Rare Nickel Found

Last night I went through another 3 boxes of coins. The box of dimes was a dud. No silver Rosies and no Canadian dimes in the whole box. The nickels box, however, was great. Nine Jefferson Nickels have mintages of less than 10 million. In the box was one of them, 1939D. I now have four of the nine key dates. The box also contained two 1948D nickels, a common one I needed, one War Time nickel (1944P) and one US penny. The box of pennies was also good. It had two date/mints I needed, 1939S and 1954. My first one cent piece from Panama was also in the box.

Found: 2 pennies (outside the Post Office)

A Coin Finding Partner!

Yesterday, my wife joined me in the coin finding pursuit and contributed a nickel to the stash. It was sweet. Four eyes are better than two!

I had some pretty good luck at the bank yesterday. In the morning when picking up boxes I got a hold of another Ike dollar that I needed (1972). Just a few more to go and that album will be complete before it arrives at our home!

In the evening I searched 1 box of dimes, 1 box of nickels and 1 box of pennies. The dimes only produced one silver Rosie (1964), the nickels and the pennies were pretty good though. In the nickel box I found one of the remaining two common dates I needed (dates which are not key and not War Time). It's my most chewed up specimen, however. It is maroon colored and looks like it spent some time on the road being driving over. I also found another War Time nickel (1943P). It's odd that in all of the nickels I've searched I've found quite a few silver nickels, but all of them have been P's. Those D's and S's are bound to turn up soon. I did even better with the penny box. I found tons of Canadians, including two years I didn't have. I now have all Canadian pennies from 1959-2004. The box also produced my first 2007D (a really shiny one), a somewhat corroded 1982D large date zinc (I'll look for a better one.), and a few wheat upgrades.

Found: 4 pennies (1 near Shaw's, 1 at the Sovereign Bank, 1 at the Liquor Store, 1 at the Mobil Mart), 1 nickel (M's first find for the year), 2 dimes (1 near Shaw's, 1 at the Sovereign Bank)

Redeemed: $5.40

Right in Front of Me

Today I had one of my easiest finds ever. A half hour ago my wife and I went for a walk. Just outside the door to our building, at the bottom of our steps was a crumpled one dollar bill!



The bill find fits the day. Just before I discovered a Kennedy half dollar that I didn't think I had. For some reason it occurred to me to look on the back of my 1964 halves for a D mint mark (I had been looking on the front where the mint marks are for 1968 and onwards.). I found two 1964Ds, one in decent shape. I'm not sure how I wasn't aware of the mint mark location for that year. Now I only have 3 more halves to go before my circulation set is complete, 1982D, 1988D, and 1999D.

Today I also decided to look for the different date sizes for my Lincoln Memorial pennies. I had been thinking I'd just ignore those places in my albums, but I couldn't let it go anymore. I went through 5,000 pennies I had at hand. Now, I only need a small date 1970S and a large date 1982D zinc.

Found: 1 dollar bill (outside our apartment)

Good Halves

Today after we got home I looked over all the halves I got on Saturday. I didn't bring my albums with me on my trip so I didn't know exactly what I had in my collection. I found two additional keepers, a 1994D that is in much better condition than my previous specimen and a 2003D. After 2001 halves have been minted only for collectors and not for general circulation. Anything 2002 and later is a keeper.

Just a few minutes ago I tried to unload a bucket of halves at my grocery store. I figured that their self-service aisle would be a good place to get rid of some of them. I had no luck, though because the machine just spit them back out. Very strange.

Found: 18 pennies (3 at Shaw's), 1 nickel, 10 dimes (2 at Shaw's), 2 quarters

A Good Bank Run

Today I did a bank run looking for halves and large dollar coins (Eisenhowers). I was able to go to 11 banks in my in-laws' town in the western part of the state. It was a pretty good experience.

At the first bank I found four clad halves and one Eisenhower. I was pretty excited as I didn't expect to find any Eisenhowers, but have decided lately that'll I'll try to complete an album of those. I killed some time in a supermarket and found a Canadian quarter.

