mint set halves (2004P, 2004D, 13 x 2005P, 12 x 2005D, 2007P, 2007D).

Found: 2 pennies (at Bank of America)

Vroom, Vroom

Last night when I got home Meg told me that Henry has begun to make a car sound a bit like "vroom, vroom" when he moves his truck on the floor. I haven't heard it yet, but it did get me thinking why has Henry suddenly begun to push his truck on the floor in a upright fashion. Before a few days ago he just liked to flip the thing over and play with the wheels, now he likes to push it along. It is cute. He's also started pushing a foot stool we have across the carpet. Who needs a wagon with wheels when you can push just about anything, I guess? We'll have to watch that Christmas tree and pile of gifts!

I searched a bit of coin last night ... no hoards.

5,000 pennies produced twenty-three Wheats, twenty-nine Canadians, four US dimes and one Euro 2¢. The Wheats were:

1916, 1934, 1939, 1940, 1941, 1944, 1944D, 1945(2), 1949D, 1951, 1953, 1953D(3), 1955(2), 1956D(4), 1957, 1958D

Found: 3 pennies (all at Costco), 1 dime (at Costco)

Another Hoard!

At lunch yesterday I picked up some coin to search in the evening. While doing so I got one large dollar, two small dollars and six half dollars. In the mix was one 90% silver half (1964).

Last night after giving Henry his bath and have a good pork dish with Meg I searched the coin I had gotten from two locations.

3,200 quarters produced five Canadians and two US nickels. I was really hoping I'd break out of my no-silver-quarter streak, but it didn't happen.

I next searched 4,050 dimes. With these I hit it big! I found my second hoard in two days. They produced one hundred nine silver dimes, five Canadians (including one 80% silver dime, 1960) and one US penny. The silver dimes were in five rolls. I thought I was doing insanely good when I found one roll with sixteen silver dimes in it, but then I got one with forty-seven in it (a full roll as it was three short) and later I got one with forty-five in it! This is by far my best non-half dollar silver find. Previously my best non-half silver hoards were eleven silver quarters in one roll and seven silver dimes in one roll. These dimes now represent about 1/4 of all the silver dimes I've found. In the mix I found three silver dimes I needed for my albums, 1939, 1949D and 1949S! Previous to last night I hadn't found a new dime for my Roosevelt album (besides 2008 coins) since October 26th, 2007, about thirteen months. Now I need to find just four to complete my album. I also finally found a 2008P dime. I was simply estatic. The silver dime breakdown was:

1934, 1935, 1939(2), 1940, 1941, 1941S(2), 1942(6), 1943(7), 1943D(2), 1943S, 1944(2), 1944D, 1945(4), 1946(5), 1947(3), 1948(5), 1948D, 1949(2), 1949D, 1949S, 1950(2), 1950D(3), 1951(2), 1951D, 1952(4), 1952D(2), 1953(2), 1953D, 1953S, 1954(3), 1954D, 1956, 1956D, 1957, 1957D, 1958, 1959D, 1960D(2), 1961(2), 1961D(4), 1962(4), 1962D(3), 1963(2), 1963D(3), 1964(9), 1964D(4)

I was planning on leaving the nickels for tonight, but I couldn't resist checking them out to see if my luck continued. I searched 2,000 of them and found seven Canadians (4 Ni) and two Bermuda 5¢. Oh well.

This morning I went back to the bank with the great dimes rolls. I bought all of the dimes and quarters they had left. I didn't find any more such rolls, but 1,600 quarters produced three Canadians (one 50% silver, 1968) and 500 dimes had nothing in them.