End of the Year 2012!

This year has been long and eventful. We had Sandy, Sandy Hook, The Election, The End of the World, Gangnam Style, Kony 2012, The Olympics, The Death of the Canadian Cent and the Presidential Dollar (for circulation anyway), QEII reached 60 years on the throne, silver is dropping in value, and I have showed a TON of coins.

I bought plenty of silver coins and found none in circulation. I found a few foreigners but not as many as I would have liked. I actually found some Canadian Cents despite the fact that the Canadian Government has stopped striking them and will stop distributing them in February. Hopefully that means I'll get some Canadian nickels when the cents start disappearing.

I don't think I found as many American coins this year because I already have one of most of the common coins I collect. I did get some 2012 Hawai'i Quarters within a week of their release but I don't think I posted them. I also found a few wheaties this year but not many as last year. Same with 1964 nickels. I managed to get a nice hoard of 2012 dimes and cents but somehow I have not managed to get a single 2012 nickel. I found a quarter with a cud on it which was pretty nice. I bought a Half Cent for half of its numismatic value and plenty of silver coins (listed below).

As for silver I bought a threepence, two sixpences, two shillings; one from Australia and the other from Britain, a Mexican Peso, two Panamanian Dimes, 50 silver Roosevelt dimes; 8 other silver American dimes, some American Half Dollars, two Filipino dimes, one Filipino 20 Cent coin, some silver nickels, a Seated Liberty Dime Love Token, a silver Morgan Dollar love token (which I was refunded for because it may have been counterfeit), some silver Canadian quarters and dimes, and a 1967 Special Mint Set which contains a 1967 silver half dollar.

I got a few official followers and some non-official follwers this year. I also reached the 10,000 pageview milestone. I'm at exactly 12,805 as I type this and it'll probably be more when this is posted. Thanks to all of my followers and viewers! Without you this blog would be a lifeless webpage.

My pre-1982 cent collection has also grown from about 500 to over 1,000 since I last posted about it.

I think that about sums up this year on my blog. I probably left a few things out so be sure to check out my archives for the full year of 2012!! 

1969 Bahama Islands 5 Cents!

The last coin of the year and it's rainbow colored. It actually kind of looks like someone did some waterclor painting on it. It features a not-so-prickly pineapple and a not-so-good looking portrait of the queen as it's main designs. Something about that face reminds me of a hamster. Personally I think they should have stayed with the first design but the past is the past and all we can do is look forward- to a possible King Charles. Moving on this coin is worth about $0.10 but the "rainbowing" might make it worth more.

1960 Philippines One Centavo!

A little over 10 years after the U.S. left and the Philippines were still using the old U.S. Administration designs. My favorite aspect of this coin is the multi-coloredness <--(not a word). My least favorite is the shotty die work. The "REPUBLIC OF THE PHILIPPINES" on the banner looks pretty amateur as do the sun's rays. There's also a possible die crack between the 6 and the 0 but that may just be from that stain. It's worth about $0.05 unless there's a die crack in which case it is worth more.

1993 Ceska Republika 1 Koruna!

This is the Czech Republic's equivalent of the dollar and is worth $0.05 in exchange value. It's almost 20 years old and in awesome condition for being so old. It was struck in Canada, as can be seen from the Maple Leaf mint mark by the lion's feet. It is worth 10x it's exchange value at about $0.50.

Update!

As of January 1st, 2013 I will be posting once every other day except when it is necessary in the instances of trivia answers, other updates, etc. This will hopefully be less time consuming for me thus bigger and hopefully better posts. I'll try to keep you updated on my Facebook (link at the top of the page) but don't expect too much. Another coin tomorrow, the 29th, the 30th and an end of the year post on the 31st until next year. Be ready!

1963 British Shilling!

In my efforts to get a pound's worth of shillings I picked up and bought this coin. I have 14 shillings so far which consists of 1 Crown (5 Shillings), one 2 Shilling coin, five 1 Shilling coins, 2 Sixpence coins, 3 Threepence coins, 2 One Penny coins, and 2 Half Penny coins. I need only six more shillings until I've got a pound and I'm really hoping there will be some silver ones (no this 12 pence coin is not silver) next time I go to the flea market. I don't have much per-decimal silver which is understandable since most of it was removed from circulation by the 1950's and Britain is across a whole ocean but I should probably have more. This non-silver 12 pence coin is worth about $0.25.

Christmas!

Ahh percussion. My favorite type of instrument. Something about banging things really hard is just too fun. This was my main gift today and, while I didn't get any coins, I was very happy. Well I did get some of those chocolates that look like coins but no real coins. This drum is currently on sale as of 12/25/12 at Guitar Center. It's $20.00 off if you're interested!

1961 Republik Osterreich 1 Schilling!

It's a golden Christmas Eve! Well, sort of. I bought this aluminum-bronze coin at the flea market for $0.10-$0.20 and though it is is demonetized it is worth about $1.00. That's the power of being an old coin from a poor (at that time) country. At least they weren't as poor as Italy. Anyway the schilling was the Austrian dollar equvalent being comprised of 100 Groschen. On the obverse "REPUBLIK OSTERREICH" means Austrian Republic and on the reverse "EIN SCHILLING" means One Shilling. Also on the reverse are three edelweiss flowers which you can read all about in that link.

