Halloween

Halloween was good to me last night. Not to my wife, though, she was sick. :( We had twenty kids come to our door.

While waiting for the trick-or-treaters I searched 4,680 nickels (2 boxes and some hand rolled). It was a good lot. In it I found one Liberty nickel (1904), one Buffalo (yet another 1936), four War Times (1943P, 1945P, 1945S x 2), eleven Canadians, and one Bermuda 5¢. The Liberty nickel is only the second I've found and is now the oldest nickel found!



My nickel is not the one above! I wish it were as only five 1913 Liberty nickels were minted. One recently sold for almost 1 1/2 million dollars. Mine is extremely worn, but this is a good picture of the type.

Found: 3 pennies (1 in the elevator at work, 2 outside Papa Gino's), 1 dime (outside Papa Gino's)

VDB

Last night was an all penny night. After doing some work on our bathroom I went through 13,700 pennies (4 boxes and some hand rolled). It was good batch. It produced seventy-one Wheats, one hundred thirty-four Canadians, and one Bahamas 1¢. One of the Wheats was a new variety, a 1909 VDB! On the bottom of the back are the initials of the coin's designer, Victor David Brenner. They are extremely small and off center, Before the year 1909 ended public uproar over the vanity of placing one's initials on a coin caused them to be removed, and so there are four varieties that year, 1909 VDB, 1909S VDB, 1909, 1909S. I had never seen such a cent in person so it was pretty exciting to find it. It's hard to believe something so small caused a problem.



The above is a sample picture, mine is not in as good condition.



The Wheat breakdown was:

1909 VDB, 1918, 1919, 1920D, 1930, 1936, 1939, 1940(4), 1941(4), 1942, 1944(7), 1944S, 1945(6), 1946(6), 1947(2), 1948(2), 1950, 1950D, 1950S, 1951, 1952, 1952D, 1953D(4), 1955(4), 1956, 1956D(2), 1957(4), 1957D(6), 1958, 1958D(3)

Light Night

Last night I didn't do too much coin roll hunting. I had to reinstall the fixtures in our bathroom and clean the room up. That took a little longer than I thought.

I searched some hand rolled coin that I got during my Monday box pickup. Two rolls of halves (40 coins) produced nothing, fifty rolls of quarters (2,000 coins) produced one Canadian, and twenty-two rolls of dimes (1,100 coins) produced two Canadians. A little disappointing ... oh well.

1899 Indian Found, Sox Win!

This weekend was a good weekend. My wife and I painted our upstairs bathroom, we celebrated my nephew's baptism, and the Sox won the World Series. I'm a bit tired this morning from it all, but it was well worth it.

Things started out good on Friday. I searched 11,200 pennies, four boxes and some hand rolled stuff. This bunch pushed me over the 400,000 mark! In it I found one Indian Head (1899), seventy-two Wheats (one was a very rusty steel cent!), one hundred twenty-two Canadians, and one mystery coin (looks like some sort of slug). The Indian Head is the third I've found in a roll! It replaces a corroded one I had in my album.

The Wheat breakdown was:

1929S, 1931, 1935S, 1936(2), 1938, 1940(2), 1942(5), 1943, 1944(8), 1944D, 1945(2), 1946(6), 1946S, 1948(2), 1949(2), 1950(3), 1951(2), 1951D(3), 1952, 1952D(5), 1953, 1953D, 1955(4), 1956(3), 1956D(4), 1957(3), 1957D(3), 1958, 1958D(4)

I also looked through 340 hand rolled nickels. They only produced two Canadians and one Bahamas 5¢.

After dumping my waste coins on Saturday the teller sold me three rolls of halves she had. There were some silver ones in there so I decided to try to hit every bank of my way home. I only made it through half of the banks before my cash ran out. I found one more silver. In total I found one 90% half (1964) and five 40% halves (1966, 1967 x 2, 1968 x 2).

Found: 6 pennies (1 at Home Depot, 5 at Shaw's), 2 dimes (1 at Sovereign Bank, 1 at Shaw's)

Silver Load

Last night was a good night. The Sox won and I found lots of silver.

I searched 2,000 half dollars (2 boxes). In the boxes I found forty-six 40% silver halves (1966 x 18, 1967 x 27, 1968D x 2) and one mint set only half (2004D). The silver in the halves totals 6.8 troy ounces, about $95 worth!

I next hunted 3,280 quarters, all hand rolled. In them were seven Canadians, one US nickel, and an Indian Rupee, 1997. That's my first coin from the subcontinent.



I also went through 15,600 dimes (6 boxes and some hand rolled). The batch produced nine silver Rosies (1946, 1949, 1951D, 1954D, 1956, 1958, 1960, 1963), two Canadians, and one UK 5 pence coin. I was surprised to find that many silver dimes with no 1964's. The 1951D is one I needed! I now need just six Roosevelts to complete my album.

This morning I read this article about finding coins. I'm not sure I'd go as far to call the coins I find on the ground lost souls, but it does feel good to find money.

Found: 1 penny (at work on top of the vending machine), 2 dimes (at the Sovereign Bank)

13-1

Last night I didn't do any coin roll hunting. Instead my wife and I watched the World Series at a friend's house. Somehow she managed to bake muffins, too.

Before we left I went through a stack of 1965 Canadian pennies I had, about thirty coins. The 1965 penny comes in four varieties. To tell the difference I had to use my magnifying glass. It was tricky at first, but eventually I was able to spot the differences between them. I had to train my eye a bit. It was easy after that. I found all four varieties in the stack.

I picked up eight half dollars at Bank of America yesterday, but didn't find anything of note.

Found: 1 quarter (at Costco)

New Bank?

Last night on the way home I decided to check out the local credit union. It is open two nights a week until 7pm. That time fits my schedule and I've been thinking that it'd be in my interest to establish a relationship with another bank or two. They were friendly to me there and I can open an account with only $5! They had no halves (my opener), but they had no problem with me buying all the hand rolled coin they had. I bought a big, heavy bag.

Before I checked out the bag I finished a box of nickels from the night before. It had one War Time in it (1944P) and five Canadians. One of the Canadians, as I mentioned before, was one I needed, 1972, and one of the US nickels was a key date, 1950D. The 1950D is the rarest (by mintage) nickel.

From the credit union I got 2,850 hand rolled quarters. They produced nine Canadians, one UK 10 pence, one US dime, and one US nickel. No new varieties were in the bunch.

I also got 1,500 dimes. In them I found two silver Rosies (1960, 1963D), two Canadians, and a East Caribbean States 10¢.

They only had 450 pennies. Sadly, they only had one Wheat and five Canadians in them.

Lastly, I checked the 1,280 nickels I got. In the batch I found one Buffalo (1936) and six Canadians. I think I have about half a dozen spare 1936 Buffalo nickels at this point. More were minted in that year than any other, but my numbers still seem out of proportion. I'm still feeling good about the 1930 Bufflao I found a few days ago, however.