This weekend was supposed to be a nice, long, four day weekend, but instead became a bit more defined by woes than we would have liked. We still had a some good times together, but it's tough not to remember:

1) A car accident I had on Friday. No one was hurt and my car is still drivable, but the repairs will take some time. A big pain.

2) Our house drain getting clogged. I discovered this Friday evening. We had to wait for an estimate from our plumber on Saturday and then he fixed it with his assistant on Monday. Less expensive than we feared, but there's much more fun ways to spend $500 and living without drainage is a bit of a drag!

3) Our camera is dead.

4) Hazel was sick yesterday, seems better today. Meg is really under the weather today and I'm not too hot.

Despite all this I particularly enjoyed taking Henry and Hazel on the subway in Boston. It was a just a no-destination, just for the experience trip on two cars, but Henry got a big kick out of it. We did this while Meg was enjoying a nice visit with a college friend and her new baby. He was especially surprised to find a Dunkin' Donuts underground and kept asking me which buildings the train had gone under. We also had fun at the apple fest at Tower Hill Botanical gardens and picking apples at Tougas Farms. We're still really proud of the progress Henry's making with potty training and at school.

8,000 halves had just one 90% silver half (1964).

8,320 quarters produced eleven Canadians, fourteen US nickels, four US dimes, one Chinese 1 Yuan, one Bermuda 25¢, one Dominica Republic 25¢ and one Swiss Franc (1992).

6,450 dimes rounded up seven silver dimes (1944, 1946, 1958, 1961D, 2 x 1964, 1964D), seven Canadians and two UK 5 pence.

5,000 pennies yielded thirty-three Wheats, twenty-three Canadians and one Chinese 1 Jiao.

1926, 1937, 1939, 1940, 1941(3), 1942, 1944(2), 1944D, 1945, 1945D, 1946(4), 1948, 1949S, 1950, 1951(2), 1951D(2), 1952, 1952D(3), 1953D, 1954D, 1955, 1957, 1958D

Found: 4 pennies, 2 quarters

Yesterday was a big day for Henry. He used a public toilet for the first time and put on underwear! Today Meg told me he even asked for his underwear. We didn't see it, but he has insisted that Hazel used the potty too.

Last night I just searched some pennies.

5,550 pennies produced thirty-two Wheats (including one Steelie), forty-three Canadians, two Euro 2¢, one Euro 5¢, two Bermuda 1¢ and two US dimes.

1937, 1939, 1940(2), 1941(2), 1942, 1943, 1944(3), 1945, 1946(3), 1948, 1948D, 1950S, 1951, 1953, 1954S, 1955(2), 1955D, 1956, 1956D, 1957(3), 1957D(2), 1958D

Found: 1 penny, 1 dime

Oh Canada!

On Tuesday Henry learned about finger prints at his school. Each kid made some prints on a sheet of paper (Henry's looked a bit forced). He thought it was really neat that his "lines" looked different than everyone else's. Could DNA sequencing be next? He also had fun doing the chicken dance.

I did pretty well with last night's coin.

609 small dollars had seven mint set dollars (2002P, 2002D, 2003P, 2004D, 2006P, 2008D) and one Canadian (2009). I was a bit bummed that there were no proofs in there, but that's a fair number of mint set coins.

6,160 quarters turned up one silver Washington (1963D), six Canadian, one Bahamas 25¢, one UK 10 pence (2008), one East Caribbean States 25¢, one US nickel, one Czech 5 Korun and one Fun Spot token. That was a pretty good mix for quarters. The Czech coin is new type for me and the UK 10 pence is a new variety for me! I also found a new modern quarter, the 2011P Vicksburg.



1,750 dimes rounded up one silver Rosie (1961), five Canadians and one US penny.

400 nickels produced nine Canadians (4 Ni).

4,550 pennies turned up two Indian Heads (1904, 1906), twenty-two Wheats, fifty Canadians, one Bermuda 1¢, one South Africa 1¢ (1989), one Newfoundland 1¢ (1943C) and one US dime. About half of these rolls came from the same person and there was lots of good stuff in there. In them I got the two Indian Heads (the first time I've got more than one of these since my forty-one Indian Head hoard), one George V Canadian (1936), the Newfoundland penny and nineteen George VI Canadian pennies. Newfoundland was not part of Canada until 1949 and so produced their own coins. They have really low mintages. This is the first one I've found in a roll. 1,239,732 of this penny were minted.





I normally don't get that excited about George VI pennies, but this is a really large number to turn up. The date breakdown for older Canadian pennies was:

1936, 1940(3), 1941(2), 1942(4), 1943(3), 1944, 1945(2), 1946, 1947 Maple Leaf, 1949, 1951

The South African penny is the first coin from that country that I've found in a roll. Previously I had only found this country as a teller save and a Coin Star reject.