At the second and third bank I found nothing. At the fourth my luck started to improve as I found nine clad halves. At the fifth I found 6 halves one of which was a 40% silver one. I also found a penny at that bank. My sixth bank turned up nothing.

I took a break and "hit" a car wash. It was the biggest self service car wash I've ever seen. Land is just too pricey in my area to have these businesses. I found four pennies, 1 dime and 1 quarter. Not too bad.

At the seventh bank I had my biggest score. They had $72 in halves and $23 in Eisenhowers. I gladly took them all! I then hit 3 more banks, the eigth had only one half, a 1985 that I didn't bother to take. The ninth bank had $10.50 in halves, all clad. At the tenth bank I did fairly well, I thought. They had $67 in halves. I think the rolls were someone else's rejects though. The final bank had about a dozen halves and ten Eisenhowers. I saw the teller checking the dates before he gave the halves to me - so I only got clad ones.

When I got home I checked out my loot. I found six 40% halves (1965, 2 x 1967, 2 x 1968D, 1969D) and one 90% half (1964). One of the 40% is colored strangely and has a hole in it.



I also discovered that I had 7 new Eisenhower dates for my collection (1971, 1971D, 1972D, 1974, 1974D, 1976, 1978), now I need to find just four more. Hope I might try to search for some during my lunch breaks.

Found: 13 pennies (1 at the Mobil, 2 at Dunkin' Donuts, 5 at the Mall, 1 at Legacy Bank, 4 at the Car Wash), 1 nickel (at Dunkin' Donuts), 3 dimes (1 at Dunkin' Donuts, 1 at Target, 1 at the Car Wash), 1 quarter (1 at the Car Wash), 1 foreign coin (at the Big Y)

Strong Finish

Well, looks like I'm going to finish out the first half of the year strong. Yesterday I found only 3 pennies, 2 at the Mobil Mart and 1 at Burger King. Today things were better though. At the Shell I found a quarter in the pay phone and a penny by the vacuums (I never seem to make out like Bailey near those things.). Then at the Shaw's on an errand I found 3 quarters, 1 dime, 1 penny, 1 T token (worth $1.70), and 1 Canadian nickel. And finally at the Mobil Mart I found 1 beat up penny.

Last night's coin roll hunting went pretty well. The night before I went through 3 boxes, 1 of pennies, 1 of nickels and 1 of dimes. In the boxes I found 1 wheat penny I didn't have and few Canadian coins I needed. It was a disappointing search. Last night though I tried the same number of boxes and found 1 silver dime (1960D, one I needed), 1 dateless Buffalo nickel, 1 War Time nickel (1943P, I've found a bunch of these but haven't found and D's or S's, the ones I need), and 1 needed wheat penny. Pretty slim pickings, but still better than the night before.



At the bank yesterday I also got a roll of the new John Adams dollar coins. So far I've kept one, used several in a vending machine with no problems, and one at the Mobil Mart with no questions. I'm not sure if there are sites devoted to grass roots dollar coin efforts, but I did find two regarding the $2 bill.

$2 Bill Project

Two Dollar Bills

I also found a site dedicated to listing free or cheap coin counting options. It is called The Coin Counting Home Page and is pretty useful.

This morning I got another year of Popular Mechanics through My Coke Rewards.

Found: 6 pennies (3 at the Mobil Mart, 1 at Burger King, 1 at the Shell, 1 at Shaw's), 1 dime (1 at Shaw's), 4 quarters (1 at the Shell, 3 at Shaw's), and 1 foreign coin (at Shaw's)

Feeling Lucky

Today I had a great bank experience. At lunch I went to the bank to dump a whole bunch of waste coins. Things started out well when I found a nickel right by my car.

About 15 minutes later when I was midway through my waste coins a lady came to use the Coin Star machine. I finished the box I was on and let her use the machine. While waiting I found two pennies and 1 Canadian quarter. Once she was done I asked to buy her reject coins. In her rejects I found 2 silver dimes (1957 and 1961), 4 Canadian quarters and 6 Canadian dimes. I then finished with my coins.

