1944-S Philippines 1 Centavo!

What's twice the size of a U.S. cent and only worth half of one in face value? This coin! Two of these (relatively) large coins would make but one tiny U.S. cent despite having more metal content. That was back in the time when the government made money from making money. Now the cent and nickel are getting expensive and people aren't happy. This coin has jumped an estimated five times its original face value (due to inflation) making it worth $0.50.

1936 (1944) Ethiopia 1 Santeem!

My one and only Ethiopian coin. It was "Struck at Philadelphia, Birmingham and the Royal Mint, London between 1944 and 1975 with the date EE1936 frozen" according to NGC. With my luck, it's probably one years, but there's no way to tell so it doesn't really matter. It has a mintage of 20,000,000 making it somewhat common and as such it is worth relatively little at $0.20.

1936 Mexico 1 Centavo!

Here's a coin from a time when Mexico could actually produce 1 Cent coins. Now their lowest denomination is the 5 Cent coin which seems to be the new norm around the world. The U.S. may even become part of this trend. The reasons I bought it: #1 I didn't have one and #2 I love that eagle. Reminds me of the German ones with the wings all outstretched. Despite my love for its eagle, it is only worth $0.10.

1947 Canadian Penny!

Here's another one of the Canadian Cents/Pennies I bought before it's demise. It is in awful shape, but even in this condition it is worth at least metal value. Go to this site and you'll see that it is worth at least $0.15 in VG. Of course, that's a little much unless you need it for a set and even then it's a filler. Since I collect these for the sake of having them, I don't mind paying a little bit of money for them, but I don't want to spend too much either.

Also, I will probably be going to the flea market today for the first time in 5ever. Hopefully I will find a few nice, new coins!

1927 Canadian Cent and Trivia Answers!

Now that the Canadian cent has had it's life support cut off, it will soon see less and less time in circulation. With the hoarders and government aggressively recalling them, some people may give them grotesquely large price tags because of their newfound "rarity". Therefore, it is wise to avoid dealings with anyone who claims to have a "XXX RARE CANADIAN PENNY" unless it is known to be rare. If you still wish to attain issues of the Canadian Cent, do not fret. Most of them are still relatively cheap and will be for the foreseeable future. This is because there have been 35 Billion of them made since 1908 when the RCM opened. They will still be in the $0.25, $0.50, and $1.00+ junk bins at coin shows and flea markets which is where I got the above coin. It's worth about $3.00 and is, in high grade, an exception to that "XXX" rule above. Still it's not much to get excited over unless you find one in circulation. I got it for between $0.15 and $0.20 as it was in the "$0.25 for 1; $1.00 for 5" box and I got a few freebies.

On to trivia! This week's question was "What coin did I feature on December 30, 2012?" and the answer was "Bahama Islands 5 Cents". 5 people answered, all with the correct answer. In other words participation is up from last week! Thanks guys! Be sure to vote on the new question!

Holey Cent #2!

A long time ago in a galaxy not so far away... this happened. I don't know who but I do know how and possibly why. Someone obviously decided to drill a hole in it. This could have been to wear, an experiment, or just to make carrying it more easy. It is a pretty tiny coin and putting a few hundred on a necklace would be quite the fashion statement.

I'm starting to think someone is out to get me because this Swedish 1 Ore coin has the second lowest mintage in the entire series and somehow it has a huge, gaping hole. It would only be worth about $0.20 but still. In this condition it is probably worth a cent or two for the copper unless I can get a gold or silver chain for it.

1953 British Half Penny!

This is my second favorite British coin. I haven't posted my first favorite yet but I will soon. I'm not sure how it managed to stay in such good condition except it being one of the first coins to have QEII on it meaning someone may have saved it for the occasion. My favorite element of this coin is definitely the ship. It was designed by Thomas Humphrey Paget in the 1930's and his initials are on the coin as HP. He lived until 1974 so he saw the death of his awesome design which lasted for an amazing amount of years. QEII's protrait lasted for 11 years before it was changed and changed again and again. Soon the queen will leave forever and sone of the other royals will be put on the coins and currency. But that's a story for another day so I'll end by saying this coin is worth $1.50.

1949 Argentina 2 Centavos!

I kind of hate having this coin. It is described as having cruder diework from the previous version which is seems to be true although I don't have one of the previous versions to comapre it with. It's got a nice design on the reverse which was seemingly pretty oily when it was struck. It's worth about $0.35 since it's in good condition the grease that was on the die when it was struck just makes it look sub-par.  

1980 Canadian Penny!

Yes these two pictures are the same coin. I took the first picture with no flash and the second picture with a flash and together they look like two totally different coins. I found this sometime during the end of last week in change. It's odd that I keep getting older Canadian coins in change rather than new ones and new American coins rather than old ones. I'm not complaining it's just a bit odd. It's worth right about $0.02 for copper value.

1975 Dominican Republic 10 Centavos

Look familiar? If not, take a look here at the Indian Head Cent. See the resemblance? I noticed this coin as I was searching for aluminum and zinc coins and quickly stuck it in the pile of coins I was going to buy. One thing that stuck out to me was the fact that the weight is on the coin. For a moment that made me think it was silver since usually only silver and gold coins bear a weight. A few clicks of the mouse revealed it was copper-nickel although silver coins were issued in previous years. Another thing that led me to believe it was silver was the toning on the reverse. Notice how above "Libertad" on the reverse there is a spot of rainbow color. Since silver can tone any color of the rainbow (and sometimes all of them) it kind of furthered my silver suspicion. Anyway since it's not silver it is only worth $0.15.

