Happy Easter

Maybe give a kid a coin or two and show them how to donate at church or just on the streets.

Aside from that take a break and enjoy the family and coming springtime.

2013 Lincoln Shield Cent

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

Not bad it is nearly the end of March and I just found a 2013 cent. Reports of new coins circulating well are true.

I always remember an episode of Little House on the Prairie where the Pa Ingalls gave young Laura a shiny brand new penny for Christmas. She was so happy that he took time to get a new one not some tarnished piece.

Even if purchasing power diminished over the last century it still gives me a happy feeling to find a shiny new penny. Although I wonder how some modern child would react to getting a new penny for Christmas. Maybe a shiny dollar coin would be cool for a youngster.

Here's the stats...
Type/Country: 1 Cent  / United States
Year: 2013
Mintage: Not yet known.
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.

2011 British Penny

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First British find of the year. It is a modern penny featuring the royal shield design. 

Got it as change at an organic food store, I needed some hummus. This continues the streak of finding British coins and as a bonus it a new one for me. 2011 seems to be a low minted year and hopefully that will bring up the value in the future.

There are some odd marking behind the queen's neck that I think are die clashes but I cannot be certain. That would not raise the value though.

Here's the stats...
Type/Country: 1 Penny / Great Britain
Year: 2011
Mintage: 210,404,000
Metal: Copper-Plated Steel
Value: $0.02 in VF

Do you have a coin from Great Britain 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.

2001 $5 Star Note, CK-*

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

Yes it is a star note. Yes this was made in much smaller amount. Yes it still has low value.

Mostly because the condition is not great but even in high grade this star note has low value. A full run of 3,200,000 were printed so it not rare and having been circulated lowers the value.

Nice as it is to find a star note in my change I would prefer higher quality notes. The few old notes I receive are either near perfect or very folded. There seems to be no middle ground when finding notes older than two years. 

Here's the stats for this bill...
Type/Federal Bank: $5 Note - Fort Worth / Dallas
Year: 2001
Printings: 3,200,000
Printed: August 2002
Run: 1 and only run from CK00000001* - CK03200000* 
Value:  $7.50 in Very-Fine (VF)

Sidenote: Please note there is no conspiracy with K11 and Dallas and JFK. The K11 is K for Dallas the district letter followed alphabetically. Also K is the 11th letter of the alphabet which is the district number 11. These letters and numbers are for distribution and accounting purposes only and were decreed long before JFK existed.

Do you have a $5 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 Mar. 18-24, 2013

Quiet week for coin news as this slow spring continues to unfold.

Pocket Change started as a virtual currency and is now more of a reward program. Their app is now on Android and iOS. They are basically giving the virtual currency away through sponsorship as a way to flood the market and make it a real currency.

NGC, the coin grading company, is changing their fees and Coin Update sorts things out.

All I found was a 1960-D nickel making the week extra long and boring.

1960-D Nickel

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

Last second find is not anything special but it is 52 years old so that should count. It has been a slow coin week but a few Denver mint finds does brighten my day. Denver coins are in most cases more common than Philadelphia minted coins but since I am on the east coast they seem rarer.

The mint mark is located on the back for nickels of this era, they do not move to the front until 1968. Like I said before 50+ years old is the only reason to keep this coin. In terms of value it has nothing extra and is very common. Even the metal value it is still under face value, barely.

Here's the stats...
Type/Country: 5 Cents/United States
Year: 1960 D
Mintage: 192,582,180
Metal: 75% Copper 25% Nickel
Value: $0.05 in G-4

Do you have a 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 B Sweden Krona

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

The one krona used to be equivalent of the one dollar in terms of usage. To make 1 krona you needed 100 öre until 2010. While stuff is still priced in öre they now round up to the nearest krona when paying cash. The krona is due for a big change in 2016 as the will be made out of copper plated steel.

