1916 Canada Cent

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Among the last of the Canadian large cent coins the George V series went from 1911-1920. After 1920 they switched to the small cent because of metal prices. The final large cents were also modified to have CANADA on the reverse instead of the obverse.

On the obverse around King George it says GEORGIVS V DEI GRATIA: REX ET IND: IMP: which means George 5th Grace of God:  King and Ind. Emp. The reverse has ONE CENT CANADA over 1916 encircled by beads and a vine wreath.

Here's the stats...

Type / Country: 1 Cent / Canada
Year: 1916
Mintage: 11,022,367
Metal: 95% Copper, 4% Tin, 1% Zinc
Value: $2.50 in VF

Do you have a Canadian 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

$2 Conventional or COPE

Have a $2.00 bill and want to find out its value? Leave a comment

Currency Overprinting and Processing Equipment (COPE) notes were new back in the 1970s and replaced conventional notes slowly over the years. COPE notes were printed, cut, sorted, inspected, and packed all on one machine. The older conventional notes had this done on different machines and in stages.

Both types are common, have equal value, and are not all that collectible. Yet there is enough interest that you should know how to identify them.

I will give you a minute to click on the picture above and try to tell the difference.

Well below I made it easier to notice the slight differences.

Conventional serial number checklist:

• Normal or slightly thinner letter and numbers.
• Thinner kerning or spacing.
• G is more square, A has a larger upper triangle, 6 has a larger lower circle.

COPE serial number checklist:

• Bolder or slightly thicker letter and numbers.
• Larger kerning or spacing.
• G is more round, A has a smaller upper triangle, 6 has a smaller lower circle.

Conventional stats...
Type/Country: 2 Dollars / United States
Year: 1976
Date Printed: December 1975 - August 1976
Printings: 84,480,000
Run: 72nd from 59-73 of 132 the G45440001A - G46080000A
Value: $2.50 in Almost Uncirculated

COPE stats...
Type/Country: 2 Dollars / United States
Year: 1976
Date Printed: December 1975 - August 1976
Printings: 84,480,000
Run: 76th from 74-132 of 132 the G48000001A - G48640000A
Value: $2.50 in Almost Uncirculated 

Sharp eyed viewers may notice that the conventional note has a slight Misaligned Overprint error, but nothing to add any extra value.

Do you have a two dollar bill 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.

Coined For Money: Round-Up Jan. 21-27, 2013

The world is issuing lots of stuff and these are the most interesting items I found this week.

Dr. Who is turning 50 and the New Zealand mint has issued a limited amount of silver legal Island of Niue $2 dollar coins. They are 1 ounce 0.999 fine silver coin limited to 10,000 so nerds be aware. This is one coin that will likely outpace numismatic value due to Doctor Whovians collector value.

The bank of Zambia is successfully withdrawing their old currency for the new one which is just a rebased form of an older currency. Confused well no one in Zambia is because no cases of fraud occurred and tellers are reporting a 50% conversion headed to 90% soon. Not all is well as people are complaining that the new coins are too small and feel less "real".

Still showing off those millennium quarters from Canada here at Coined For Money.

1961 Lincoln Memorial Cent

Have an older cent and want to know its value? Leave a comment

This follows my self imposed rule about saving common cents that are 50 years or older. Yes it is normal and holds no extra value above metal content but it is becoming more difficult to find.

The 50+ years rule was set up because that is a good round number where things start to become classics. Even with coins it is a good time to set them aside because they get more scarce each year that passes. Back when I did the Cent Project challenge I found out that the 1961 cent from Philly only made up 0.24% of my finds.

Between 1959-2012 there are about 133 different U.S. cents to reasonable collect. The most common I found are 1994 (3.80%) and 1989 (3.95%) not surprisingly because these were minted in high amounts, also they are recent coins. Older coins were made in lower amounts and thanks to natural loss and hoarders they are seen less in change each year.

Should you bother doing the same? Probably not it would be wiser to buy one high quality graded example.

Here's the stats...
Type/Country: 1 Cent / United States
Year: 1961
Mintage: 753,345,000
Metal: 95% Copper, 5% Zinc
Value: $0.02 in G-4

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. 

2000 Canada Creativity Quarter

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CREATIVITY or CREATIVITE
Is the ability to make something. At least that is how I define it and when fellow engineers feel down or bored I suggest they build something. There is such a wonderful sense of accomplishment when you see something in your mind and make it become real. Canada celebrated this with a quarter back in 2000.

