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.