CARL XVI GUSTAF·SVERIGE 19 99

FÖR SVERIGE I TIDEN (FOR SWEDEN IN TIME)  B 1KR B

So now the öre is no longer legal tender and 1, 2, and 5 kronor are not printed notes but only coins. That is the trend that most countries have embraced except of course for America. The Swedish money still has strong buying power and is one of the most heavily traded currencies. Exchange rate is $1.00 = 0.16 (kr).

That exchange rate system or more formally European Exchange Rate Mechanism must be part of the Sweden for two years before they officially join the Eurozone and adopt the Euro. The Swedes decided not to join and therefore found a loophole to avoid switching currencies. Seeing how they are planning their 2016 coins I think Euro membership is not a priority although it was supposed to be mandatory.

Type/Country: 1 Krona / Sweden
Year: 1999 B
Mintage: 55,018,508
Metal: 75% Copper, 25% Nickel
Value: $0.20 in Very-Fine (VF-20)

Do you have any coins from Sweden 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 $5 Bill, DH-A

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

My collection of bills are to the extreme in terms of grading. This heavily folded an dirty bill is just a little older than the $5 bill I featured last week which was near perfect. Since currency collecting is not my first choice I tend to but them aside only if I notice, unfortunately that is not often.

When I first started coin collecting as a child I never thought of collecting bills because they were too much money to just put aside. Then I inherited a bunch of $2 bills and tried to keep them. Unfortunately I needed to buy some stuff with cash and spent them all. For years I just did not bother. After collecting state quarters and seeing how quickly they added to real money I figured maybe try saving $1 bills. Soon after saving a few I got several silver certificates and thought I should try to collect them all.

Granted having a job and earning a paycheck was a big factor. Not being dependent on an allowance was great. Collecting coins or currency is better the more money you make. Also at the time I cashed out my paychecks so I got a lot of money to sort through at once. Slowly I started plucking out one note from each denomination and series. This went well until about 2009 when I went electronic. Having all my financial transactions done electronically actually saves me time and money but nearly shutdown my finds.

Change finds depends on the amount of cash you come across, the more cash = the more opportunities to find something. Unless I get a bigger paycheck or the bank changes its fees I am stuck with e-banking and see few opportunities to get cash.

Here's the stats for this bill...
Type/Federal Bank: $5 Note - Fort Worth / St. Louis
Year: 2003
Printings: 51,200,000
Printed: February 2004
Run: 3rd of 8 runs from DH12800001A - DH19200000A 
Value:  $5.00 in Very-Good (VG)

Do you have a $5 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 Mar. 11-17, 2013

The St. Patrick Day's week long celebration is just about over and I did not find any pots of gold. Instead we can look elsewhere for some coin related news.

Atrium in the Marriner S. Eccles Building

The Federal Reserve has a Flickr account with all photos free for fair use. There is no cash posted just a bunch of people at their jobs.

NYC dog ate $1.11 worth of pennies. The dog was licking bagel crumbs over a box of pennies and ate the pennies. The zinc and the huge amount of coins could have killed the doggie but after emergency procedures he is doing fine. (Note to purist pennies and cents are the same thing.)

A Chinese coin from the 1400s was found in Kenya, Africa. If real and buried at the time this will add to the history of African-Chinese trade. 

I found an Acadia park quarter that reminded me I have not been in the great outdoors.

2012-P Acadia Quarter

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

Released on June 11, 2012 it is the 13th quarter from the America The Beautiful series. In all 16 of the 56 quarters have been released for circulation so a complete circulating set would have 32 by now. So far I found 12 with this latest change find, that does ignore all the San Francisco minted coins.

The design is the Bass Harbor Head Lighthouse at the Acadia National Park coast. My favorite part is the waves hitting the rocks. From what I read this Maine park is a great place for hiking and biking, things I do not regularly take part in. Still just to recreate this picture in real life it may be worth a bike or canoe trip for the weekend.

As I slowly get more of these park quarters I feel more like I should visit these places at least once. This was not the same with the state quarter since the majority of the images on those coins were mostly symbols and not real places.

Here's the stats...
Type/Country: 25 Cents-Acadia / United States
Year: 2012-P
Mintage: 24,800,000
Metal: 91.67% Copper 8.33% Nickel
Value: $0.25 in F-12

Do you have a quarter 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.