1968 Panamanian 1/10 Balboa!

Can you guess which one of these is the Panamanian one?

Got this at the flea market when I picked up all of those aluminum coins. To answer the question above it is the 4th one going from left to right. Technically the "heads" side of this coin is the reverse, but in America the "heads" side is the obverse so it looks more natural to me this way. Notice how it says "VN-DECIMO-DE-BALBOA" instead of "UN-DECIMO-DE-BALBOA" which literally translates to 1/10 of a Balboa. A Balboa being a Panamanian Dollar. It reminds me of the Peace Dollar which has "IN GOD WE TRUVST" on it and the Standing Liberty Quarter which has "E PLVRIBVS VNVM" and "IN GOD WE TRVST" on it. From what I understand this coin could be used in American vending machines as it is the same size, weight, and composition as an American dime. Too bad it's only worth $0.10.

1867-(P) No Rays Shield Nickel!

Yes, this counts as a $0.05 coin in my series. I bought this coin that is worth $20.00 for $15.00 2-3 weeks ago. Going back even further to 1867 you'll see that there were two types of nickels minted that year. One had rays between the stars and the other didn't. The one with rays was the original design struck in 1866 and some of 1867, but the rays were taken out of the design when only a little over 2 million were struck. After the slight design change was made, 28 million 1867 rayless nickels were made. With the nickels with rays having a substantially smaller mintage, they are worth $15.00 more than the ones without rays like mine. When both are in G-4 (Good-4), that is.

1980 British 2 Pence!

Got this as a gift a few years back. It's pretty dull with some wear, staining, and marks. The one thing I thought is pretty cool is the words "Ich Dien" which means ''I serve" in German. To finish this extremely short post it is worth $0.05.

2012-P Roosevelt Dime!

2012 may have come late for me (back in May), but it came in numbers. I have almost $0.50 of 2012 cents, $0.70 in dimes, and $0.50 in quarters. This is pretty irrelevant to the last two sentences, but I think the dime could use a new look. Quarters change yearly, as do dollar coins. The nickels have changed desings quite a few times since '04 and the cents have had 5 different designs sine '09. I'd say the dime is long overdue for a makeover. They could do the same thing they did with the cent and just change the reverse or do a complete remodeling and make a new design. What would be really awesome is if the mint did a retro kind of thing where they brought the Mercury Dime back from the dead, but in a newer, copper-nickel body. Let me know what you think down below in the comments. Oh yeah this particular dime, like most new coins, is only worth $0.10.

1970-D Roosevelt dime!

There is really no reason for this post other than I like the way the date looks. Same with 1940 coins. I don't know what it is about them they just look cooler than other coins. Like I said before this coin is nothing special and only worth $0.10.

1973 Netherlands Antilles Cent!

I honestly don't know anything about the Netherlands Antilles other than they are (or were) in the Carribean area. According to Wikipedia "Though the country has dissolved, the islands are all still under the Kingdom with different legal status and the term is still used to refer to these Dutch Caribbean islands." Now you nsee why I'm not quite sure whether are or were is correct. Anyway this coin is pretty simple and worth $0.20.

NOTE: This is the last cent in the series. Two cent coins come tomorrow!

1976 Irish Penny!

 I actually can't remember exactly where I got this coin. I suppose it was with a bunch of British coins that someone gave to me years ago. That's the only thing I can think of. I don't know much about Irish coins other than they were replaced by the Euro 10 years ago. I do know that this coin features an Irish Harp and a bird. I remeber when I went to Ellis Island they were selling Irish Pennies in proof condition in boxes. They were marketed as lucky pennies. I almost bought one, but $5.00 seemed like a little much for a coin that isn't spendable anymore. This coin is worth $0.05 which kind of proves my last point.

1961 Canadian Cent!

Bought this, 8 other Canadian Cents, and this Brtish 3 Pence coin at the flea market a while back. It was after this post I'm guessing some time in June. I bought this and the others because Canada has stopped minting their $0.01 coins and I only had a few. As I've said here I love the way Queen Elizabeth II looks on these coins from early in her time as Queen. This beautiful coin is worth $0.03.

2009 Bahamas Cent!

Found this in the return bin at a coin machine. It's amazing what you can find in those things. I haven't found any silver or anything, I have found one 2 Euro cent coin, two 25 cent coins (one from South America, the other from the Carribean) and a few more that I can't remember right now. It's been a while since I found anything in a return bin I wonder why that is. Probably the U.S. dollar's value going down and the exchange rate of foreign coins going up so that people aren't spending them as much. That or more people are starting to check their change and keep the foreign and interesting ones. Speaking of interesting I found the starfish on this coin very interesting. It's pretty cool having a few starfish on a coin. The reverse is pretty cool too having a dolphin and a flamingo. It almost seems like something out of an aquatic Alice in Wonderland. For those of you who were curious as to its value it is worth $0.05 not bad since I got it for free.

1967 Kennedy Half Dollar!

(Obviously) Bought this at the flea market and got a pretty good deal for it. It was marked for $7.00 and I only paid $5.00. Based on today's silver price I paid $0.96 more than the silver price which is an awesome deal. This coin is worth around $4.00 based on silver (it is worth less than silver in the book).