200,000+ Dimes Searched

Last night I got back to my normal CRH'ing routine. We also got a chance to relax at home and enjoy some of our farm share produce. Both were great.

I first went through a small lot of hand rolled coin I got yesterday. I searched 200 quarters, 450 dimes, 360 nickels, and 900 pennies. I found one Canadian nickel, one UK 20 pence, seven Wheats and eight Canadians. No new varieties were in the mix.

I also went through six boxes of dimes. The first two were solid 2007P's and so I didn't bother to even open them. The next four were quite lousy. In one of the boxes I found two silver Rosies (1952D, 1958D). Otherwise they were skunks. And so I passed the 200,000 dime mark with a bit of a whimper. Oh well, better luck next week.

This morning I began working on the boxes of pennies. I managed to finish one box. In it were ten Wheats, eighteen Canadians, and one US dime (finding these in boxes of pennies has been a pretty rare event).

West Coast Report #3

We're back. Our trip was great. We went up to Vancouver and had a good time. Vancouver is a beautiful city. I sure wish the dollar was stronger like previous times I have been to Canada, but regardless it didn't stop us from enjoying ourselves. I used PriceLine to get us a good deal on the hotel ($100/night) and we saved a bit by buying breakfast and snacks at a nearby grocery store.

While there I managed to do some coin roll hunting! (No surprise to my friends, I'm sure.) I went through a lot of quarters. I'm not sure how many, but I got seven rolls from two banks and abused a bunch of vending machines (put change in, hit the "Return Change" button). In total I found 22 varieties I needed. They were 2000 Health, 2007 RCM, 2000 Community, 2007 Para. Curling, 2007 Ice Hockey, 2005 Sask., 2002 Canada Day, 2007 Curling, 1976, 2005 Alberta, 1995, 2004 Poppy, 1992 Alberta, 2000 Creativity, 2006 Bravery, 2000 Family, 2006 Breast Cancer, 2000 Natural Legacy, 2000 Pride, 1999 March, and 1992 Sask. I even came across two US quarters in the bank rolls, one of which I needed Montana 2007D. It was much more difficult than I thought it would be to find 1992 and 1999 commemoratives.

I also went through some dimes and nickels. I found two dime varieties I needed, 1996 and 2003 Royal Diademed. In circulation I came across two US nickels.

I asked for half dollars at the two banks I went to, but neither had them. One teller even told me, "they don't come like that."

While in Canada I redeemed three cans for the hell of it. I got 15 cents. They have a great recycling program in the province that gives varying amounts for different redeemables.

While dumping my waste coins this morning I realized that I passed by a New Zealand one cent in some dime rolls.



(The picture isn't a picture of the actual coin I found. It is the same type, however.)

Found: 4 pennies (1 at the Seattle airport, 3 at the Dallas-Fort Worth airport), 1 dime (at the Seattle airport), 2 quarters (1 on the plane at DFW, 1 at DFW), 12 foreign coins (all Canadian, 8 pennies, 1 nickel, 1 dime, 3 quarters, 1 dollar coin; mostly near vending machines and on the street)

West Coast Report #2

Good news! My West Coast coin expedition has been going better and we're having a great time.

Yesterday I stopped by a few banks to dump and get more coins. I got a big mess of hand rolled pennies. Today I supplemented it even further with a mix of hand rolled stuff and machine rolled stuff. In total I went through 14,950 pennies! In that bunch I found 47 Wheats, 94 Canadians, 1 UK penny, 1 Canadian dime, 4 US dimes (2 in one roll!), 1 Euro 5 ¢, 1 Swedish 50 ore, and 1 German 2 Pfennig. The finds included two varieties I needed 1917S and 1923. (I found the two state quarters I needed too, but I accidentally put them into the Coin Star machine a day later. At least they aren't rare!)



Over the past few days I've gone through 22,350 pennies! In those I found 66 Wheats (.29%), 146 Canadians (.65%), and 9 other (.04%). The Wheat ratio is less than half than I've experienced in the northeast.

Here's the found Wheat population:

1917S
1923
1939
1940
1941 x 4
1942 x 3
1942D
1944
1944D x 2
1944S
1945 x 3
1945D
1945S x 2
1946D
1946S
1947D
1948
1949
1949S
1950
1950D
1950S
1951
1952D x 2
1952S x 2
1953
1953D x 2
1953S x 2
1955D x 3
1956 x 4
1956D x 4
1957D x 4
1958D x 8

Found: 3 pennies (1 at QFC, 1 in the parking lot, 1 at Washington Mutual)

West Coast Report #1

Yesterday after twelve or so hours of travelling my wife and I arrived in Seattle. All went pretty well except that the line for the rental was very long. It took over an hour to get the car. Oh well, despite being dead tired we had fun yesterday and have started to feel more relaxed. Today with more rest and a fresh shave I think things will be even better.

