1991 Dominican Republic Quarter

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Another floor find. After work going down the subway steps I spot that distinctive silver color disc that can only be a coin. Quickly I bent down to pick it up while looking around in case some just lost it and needs it back. Once I realized it was abandoned and a Dominican coin I was so happy. I was with a co-worker who did not share my enthusiasm especially after knowing it was a less than valuable piece.

Yes I have found this exact date and type in my change four times over my lifetime. Yes Dominican coins in New York City are not surprising. And yes it is kind of subway yucky but still it is a neat find.

I am so glad to have a blog to share this with because friends, co-workers, and all but one family member can care less about my coin finds. One day I will be able to talk to someone in real life about coins but at least I have y'all.

Here's the stats...
Type/Country: 25 Centavos / Dominican Republic
Year: 1991
Mintage: 38,000,000
Metal: Nickel Clad Steel
Value: $0.15 in Very-Fine

Do you have coin from the Dominican Republic and want to know its value? Leave a comment/question and I will do my best to find out the price and history for you.

2003 Lebanon 250 Livres

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Although I found this back in 2005 and featured it the picture was small and had a weird ratio so here it is again. It was given to me as a U.S. dollar coin in my change in some long forgotten store.

مصرف لبنان
٢٥٠ ليرة
٢‎٠٠٣

2003 250 LIVRES BANQUE DU LIBAN

One of my favorite parts of this design is the BANQUE DU LIBAN "watermark" as the background. Looks like it was meant for currency instead of  a coin. The overlapping ovals are also cool.

The other nice thing is that it seems to be in uncirculated condition which would give it a $1.85 value. That is better than the $1.00 coin I was suppose to get and better than the $0.17 in exchange value.

Here's the stats for the coin...
Type/Country: 250 Livres / Lebanon
Year: 2003
Mintage: Unknown
Metal: Aluminum-Nickel-Bronze
Value: UNC $1.85

Do you have a Lebanon coin and want to know its value? Leave a comment/question and I will do my best to find out the price and history for you.

1952 Lao 20 Cents

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Or is it Laos? Well I guess back in 1952 it was Kingdom of Laos. Today it is the Lao People's Democratic Republic. Since this is my only Laotian coin I will go with the coin books version of Lao.

This is the most common of all kingdom standard coins granted they were only made in 1952, 1971, and 1975. After that "The People" took over and changed all the coinage.

ROYAUME DU LAOS ພະຣາຊະອານາຈັກລາວ 1952

໑໙໕໒  ໒໐   ອັດ  20 CENTS  1952

Around the date are the privy or mint marks from the Paris mint. France issued these coins and put a hole in all 1952 issues probably over concerns that the native Laotians would string the money instead of pocket it. Slightly ignorant, yes, but now you know why older colonial coins have holes. Modern coins use holes to save metal or make them distinct but there is a darker and seedier side to coins.

Kind of a shame they decided to hole the coin the trio-elephants are a very cool design. It is Hindi in style but holds no religious meaning instead it honors the local elephants.

Here's the stats...
Type/Country: 20 Cents / Lao
Year: 1952
Mintage: 3,000,000
Metal: 100% Aluminum
Value: $0.75 in Extra-Fine

Do you have a Laos and want to know its value? Leave a comment/question and I will do my best to find out the price and history for you

1958-D Nickel

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All these nickel I found in my change this past week were all from the same coffee shop and grocery store. I suspect someone dropped their old change around this area. Local change tends to float around for a while. I had plated coins I used in the neighborhood and then one came back in less than a week.

Notice that the 1938-2004 nickels was the only American circulating coin that had just one star. The star between the LIBERTY and date I think is more of punctuation thing than a design thing.  I am trying to think if any other U.S. coin had less than 13 stars but I do not recall. If you know of any circulating types just let me know.

Here's the stats...
Type/Country: 5 Cents / United States of America
Year: 1958 D
Mintage: 168,249,120
Metal: 75% copper 25% nickel
Value: $0.05 in Fine

Do you have any nickel and want to know its value? Leave a comment/question and I will do my best to find out the price and history for you.

1999 South Korea 100 Won

Do you have a Korean coin and want to know its value? Leave a comment

Where were we in the vault? Oh yes K countries. Although it is known as South Korea it is listed in most coin books as Korea-South. I guess they are assuming a reunification will happen one day making it just Korea.

1999 above 100 above 한 국 은 행(Bank of Korea)

 백(100) bust of Yi Sun-sin 원(Won)

It is not that odd to find some type of Korean coin in your change around these parts. There is a large Korean community not to mention the tourism between Korea and New York is strong. The first time I found one was in the early 1980s. It was years before I knew it was Korean mostly because I was young and finding information about a foreign language was difficult.

