Well I took the time to count a few more cents for the cent project today. I pulled out the bag of 1969s and went through them. A total of 45 and I was surprised to find that 33 were from the Denver mint.

Surprised that is until I pulled out my copy of the Red Book and looked them up. That was a bumper year for the Denver mint with 4,002,832,200 cents minted there. Nearly 4 times as many as at Philadelphia (I had 11) and San Francisco only minted a little less then 3 million of which I found 1. It was also interesting to note that although several of my 1959 cents were full red and AU in condition, the 1969 cents were all well worn.

So I've been counting pennies tonight. Quite a while ago I signed up to be a volunteer for the Cent Project. An effort to get a picture of cents in circulation around the country. Volunteers bought $50 worth of circulated cents at banks and counted it, sorting mints and varieties, then turned in their data for publication at the project's website http://www.thecentproject.com/ .

At least that is how it is supposed to work. 5000 cents is a lot to sort by year and count. (I had to hit 2 banks to get that many too) I got as far as a preliminary sort by the last digit of the date. Judging by the lack of updates to the website I am not alone! Seriously, I have no idea if this project went forward at all, but there are no new posts since the count was declared on.

So tonight I started on my bag of nines. I found 1959, 1969, 1979, 1989 and 1999. No surprises here, the smallest group was the '59s and the largest the 99's (I bought the coins in December of 2007 so no 09's.) I also was pleased to note a couple of 1919s (P & D) and the real surprise, a 1889 Indian Head! So far I've only sorted the 16 1959 cents into 13 P and 3 D. I'm saving the larger amounts for later. Eventually I will mail in my counts if anyone is collecting them anymore, and in the meantime, I will publish them here.

Someone musta broke into their stash of old change recently. My lucky day when I stopped to pick up a retirement card for a co-worker the other day. In my change I got 3 wheaties! All in nice condition, about EF, and in date sequence 1955, 1956, 1957. Alas, the '55 is not the doubled die, but still nice to find. Just a short post today as I am busy posting pictures for the Ancient Peddler auction. A great place to find rare and ancient coins at low prices! I just bought a 15th century Hungarian silver as I type this and have my eye on an 1860 Indian Head.

Well it has been a few weeks since I posted anything here. I stopped at a Cruise in on Friday and ended up buying dinner and a few beers. Total change: $1.46. I got 1987 and 97 quarters and a couple of State quarters: South Carolina (D) and Maine (P), 4 dimes a nickle and a cent. Nothing too exciting.

Last Sunday I had a chance to stop in at the PAN show in Pittsburg. Things were pretty slow that afternoon, although most of the dealers I spoke with said that they had done pretty well on Friday and Saturday. I'd say about 10% of the dealers had already packed up and taken off by noon on Sunday but I still had fun chatting with a few and did some shopping. I picked up 5 very well circulated Canadian large cents, a couple of nicer ones, an 1860 Indian Head cent and a 1909 to add to my small cent collection and a couple of large cents (1844 F and 1856 VG). Not too bad. I also picked up a book on Canadian tokens so I can read up on them, I've been picking up a few.

I didn't find any ancients that interested me at this show, the pickings were slim and the prices high for what there were. I only found one dealer with a decent pick bin (now to me, a decent pick bin has a nice variety of older US and world coins at low prices, there were some folks with bins that were heavy on AU recent US coins, but they just don't float my boat.) I picked up a George III 1806 half penny, a Bank of Montreal Un Sous token, a couple of Vichy France coins (love that battle axe!) and a Silver Jubilee Crown of Elizabeth II. I was sorry to have missed the events on Saturday at the show which included a presentation on ACE.

You know, I don't use cash that much!

Over the past week or so since I've been back at work I've realized that I just don't tend to spend cash that often, at least when I'm working. Actually, I find I mostly just buy gas for the drive and for that a debit card is the most convenient thing going. I take my lunches from home and don't shop. Perhaps that is why after a week and a half all I have in my pocket is 57 cents in change.

