Ivy (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
ivybgreenflower) wrote2005-07-01 11:07 pm
ivybgreenflower) wrote2005-07-01 11:07 pm
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First real entry in a long time
I figured since I haven't written in a long time, I'd update about something random and slightly pointless but much much less boring than simply "I'M SO BORED AND DEPRESSED, WOE" or whatever. As bored as I am, I'm not depressed, so I can't even follow the trend on that one.
Anyway, a recent discovery of mine lead me to re-discover (whee using the same word a bunch of times) my love for coins. I like old American money and new or old foreign money, which is quite a challence since the U.S. mint takes coins out of circulation after about ten years. But my grandparents left behind a few small things when they died, and whatever my greedy hated aunt and uncle didn't steal from them during their lives and directly following my grandmother's dead in 1995 became mine. I have a heavy box filled with some coins. I know I probably shouldn't be talking about them online because OMG UR ALL GONNA STEAL MAH MONEY, so I'll post a disclaimer: it's all pretty worthless, really. It's not worth stealing.
Anyway, I don't know WHERE on Earth my grandparents could have picked them up, but first on my list of things I have is several dollars in white pennies. I love them, they make the coolest chink-chink noise and they're the only American money I have that will stick to a magnet. These were issued in 1943, during WW2, because they needed the copper for something or other to do with bullets or... something. So the government issued pennies that were made from steel or steel with zinc, or steel with a zinc coating (there were variations, apparently) and some copper ones, which are rare. My favorite of my white pennies is the one that has no 3 in the date. I do have some damaged ones, but aside from being dirty, this one has no damage and therefore simply has no three. It just says "194". So it's my favorite, and I keep it with my foreign money instead of with the other white pennies.
I also discovered something peculiar in this box, the first time I looked in it, which was the abundance of dimes, mostly dating from around 1993. They were not mercury dimes, there wasn't anything special about them, they were just... there. Tons of dimes. (They're all still there, including some new ones from my piggy bank.) Also in the box were Kennedy half-dollars, some of them normal ones and some of them bicentenial ones, possibly- I have no idea, and I don't feel like checking right now :P, maybe later this post. There's a two dollar bill, an ANCIENT silver certificate (basically looks like a normal dollar, except I can trade it in for silver if I wanted to.) Another peculiar thing were several dollar bills, in perfect condition. The only special thing about them is that they're vintage, yo. 1963 dollar bills. I feel the need to explain to you now that my grandparents were VERY, VERY weird people. (These are the ones on my father's side. My maternal grandparents are still alive.) But yes, my grandmother had a drawer in the kitchen set aside where she saved the wrappers you get when you get meat or cheese sliced fresh in the deli, and possibly the produce bags too. My grandfather, not to be outdone, had several large bags of milk bottle caps. They, in short, WERE HORRIBLE HORRIBLE PACK-RATS. They saved pay-stubs from the late seventies. Loads of purses. Tons upon tons of bedsheets that they NEVER USED, they stayed in the plastic bags they came in like, in case the queen came over to visit or something. I don't know. So that explains why they'd have crisp clean dollar bills and lots of dimes, and such a large number of white pennies. (My father said they used to like to have nice flat dollars to give out for birthdays and things, but apparently they'd been saving these for a REALLY special occasion, because, COME ON, 1963?)
The newest coin in my collection is the one that sparked my re-interest in coins in general and especially piqued my interest in foreign coins.
It came to me in a slightly odd way. Kash+Karry has a coin counting machine that will count all of your coins and give you a print-out saying how much they're worth in paper money, after deducting a small fee, and then you can go get your money in paper from a cashier or whatever. So my mother's piggy bank got really full and one day recently we went to K+K to use the machine thing. We sent Father up to do it while we wandered around, and when he was finished he said that one penny just wouldn't go through, the machine kept putting it in the coin return thing. So he left it there, and with the skillz I inherited from my crazy grandparents I realized that OMG MAYBE IT'S SOME KIND OF REALLY COOL COIN, having read that coins that were reproduced wrong or something were often worth money. So I RAAAAAAAN to the machine and grabbed the copper-colored coin out of the machine. I knew AT ONCE there was something weird about it. I mean, it just felt weird. So I looked at it... there's a hummingbird, some flowers, and 1 CENT on it where Lincoln should be, and some crest-y thing or whatever on the back with "1990" on the bottom and going around most of the edge is "REPUBLIC OF TRINIDAD AND TOBAGO". You can imagine how much room that'd take up on a coin smaller than a penny. :)
Next up on the list of foreign coins is... how about the Canadian ones?
I have three pennies (1999, 1991, and 1978) and a quarter, which is the only other coin I have that will stick to a magnet. I want a dime and a nickel though.
