Bugo's Finds of the Day

I've thought about ways to get circulated coins. There are a few shopping centers near my home that have restaurants and eateries. Most of them have tip jars with lots of coins in them. I've thought about offering the cashiers to exchange the coins in the jar with bills. I would offer to round up to the nearest dollar to maybe make it worth their while.

Some of the grocery stores in town also have those coinstar machines. I was thinking that owning one of those has to yield some nice finds.

Some coins have an interesting history. Around the time I purchased my first liberty nickel, I read an article about the toll roads in the U.S. being 5 cents (on average). So I imagined people driving their cars in the early 1900's through a toll booth and handing a liberty nickel to the attendant. I think of it just about every time I go through a toll now.

 

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Here are some pictures of the 1944-P war nickel I found. It is shiny except for Monticello, which is dull. Was this nickel replated?

 

I remember as a kid in the late 1980's and early 1990's seeing war nickels a few times in my change. I know now they were war nickels cause of the mintmark above Monticello. I didn't know that at the time, unfortunately.

Same with the bicentennial quarter. I would see it in my change, but it never registered as something special. Not that the bicentennial quarter is very special, but you know what I mean.

 

The bicentennial quarter was always kind of special for me because I was 1 when they began minting them and I saw them in change a lot when I was a kid. That's why I collect them, for the nostalgic value. Good thing I do save them, because I found this gem: a business strike 40% silver 1976-S quarter. I wouldn't have even noticed it if I didn't collect every bicentennial quarter that I find. At first I thought it was just a regular old bicey, but I took a second look at it and noticed that it was duller than normal and there was no copper layer sandwich like regular quarters. The 1976-S quarter was released in cupronickel clad, 40% silver clad business strike, and 40% silver proof. They were only available to collectors and were not released for circulation. These are the only 40% silver quarters ever minted by the US mint. This is not a particularly rare coin - you can buy them in uncirculated condition for less than $7 - but has to be extremely rare in circulated condition because they were never intended to circulate and any that ended up in circulation were freed from collector sets and spent. It's definitely one of my favorite circulation finds.

 

The last two days have been fruitful. I've found 1954-S, 1956-D, 1957-D, 1958-D, 1959-D, and three 1960 pennies; 1974 and 1997 Canadian pennies; two 1939-P and one 1959-D nickel; a 1998-D half dollar; and some weird foreign coin that I believe is Thai in origin.

 

I'm glad you report your findings on here. I'm not in a position to find so many nice coins so I'm living vicariously through you.

 

I'm glad you enjoy it. I considered quitting but several posters have said they enjoy reading my updates so I'll continue.

 

The last few days have been fruitful. I've found many pennies: 1941-P, 1948-S, 1950-D, 1952-P, 1953-D, 1956-D, 1958-P, four 1959-D, and seven 1960-D. Nickels I've found include a 1936-P (my third buffalo nickel in the last four months), a 1949-D, a 1951-D, a 1954-D, a 1956-P, a 1957-D, and a 1960-D. I also found a 1977-D half dollar. As for foreign coins, I found Canadian pennies from 1943, 1964, and 1981, and a 2008 Malaysian 10 sen coin. All four foreign coins were pulled out of rolls of pennies including the 10 sen which is almost exactly the same size as a penny but is silvery colored and has a reeded edge.

The buffalo nickel is obviously the most impressive find out of all of these coins, and is in rather good shape. I pulled it out of a clear plastic roll along with a 1956-D Jefferson.

 

Since my last post, I've found two 1944-D, a 1944-P, a 1952-D, a 1953-S, two 1959-D, a 1960-D, and a 1960-P pennies. I've found nickels from 1948-P, 1957-D (three on one shift!), and 1960-D. I spotted 1971-D, 1972-D, and 1978-P halves, and three Canadian pennies: 1967, 1969, and 1983. The find of the night was the 1967 Canadian penny, the second centennial penny I have found in circulation. There can't be too many of them floating around in the southern half of the country.

 

Finds of late include:

Pennies:

1941-P (2)
1942-D
1944-P
1944-S (2)
1951-D
1953-D
1951-P
1956-D
1958-D (2)
1958-P
1959-D (5)
1959-P (2)
1960-D (3)

Nickels:

1947-S
1955-D
1956-D
1958-D (3)
1958-P
1959-D (3)
1960-D (4)

Dimes:

1962-D

Canadian pennies:

1972
1975
1981
1998

The best find was obviously the silver dime. I pulled it out of a roll with a bunch of plain old dimes.

 

Thanks for your kind words. It's posters like you that make me come back to this forum.

 

Hello bugo! I recently went through a dry spell on coin hunting. Part of it was my fault since I started using my debit card more instead of paying with cash. I was too lazy to go to an ATM for a few days. However I got some cash after my last paycheck and I'm back to buying my regular daily stuff with cash. I never find silver, but I have been keeping other stuff. Mostly pre-1982 copper pennies. I've also been collecting ATB quarters - just for fun since I don't think those will be worth much in the future. I got a 1975 Canadian cent a few days back in my change. That's about it recently.

 

I work at a convenience store. The pay isn't good, but the fringe benefits are excellent.

 

I found a 1945-P nickel night before last.

 

Last night I found a 1937 nickel and a 1979-P wide rim SBA.

 

Last night it was a 1971-D Ike and a well worn veteran 1951-S quarter. More Ag for me!

 

you say you would like to go through the change at a casino or something. must be where your store is, but i would say youre doing much better than you could anywhere else.

anyone else find this much that works at a bank, casino, coinstar, etc???

i dont think i will ever have finds like an indian head cent or buffalo nickle. mind you im in canada so it could be harder, but ive found a lot of stuff in circulation that shouldnt be. (just about everything ive posted in follow the lead world coins)

theres less now, probably because of our alloy recovery program i guess.

keep up the good finds.

 

Lately it's just been some 1960 and older nickels. The rolls of pennies at work are all 2014 zinc pennies so I haven't been able to find my wheats. I did find a micro SD card in the middle of a roll of dimes though, even though I haven't looked at it to see what is on it.

 

Tonight it was a 1969 Canadian penny, a 1958-D nickel, a 1964-D dime, a 2000 Belizian quarter, a couple of $1 star notes, and a Series 1963 $5 United States Note. The $5 bill and the silver dime were the finds of the night.

 

I have not received a United States note in years and years. That's quite a find!