I did get a couple of state quarters. These are circulating everywhere so it is not really a surprise. What was a surprise is finding a Denver mint Ohio quarter. I don't see a lot of these from the Denver mint here in the northeast. I also got a South Carolina P mint, a 1990 nickle, and a pair of zinc cents from 1983 and 1999. The best use I've ever seen these zinc things used for is when my daughter dissolved the zinc out of a couple and turned the copper skin into earrings!

Well that's about it for today. I'll try to make a point of spending some cash this weekend, who knows what may turn up in my pocket change.

Another day, another 22 cents!

Well I had to go pick my daughter up at the train station last night after midnight so I made a quick trip to the local Tim Horton's for coffee and a bagel. I ended up with 17 cents change and picked up another nickle from the floor of the car for a whooping 22 cents. Today I got a 1974 nickle and a 2000 P dime, a 1996 and a 2007 zink cent (someone on another site called them Zincolns, I love that!) The real prize was the 1942 wartime nickle. I don't know for sure if that was the nickle in my change or the one on the floor. Very cool, worth about 70 cents just for the silver content.

I took a closer look today at some of the coins I picked up yesterday. My 1836 large cent is clearly an 1835 with the 1836 head. Not super rare or anything, but nice. The 1826 cent is a 6 over 5 overstamped variety, again not super rare, but fun to find. You can take a look at them if you follow the links below:

For the 1826: http://www.tantaluscoins.com/coins/34588.php

For the 1835: http://www.tantaluscoins.com/coins/34589.php

Until next time.

Ben

Not much left in my pocket today....

Because I spent it all at the coin show! OK, I have 75 cents left. I got a 1965 quarter, too bad it isn't 1964! I also got Virginia and Delaware state quarters which will go in my state quarter jar. I really didn't go with a high budget. Rooting through the pick bins I could hear people closing deals for over a thousand dollars. I'm a lot lower budget!

Pick of the day for me was a 1515 Salzberg pfennig. Nice condition with a clear date and only $18! I got a VF 1915 Cuba 5 centavos because it was interesting. I think I have a 10 centavos from the same era. I found a 10 centimes from Napoleon III and a fairly nice 1923-S Buffalo nickle. I think I have this one, but not in as good of condition.

The rest of what I bought are cents & pennies! I got a couple of 1797 British coins, one is marked a 1/2 Penny, one a Penny on the flip, but I think they are both pennies. I also got a British 1/2 penny from 1799.

I added a couple of US large cents a decade apart (1826 & 1836) the earlier one has a pair of initials, looks like a sweetheart token. I also got a couple of nice indian head cents and some Canadian coins - 3 Nova Scotia cents, 1 Newfoundland, and a couple of early Canadian bank tokens. I had to buy a reference to Canadian coins as well since my collection there is growing.

All in all not a bad day.

Just another blog

OK so I've finally jumped into the blogging thing. I really have no reason for it, but I was walking back from the post office this morning and I found a penny on the sidewalk. This got me thinking about the change in circulation in our country. OK, surprise, I collect coins (who else is thinking about them anyway?) so I do think about them a bit. I thought I'd start a blog and a bit of a project to keep track of my pocket change, money picked up from the ground and other things.

From time to time I may feature a coin I've bought, but this blog is primarily about sorting my pocket change. You can have a collection on a shoestring, in fact, you could build a coin collection just from your pocket change or from found money that is lying on the ground.

So just for fun, what have I got in my pocket today? Not a lot at the moment. 36 cents. I have 3 dimes: 1975, 1967, and a dark looking 1969 D that I found in a driveway as I was walking by. I have 6 one cent coins: 1967, 1982, 1995, 2001, 2005, 2008. I think the 1982 is one of the zinc cents so I'm going to throw it, along with everything except the 1967 cent into a change jar. I'll keep the 1967 copper cent separate for now.

Tomorrow I'm going to a regional coin show, perhaps I'll pick up some Buffalo nickles or or something! Till next time.