As I left the bank I noticed that another person left a whole bunch of coins in the shute. In the shute I found 3 pennies, 10 dimes and one quarter!

Found: 5 pennies (2 near Coin Star machine at Sovereign Bank, 3 in the Coin Star shute at Sovereign Bank), 1 nickel (outside of Sovereign Bank), 10 dimes (all in the Coin Star shute at Sovereign Bank), 1 quarter (in the Coin Star shute at Sovereign Bank) and 1 foreign coin (near the Coin Star machine at Sovereign Bank)

Finished Clad Eagle Quarters!

Last night I completed my 2nd album, Quarters 1965-1998! I also got closer to completing my State Quarter album. I still need a five coins for it (Arkansas D, Michigan D, Nebraska D, North Dakota D, and Montana D). And there is one for which my only specimen is lousy, Mississippi D, that I'll keep looking for.

Last night I heard a good story on NPR. It was about how P&G will soon be producing more concentrated laundry detergent so that the containers they use to sell it in will be smaller, but are trying to figure out a way to get consumers to use less of it.

Found: 2 pennies (at Costco)

Back on Track

Things have picked up slightly in The Great Coin Roll Hunt. Yesterday I picked up three boxes at the bank, one of halves, one of quarters and one of dimes.

I started with the box of dimes. In the box I found two silver dimes (1959D and 1964D). One of which I needed. So far I have 17 different silver Roosevelt dimes. I have 31 remaining to find.

The box of halves wasn't as good as the first box in that I only found 1 40% silver coin (1969D). Since this is only my second box my coin album had a lot of holes to fill. I found 9 halves that I needed. I only have three more to go to complete my Kennedy half dollar circulation set (not counting 1970D, 1987P and 1987D which were only sold in special mint sets) - I'm still looking for 1964D, 1982D and 1999D. My 1994D is in pretty bad shape so I'll look out for another of that one too. Hopefully my third box will come in tomorrow.

Lastly I spent some time with the quarters. I have separated them out by decade, but that's it so far. There's a good chance I'll complete both of my quarter albums with this box. (I'm not counting the pre-1965 silver quarters as I think the chances of my finding one of these in the coin rolls is remote.)

Found: 14 pennies, 1 dime, 1 quarter

Ups and Downs

Well yesterday was a day of mixed results. At the bank before I got to use the Coin Star machine to return my unwanted coins, I had to wait for two guys to finish. I asked if I could look over their rejects. They let me. In their rejects was a 1958 dime. Score! That's one I didn't have.

Later in the day my wife and I went baby shower shopping. In the store I found two quarters. Afterwards we went to the movies to see the new Anthony Hopkins film. At the very end of the film the projector gave out. They fixed it in 10 minutes, but we got free movie tickets. :)

My luck ended there for a bit. I went through four boxes of dimes in the evening and only found one silver dime, 1957. Fortunately it was one I needed. I then went through 2 boxes of nickels. The first came up totally empty. The second started out that way, but midway through the box I found 2 Buffalo nickels (1934 and one with the date worn off) and 1 War Time nickel. Pretty good, I thought. I didn't find any dates I needed for my albums. The remaining dates might be hard to come by.



(The rightmost Buffalo is one I found sometime ago. It was totally blackened with paint when I first found it.)

This morning though, the luck continued. In two boxes of pennies I found the elusive 1968S! Now my Lincoln Memorial cents (circulation coins, anyway) are complete. My first filled album.

Found: 3 pennies (1 at the cafe at work, 2 at the Bank of America), 2 quarters (Belmont gift shop)

The Great Coin Roll Hunt ... an Update

Things have been busy in The Great Coin Roll Hunt. On Wednesday night I went through my first box of half dollars. In the box I found 5 90% silver halves (3 x 1964, 2 x 1964D) and 12 40% silver halves (1965, 2 x 1966, 6 x 1967, 2 x 1968D, 1969D). No proofs or older coins, maybe next week when box #2 arrives. I also went through two boxes of dimes with 4 silver dimes in them (1964D, 1946, 1951, 1963D) and two boxes of nickels with 1 war time nickel in it and 4 variants I needed for my album.