Next up is my Belize money. I've got a two-dollar bill (very very colorful with Queen Elizabeth II's picture on it although they're not British anymore.) I have two one-dollar coins (they're some sort of goldish metal and have ten sides instead of being perfectly round.) It has QUEEN ELIZABETH THE SECOND OMG written in big letters (okay, there's no OMG but that's the attitude it has) over a picture of her. On the back is a boat, the name of the country, ONE DOLLAR, and 1990 (or 2000, depending on which of my two coins you look at) Belize nickel, which feels like it's like, plastic, and a quarter (1993 and 2000, respectively.)
Then there's my Panama coin. I'm assuming "VN CVARTO DE BALBOA" means a quarter. They use Vs instead of Us.
Then comes my Mexican coin. I can't for the life of me figure out the denomination. I had assumed it meant "100 pesos", but according to a Mexican website 100 pesos comes in bills, not coins, and it's worth rather a lot to be in coin form (10.57 at current exchange rates.) It says $100 on it, is unusually thick for a coin, is from 1985 (perhaps they've changed since then?) and has some dude with a beard called V. Carranza on it. Unless "ESTADOS UNIDOS MEXICANOS" doesn't mean "Mexico, yo".
Lastly is a coin that says "Elizabeth II DEI GRATIA REGINA +" and since it circles around it the plus goes to the Elizabeth. Then on the back it says "TWO SHILLINGS 1963" and "FID DEF". I'm assuming it's British, but I always thought they stopped using shillings or something weird like that or whatever. Any thoughts? Oh, and my collection also includes a rusty quarter.
I have bicentenial quarters too, and some very old pennies (seventies, sixties, and one 1959 penny) and some old nickels (the oldest is 1938!).
Ah well, enough rambling. Goodnight!
Ivyette @ 1:40 AM (ack I started writing this at 11! too many distractions....)
Anyway, a recent discovery of mine lead me to re-discover (whee using the same word a bunch of times) my love for coins. I like old American money and new or old foreign money, which is quite a challence since the U.S. mint takes coins out of circulation after about ten years. But my grandparents left behind a few small things when they died, and whatever my greedy hated aunt and uncle didn't steal from them during their lives and directly following my grandmother's dead in 1995 became mine. I have a heavy box filled with some coins. I know I probably shouldn't be talking about them online because OMG UR ALL GONNA STEAL MAH MONEY, so I'll post a disclaimer: it's all pretty worthless, really. It's not worth stealing.
Anyway, I don't know WHERE on Earth my grandparents could have picked them up, but first on my list of things I have is several dollars in white pennies. I love them, they make the coolest chink-chink noise and they're the only American money I have that will stick to a magnet. These were issued in 1943, during WW2, because they needed the copper for something or other to do with bullets or... something. So the government issued pennies that were made from steel or steel with zinc, or steel with a zinc coating (there were variations, apparently) and some copper ones, which are rare. My favorite of my white pennies is the one that has no 3 in the date. I do have some damaged ones, but aside from being dirty, this one has no damage and therefore simply has no three. It just says "194". So it's my favorite, and I keep it with my foreign money instead of with the other white pennies.
I also discovered something peculiar in this box, the first time I looked in it, which was the abundance of dimes, mostly dating from around 1993. They were not mercury dimes, there wasn't anything special about them, they were just... there. Tons of dimes. (They're all still there, including some new ones from my piggy bank.) Also in the box were Kennedy half-dollars, some of them normal ones and some of them bicentenial ones, possibly- I have no idea, and I don't feel like checking right now :P, maybe later this post. There's a two dollar bill, an ANCIENT silver certificate (basically looks like a normal dollar, except I can trade it in for silver if I wanted to.) Another peculiar thing were several dollar bills, in perfect condition. The only special thing about them is that they're vintage, yo. 1963 dollar bills. I feel the need to explain to you now that my grandparents were VERY, VERY weird people. (These are the ones on my father's side. My maternal grandparents are still alive.) But yes, my grandmother had a drawer in the kitchen set aside where she saved the wrappers you get when you get meat or cheese sliced fresh in the deli, and possibly the produce bags too. My grandfather, not to be outdone, had several large bags of milk bottle caps. They, in short, WERE HORRIBLE HORRIBLE PACK-RATS. They saved pay-stubs from the late seventies. Loads of purses. Tons upon tons of bedsheets that they NEVER USED, they stayed in the plastic bags they came in like, in case the queen came over to visit or something. I don't know. So that explains why they'd have crisp clean dollar bills and lots of dimes, and such a large number of white pennies. (My father said they used to like to have nice flat dollars to give out for birthdays and things, but apparently they'd been saving these for a REALLY special occasion, because, COME ON, 1963?)
The newest coin in my collection is the one that sparked my re-interest in coins in general and especially piqued my interest in foreign coins.
