Year In Review 2014

The annual summary of my year in coin collecting with some highlights, the most incredible year for finds in decades.

Change Finds: 

The graph is for world coins found with 44 different countries found.
--Canada again leads the pack with 153
--Great Britain is 2nd with 31
--Germany is 3rd with 13
France, the Bahamas, Singapore, and Switzerland come in the top five also.

New countries found in my change include Belgium, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Iceland, Malaysia, Namibia, Oman, Peru, Poland, Portugal, Turkey, and the Ukraine. I made a change in jobs and in lunch. Now that I have to buy lunch outside of work I use cash since it is faster and offers more options. These lunch places have lots of foreign coins up for trade and take a penny leave a penny trays filled with odd things.

The graph for American money is fairly predictable the lowest face value coins and currency are easier to find. The exception are dimes because since 1965 it has not changed design and older ones are silver and get easily filtered. No 50 or 100 dollar bills although I now found an ATM that spits out larger bills.

Oldest United States Find
1916 Cent

Oldest Foreign Find
1940 Canadian Cent

Most Valuable Find (above face value): tie
2013 $5 Star Note, ML-* about $10.00
1963-A $2 Bill, A-A about $7.00

Most Valuable Foreign Find
Asian Merchant/Game Token, 010-8887 8206 about $1.00

Most Surprising Find
Barbara Apotheke 1 Treue Taler token

Books: 2015 Red Book but I have yet to fully go through it.

Websites: The web is still getting better for coin values and information. My site seems a bit outdated.

Equipment: Phones apps are still limited. Started using Google Sheets and Office Mobile to keep track of finds quicker.

Summary:
I reached record numbers of finds this year with 619 finds, that is about 9 times the average per year. Most were repeats but many were unique pieces. Unfortunately none were rare or valuable.

Wishing everyone a Happy New Year and change for all

1973 Belgium Franc, Dutch Legend, Coin Alignment

First non-Euro coin from Europe in a long time. It is common but still nice to find in my change, there is more scarce medal alignment variety but of course those are hard to find.

The Roman goddess Ceres is on the front next to a cornucopia. Ceres was the goddess of agriculture and fertility, among other things. I say was because while the religion is no longer practiced and her current status is unknown. The reverse of the coin has a crown above an oak leaf. The denomination 1 FR is there with the country Belgium written in Dutch as BELGIE. There is a French language version as well.

Here's the stats...
Type/Country: 1 Franc - Coin Alignment / Belgium
Year: 1973
Mintage: 42,500,000
Metal: Copper-Nickel
Value: $0.10 in F

Do you have a coin from Belgium 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.

2010 Singapore 10 Cents

From what I understand this coin was only available in collectors sets. What little information I can gather says that none of them were issued for circulation but still ended up circulating. This is also the least common 10 cents from this series.

It does look a bit shinier than a circulating coin. It also has haze damage typically seen on proof and uncirculated coins. Still it has no extra value because of the low grade and low interest.

Here's the stats...
Type/Country: 10 Cents / Singapore
Year: 2010
Mintage: 40,000 (estimated)
Metal: Copper-Nickel
Value: $0.10 in Very-Fine

Do you have a coin from Singapore 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-D New Jersey Quarter

Occasionally I miss a new coin that comes out or I misplace it. Looking over my state quarter collection I noticed I was missing the 1999 Denver version of the New Jersey quarter. It took a while to find another in my change but here it is, ignore the low grade I will upgrade if I can.

Perfect coin for this time of year as it depicts Washington crossing the Delaware River on December 25-26, 1776. Of course this is an image based n the famous painting and probably inaccurate. I mean who would stand on a small boat during a storm.

The people on the boat are meant to be a cross section of Americans and may secretly include a Scottish man, a man of African descent, and a woman in disguise among others.

Here's the stats...
Type/Country: 25 Cents-New Jersey / United States
Year: 1999 D
Mintage: 299,028,000
Metal: 91.67% Copper 8.33% Nickel
Value: $0.25 in F-12

Do you have a state 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.

1973-D Half Dollar

Not the first time i found a coin with this shade of magenta paint on it. It does kind of ruin any extra value the coin may have but this one is common so it does not matter.

I do not know which company colorized these coins but it does not matter. At the end it is a novelty selling for $4.00 or more. Please never buy these as they are considered damaged. Even as art they are worthless since they are mass produced.

Here's the stats...
Type/Country: 50 Cents / United States
Year: 1973-D
Mintage: 83,171,400
Metal: 91.67% Copper, 8.33% Nickel
Value: $0.50 in EF-40

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.

2008 Australia 5 Cents

Two years since my last Australian 5 cents find. Because of the long distance Australian coins are not easy change finds. This is the second most common of the series and is probably the main reason I found it.

Currently Australia is suffering from record unemployment, like most modern countries. this means less coins are being produced and recent years may have added value, but for now I still think they are common.

Here are the stats for this coin...
Type / Country: 5 Cents / Australia
Year: 2008
Mintage: 200,200,000
Metal: Copper-nickel
Value: $0.06 in VF
 
Do you have an Australian 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.

2006 Canada Quarter, RCM Logo

I think this is the more common of the two caribou quarters for 2006. There are a few other varieties this is the only one I found so I assume it is the most common. I have not have much luck with rare coins in my change. 

The year is almost up and I am behind with posting my finds but most are common so no big loss. I hope your year of finds have been better.

Type/Country: 25 Cents / Canada
Year: 2006 RCM Logo
Mintage: 423,189,000
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.

2009 France 5 Euro Cent

Seventh French coin I found this year all of which were euros. They seemed pretty thorough about purging older coins.

Fairly common and worth only slightly more than face value, at least over here, it is kind of boring. As far as I know the French euros have not changed designs or anything cool for the smaller denominations. It is now 15 years of euros with little excitement among most of them.

Here's the stats...
Type/Country: 5 Euro Cent / France
Year: 2009
Mintage: 184,710,000
Metal: Copper Plated Steel: 94.35% Steel 5.65% Copper
Value: $0.10 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.

1953-S Dime

Over two years since I last found a good silver dime like this one. Currently silver is at a low compared to the last few years but it is still silver.

Also happens to have the S mint mark for San Fransisco which is the least common of the three mint marks for this year. Silver has a duller finish when older then copper-nickel. Instantly when I saw this coin in my change from a local fast food joint I knew it was silver. Still I have been fooled some older copper-nickel dimes are hazy and black so I think they are silver. Turning them on there edge is sometimes needed to see the difference. The copper streak is almost always visible on clad dimes. 

Here's the stats for this dime...
Type/Country: 10 Cents / United States
Year: 1953 S
Mintage: 39,180,000
Metal: 90% Silver, 10% Copper
Value: $1.19 in G-4 (a silver value of $1.183, a copper value of $0.002)

Do you have a silver 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.

2010 Mexico 10 Centavos

Smaller than American dimes this ten centavos snuck into my change and now has full amnesty to stay forever. It is made of the cheaper stainless steel and cost less to make then its American counterpart.

The older Mexican ten centavos coins were slightly larger but since 2009 they have reduced the size to save on production costs.Exchange value is less than one U.S. cent and will probably be discontinued within the decade.

Here's the stats...
Type/Country: 10 Centavos / Mexico
Year: 2010
Mintage: 453,849,000
Metal: 100% Stainless Steel
Value: $0.10 in Very-Fine

Do you have a Mexican 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.