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)

100,000+ Quarters Searched! ... drawing blood

Yesterday morning I spent some time investigating the EBay incident. I learned that the hacker sent out 200 e-mails through EBay's messaging system. Most e-mails concerned bids having to do with digital cameras and sneakers. Here's one of them:

Hello seller,
I'm interested in the immediate purchase of this item,which is needed in my store urgently in next 5 days for my customers, i will be paying 15USD for one and i need over 30 piceces,450 for the 30 jersey and 100 for the shipping making 550 including shipping & insurance via USPS or (EMS),i will be paying you through a trusted name PAYPAL [my PayPal account, the one he thankfully couldn't get into!].reply asap with your paypal email account which you want you money to be credited too so that i can send your money right away into your account.please send your paypal account include your email address in your reply so that can contact you anytime.[and not do so through EBay]i will be glad if you can end auction for the item now.Reply Asap NB:i would like buy the item to one of my store , pls let me know if you can ship today as soon as payment has been received .
Cheers.
You may reply me direct to this mail
rose_paul70@yahoo.com
Paul Rose [fake name and temporary e-mail address, I'm sure]

I also found out that he/she used a computer with an ip address in Chicago to navigate EBay, although I'm quite confident they are not a native English speaker.

Last night I coin roll searched and drew blood! While searching my quarters I got a nasty cut. That's a first, I think. Who knew this was such a dangerous hobby.

I looked through 5,600 quarters (2 boxes and some hand rolled). That puts me over the 100,000 mark. In that bunch I found seven Canadians and a East Caribbean States 25¢. No silver quarters or new varieties marked the occasion.



I also searched 10,700 dimes. In them I found five silver Rosies (1955S, 1956, 1964D, 1964 x 2), seventeen Canadians, and two Bermuda 10¢. The 1955S is one I needed. It's one of the more rarer Roosevelts too! Seven more to go.

This morning I managed to get through 2,950 pennies. I found a minor Wheat hoard. One roll had twenty-seven Wheats in it. In total I found forty-six Wheats, thirty-six Canadians, and two Bahama 1¢.

Found: 3 pennies (1 in the parking lot at work, 2 at White Hen Pantry), 1 nickel (at White Hen Pantry)

Hacked!

Yesterday afternoon I discovered my E-Bay account had been hacked into! I tried to look at some past auctions to gage coin prices and wasn't able to log on. I then realized I had "won" four auctions, three for sneakers and one for an $8,000 rolex watch! I e-mailed E-Bay support and today I IM'ed with a customer support representative to get it all straightened out. Luckily they couldn't get into my PayPal account so they couldn't pay for any of these items and my good E-Bay reputation has been restored.

Identity theft is one of my worst nightmares for my wife and I. Hopefully this is my last run-in with it for some time.

I didn't do any coin roll hunting last night as I was visiting with a grade school friend and his wife, but I did manage to find some good coins. While using the coin counter at my bank I found one penny, one dime, two Canadian quarters, and one silver quarter (1963) in the reject bin. Finding that silver quarter was great! That's my first pure find of one of those!

Found: 3 pennies (1 at Sovereign Bank, 2 at McDonald's), 1 dime (at Sovereign Bank), 1 quarter (at Sovereign Bank, silver, 1963), 2 foreign coins (2 Canadian quarters at Sovereign Bank)

2nd King George V found!

Last night was a light night. I only searched 10,000 (four boxes) of pennies. In the four boxes was forty-five Wheats and eighty-nine Canadians. One of the Canadians was one I needed, a 1932 George V cent! That's the second one I've found now. I also found nice upgrades for my 1918 and 1919S Wheats.

The Wheat breakdown over the past two posts is:

1919, 1919S (2), 1927(2), 1930, 1939, 1940, 1941, 1944, 1945, 1946(5), 1947, 1948(2), 1949(3), 1950S, 1952, 1952D, 1953(3), 1953D(2), 1955, 1956D(3), 1957, 1957D(5), 1958(3), 1958D


(This picture is not the coin I found. It is the same type, however.)