Circulation set, revisited.

To make a long story short, I had been focusing on a travel blog (hit it up! steampunkowl.com ) but I haven't been able to travel much lately, which as I'm sure you realize, is quite the hindrance when attempting to get a travel blog up and running. In the meantime, I've decided to dedicate more time to a resurrection of sorts for this blog, since coin and currency collecting is something I still actively participate in.

My latest project is kind of a back-to-basic approach to collecting. Collecting from circulation has gotten pretty dull for me lately, since I already have examples of most of the date-and-mintmark varieties you can find in change, and I don't have much spare cash to devote to buying older coins right now. So I figure I'll try to collect a second set of coins from circulation, just to see how long it'll take me. I'm figuring maybe six months to get all the non-key dates, excluding older Jefferson nickels.

I'll keep this blog updated with new circulation finds as I come across them!

Today's haul of new dates was skewed by a bunch of quarters I got when washing my car.

US:
Cents: 2006D, 2014D, 2016D.
Dimes: 1997P, 2012P, 2015D.
Quarters: 1970D, 1984P, 1991D, 1994D, 1995P, 2000D Maryland, 2000D New Hampshire, 2001P Kentucky, 2004P Michigan, 2005D Minnesota, 2013D White Mountain, 2015P Bombay Hook.

Canadian:
Cent: 1965 Small beads Blunt 5.

Graduation!

Today marks the end of my 4.5 year college career. That's right: graduation!

Over the past half-decade, I felt at times like I'd never make it to see this day. In a way, I still don't get to see this day, because I'm not actually attending for various reasons - not wanting to buy a gown, big crowds, unsure if I would even pass the last class I needed, etc. But that's okay. I can celebrate in spirit!


In case you missed it, over on Coin Community, I'm hosting a contest to celebrate my graduation. All you have to do is guess which two majors I earned a degree in, and you'll win an awesome old piece of US currency! I really want the prize to be a, well, surprise, so I won't be posting any pics of it. But it's awesome - trust me.


Anyway, now that college is over, I'm hoping I'll have more time to spend posting about the goings-on in my collection. Be sure to stay tuned!


(That reminds me, I should really go check through past posts to make sure I haven't left any contest clues...)

Cayman Islands 25 Cents

I work at a fast food place as a cashier. There, I admitted it.

Anyway, occasionally I get some pretty neat finds. A certain $1 bill I found was the coolest of the cool, but I'll get to that in another post.

Yesterday I received a 1996 Cayman Islands 25 cent piece. I noticed the portrait of QEII didn't seem right for a Canadian coin, so I took a closer look at it. Here are some pretty bad pics:

I'd crop them but Photobucket wasn't playing nice. I need to find a better image hosting site, as well as a better method of taking pictures. 

According to NGC Price Guide, the coin is made of nickel-plated steel with an unknown mintage. The type was minted for two years: 1992 & 1996. The site gives a value of 40 cents in VF condition. I doubt I could get that much for it, but at the current exchange rate, it's worth 30 cents USD, so it's good to know I made a small profit on it. I'll try not to spend the five cents in one place!

I'm back.

This would probably look less suspicious if it wasn't posted almost 3 years to the day since my last post...

Well hi.

I recently decided to start another blog that I've been doing okay with posting on so far (anyone into Pokemon? go here!). I was going to put coin & stamp content on that blog, but then realized that it would make more sense if I put the coin stuff at least on the blog I already had dedicated to it. So, alas. The return of CoinSearcher.

As far as content, probably just the usual coin & currency stuff. I might throw stamp content on here too because I've picked up more interest lately. (I've collected stamps since I was 7.) While, I'm coming up with additional things to write about, enjoy these pictures of a parking lot Zincoln I found a couple days ago. I think it's a 1991 or something...

Wow, I pretty much forgot about this blog.

It's been a long 6 months. Finished my second semester of college and managed to maintain a 4.0 GPA. That got me on the President's List but affected me in no other way, positively or negatively, that I can see. I suppose only time will tell if the work is worth it or not.

Finds have.... Well, they have pretty much disappeared. I don't always buy much of anything, but when I do, I use exact change. (I feel a meme coming on...)

Additionally, my collecting focus has re-oriented itself more to paper currency than coins these days. My interest seems to rotate in cycles of about 6 months. Coins -> Currency -> Coins with the random bout of stamp collecting thrown in as well. Currently, I have been putting my attention on a block collection of $1, $2, and $5 bills (small-size) from circulation, at least back to 1963. I have attempted this collection with $1s and $2s before, only to eventually spend the bills, which is likely what will happen here if it does not hold my interest or if my funds are depleted.

Yesterday, I cashed my first check from my summertime McDonald's job. I asked the teller for older bills if she had any, and the response was that she might. I was expecting maybe a small-portrait $5 or a $20, which I really wouldn't mind. However, when she returned with the cash, I found myself in possession of two 40+ year old $100 bills.

I really should start posting pictures. There really is nothing special about them; I'm not sure if I will even keep them or not.

Stats:

Country: United States of America
Denomination: $100
Type: Federal Reserve Note
Series: 1950D
Serial: G11144734A
Condition: F
Value: <$120, according to Blackbook Price Guide to United States Paper Money, 2008.

Country: United States of America
Denomination: $100
Type: Federal Reserve Note
Series: 1969
Serial: G03004163A
Condition: AU, corner creases.
Value: about $120, estimated according to Blackbook Price Guide to United States Paper Money, 2008.



For more numismatic-related reading, visit the blogs Coined For Money and Cheap, Green, and Happy, which this blog is based upon.

1904-O Barber Quarter

Hello, peoples..

I decided I should post something today, so here's a 1904-O quarter I bought back in late 2007.



I paid $3.95 for this old hunk of silver back in the day. It was marked as a 1904 Philadelphia issue, but upon closer inspection, there seemed to be an O mintmark under and to the right of the eagle on the Reverse, which means it was made at the New Orleans Mint. It didn't affect the value very much, so I purchased it.

It's graded as Fair-2 and is currently the lowest-graded coin I have in my collection.

Denomination: 25 cent
Date: 1904-O
Mintage: 2,456,000
Grade: Fr-2
Value: $5.43 (at least, due to Ag content)

Return!

I've been a bit busy with college stuffs lately, but I hope to be back to regular posting soon.

Also, I'll probably turn away from roll searching and focus more on buying coins from online dealers, granted that they have good prices, of course.

For now, here's a link to a good website:
Alaska Coin Exchange