Coin "Collecting"
Dec. 19th, 2007 10:43 am I've never considered myself a numismatist -- I know next to nothing about coin values and would never buy the non-circulating coins recently sold in magazines or broadcast ads. However, I live close enough to an International Travel Hub (tm) to have been given a number of interesting coins in my hat tips or pocket change, and the resulting rush of "exotica" prompted me to keep what I couldn't spend anyway 8)
I now possess a variety of Canadian coins (including one "Loony" ($1) and a "Toony" ($2) -- my Canadian busker friends told me there isn't a paper denomination smaller than $5 C). I didn't know there were Canadian Centennial coins until I got a 1967 penny with a bird instead of a maple leaf. My oldest US wheat penny is 1939 -- Lincoln's head is nearly worn smooth.
There's an Indian-head nickel so smooth I can't find the date. Last month a boy's father donated a 2003 gold Kennedy half-dollar, hermetically sealed in a hard plastic case (seriously, there's no way to get it open 8).
Rounding out the Penny UN are:
A Bahamian 25-cent piece (with a sailboat on it)
Un Centisimo de la Republica de Panama (with a Mesoamerican Indian on it)
An English penny (depicting a portcullis and chains....?) and some fivepence (with thistles)
A Spanish Euro penny (a building with tall pointed towers)
An Irish penny (with a harp and a long-necked bird drawing with an even longer tail)
A tiny Euro penny with no country on it...only a Carnivale-type mask and two initials, an "R" and either a "J" or an "F")
A gold 10-cent piece from Hong Kong with a flower/large ornate leaf on it
A 10-cent piece from Singapore with a spray of leaves on it
I have a set of State Quarters Minted So Far
http://www.usmint.gov/mint_programs/index.cfm?flash=yes&action=50_state_quarters_program
(I just got Utah last night), acquired by the same means. One more year to go !
I now possess a variety of Canadian coins (including one "Loony" ($1) and a "Toony" ($2) -- my Canadian busker friends told me there isn't a paper denomination smaller than $5 C). I didn't know there were Canadian Centennial coins until I got a 1967 penny with a bird instead of a maple leaf. My oldest US wheat penny is 1939 -- Lincoln's head is nearly worn smooth.
There's an Indian-head nickel so smooth I can't find the date. Last month a boy's father donated a 2003 gold Kennedy half-dollar, hermetically sealed in a hard plastic case (seriously, there's no way to get it open 8).
Rounding out the Penny UN are:
A Bahamian 25-cent piece (with a sailboat on it)
Un Centisimo de la Republica de Panama (with a Mesoamerican Indian on it)
An English penny (depicting a portcullis and chains....?) and some fivepence (with thistles)
A Spanish Euro penny (a building with tall pointed towers)
An Irish penny (with a harp and a long-necked bird drawing with an even longer tail)
A tiny Euro penny with no country on it...only a Carnivale-type mask and two initials, an "R" and either a "J" or an "F")
A gold 10-cent piece from Hong Kong with a flower/large ornate leaf on it
A 10-cent piece from Singapore with a spray of leaves on it
I have a set of State Quarters Minted So Far
http://www.usmint.gov/mint_programs/index.cfm?flash=yes&action=50_state_quarters_program
(I just got Utah last night), acquired by the same means. One more year to go !