The Wheats ...

1937, 1939, 1942, 1944, 1945, 1946(3), 1947, 1948, 1951(2), 1952, 1952D(2), 1953D, 1955(2), 1956D, 1957D(2), 1958

Found: 3 pennies

Save Friendly's!

Yesterday Meg e-mailed me this:

Forgot to tell you a cute one from Henry yesterday. He was spelling things and asking what words begin with, when he said "Dad starts with B." I wasn't sure if I heard him correctly, so I asked him if he meant "D" not "B." He said no, he meant "B" because you wrote "B" on your golf balls. I explained to him that the B was for Brian, because not everyone calls you Dad. :)

Henry has taught Hazel how to say "cookie." "Say 'cookie' Hazel," he says.

60 small dollars and 23 half dollars had seven 40% silver halves (1965, 3 x 1967, 2 x 1968D, 1969D).

6,440 quarters produced one silver Washington (1960D), eight Canadians and one Bahamas 1¢.

2,500 dimes yielded one proof (2002S) and four Canadians. It sure felt good to find that new proof. The dime proofs are tough to spot.

1,840 nickels rounded up just one Swiss 20 Rappen and four US pennies.

2,600 pennies got me nine Wheats, thirteen Canadians and one US dime.

1941, 1944, 1950S, 1952D, 1952S, 1957(2), 1958(2)

50 small dollars and 40 halves had nothing.

3,800 quarters produced one proof (2003S Arkansas), five Canadians, five US nickels, two US dimes and one Chinese 1 Yuan. The proof quarter is the thirteenth I've found this year (twenty-sixth ever) and a new one for me.

2,700 dimes yielded one silver Rosie (1962D), six Canadians and one US penny.

1,200 nickels turned up one War Time (1944P) and one Canadian.

3,700 pennies rounded up forty-five Wheats, thirty-one Canadians, two US dimes and one Bermuda 1¢. Unfortunately most of the Wheats seemed to have been chemically treated somehow as they were worn, but most of their grime was washed off.

1927, 1929, 1935, 1936, 1938, 1939, 1940(4), 1941(4), 1942(3), 1944(5), 1945(3), 1946(7), 1950D, 1951(2), 1953, 1953D, 1955, 1955D(2), 1956D(5)

Found: 1 penny, 1 dime

Sometimes the best way to do a blog post is just to put up a whole lot of pictures and comment on them.



Meg and Kristina took the kids to Purgatory Chasm last week. If I remember right it was a bit rocky (mood-wise), but these pictures make it look like solid fun to me! (funny how that happens) Here's a picture of Henry and his buddy Griffin.



Hazel doing some climbing at Purgatory Chasm.



Last week Meg also took our kids for a fun rail trail walk. It sounded like a great day. I wish so much that I was there, especially today when I'm back at work.











After the good times they had on the trail (tiring though, pushing their combined 60 lbs. takes a lot out of one) Meg and Henry made pasta during Hazel's nap. Henry did a good job and was very proud of their work.



This weekend was our town's fall festival. Henry wasn't too keen on the parade still because of the loud sounds and so I took only Hazel at first. She enjoyed it a lot and scored some candy, beads, a ruler and a cup. Henry watched the parade from our window and later came to get some candy. He only saw three or so vehicles, but got more than enough candy. Afterwards he told me, "I liked that parade a lot." I asked him what his favorite part was. "Watching it from the window." Meg told me he enthusiastically narrated the whole thing.



Henry and I killed some rainy afternoon time at Home Depot doing one of his favorite things ... looking through all of kitchens there. He (and Hazel if she were there) get a big kick of exploring the sample kitchens, refrigerators, ovens and blinds.

7 small dollars had nothing.

8,000 half dollars turned up one 90% silver half (1964) and twenty-two 40% silver halves (1965, 2 x 1966, 10 x 1967, 6 x 1968D, 3 x 1969D).

5,000 pennies rounded up just five Canadians. These consisted of only post-82 pennies and clearly were searched by some copper hunter before me ... boring.

Found: 5 pennies

Just a quick coin update ...

14 large dollars, 166 small dollars and 11 half dollars had nothing.

5,680 quarters produced one silver Washington (1956), six Canadians, two Bermuda 25¢ and one German Mark (1990).

800 dimes yielded just one Polish 10 Grozny.

400 nickels had one Canadian (1 Ni).

1,500 pennies turned up four Wheats (1941, 1946, 1953D, 1952D), nine Canadians and one UK penny.

Found: 1 nickel