Although my morning's find doesn't beat this awesome find I'm quite happy with it. Going through a box of pennies this morning I found an elusive 1972S penny. Now if I could only find a 1968S penny my Lincoln Memorial cents will be done and I can concentrate on finding Wheats and Canadians!



I'm also keeping my eye out for Canadian coins. I've found quite a few of them in the rolls I've hunted. To better organize my collection I got a set of albums for them from Brent-Krueger. I was very pleased with their service. The Dansco Albums are of higher quality and have a different mounting system, but I think these are the best Canadian albums available.



Today my secret can donor left about a dollar's worth of cans in my office. The day is starting out just fine.

Found: 2 pennies (1 at Burger King, 1 in the hallway at work)

Redeemed: $5.50

Another Coin Star Find

Today at lunch I went to the bank to pick up a box of half dollars they ordered for me. The box looks really good. Without opening any of the rolls I've seen that at least half a dozen are silver halves!

While at the bank I checked out the Coin Star machine. In the reject bin was 11 pennies, 2 dimes, 4 nickels, 2 Canadian dimes, 1 Bahama 5 cents, 2 Italian 20 Lire coins, and 1 button. Not bad, I say.



Found: 11 pennies (near Coin Star at the Sovereign Bank), 4 nickels (near Coin Star at the Sovereign Bank), 2 dimes (near Coin Star at the Sovereign Bank), and 5 foreign coins (near Coin Star at the Sovereign Bank)

Indian Head

Today while searching through a box of pennies I found a 1904 Indian Head. My search through a box of nickels produced a Cayman Islands 10 cent piece ... very strange.


This weekend I read through my free Popular Mechanics. There were some interesting facts in it. In an article on home energy use was this good quote:

At one time, America's home energy picture was enviable. In the late 1970s and early '80s, consumption plummeted by one-third as homeowners took steps such as adding insulation and caulking around windows. Yet homes built since the early 1990s take more energy to heat than older homes. Why? Because the average size of a new house has climbed steeply, from about 1500 sq. ft. to nearly 2500 sq. ft.

It also ironically spread a myth in an article entitled "10 HDTV Myths." While dispelling the myth that HDTV content can only begotten through cable or a satellite system and not over the air (a falsehood perpetuated by numerous big box saleskids) PM stated, "You can receive them with the tuner in your HDTV set or an external DTV set-top receiver, but you need an external HD antenna." That's misleading, any old UHF antenna will do, there's no need to imply that a special antenna is needed.

Found: 1 nickel (in hallway at work)

Same Bank ... Same Luck

Well, yesterday I went back the bank where I got one great box of dimes. I got one more. I asked for 3, but they would only give me one. In the box I found 6 silver dimes (46, 49D, 2 x 57, 64)! Although my luck was just as good as the previous night I don't think the boxes were related as the inspection dates on the two boxes were more than a month apart. In another box from a different bank I found 2 silver dimes (49, 64). I also found one war nickel and several nickels and pennies I needed.



While cashing in a bunch of coins I found a quarter from Bermuda.



Found: 1 penny (on the street near our apartment), 1 quarter (near vending machine at work), 1 foreign coin (Sovereign Bank)

Double Luck

In addition to being a great weekend seeing houses and spending time with my family, this weekend was an especially good weekend for my hobbies.

I found a huge number of foreign coins this weekend. Most coming from a fistfull of coins I found in the Coin Star machine return slot at my Shaw's. The haul included a 1 Jamaican $5 coin (only worth 7 cents or so), a 1 pence UK coin, a 1p Irish coin, a 10 pence UK coin, a Canadian penny and a Canadian dime. I also found two game tokens. One is for Connecticut Golf Land in Vernon and the other is for NAMCO of London.