Here are the stats...
Type/Country: 100 Won / Korea-South
Year: 1999
Mintage: Unknown
Metal: Copper-Nickel
Value: $0.10 in Fine

Do you have a coin from Korea and want to know its value? Leave a comment/question and I will do my best to find out the price and history for you

2009-D Native American Dollar

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Maybe I showed this one maybe I did not either way here is a very pretty dollar I got in my change recently.

Okay so the main reason I showed off this coin is that it was so shiny. Few of these dollars coins are worth saving even if I have not got one yet because they tarnish quickly. This is what I consider an upgrade coin. Even if I already have one this one is in better shape so I will switch them out. The old 2009-D will go back into circulation.

Here's the stats...
Type/Country: 1 Dollar-Native American / United States
Year: 2009 D (Edge normal)
Mintage: 33,880,000
Metal: 88.5% Copper, 6% Zinc, 3.5% Manganese, and 2% Nickel
Value: $1.00 in F-12

Do you have a dollar coin and want to know how much it's worth? Leave a comment/question and I will do my best to find out the price and history for you.

2007 Italy Euro Cent

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So she is looking in her purse for change. I said do not worry I got some. She insists because she has to clean out her purse anyway. Then she finds this Italian one Euro cent and said she kept it for some reason but forgot why then of course I said it cannot be lucky or special and I should have it. Well thanks to my form of logic I got a new Euro.

This has been a weird week for coin finds but who am I to complain. These coins are more or less useless in Europe because of there small value. With all the new austerity measures in the Euro zone I wonder will these make a comeback or die off completely.

Here's the stats...
Type/Country: 1 Euro Cent / Italy
Year: 2007
Mintage: 215,000,000
Metal: Copper Plated Steel: 94.35% Steel 5.65% Copper
Value: $0.05 in F

Do you have a Euro coin and want to know its value? Leave a comment/question and I will do my best to find out the price and history for you.

1955-D Nickel

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Coin is fairly common even at 57 years old. So let me note one thing the pictures were taken seconds apart. The problem was a cloud was passing by and since the camera was set on auto you get odd colors. The first image is true color. The second image of the reverse picked up on some rust and pinked it out.

This was found amongst a big group of coins that I been featuring the last few days. None are special or rare but they are were not properly featured. Since I got them together last Wednesday I thought it would be nice to show that you can get a bunch of unique coins at one time just from your change.

Type / Country: 5 Cents / United States
Year: 1955-D
Metal: 75% copper 25% nickel
Mintage: 74,464,100
Value: G-4 $0.05
 
Do you have a five cent coin and want to know its value? Leave a comment/question and I will do my best to find out the price and history for you.

2011-D Cent

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2011 saw more Denver coins made than Philadelphia coins. In the case of the cents about 2.4 billion Phillies to about 2.5 billion Denvies (not sure about the slang term for Denver). That being true it still takes about 18 months for a Denver version of the same coin to reach my fair hands.

I can only imagine that the each region keeps their coins in circulation and when they travel they use cards or take out cash in the new opposite region.

Still I am missing half of the 2009 and the 2010 Denvers but they were made in lesser amounts.

Here's the stats...
Type/Country: 1 Cent  / United States
Year: 2011-D
Mintage: 2,536,140,000 (estimated to date)
Metal: 97.5% Zinc, 2.5% Copper
Value: $0.01 in EF-40

Do you have a cent and want to know its value? Leave a comment/question and I will do my best to find out the price and history for you.

2004-P Keelboat Nickel

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No worries I have uncirculated examples that I got back in 2004 but since this recent reminded me that it was never featured I might as well do it now.

The second in the four part Westward Journey series, if you don not include the 2006 new Jefferson nickel.

The reverse has the Captain Lewis designed Keelboat used for most of Louisiana Purchase river treks. Al Maletsky designed this to reflect the boat on the river and how the men worked during Lewis and Clark's expedition. Pushing the boat away from rocks was very important.

The obverse has the older Jefferson bust.

Here's the stats for these coins...
Type/Country: Keelboat - 5 Cents / United States
Year: 2004-P
 Metal: 75% copper 25% nickel
Mintage: 366,720,000
Value: $0.05 at F-12



Sidenote: Let me see if I can make this a daily blog.

Do you have a five cent coin and want to know its value? Leave a comment/question and I will do my best to find out the price and history for you.

1961-D Nickel

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This one needed a proper post and explanation  of why I collected it.

Oh, no it is not special or rare.

Why is this coin being featured?
Well it is how I collect and blog. Mainly I want to display one of every coin and every form of currency every made. Since that may be difficult I have to work with what I got. All errors, foreign, and oddly damaged pieces will get posted. I try to avoid repeats unless there is something new to say.

