Philly Formative Years Found

A few days after finding a Formative Years Denver cent, in the same need-a-penny jar, I found a Philadelphia F.Y. cent. Very cool!

Formative Years cent in the wild!

Just found a Denver-minted Formative Years Lincoln commemorative cent in the need-a-penny jar at the 'bistro' at work! Woohoo!

Time for just dimes

This time around, I just got 8 rolls of dimes from the bank: been getting luckier with finding silver dimes than Buffalo or early nickels (the former are certainly more valuable than the latter).

Another $40 of nickels and dimes

Nope, no 2009 nickels or dimes yet, but found two more lovely silver dimes: a 1960-D and a 1964-D that looks simply amazing.

George, George, George!

Okay, the CoinStar was empty, as it has been of late, but I found 3 1-dollar bills in the parking lot on my way out of the grocery store! They were kind of wet, but hey, they'll buy coins real nice :)

A floor of pennies

All I can say is 'wow'

Two amazing South Jersey finds

I was spending a long weekend with my family in Cape May, NJ, and had a need to go to the grocery store... regulars know where this is going... and stopped at their CoinStar to see what there is to see. There was a nice collection of what I could only call golf markers (plastic discs about the size of a dime with different color designs), and a single coin in the return tray. As I picked it up, I noticed it was a Lincoln cent with some gunk on it (likely what caused it to be rejected), then I flipped it over and noticed it was a _wheat_ cent, then I turned it back over and started removing the gunk only to find it was a 1914 Philadelphia cent!! I was totally floored!

The previous night, I had taken my 5 year-old to the local arcade so she could play the various amusements and earn points to get really crummy stuff later. I was fishing out more change for her to play the coin-op version of Deal or No Deal when I spotted a really new-looking quarter in the bucket where I had dumped a roll from the change vendor. I picked it out and was very surprised to find a Puerto Rico quarter! These things are unavailable in banks, but _I_ find one in an arcade in New Jersey? What are the odds?

One red cent

Yes, that is all I have been able to get from the CoinStars of late: 1 cent, twice now. Is this a sign of an improving economy, or have I just become unlucky and keep missing the opportunities to collect? Dunno...

Coin Dealer Ethics

Susan Headley, of coins.about.com fame, posted a recap of storied related to Coin Dealer Ethics. The stories all get to the core of the matter: trusting people to do the right thing.