It came to me in a slightly odd way. Kash+Karry has a coin counting machine that will count all of your coins and give you a print-out saying how much they're worth in paper money, after deducting a small fee, and then you can go get your money in paper from a cashier or whatever. So my mother's piggy bank got really full and one day recently we went to K+K to use the machine thing. We sent Father up to do it while we wandered around, and when he was finished he said that one penny just wouldn't go through, the machine kept putting it in the coin return thing. So he left it there, and with the skillz I inherited from my crazy grandparents I realized that OMG MAYBE IT'S SOME KIND OF REALLY COOL COIN, having read that coins that were reproduced wrong or something were often worth money. So I RAAAAAAAN to the machine and grabbed the copper-colored coin out of the machine. I knew AT ONCE there was something weird about it. I mean, it just felt weird. So I looked at it... there's a hummingbird, some flowers, and 1 CENT on it where Lincoln should be, and some crest-y thing or whatever on the back with "1990" on the bottom and going around most of the edge is "REPUBLIC OF TRINIDAD AND TOBAGO". You can imagine how much room that'd take up on a coin smaller than a penny. :)
Next up on the list of foreign coins is... how about the Canadian ones?
I have three pennies (1999, 1991, and 1978) and a quarter, which is the only other coin I have that will stick to a magnet. I want a dime and a nickel though.
Next up is my Belize money. I've got a two-dollar bill (very very colorful with Queen Elizabeth II's picture on it although they're not British anymore.) I have two one-dollar coins (they're some sort of goldish metal and have ten sides instead of being perfectly round.) It has QUEEN ELIZABETH THE SECOND OMG written in big letters (okay, there's no OMG but that's the attitude it has) over a picture of her. On the back is a boat, the name of the country, ONE DOLLAR, and 1990 (or 2000, depending on which of my two coins you look at) Belize nickel, which feels like it's like, plastic, and a quarter (1993 and 2000, respectively.)
Then there's my Panama coin. I'm assuming "VN CVARTO DE BALBOA" means a quarter. They use Vs instead of Us.
Then comes my Mexican coin. I can't for the life of me figure out the denomination. I had assumed it meant "100 pesos", but according to a Mexican website 100 pesos comes in bills, not coins, and it's worth rather a lot to be in coin form (10.57 at current exchange rates.) It says $100 on it, is unusually thick for a coin, is from 1985 (perhaps they've changed since then?) and has some dude with a beard called V. Carranza on it. Unless "ESTADOS UNIDOS MEXICANOS" doesn't mean "Mexico, yo".
Lastly is a coin that says "Elizabeth II DEI GRATIA REGINA +" and since it circles around it the plus goes to the Elizabeth. Then on the back it says "TWO SHILLINGS 1963" and "FID DEF". I'm assuming it's British, but I always thought they stopped using shillings or something weird like that or whatever. Any thoughts? Oh, and my collection also includes a rusty quarter.
I have bicentenial quarters too, and some very old pennies (seventies, sixties, and one 1959 penny) and some old nickels (the oldest is 1938!).
Ah well, enough rambling. Goodnight!
Ivyette @ 1:40 AM (ack I started writing this at 11! too many distractions....)
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It's strange you posted this today. Last night my 7 year old grandson said he was going to start collecting pennies. He asked if I had any pennies from the 1950s. I gave him all the pennies I had in my purse and he found a 1918 penny in the bunch. He was thrilled!
My husband explained to him how he collected coins when he was Jake's age and that when we got home we would give him the penny collection. I explained to him and his 10 year old sister about the "silver" pennies made from seel and coated with zinc because the country needed the copper for the war effort.
They are homeschooled and it soon became an interesting history lesson for them.
So my husband's coin collection will now be passed on to our grandson who has developed a love of coins like his grandpa.
Thanks for sharing. It's nice to see that others grandparent's pass on things they collect to their grandchildren.
Now if I could only decide which of children/grandchildren gets my doll collecion that included dolls that my Mom left me?
Christina
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I did some more research on the zinc pennies and found that they made the switch not only for the need of copper, but because copper was exceeding the value of the coins themselves- for example, one penny would be worth more than a penny in copper, so they made the switch. The copper was worth more because, obviously, it was in such demand. Just to add to your grandkids' education :D
I'm absolutely thrilled you liked my post. I LOVE dolls (always have, heh) and I'd be torn over inheritance, too... tough decision, heh.
<333333 take care.
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I always try to save my Canadian coins even though they're not really worth anything but I always wind up losing them. But today I was counting change from a piggy bank and I was stuffing some pennies into those little coin-stuffer things and one penny got jambed. While I was trying to get it out, I saw the colliseum on it and said, "Well I guess that's not Canadian..." and it turned out to be a Euro! I was excited.
But you have a shilling. That sounds so cuuute.
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I bet I gave that Euro to you, fag!! Ahahahaha, my fag.
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I thought maybe you had given me one but I really don't remember you doing so.
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kbi
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