2007 Canadian Quarter

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Finding Canadian quarters in my American change is not all that rare but also not common. I found this one yesterday after getting change from a food cart. It is normal issue 2007 Canadian quarter just like I found when they first came out in 2007.

Back when I first found one in 2007 they were new and shiny, I was confused since it was the first time I ever saw the Royal Canadian Mint logo (RCM Logo). It was a cool find and everything about it was just exciting.

Fast forward six years and I got this one which has what I am hoping is green gum stuck to it. Most of the excitement is low yet I am doing another post because it was still an unexpected change find. Who knew a Halal cart in the middle of NYC would be a new place to find coins.

Type/Country: 25 Cents/Canada
Year: 2007
Mintage: 274,763,000
Metal: 94% Steel, 3.8% Copper, 2.2% Nickel
Value: $0.25 in Very-Fine (VF-20)

Do you have any 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.

2003-A $5 Bill, FH-A

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

So clean and near perfect. I got this ordinary $5 bill back in 2007 when they first came out. It was also the time I used the most cash and was really into collecting every kind of currency or coin. The bill itself may not actually be perfect but it might be worth grading, despite the fact it will cost more to grade than it is worth.

Lately work and life keeps me from obsessing with ever bill coin I come across. That is not the main problem with modern collecting. The real issue is that I use less cash. I mean I just got a bunch of cash back reward points for paying my taxes via cards and I paid them immediately so no interest was charged.

Not to get too off topic but February was great for paying and buying stuff using no cash and then at the end I made a profit. Granted find new bills is has become a bit more of a bother. Less change finds unless you include staring over the shoulder of people paying online and hoping they are willing to trade.

Here's the stats for this bill...
Type/Federal Bank: $5 Note - Fort Worth / St. Louis
Year: 2003-A
Printings: 83,200,000
Printed: April 2007
Run: 13th of 13 runs from FH76800001A - FH83200000A 
Value:  $15.00 in Choice Crisp-Uncirculated (CH-CU)

Do you have a $5 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 Mar. 4-10, 2013

Trending or more like trendy is making your own coins. Of course coins are redeemable for trades and services but these are more like medals. Here are a few examples recently to hit the country. Also some first and last of kind real coins are also here.

Redondo Beach is having their annual "coin" design contest.

The City of Rocks National Reserve is also making a "coin" for a limited run to celebrate 25 years of rocking on.

Australia is honoring military engineers with a special $1 coin.

The last penny roll from Canada sold for $6,600, that is 13,200 times face value.

I found a Canadian cent and an older U.S. nickel, unfortunately they remain just a few cents above face value.

1956 Nickel

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

Woohoo another change find after a month long drought. Luckily my vaults are full of older coin finds so you will never notice, except for the fact I just told you. Anyway back to the nickel find, it was change from the local supermarket along with the 1977 Canadian cent and one more which I will show next Friday.

The coin itself is kind of bad. The front is all scratched and mushed like it has been stuck in a machine. There is nothing special even though I was excited when I found it. Mostly because I have been waiting for a 1956-D nickel since that it one of the few I yet to find in my change. Still this coin is almost sixty so that is a plus.

Here's the stats...
Type/Country: 5 Cents/United States
Year: 1956
Mintage: 35,216,000
Metal: 75% Copper 25% Nickel
Value: $0.05 in G-4

Do you have a 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.

1977 Canada Cent

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

It has been a while since I found a Canadian cent in my change that was not already featured on this blog. Seems more than likely that I will post about these less and less as time goes on. Of course the retirement of the Canadian cent plays a part but also I think since I started this blog I found almost all of the modern Canadian cents, as well as many older ones.
 

 

The coin itself is fairly common and the metal value is the only thing that makes it special. That said I do like the grease spots on obverse all over the queen. Look like she may have some sort of pox, although she was ill this past week. Since I do not believe in coins as omens I will say it was just my mind making connections.