For American coins anything that fits into the previous statement, any from 2009 or newer, commemorative, plus the following:
--Cents 1958 or older
--Nickels 50 years or older from the current year
--Dimes 1964 or older
--Quarters 1964 or older
--Half Dollars any and all
--Dollars any and all
--Currency each unique series, the star notes and their unique runs, any short run

So there is a gap of American money that is not being shown, mostly the 1965-2008 regular circulating coins. I will get to them eventually but first let me try to get to one every world coin I own first. Seeing how I am still on the K countries this may take a while.

Here's the stats...
Type/Country: 5 Cents / United States
Year: 1961-D
Mintage: 229,342,760
Metal: 75% Copper, 25% Nickel
Value: $0.06 in Good

Sidenote: New Yorkers will instantly recognize the background.

Do you have a five cents and want to know its value? Leave a comment/question and I will do my best to find out the price and history for you.

Squished Independence Visitor Center: Philadelphia City Hall

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Found this one on the ground at the crossroads for tourists in NYC. It looked so much like a wad of old gum that I needed to take a second and third look before I picked it up. By the way this weekend was perfect for going around and playing tourist in my fair city.

This is one of eight squished pennies available at the Independence Visitor Center in Philadelphia. As always it takes $0.51 to make these souvenirs. This one is known as a mule since it is two-sided. Printing on both sides makes this elongated cent longer than the one-sided cent. Unfortunately the person who made this used a clad Lincoln cent. Using that exposed the zinc core and will eventually start to oxidize and break apart.

I imagine some student was doing an east cost tour when they dropped there bag and did not notice the coin fall out.

Clad Planchet Dime

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First blank coin I got in my change ever. Just a few days ago I was at the store and decided to use cash, which I have not been doing lately, when I instantly saw this kind of yucky dime. At first I thought it was weakly struck or damaged. Still hopeful I brought it home, shook off all the loose dirt, and weighed it. Turns out it was real.

One side is a bit "rusty" with what appears to be water spots. Both sides are very scracthed and there are some rim dents. The edge is not reeded but you can clearly see the clad layers.

It weighs between 2.26-2.27 grams because my scale kept going up and down by 0.01 gram. That said a normal dime weighs 2.27 grams so it could not be shaved. The size is slightly smaller but within normal limits.

Never seeing a blank in hand but having a few other planchets I am fairly sure this is a Type 2 blank planchet. Type 2 means the rim was upset or formed enough to be a bit concave. The Type 1 Blank was just punched out and would be completely flat. So a coin goes from flat sheets to punched out blanks to planchets with slight rims and then they get stamped into coins.

Here's the stats...
Error: Blank Planchet Type II
Type/Country: 10 Cents / United States
Year: Unknown (1965-2012)
Mintage: N/A
Metal: 91.67% Copper 8.33% Nickel
Value: $1.75 in VF-20

Do you have an error coin and want to know how much it's worth? Leave a comment/question and I will do my best to find out the price and history for you.

1968 Kenya 10 Cents

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The one and only coin from Kenya I have and it is a bit rusty. Nickel-Brass, in certain proportions, has never been popular for coins but still it should not be this rusty.

Check out the reverse it is just a bust. Very seldom is one side of a coin without words or symbol and even rarer is a bust with no indications of the body it belongs to.

That was Mzee Jomo Kenyatta The First President Of Kenya and in later coins it would say that even long after his death.

The front says REPUBLIC OF KENYA 19 HARAMBEE 68 10 TEN CENTS. Harambee translates to "synergy" it is a Swahili word and was used in Kenya as an expression of community efforts to work together.

Here are the stats...
Type/Country: 10 Cents / Kenya
Year: 1968
Mintage: 12,000,000
Metal: Nickel-Brass
Value: $0.20 in Fine

Do you have a coin from Kenya and want to know its value? Leave a comment/question and I will do my best to find out the price and history for you.

1949 Jordan 20 Fils

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Jordan is hot. Not the basketball player the country. Average June temps in some cities can be 112 Fahrenheit. Sure that is also becoming true for parts of the American west but at least over there it is a dry heat.

Yes this coin is sort of obsolete but is still part of the monetary system. Currently Jordan uses the dinar so 1 Dinar = 1000 Fils. That means at today's exchange rate 20 Fils ≃ $0.03 U.S. dollars.

اَلمَمْلَكَة اَلأُرْدُنِيَّة اَلهَاشِمِيَّة

THE HASHEMITE KINGDOM OF THE JORDAN TWENTY FILS 20 1949

Hashemites are said to be descendants of the prophet Muhammad. Lots of typical Arabic style on the coin, meaning no people, a simple wreath, and the 1368 Islamic year on the front.

Here are the stats...
Type/Country: 20 Fils / Jordan
Year: 1949
Mintage: 1,570,000
Metal: Copper-Nickel
Value: $0.50 in Very-Fine

Side note: Of all four J countries typically listed in coin books, Jamaica, Japan, Jersey, and Jordan, I am missing just the Jersey coins.

