Many, many coin flips

My order for 600 coin flips came yesterday. I got 200 small dollar, 100 quarter, 100 nickel, 100 penny and 100 dime sized. They came in a yellow container, which doubles as a holder for the coined and folded flips. I’ve begun the task and already my had has a crap from flattening the staples. I’m only 212 into it and already I have nearly exhausted the supply of quarter and nickel sized flips. I’ve completed the small dollar sized coins, but have at least 1050 of them still available. I’m not sure why I got so many of that size. At least they will come in handy if I ever acquire Presidential or Sacagawea coins.

The dilemma I am running into is that I have two coins- a 1936 buffalo nickel and a 1912 liberty nickel- that I do not want to put into a flip. I want to be able to hold them in my hand and look at them without the protective mylar keeping me from the details. There are three pennies that I’m gonna put into flips- an Indian head, a ‘53 wheatie and a very shiny steel. The steelie has a bit of junk on the reverse (left side), but it is an ‘s’. I imagine it will never amount to be worth anything more than a few cents, but it is pretty to look at.

Most of the coins I am currently putting into the flips are from the uncirculated lot. There are quite a few very nice specimens. It looks like I’ll have just enough flips to finish carding all of the coins in the bin.

After this, I’m not sure how long I’ll be able to hold out before wanting another pile of coins to go through! Maybe I can do an audit before I succumb. That will definitely help.

Pennies, pennies everywhere

For the last few years, I have, out of habit, been keeping pre-1983 pennies aside, since they are made of more copper than their zinc progeny. After reading an article about an easy way to go through circulation coins to find hidden gems, I decided I was going to do it for myself.

The idea is to take $20 to the bank and purchase 2,000 pennies. Wouldn’t that be fun to go through. Who knows how many wheaties I might come across, or how many hundreds of copper cents would show up. Sadly, none of the banks closest to home could accommodate my request, since I am not an account holder. My first thought was ‘booooo’.

I’m not entirely sure how preventing a citizen from obtaining 40 rolls of pennies is in the interest of Homeland Security, but whatever. Hopefully my friend has an account at one of the banks so they can finally accommodate my need to sort through piles of coins.

At peace

Friday marked the first time since my early days of collecting that I was able to hole a Peace Dollar in my hands to admire its beauty. The art deco style is showcased so elegantly in this piece whose primary function was to commemorate the end of World War I. I love how the crown on the Liberty representation seems to be shining.

This is truly a remarkable coin. In having one of few opportunities to posses a number of the liberty designs directly precedent to the present coinage designs, I find myself wondering why we decided to honor dead Presidents as a matter of course on the coinage. Perhaps the change speaks to a need by the central authority to invoke its suzerainty of its people by reminding them that there is a person in charge after all. It started with the Lincoln cent and went onto the Washington quarter… and it was dead Presidents ever since. Our present coinage has been untouched by major design change since 1965 ic the Kennedy half dollar is counted. If not, it can go back as far as 1932, when Washington’s image replaced standing liberty.

Interesting thought, though, eh?

Unidentified coin-like objects

Among the hardest coins to identify are those with Arabic writing. Despite the fact that both Chinese and Arabic flow in a right-left direction, Arabic is still hardest because at least I know a little Chinese- enough to decode certain coins usually without the aid of my non-western date cheat-sheet. This is fueling my desire to learn the language- that and a really awesome job.

The hardest to date are Israeli coins. I’m still not 100% sure exactly how the dates work, but it’s something along the lines of dividing the current year into several categories- millennium, century, decade and tenths of a decade. It is quite interesting how the Hebrew dates are arranged, but it is also quite perplexing. I’m close to figuring out an easier method of dating.

Arabic dates are far easier, because like western dates, there are four numerals and it is simply a matter of converting the numerals to their Latin equivalent and then adding 1400 to result in the corresponding Gregorian date. Thai dating is becoming easier since I have had so much practice with nearly 100 examples of 1 baht coins to catalog- it is almost to the point where I can go without the cheat sheet.

Most of the countries on the Arabian peninsula repeat their name in western style, like Kuwait, Bahrain, U.A.E. and Yemen. Interestingly, Saudi Arabia does not practice this, but luckily, their coat of arms is quite recognizable- palm tree above two crossed swords. The subunit of the Saudi Riyal is unforgettable- halala.

Usually a coin has at least a contextual clue to identify its origins- coat of arms, portrait, landmark or something similarly easy to cross-reference. In the case of Bangladeshi coins, I recognized the coat of arms and I remembered that it was green. There is another set of coins I’m attempting to identify whose coat of arms contain a five-pointed star, which I remember as having the red & green colors of Christmas. I think those might be Moroccan.

By accident, I discovered that 8 coins in my ‘can’t identify’ pile were actually Pakistani 1 rupee coins. Based on the reverse design of a mosque, I may be able to associate two more coins with Pakistan.

There is a set of four coins that are driving me particularly crazy. There is only a lion’s head with some very unusual writing on one side, with the Latin numeral denomination and scenes reminiscent of communist ideology on the reverse.

There are a total of 15 coins in my pile that have no clues and no other way to identify them. Even the coins with the lion might prove easier than these.

Price of silver: $25.96/oz.

Another 5 pound super mix

For about the fifth time, a flat rate box arrived containing about 5lbs. of world coins. I paid around $30, which is relatively cheap, but I still had some pretty high hopes about what I was going to get.

 

5 POUNDS WORLD COINS. GOOD MIXED; eBay item# 160501341792; rkelsey927658b ( Feedback Score Of 1496) 100% Positive feedback.

How could I miss with this?! Anyway, I figured I would at least get a good mixed of coins, but was a bit disappointed at finding at least a few dozen examples of only about 5 coins. One of them was the ubiquitous Dominican Republic veinticinco centavos from 1989, 1990 and 1991. Those are the only three years this coin was produced. Of the nearly 60 million coins produced during the short run, I personally own roughly 60-70% of the entire supply. The actual number is 139. Yes, 139 of a single coin- 45 from this particular batch alone. Also in this purchase were 14 examples of the Dominican 1 peso brass coin.

From Trinidad & Tobago, there were 42- 10 cent coins and 15- 25 cent coins.  16- 25 cent coins from Barbados. There is an impressive count of Jamaican 1- and 5- dollar coins. With the exchange rate at J$84 – US$1, I may actually have about $3 worth of Jamaican currency!

The staggering number of French 10 centimes coins in this batch is nearly matched by the number of French francs. I love the French Franc. Always have… there’s something about Roty’s design that reminds me of the Walking Liberty US half dollar coin. 73- 10 centimes. If I were in France right now, I could exchange this for about 3 Euros.

The other coins that are represented multiples of multiple times are the Israeli 5 agorot coin, Ecuadorian 25, 10 and 5 centavo coins from 2000, Honduran 50 centavos, Ukrainian 5 kopek, British 2 pence and Polish 20 groszy.

A bit disappointing, but hundreds of coins, nonetheless. I’m sure each one cost less than 5 cents. I should know by tomorrow.

Price of silver: $27.42/oz.