If I get any coins tomorrow morning I'll be sure to post them and if not I may do a present post or something. MERRY (almost) CHRISTMAS!


By the way the answer to last week's trivia question was 6. One person answered the poll this week with the answer 4. There will not be a poll this week as I have something special planned for next Monday so the next poll will start next Tuesday and last to the Monday after it as usual.

1984 French 10 francs!

This is a beautiful coin in a bad shell. It's pretty well oxidized which is why it's black instead of its normal gold-ish color. You can still see some remnants on the obverse but it's basically all black. There's a very cool description of it here and it gives all of the specifics and such. The only thing it doesn't give is the value which is $1.50.

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.

12/21/12 (Mexican Cincuenta Centavos 1979)!

In the same spirit as this post on Coined For Money I'm posting a Mexican coin! They are basically the same coins in design with the only real differences being this one is 50 Cents and not silver. There were a bunch of these at the flea market and since I had more Tanzanian coins than Mexican coins, I bought it. I'm not particularly fond of the reverse design so I'm glad that's changed in the past 30 years. The obverse has changed as well going from the coin above to this coin. There are two varieties for this year one has the last 9 round, like mine, and the other has both 9's square. The round 2nd 9 is worth $0.15 and the both 9's square is worth $0.20.

1990 Kuwait 100 Fils!

Now that I look at this coin in a picture it seems to have some strike doubling. It most likely doesn't have any extra value, just thought I'd point it out. This coin is basically a dime in Kuwait although it is bigger than a U.S. Quarter and a tad smaller than a Half Dollar. It is also worth $0.35 in exchange value making the Kuwaiti Dinar worth $3.50 or $3.56 if you want to get technical. It is the highest valued unit of currency followed by the Bahrain Dinar and a bunch of other currencies and ending in Canada. The top of the page did say it was out of date, though so Canada and Australia may be a little higher now. This coin is actually worth more than it's high exchange value at $0.50.

1966 Thailand Baht (Fifth Asian Games Bangkok)!

If I'm not mistaken this is the first Thai coin to be featured on my blog. It was issued as a commemorative of the Fifth Asian Games which are held every 4 years like the Olympics. That thing that looks like a sun on the reverse is the logo of the Asian Games. Thailand hosted the games twice in a row in 1966 and 1970 which you can read about in the link above. The mintage for this coin is 9 Million and I'm guessing many were saved for the occasion which is why this coin is worth $0.25.

Viva La Mexico! (1961 Mo Mexican Peso)

Worst. Coin. Ever. Not really I mean it's 10% silver which amounts to about 1/2 of a silver dime and when considering this coin is bigger than a Half Dollar it's pretty bad. The obverse design is pretty cool and the reverse has not changed in since this coin was issued. Take a look at pretty much all of the coins that have been issued by Mexico in the past 100 years and most have an eagle on them. As I stated before it's got about half a silver dime's worth of silver which amounts to about $1.66.

MCB Trivia (Answers)!

This week I gave a question that was almost impossible to figure out. The correct answer was D. Ancient which had 2 votes. The other vote was for A. Colonial which is a type of coin I wish I had. Funny how an ancient coin can be bought for $12.00 and it takes 5 times that to buy a decent colonial coin. I'll be posting the ancient sometime in the near future and I'll have a new poll up soon! Go vote!

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.  

2002 Severely Damaged Cent!



Zinc Heart (far left) ~ Zinc Sheep (middle) ~ Zinc Foil (far left)

What a beautiful coin (not)! If you stick a post-1982 American Cent on a stove this will likely be the result. Since zinc melts at 787^oF or 419.5^oC it is likely the zinc melted and since the copper is so thin and there is much more zinc than copper it is likely the zinc began to expand and/or boil and burst through the copper. Now that it is in this state it is most likely not spendable 1.) Because it does not clearly feature the issuing country or denmination and 2.) Because more than half of the country still thinks "pennies" are 100% copper. I can't believe they've managed to perpetuate this myth since the 1800's. It's a bit ridiculous.

By the way those zinc figures were completely accidental and I was planning on throwing them away but I may keep them. Who knows maybe I'll need some scrap zinc in the future. Or maybe I can sell them as art. Hmmmm...

1963 Letzeburg 25 Cmes!

Letzeburg = Luxembourg 25 CMES = 25 Centimes or Cents. It's hard to believe there was a tiny $0.25 coin made of aluminum when America was making big, thick, silver quarters. I have two of these, both of which were purchased at the flea market. The other one is badly corroded and only in my collection because I got it 1 week before this one when it was the only Luxembourg coin I could find. The corrosion on that one doesn't matter much, though, because both coins are worth only $0.10 in MS-60. So this coin is about $0.05 and the other, corroded one is about $0.00000000000001.*

*= It may actually be worth more for aluminum value.