The artist Eric (Kong Tat) Hui did a great job showing off creativity. He has what looks like framework gradually turning into full sculptures. It looks like some natives in a canoe paddling to a tree with mountains in the background. The artist wanted to blend ancient art forms with modern computer art.

There are some bad scratches on both sides, that keeps it down to all but the face value.

Here are the stats...
Type/Country: 25 Cents-October, Creativity / Canada
Year: 2000
Mintage: 35,102,206
Metal: 100% Nickel
Value: $0.25 in G-4

I also found a Canadian penny from 1998, which has been featured before.

Do you have a Canadian quarter 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 $10 Bill, G-C

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The last of the smaller portrait notes with the classic design that lasted about 70 years. It is hard to believe that this note is already 15 years old, it was printed in February of 1998. A whole generation was raised without seeing this note much and sometimes I get the question,"Is it real?" of course the answer is yes and common.

These notes lack many of the now standard security features. Despite this fact they are not highly counterfeited since anyone bring a bag full of these to a local merchant or bank will likely get each people checked out by trained employees or smart machines.

As with all federal currency in the United States it is always redeemable for face value. I hope older notes are saved instead of used since banks will send them to get destroyed eventually. While this one is a bit new to have any real collectors value it should be kept aside since it is also in great condition. Look do not feel bad if you do use it as face value unless you are a collector it is just money.

Here's the stats for this bill...
Type/Federal Bank: $10 Note - Fort Worth / Chicago
Year: 1995
Printings: 448,000,000
Printed: February 1998
Run: 14th of 15 runs from G83200001C - G89600000C
Value:  $15.00 in CU 

Do you have a $10 note 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.

Coined For Money: Round-Up Jan. 14-20, 2013

Customizable is this week's keyword. I made this blog to talk about the low value coins I often find. Now the world is catching up with ATMs that dispense more than just $20s and popular shows talking about small change. Before all that goodness I made a custom heat map of my world coins finds which I hope to upload for everyone to use, eventually.

Heat map of coins I own, the darker green shows the most and white means none or less than 1% were found.

Heat map not including the U.S. or Canada, the percentages change so more countries are visible. Still Africa has the most gaps.

A Chloropeth map is a shaded map that shows the most and least of stuff. In my case I used Microsoft Excelto alter an existing map with the amount of coins I own.Since the amount of U.S. and Canadian coins are so large it throws off the map so removing them properly shows every country in my collection. A useful visual tool I hope to perfect and share.

Finally the banks are rolling out ATMs that give out $1 and $5 bills and soon will also give out coins. I have been needing this for years and hopefully this will improve my currency finds.

Great quote from 2 Broke Girls sums up why I started blogging:

Caroline: Max, have you seen my phone? I wanna take a picture of this bad tip and put it on Instagram. Getting loose change used to be so depressing, but now I can share it with strangers.

Now if you can find an ATM that spits out $10 bills then keep an eye out for this key 1999 $10 star note.

2012-P Nickel

Have a nickel and want to know its value? Leave a comment

Only a few weeks into the new year and I am just getting last year's nickel. Actually it is not that bad seeing how new coins are slow to get around. I can no longer judge how well new coins are circuating since most of my money transactions are now electronic.

It has been said many times before collect new and collect old without worrying about the stuff in between. Okay maybe that has never been said but it is still good advice, especially when talking about coins.

As for the current melt value is around $0.0517494 or if we round to the nearest cent, $0.05. While hoarding stuff seems to be the new trend whether it is Twinkies, bullets, assault rifles, or nickels they are not a great investment. Even if value triples the hurdles when trying to redeem them will make profits small and silly in hindsight. Kind of like the person who is working on a way to build a weapon the would stop a gun from firing making hoarding guns a useless act in the future. Still not to stifle collectors and quick profit makers I say exploit while you can. I wonder did people get full metal value when the large cents were replaced with small cents?

Here's the stats... 
Type/Country: 5 Cents / United States of America
Year: 2012 P
Mintage: 464,640,000 (estimated)
Metal: 75% copper 25% nickel
Value: $0.10 in MS-60, $6.00 in MS-66 and 6 Full Steps (this one is neither)

Yes, I am assuming this one is a lower grade.

Do you have a U.S.  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.

1954 Toronto Transit Commission Subway Token

Have a token and want to know its value? Leave a comment

Transit token collectors are known as vecturist they also may enjoy science fiction and stay home on Friday nights. Still every cool coin collector will stumble upon a token or twelve. This is one I got from a relative who traveled to Canada in the early 1960s. 

TORONTO TRANSIT COMMISSION SUBWAY on the front.

GOOD FOR ONE FARE SUBWAY on the back.