A couple of hours after arriving I managed to get to a bank out here (bless my wife!). At the bank I got the three Presidential dollars I needed, Washington D, Adams D, and Jefferson D (I dumped the ones I didn't need at restaurant last night, the waitress asked if they were real.). I also got two boxes of pennies and 2,400 hand rolled pennies.

I went through the hand rolled pennies first. In them I found thirteen Wheats and nine Canadians. Not too bad, I thought. No new varieties, but the mix of mint marks was excellent. After that I went through the two boxes I got. These were not as good, out here they come in clear plastic wrappers, which is good for silver searching, but stinks for pennies and nickels. It took me about twice as long as usual to search them and reroll them. I don't think it was worth my effort, I only found eight Wheats and forty-three Canadians.

Today I think I'll go looking for the two state quarters I still need, Montana D and Idaho D. I'll probably try to pick up some hand-rolled pennies as well.

Before I left I went through a box of nickels. In the box I found one dateless Buffalo, one War Time (1945P), three Canadians, and one Bermuda 5¢.

Found: 3 pennies (2 at the St. Louis Airport, 1 at the Seattle Airport), 1 dime (on the tarmac in St. Louis)

Seattle Prep

Last night I only did a little CRH'ing. I went through a box of nickels. It produced one Buffalo (1937), one War Time (1945D) and seven Canadians. No new varieties, however.

I've got another box of nickels to go through before my trip, but basically I'm going to spend the evening packing. We've got to leave the house at 3:30AM or so for our flight. Ouch!

Found: 1 penny (at Boston Market)

Wacky Wheats

Things started off on a better note yesterday when I got my Monday coins and saw that for the first time in a few weeks the dimes weren't all 2007P's.

When I got home I first went through the quarters. In them I found one silver quarter (1964), twelve Canadians, and one French 1 Franc coin. The silver quarter is a nice looking one, but unfortunately it's a variety of which I already have two. It was sure nice to find one though! One of the Canadians was one I needed too, 1990.



The two boxes of dimes produced one Mercury (1943) and two Canadians. The Mercury's an upgrade and while the turn-out for these two boxes was low it was much better than the double skunk I had gotten used to.

The real story of the night and morning was the four boxes of pennies I got. In them was 282 Wheats and 47 Canadians! Even stranger was that about half of the Wheats were S's. And this is right before our West Coast trip. Very strange, I think. I got seven new varieties from these boxes (1916, 1941S, 1946S, 1947S, 1949D, 1954S, 1955S). Here's the year/mint breakdown.

1916
1927
1935 x 2
1937 x 2
1939 x 2
1940 x 3
1940S
1941 x 10
1941D x 5
1941S x 3
1942 x 8
1942D x 5
1942S x 3
1944 x 16
1944D x 4
1944S x 5
1945 x 13
1945S
1946 x 12
1946D x 3
1946S x 7
1947 x 7
1947D x 4
1947S
1948 x 13
1948S x 3
1949 x 4
1949D
1949S x 7
1950 x 10
1950S x 10
1951 x 4
1951D x 5
1951S x 5
1952 x 10
1952D x 8
1952S x 5
1953 x 4
1953D x 6
1954
1954D x 6
1954S
1955 x 11
1955D x 5
1955S
1956 x 9
1956D x 8
1957 x 7
1957D x 12
1958 x 6
1958D x 2

Slow Weekend

This weekend was a slow weekend for coin roll hunting. My wife and I visited with a lot of family and spent time working on our yard and finishing unpacking.

After dumping a big bunch of coins on Saturday I picked up some hand rolled stuff. I went through one Eisenhower, four half dollars, 360 quarters, 400 dimes, and 797 nickels, but didn't find anything. No Canadians even showed up. :( The most exciting thing was one roll of nickels had 33 nickels and four pennies in it. Oh well, the 1,500 pennies I went through were a good batch. In them was fourteen Wheats and nineteen Canadians. No new varieties though.

Found: 3 pennies (1 at Stop 'N Shop, 2 at the Shell), 1 foreign coin (1 2¢ Euro in my home)