I also had tremendous success coin roll hunting. In three boxes of nickels I found 3 War Time nickels (2 x 1943P, 1 1945P) and filled some holes in my albums with some rare dates. In two boxes of dimes I found 5 silver Rosies (1960, 1961, 1962, 2 x 1964D)! One box had four and in that box one roll had two! Most of them look fantastic. One is almost like a brand new coin.



(The rightmost dime in the picture is the one I found last Thursday.)

Let's hope the luck continues. I need to slow down a bit though, as the time this has taken has been a bit crazy. I get very obsessed, as you can guess, when I first get into something.

Found: 20 pennies (1 at Bank of America, 13 at Shaw's, 1 on the street near our apartment, 1 at Klem's, 1 at the Exxon, 3 at Rapid Refill), 1 dime (1 at Klem's), 1 quarter (1 at Klem's), 6 foreign coins(all at Shaw's), 2 gaming tokens (both at Shaw's)

Albums, Totals and Dollar Coins

Yesterday was a pretty good day for me. When I got home I was happy to see that my coin albums came. They're very nice. I got them from Mark Johnson Coins. I'm not sure I'd recommend the place as one of the items was wrong. I'll look into their return policy.



Last night while sorting coins I found my first silver dime (1953) amongst a bunch of coin rolls. That was definitely some encouragement to continue my efforts.

I also heard a interesting dollar coin story yesterday. A friend of mine, let's call him Dcurse, used a twenty to buy a few subway tokens. He got a big bunch of Presidential Dollars back thus making him feel negative about the coin. I was sorry to hear it and tried to convince him that it wasn't the coin's fault - he'd be angry at receiving a ton of quarters in change too. I applaud the transit system's effort to use this coin, but not dispensing bills with the coins for change is a bad idea!

Today I surpassed last year's coin finding totals for all types of found money except fives (it is probably not likely I'll find two of them in one year, but who knows I did find two in 2004).

Found: 2 pennies (1 at the cafe at work, 1 at the Exxon)

Found Some Real Silver

After waiting some 15 minutes for an older couple in front me at the coin star machine (my bank lets me use it for free) - I noticed they left about $3 in the reject bin, before notifying them I went through it and noticed a silver quarter (1964). I asked the man if I could look through it for old coins. I found a 1963D dime and a 1908 indian head penny (in very bad shape). The man told me I could just have them, but I gave him 36 cents.

Found: 2 pennies (1 at Sovereign Bank, 1 at the Mobil Mart), 1 nickel, 1 dime (on the elevator at work)

Redeemed: $6.00

2006's Total Surpassed!

Hey! Today was a big day for my coin finding as I surpassed last year's total in less than half a year. NH was good to me.

I thought of a good bed and breakfast tip for other cheapos like me. Book your mini-vacation slightly off season. Not everything will be open, so you have to check around to make sure the things you want to do will be available and that any specific restaurants will be open, but the rooms are a lot cheaper. And when you book your room be sure to take the cheapest one, because chances are the B&B will be almost empty and you'll get a free upgrade. This happened to my wife and I two times in a row now.

If you're going to New Hampshire's Lake Region we recommend The Riverbend Inn. We had a great time there. The setting was perfect.

Today I also got our latest electricity bill. It was a new record low.

Found: 3 pennies (1 at Rite-Aid, 1 on the street in North Conway, 1 Bass Outlet), 1 nickel (at Papa Gino's), 2 dimes (1 at the Riverbend Inn, 1 at Rite-Aid)

Highest Find

Today I had my highest find. While hiking Mt. Chocorua I searched a hiking shelter at 3475 ft. In the cabin I found a penny and a dime. It was a small tip for the 6.6 mile hike.

I also had some other random finds, including a nice 1941 penny which I'll add to my coin collection. I'm getting close to last year's total!