Here's the stats...
Type/Country: 1 Cent / Canada
Year: 1977
Mintage: 453,050,666
Metal: 98% Copper, 0.5% Tin, 1.5% Zinc
Value: $0.03 in Very-Fine

Do you have a cent from Canada 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

2006 (Non-Colorized) $5 Bill, HF-C

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

Last week I brought the 2006 (Colorized) $5 Bill and this week is the non-colorized version. There was no mistake in series date. There was never going to be a 2008 series note. This 2006 (Non-Colorized) $5 Bill had a short run from May-October of 2007.

At the time even I did not realize two 2006 $5 bills had been issued so by the time I noticed I could only find this less than excellent version. Again the changes in my opinion are noticeable and extreme but they chose to keep the series the same and just change the serial prefix letter.

Here are both for comparison:

 

Ignoring the fact I took the picture of the non-colorized version crooked the differences are obvious.

• They added color to the later note.
• They removed all the portrait borders.
• Enlarged the reverse corner 5 and made it purple.
• The front bottom corner 5's lost their color.
• The paper now has background images.
• Several more small changes for those with sharp eyes.

Although a small run and basically an unexpected note it does not hold any extra value. 409+ million were printed which is still a large number. Many were saved in high grade so it is possible to get them for cheap and graded.

Here's the stats for this bill...
Type/Federal Bank: $5 Note - Fort Worth / Atlanta
Year: 2006 (Non-Colorized)
Printings: 275,200,000
Printed: August 2007
Run: 3rd of 13 runs from HF12800001C - HF19200000C 
Value:  $5.00 in Fine

Do you have a $5 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 Feb. 25-Mar. 3, 2013

All events eventually comes back to coins, okay maybe not but the following stories did so read and enjoy.

Sede Vacante or Vacant Seat is the time when there is no Pope, Vatican City issues special coins with this crest. They are allowed to make special Euro coins during this rare time and yes Sede Vacante coins are rare, sell out fast, and are hoarded. 2 Euro coin limited to 125,000, 5 Euro coin limited to 10,000 in silver, and 10 Euro coin limited to 5,000.

The world's least valuable coin is from Uzbekistan, 1 Tiyin is worth 1,999 U.S. cents. Despite that fact most countries want these small change to keep inflation low and help charities.

Libya is slowly replacing their old notes with new ones, lots of change but the lack of Muammar Gaddafi.

1994 Holland America Cruise Line 25 Cents

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

Since cruises have been in the news lately I thought I would dig out one of my only cruise tokens. This one is from Holland America Cruise Lines a wholly owned subsidiary of Carnival Corp. & plc the British–American-Panamanian cruise company. This is most likely a gaming token used at on-board casinos. I think they went completely electronic now, assuming you have electricity at sea.

The design is simple and used on many of these types of tokens. One side has the ship on water with some nice fair weather clouds. The other side has ☆☆☆TWENTY FIVE CENTS☆☆☆ 1994 (encircled), NOT LEGAL TENDER (center). They made sure to place NOT LEGAL TENDER write under the boat flags to avoid confusion. With gaming tokens there is a thin line on what to name them. Using dollar and cents, especially for American players gives it a sense of real money and actual risk. Just calling them 25 Tokens or fun money makes the game less real.

New swiping cards are replacing most cruise coins and the newer tokens have no value written on them to avoid any confuse at each port. Despite all the bad press I would still do a cruise, even without the tokens. To travel from port to port visiting for a few hours several countries is a great way to get more foreign coins. I got this one from a coin lot so no cool story about gambling on the high seas.

Here are the stats for this token...
Type/Country: Holland America Cruise Line 25 Cents token / British–American-Panamanian
Year: 1994
Mintage: Unknown
Metal: Nickel
Diameter: 24.9 mm Weight: Not sure (too lazy to weigh it)
Value: $0.25 in circulated Very-Fine
Obverse Writing: (none just a cruise ship at sea with clouds)
Reverse Writing: ☆☆☆TWENTY FIVE CENTS☆☆☆ 1994 (encircled), NOT LEGAL TENDER (center)

Do you have a token 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.