I took the day off on Tuesday to visit the coin shop and as usual came back with a big pile of coins. It'll take me awhile to go through them all and photograph/scan them, but I wanted to share a few here. First off they had a lot of Canadian silver dollars in really nice shape. It's hard to believe but there doesn't seem to be much of a premium attached to these in high quality. I picked out three and could have had a lot more if I had the money to spend. I'm assuming I payed close to melt on them, as the clerk usually only tells me the price of something when it's higher than I might expect. I also have here a 1912 Peru dinero and a 1974 Peru sol de oro, which is a common coin but I love the design, which is raised above the surface more than most coins. I also have a 1944 D Philippines 20 centavos that looks like it was made yesterday. I'm not sure if the photos will do it justice.
In a different vein, I picked up two medals. I collect coins and medals with bears, and when I saw this Alaska medal I had to have it. It's 92% silver, which is great. Another medal that spoke to me was this John Steinbeck commemorative silver medal. Steinbeck is one of my favorite authors and my favorite of "serious" authors. You can see the medal here along with the Steinbeck section of my bookshelf.
