Hi All,

While I am not a coin hunter per se, recently I noticed that a local pub has been throwing all coins lower than a quarter into a bucket under the bar for a few years.  The bucket weighs about 20 lbs and is filled with mostly nickels and dimes.  As my curiosity about what might be in the bucket got the best of me, I offer to buy the coins and sort through them, hunt them, roll them, and pay the bar owner for them.

I started to sort the coins in the bar where the lighting is dark, but with high powered pin point spots, and started to pick out pennies and throw them in a pile.  When an odd sparkle from the penny pile caught my eye, so I put it aside to look at later. When I did, this is what I found.

Going to load lots of photos of this penny.  Offering a proverbial penny for everybody’s thoughts! 
Cheers, Breanna
 
P.S. Will also report on any other finds in my 20 lbs of nickels and dimes … stay tuned!!!!

Hello All,

I have been so busy so this is a catch up on my finds posts since late April early May ...

I managed to eek out a little paper recently with a few $50 Journey and Bird notes and kept these lower circulation notes of higher quality with the high light of an EHX note.

3 x 3-digit radars, 2 x 4 digit radars, 2 x 2-digit repeaters, 1 x 3-digit repeater, and 1 HBN replacement note.

HCY and INP high notes, and the only 3 INY Rogers notes on the database - so both high and low notes ... for now.

I also found a roll of KCIII quarters (not pictured).

Cheers,
Breanna

Hi, ho … Silver! Collection dump … with a story!

While some of you may have read my earlier post asking about what caused the dark line on a 50 cent coin recently, what I didn’t say is that it came with 61 little friends!!!! 62 in total purchased for face value from two branches of my bank, on the same day. 

Because one of my branches keeps any banknotes or coins that come their way, and I have gotten the odd 50 cent coin from them, I thought every branch did it.  So, on my note hunt one day I asked at every branch if they had any King Charles, colourized, 50 cent, foreign, or just any coins that look “odd”?    And, they all said “No” … at first!  At one strangely little lucky branch where I always find something, when the manager heard me ask for 50 cent coins, and the teller say no, he piped up to say that were some coins in the backroom in one of the drawers. Yada, yada …

So, as I watched the teller dump an envelope of mostly silver 50 cent coins on the counter, I desperately had to keep my ‘poker face’ on, hiding my excitement while I sorted the money to pay the woman and head for the hills feeling like a bandit. 

The breakdown from both banks (44 and 18) is a total of 62 coins:
 
37 coins dated 1956 – 1966 (80/20% silver/copper),
17 coins dated 1969 – 1978 (99.9% nickel), and
8 commemorative coins dated 2002 (93.15/4.75/2.1% steel/copper/nickel plated)

I’m not an active collector of coins, other than rolls of new issues, so I did not know any of the following about the gradual retraction from circulation and minting of our 50 cent coin as follows: 

A.I. generated: “The Royal Canadian Mint ceased the production of the 50 cent coin for circulation in 1979 due to declining demand. However, they continued to produce it for collectors in limited quantities. Then, in 2000, they officially announced that the 50 cent coin would no longer be produced for circulation at all. Instead, it would only be available directly from the Mint or through financial institutions in special sets or rolls for collectors and numismatists.”

Also, 70% of the silver coins I got from the bank have the same black/dark line across them, so I took a few to a coin dealer I know and they told me the marks are “oxidation” and “glue” from some sort of tape used to hold them into a collection book.  They also offered to buy them for silver content, but I’m not done “playing” with them yet.  I have found several known errors on a few, and I’m learning lots.  The question is melt or clean? 

Cheers,
Breanna

May 14th finds:

Party like it’s 1979!

I went to one of my banks today and the teller gave me some 1979 $20s.

I decided to press my luck and buy some dime rolls to go with the paper notes!

Enjoy!
Dean

*CA4678999     BCS  AU-55    $14,999   or  B/O

*CB0413999     F                   $8,330         SOLD

*SB4735499     BCS  AU-55    $21,240       SOLD

To this date, only one ATM in my branch dispenses US $20 bills.  All the other ATMs dispense $10 bills.

Also, I did speak to a woman at the branch a few weeks ago and asked why the ATMs dispense $10 bills instead of $5 bills.  And the answer is very interesting.

Strangely enough, it is not due to $5 bills going through so much wear and tear and not getting replaced as often.  And it has nothing to do with demand.  It has to do with a "bigger is better" attitude, which is something many Canadians seem to have.  Canadians have been complaining about getting two $5 bills instead of a $10 - and the staff person believes it is just "silly" as two $5s still equal $10.  I am one of those Canadians who have this "bigger is better" thing to some extent, because I do not want $20 bills from banks (yes, I'd rather $200 in $10s over the same amount in $20s).

Also discovered something on Google Maps, and there were some comments about this on Google.  A branch in Metro St. John's had discontinued over-the-counter teller service five or six months ago - all of the branch's cash are strictly in the ATMs.

Also, a branch in Mount Pearl advises customers to withdraw from the ATMs only - implying that they are wanting customers to learn to use the ATMs - likely because it's the way of the future.  One customer had an issue with it, as he wanted to get some coins from a human teller, but a female staff person told him he had to go to the ATMs which obviously have no coins.

Many Scotiabank branches are getting bad reviews as people are complaining about bad service and certain attitudes of tellers. Maybe it's because they believe the end is coming, and they are certainly not happy about it.

May 11th:

Why do people do this???🤬

A perfectly good 1954 $1000…Signed Beattie-Coyne.  Somebody just has to write their name on it along with their bank account number.

It’s as if the person is saying “I don’t trust the bank teller to do her job…Here is my account and my name…This money belongs to me!”

Enjoy!
Dean

May 11th finds, part 2:
More photos of what I found this week…

Enjoy!

Dean

May 11th:  So many finds this week…

I guess spring has officially arrived, and people are cleaning out their closets and drawers…and cashing in old paper money!

I could not believe the volume of finds this week…Every single day, a bank would call me to check out some old bills.  Five different banks yielded a pile of banknotes, most of which are well circulated, but there are a few standouts, including:

Some nice older US notes, even a red seal $2!
Lots of 1954 series notes…Highlights being the very nice $50 and the $1000, both signed by Beattie-Coyne!  It’s too bad that someone wrote their name and bank account number on it.  🤬

A 1979 $20 replacement 5100 note.

You just never know what is still out there…

Enjoy!
Dean