Do you have a coin from Jordan and want to know its value? Leave a comment/question and I will do my best to find out the price and history for you.

1988 Japan 500 Yen

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This is one of the most valuable coins in my "change finds" vault. At around $7.00 it is enough to buy lunch both here and in Japan, assuming you are not that hungry. If I recall correctly I found this on the subway right in the center of the platform. I will let your imagine run wild on how it got there, I suspect abandoned after pickpocket realized it was not U.S. money.

On the front is 日本 (Japan), not sure about that last symbol. Pawlownia flower and under it 五 百 円(Five Hundred Yen).

Like I mentioned before high denomination coins often having fancier edges as a security measure to prevent counterfeiting. This one has NIPPON ◆ 500 ◆ NIPPON ◆ 500 ◆ which again means Japan ◆ 500 (twice).

1988 is Showa 63 or 昭和六十三年 as written neatly under the 500. The reverse also has a beaded rim and some leaves and berries in four directions.

Here are the stats...
Type/Country: 500 Yen / Japan
Year: 1988 (Year 63)
Mintage: 148,018,000
Metal: Copper-Nickel
Value: $7.00 in Extra-Fine

Exchange rate is also about $6.30.

Update: The official name of Japan is 日本国(Nihon Koku) which could be translated as State of Japan. Thanks to eddypc07 for the help.


Do you have a coin from Japan and want to know its value? Leave a comment/question and I will do my best to find out the price and history for you.

2000 Jamaica 20 Dollars

Have a coin from Jamaica and want to know its value? Leave a comment

How many times have I ask my friends who go to Jamaica to let me sneak into their luggage for a free trip? Every time.  Yet no one has every let me. Oh well at least I get coins from them. Got this one a while ago and when I first looked it up I was very disappointed to see it has little exchange value...and still does not.

JAMAICA 20 TWENTY DOLLARS

THE RT. EXCELLENT MARCUS GARVEY NATIONAL HERO 2000

Even though it has a better collectors value than exchange value it is probably funner and cheaper to get this in Jamaica. I mean you should get some more coins maybe a bottle of that famed Jamaican rum. Oh and some pictures of course.

Here's the stats...
Type/Country: 20 Dollars / Jamaica
Year: 2000
Mintage: Unknown
Metal: Bi-Metallic: Copper-Nickel Center, Brass Ring
Value: $0.75 in VF

Do you have a Jamaican coin and want to know its value? Leave a comment/question and I will do my best to find out the price and history for you.

2002 Italy 50 Euro Cents

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As Italy talks earthquakes, eurobonds, and other disasters we can reflect on the first fifty euro cent they made. Like other 2002 Euros this is the most common of its type. Made in the billions they quickly dropped to less then five million a year by 2004. Look I am not saying the Euro is dead but gravely ill is not a stretch.

Sculpture of Marcus Aurelius on horseback is on the front with the first map of the Euro zone on the back..

Here's the stats...
Type/Country: 50 Euro Cent / Italy
Year: 2002
Mintage: 1,136,718,000
Metal: 89% Copper, 5% Aluminum, 5% Zinc, and 1% Tin
Value: $0.62 in Extra-Fine

Do you have a Euro from Italy and want to know its value? Leave a comment/question and I will do my best to find out the price and history for you.

1995 Israel 10 New Sheqalim

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Back to the vaults with Israel. It has been four years since I last found an Israeli coin in my change. Before 2006 these coins were often found in my change here in New York City. The reason was the constant travel by tourist from and to Israel.

From 2003-2006 the sheqel became a freely convertible currency and entered a number of trading markets. Well all that means is that the sheqel is one of few types of currency that is not useless outside of its own country. So less Israeli coins were "accidentally" put into American circulation.

ישראל · ISRAEL ·התשנ"ה(1995) · إسرائيل 
10
שקלים חדשים
NEW SHEQALIM
١٠ شيقل جديد

לגאלת ציּון

The second interesting about Israeli coins is that there are so many varieties for each coin. 1995 10 New Sheqalim has seven varieties and designs. The language and lettering is a bit difficult to grasp so that increases the confusion for most sheqels, assuming Hebrew is not your native tongue.

Here's the stats...
Type/Country: 10 New Sheqalim / Israel
Year: 1995
Mintage: 28,224,000
Metal: Bi-Metallic: Aureate Bonded Bronze center in Nickel Bonded Steel ring
Value: $2.58 in XF and current exchange rates

Most Israeli coins were minted in South Korea so no matter what sort of instability happens in the Mid-East they would always have a fresh supply.

Do you have an Israeli coin and want to know its value? Leave a comment/question and I will do my best to find out the price and history for you.