1971 Malawi 5 Tambala!

My only Malawi coin and I wouldn't have even known about it had it not been for this post. That coin caught my eye and I suppose I was sub-conscientiously always looking for one. Once I saw this I knew I had to get it, especially for the little cost of around $0.15. Plus most of my African coins are Tanzanian and Egyptian so I wanted to add some variety and a new country on my Numista dashboard even if it is relatively small. $0.15 wasn't a bad price for this coin as it is worth about $0.10. As for exchange value 1 U.S. Cent will get you 3.32 Kwacha, the equivalent of the dollar, in Malawi.  

1945-D Philippines 20 Centavos!

Bought this two days ago at the flea market. The Phillipine Peso under American administration was valued at 2 Pseos: 1 Dollar so this coin was basically an American Dime. It's the same size as an American nickel and 72.5% silver which allowed for the lower face value and lower exchange value. It's pretty dirty and worn so it's worth only about $3.17 for the silver content.

MCB Trivia (Answers)!

Another week, another closed poll! This week's answer was 10 Pence which was the only voted for answer with 5 votes. Here's the cool part: I didn't vote this week! That means more participation from you, my viewers! Hopefully I can make this week's post more exciting because the last one was pretty boring.

By the way, if you haven't already, you should vote in the MPCC on Numista. The sub rounds have all been voted on but the finals are coming up! Go ahead and register to vote and let your coin-loving voice be heard!

1987-R Italian 500 Lire!

Ah, Italy. The place where virtually all silver chains come from and the place where you can could hold millions of dollars Lire in your hand. Sure this coin is far from 1 million anything but if 500 Lire is in the coin category imagine what is in the bill category. Anyway I bought this and another at the flea market last week. The only reason being I didn't have one yet plus they look cool.To learn more about this coin click here. It is worth about $0.50.

1993 Romanian Leu!

Simple. That's the only word I can think of to describe this coin and yet it is so beautiful. I bought this coin about a week ago at the flea market after fishing it out of the junk/world coin box. Since I didn't have any Romanian coins I decided to get it. It's simplicty and beauty work hand in hand to produce a modern yet attractive coin. Sadly it has been demonitized and replaced by the Fourth Leu and is worth about $0.25.

1913-(P) Barber Dime!

Bought this at the flea market and it is a beauty! In all honesty this is probably the best condition Barber coin I have ever had. Maybe it's the black background or the fact that this is the best Barber coin I have but I think this is now one of my favorite coins. There's just something about it. Anyway it still isn't worth much at around $3.00 but it's a nice coin.  

1944-D Phillipines 10 Centavos!

Thought I'd shown this but I haven't so here it is. It's in UNC although the back does seem to have had a weak die impression. That or there was some grease in the die. It was struck under U.S. administration and had the face value of half of a U.S. dime or 5 cents. This was made possible due to a smaller size and silver content of .725 rather than .900. Also notice the mintmark between the date and the word united. It's a D for Denver which is where this coin was struck. This does not make it rare, in fact Denver was the only place it was struck in 1944 with a mintage of over 31 million. This means it is not rare and worth little, about $3.00 in this case.

1953 Panamanian 1/10 Balboa!

Do you know which one is the Panamanian dime shown below?

The answer to the question above is the fifth one from the left, in other words the one that looks kind of out of place when compared with all of those other worn down edges. This coin was a commemorative for the 50th Anniversary of the Republic of Panama. Not only that but it was a circulating commemorative like the Bicentennial Quarters, Half Dollars, and Dollars or Canada's 1967 Coinage. I got it for silver value, or around $2.40, and in this dirty condition I'd say that's a fair price for it.

1983 Jamaican 5 Cents!

I bought this at the flea market a long while back. It was in the junk coin box so I decided to save it. It's in amazing condition when compared with my 1983 Jamaican 10 Cent coin which I still don't like by the way. I like this coin very much, though. I like the beautifully engraved alligator on the obverse and the nice seal on the reverse and the awesome condition of the coin as a whole. Beauty matters in this coin's case as it is worth about $1.25 in this condition.

MCB Trivia (Sort Of)!

The poll closed today with the question "Now that the $0.01-$10.00 series is done, what should I do?". Three People voted and none of them were me this week. Two said to show more random coins from my collection and one said to show some bills/bamknotes. So Since I recently aquired a bunch of new coins and bills I'll be doing both! Be sure to vote on the new poll too!

1907 Barber Half Dollar!

Another flea market silver value coin. This is typical of these coins, though, since they were the $20.00 bills of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Yes it's true the $20.00 coin was a $300.00 coin by today's standards which is why gold and silver were useable. Now a half dollar is two quarters and we all know what that'll buy you- almost nothing. This coin has a value of $12.07 because of its silver content.

1940 Canadian Quarter!

Technically it's a $0.25 coin but quarter is easier. I bought it at the flea market for silver value which was in the $4.50-$5.00 range. The value has changed little being worth $5.02 as of 12/1/12. This coin features King George VI and his title of Emeroro of India on the obverse and a caribou, the date, the denomination, and Canada, the issuing counry, on the reverse. Since it's so worn iy is worth just the silver value.