Let me clarify this is a 1954 series token meaning it was continuously made until 1966 and many were still in circulation until 2007. Made for Toronto's new subway line in 1954 they replaced all previous brass versions. These were lightweight aluminum smaller than a dime and eventually became highly counterfeited. Most of the fakes are pretty decent looking and usually needs some type of magnetic coin counter to tell the difference. All that keeps the collectors value low.

There are no sites that give full token information but if you just want pictures and catalog numbers then try these two sites:

1. exonumist.com -- great transportation token site with slightly high values. No history.
2. tokencatalog.com -- massive database. No history, no values.

Here are the stats for this token...
Type/Country: 1954 series Toronto, Ontario subway token / Canada
Year: (No date)
Mintage: Unknown, less than 30 million
Metal: Aluminum
Diameter: 16 mm Weight: Not sure (too lazy to weigh it)
Value: $1.00 in circulated Very-Fine
Obverse Writing: TORONTO TRANSIT COMMISSION (encircled), SUBWAY (center)
Reverse Writing: GOOD FOR ONE FARE (encircled), SUBWAY (center)

Sidenote: Found my first foreign coin for 2013 and yes it was a Canadian cent. Since I already featured the 1993 Canada Cent I will not repeat myself.

Do you have an odd 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.

1999 $10 Star Note, BE-*

Have a ten dollar star note and want to know its value? Leave a comment

Yes I did feature this star note back in 2005 but this update is more detailed. This bill is special not only because it is a replacement note but it is scarce even among other star noes. It was the lowest printed for the 1999 series.

The final printing was 675,200. It breaks down into two partial printings of 32,000 and 3,200 and then a full run of 640,000. The odd printing was probably due to the fact these notes were among the first of the newly redesigned notes. They modified the design to add many security features and made the portrait and value larger and more legible.

There is a very minor Insufficient Ink error on the district letter and number in the upper left hand side. While it may add $5.00 or more in value I am discounting it since in such high grade it may lower the value for a regular note. I cannot say for certain what the average currency collector would think of the error.

For once this note I found in my change was the most valuable of it's type. Approximately $60.00 in choice crisp uncirculated it may not be a gold mine but it will be the one note from 1999 series that will always gain value.

Here's the stats for this bill...
Type/Federal Bank: $10 Note- Washington D.C. / Richmond
Year: 1999
Printings: 675,200
Printed: August 2000
Run: 2nd of 2 of partial split runs of 3 from BE03200001* - BE03840000*
Value:  $30.00 in CU 

Do you have a star note 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.

Coined For Money: Round-Up Jan. 7-13, 2013

No theme this week just some coin stories I found interesting.

Picture: JONACANI LALAKOBAU

Oh no the new Fiji coins are confusing since they $1 and $2 coins look very similar but when dirty and worn look exactly the same.

A 1792 nickel sells for $1.41 million dollars, do not expect to find this one in your change.

Final words from the U.S. treasury, 'We will not mint a trillion dollar coin'. So enough about that junk already.

Found a squished cent with a cute little mammoth skeleton.

Mammoth Squished Penny

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

First find of 2013. Traveling on the subway you see lots of odd things and you try to ignore them all. I saw this flat shiny piece of metal and instantly recognized it as a squished penny. Once I covertly picked it up I saw it was one that I already paid for one in the past.

Another American Museum of Natural History (AMNH)  squished cent does not surprise me. The penny squishing machines at the museum are well maintained and it is a popular tourist spot. There are many other squishing machines throughout the New York but my daily commute happens to be the close to the AMNH.

This squished cent is very shiny and you can see streaks of a silver color. That and the weight of 2.50 grams means it is a modern copper-zinc U.S. cent. It was squished so perfectly that all the original design is gone. Zinc core squished cents are not desirable since the zinc will eventually oxidize and break the coin apart. It is not a coincident that nearly of the squished pennies I find on the ground are zinc and not pure copper.

Here are the stats...
Type/Country: 1 Cent Elongated / American Museum of Natural History(Mammoth Skeleton)
Year: Made recently?
Mintage: Still in production
Metal: 0.8% copper, 99.2% zinc
Value: $0.50 costs $0.51 to make

Do you have a 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.

1999 Canada December Quarter

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Would it be better if I actually showcased these Canadian quarters during the months the represents? Probably but why follow tradition. Here is the December 1999 quarter known as "This Is Canada".

This Is Canada tried to show everything that makes Canada unique in on image. The modern buildings with the background of a teepee, the arc has gears and a plant, assuming wheat. DECEMBER 1999 DÉCEMBRE  on the back with the initials JLP for designer J. L. Pierre Provencher.