Found: 16 pennies (12 at McDonald's, 3 at the supermarket, 1 on Mt. Chocorua) 3 dimes (2 at McDonald's, 1 on Mt. Chocorua), 1 quarter (1 at the supermarket)

Coin Collection Finds

Well, I've gone through quite a few coins in the past few days. I'm on batch #2 right now. The free coin counter at my bank sure helped a lot. After going through 2100 dimes I've found examples of every date and mint mark post 1964. No silver dimes though, oh well, I'll keep trying as I look for better examples from the 60's, 70's, and 80's. I've also gone through 2600 nickels and found a lot cool old ones. Today I even found a World War II silver nickel.

Off to NH tomorrow for a small vacation. Looking forward to hiking, reading and relaxing. Hopefully I'll have some NH finds to mention when I get back.

Found: 2 pennies (1 at the Westin, 1 in a parking lot by work), 2 nickels (at the Westin), 1 quarter (at the Westin)

Inflation

Well, it had to happen sometime ... my Mobil Mart raised the price on it's 32 ounce soda from 62 cents to 99 cents. Bummer. I think the cost of my other favorite treat, a big 500 calorie, packaged "pie" has gone up too.

After twenty years I've decided to get back into coin collecting. My current goal is to get the best specimens I can of all the coin types in circulation for all years and mint marks without spending more than face value to obtain the coins. To this end I ordered some nice Dansco coin albums online and got $170 worth of coins from the bank ($100 in dimes, $60 in nickels and $20 in pennies). I'll return those I don't need. I'm a about half way through sorting them all. So far I've found one 1919 Buffalo nickel in the batch and 12 Canadian nickels. Haven't gotten to the pennies, yet. Anyone have any dimes or quarters pre-1965 they want to donate? I'll pay for the stamp.



Found: 4 pennies (Mobil Mart), 1 dime (Burger King)

Cheap Ice Cream

My sister gave me the heads up on a good deal. Today was 31 cent scoop day at all Baskin Robbins locations. My wife and I went for a small dessert. My sister also told me about an opportunity for some free pizza at Pizza Hut, but I couldn't make that.

While enjoying my cone I found my second foreign coin of the day, a 1976 Canadian penny.



Found: 2 pennies (1 at cafe at work, 1 at the Belmont Car Wash), 1 foreign coin

Foreign Find

Today I found a cool foreign coin. Killing time on the way to work I stopped at an Exxon station. In the parking lot by the pay phone I found an old coin. At first I thought it was a worn quarter, but on closer inspection I noticed it was something else. Turns out it is a 1937 Dominican Republic 5 Centavos coin. My second oldest find of the year!



Here's a picture of what a similar coin looks like in much better condition.



Yesterday was a day for some good deals. At Costco I got shredded cheese at less than half the price I usually get it for at the supermarket. My wife and I also found a lot of good stuff at the GAP Outlet near us. The first Tuesday of the month always gets us an additional 10% off if we use our GAP card. Last night though we also got double rewards points. Good deal, I say.

I also heard this great eco-cheap piece on NPR yesterday about a guy who is into hypermiling (the act of trying to get outrageous MPG through all means). He reminded me of myself a bit. I don't think I'll his methods, but for the past year I have been trying to drive the speed limit and to be less aggressive. It's probably one of the tougher things I've been trying to do.

Found: 12 pennies (3 at Costco, 7 at Burger King, 2 near the pay phone at the Exxon), 2 dimes (1 at the Mobil Mart, 1 at the Exxon), 1 foreign coin

Free Entertainment

Last night I found some good free entertainment - a talk by two authors followed by a book signing. It was at a library in Newton. Diana and Michael Preston spoke about their new book Taj Mahal. I haven't read it yet, but plan to. I enjoyed their books Boxer Rebellion and A Pirate of Exquisite Mind. They signed both and were very friendly. I'll have to remember to keep an eye on my local paper's listings for more authors.

Found: 9 pennies (1 outside Prospect Auto Body, 1 outside Enterprise Rent-A-Car), 1 dime