This is the most common of the 1999 Canadian millennium quarters and like the others holds no extra value if circulated.

Here are the stats...
Type/Country: 25 Cents-December, This Is Canada / Canada
Year: 1999
Mintage: 42,927,482
Metal: 100% Nickel
Value: $0.25 in EF-40

Do you have a Canadian quarter 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 $10 Bill, DC-A

Have a ten dollar note and want to know its value? Leave a comment

The last of the non-colorized ten dollar notes. About ten years ago the last of the boring old greenbacks were issued. There was also a change from mostly printing at the Washington D.C. to Fort Worth.

And yes it did have the watermark and security strip we all know and love.

A split run is just as it sounds. Part of the run is printed in one place while the other part is printed somewhere else. Shifting production to Fort Worth was better for the government since that facilty was more modern. It did lead to some odd split runs lke the Minneapolis notes which switched production every 60,000 and skipped half there serial numbers in one month.

Here's the stats for this bill...
Type/Federal Bank: $10 Note- Washington D.C. / Atlanta
Year: 2004-A
Printings: 76,800,000
Printed: January 2004
Run: 5th of 5 of split run of 12 from DC25600001A - DC32000000A
Value:  $15.00 in CU 

Do you have currency 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.

Coined For Money: Round-Up Dec. 24, 2012-Jan. 06, 2013

New coins are cool. Getting, making, and using these new coins may not be as easy as it sounds. Here are a few stories about new coins to make you think twice.

I tried to avoid this story but it will not die. Here is the best article I could find about the myths surrounding the making of a trillion dollar coin. Basically it is legal, but probably will cause a lawsuit, and it will only temporarily solve the debt ceiling problem.

The new commemorative 1 Dirham coin from United Arab Emirates is being rejected from parking meters in Abu Dhabi, also Dubai reportedly. It is slightly lighter and the machines are not properly updated to accept old and new coins.

A young coin collector is the first to get 2013 coins down in Australia. He camped out for 4 days and also got the last 2012 coins minted.

In case you missed out my yearly review of coin finds let me summarize, found a lot still not enough to retire.

1968-S Proof Half Dollar

Have a half dollar and want to know its value? Leave a comment

Half dollar coins are still difficult to come by in my change so I use to buy them when they were cheap. This one I bought was around face value a few years ago even though it is a proof. The reason is that it was stored improperly and the holes on the holder is giving it nasty tarnish marks.

 

In case you cannot see the problem spots here is a nice close up.

I should take it out of the holder and replace it but it has little value other than metal so no big loss. The plastic of the holder does not show the full coin brilliance but there is some haze on the coin itself.

Half dollars from 1965-1970 are silver clad.

Silver clad means the coin has three layers. The two outer layers are 80% silver and 20% copper while the middle layer is 20.9% silver and 79.1% copper. The total net weight of pure silver is 0.1479 ounces or 40% silver.

Here's the stats...
Type/Country: 50 Cents - Proof / United States
Year: 1968 S
Mintage: 3,041,506
Metal: 40% Silver, 60% Copper
Value: $4.50 added a few cents because proofs should have extra value

Although the above was another coin from the vault I did find something late yesterday but I will wait to show that one.

Have a fifty cent coin from America 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 Canada Harmony Quarter

Have a Canadian quarter and want to know its value? Leave a comment

It has only been one full day since the new year arrived and I have yet to find anything. If this trend continues I will find zero this year. All kidding aside at least I still have my vault coins to show off. This time around it is another in the Canadian Millinnium series. The concept of harmony is the feature which is represented by a stylized maple leaf.

 

Issued for the June release of 2000 the reverse has that stylized maple leaf and the words HARMONY and HARMONIE in French. Like the 2000 Pride/January quarter this design suffered from die rotation errors. Die rotation is when on or both of the dies used to make the coin is in the incorrect position. The results is having one side of the coin in the wrong position when flipping the coin over.

Canadian coins have medal alignment (↑↑) which is when the is held face up like pictured above and you flip it left or right (← or → ) then the other side is also facing up. For this coin the die rotation error is about 135 degrees or ↑←. That means when the Queen is facing up and the coin gets flipped left or right the reverse is tilted on its side. These do bring in extra value up to $100.00 in mint state as opposed to $0.50 for the same normal ↑↑ version.

Here are the stats...
Type/Country: 25 Cents-June Harmony / Canada
Year: 2000
Mintage: 34,604,075
Metal: 100% Nickel
Value: $0.25 in EF-40

Do you have a Canadian quarter 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.