Dreaming of Coins
I started coin collecting in 1969 with the help of my sixth-grade teacher, Mr. Thorn, in a small upstate N.Y. town. Back then, I was mostly looking through pocket change…
I started coin collecting in 1969 with the help of my sixth-grade teacher, Mr. Thorn, in a small upstate N.Y. town. Back then, I was mostly looking through pocket change and, once in a while, bankrolls of pennies. Growing up on the east coast, “P” and “D’s” were easy to find but not “S” mint marks.
I always dreamed you could go to a bank on the west coast and find only “S” mint marked coins. On a recent trip to California, I got that old bug again, went to the bank and bought $3 worth of pennies. There were lots of Ds, some older “S” coins from the ’70s, and five wheat backs: 1944s, 1945s, 1952d, 1955d and a 1957d. I felt like a kid again.
Marvin
Upstate N.Y.
I’ve enjoyed reading about all of the discoveries that readers have reported and wondered if I would ever find anything interesting. Well, I finally did.
On a trip to Florida to see my kids, my daughter-in-law let me look through her stash of coins. I couldn’t believe what I found. Yes, I found a bunch of quarters I needed but the others are what I enjoyed.
1. A 1-franc dated 1919
2. an 1894 Canadian 5-cent piece
3. a 1932 British 3 pence
4. an 1884 nickel
5. a 2009 25-cent Canadian Olympic skier for the 2010 Vancouver Olympics
But the best one for me was a 1937 20 centavos (Philippines) with “United States of America” on the reverse. I have yet to have them checked and graded but I will always enjoy this find.
Mark
Russells Pt., Ohio
I started collecting in December 2015. My first coin was a 1943 Walking Liberty half I purchased in Madison, Wis. I spent a lot of time holding it and imagining how many different things it purchased over time. It will always be worth far more than any pricing guide would indicate!
Since then, I never thought I’d find silver coins in circulation. And I tend to regard discovery stories with a healthy bit of skepticism...until this summer! I was at a CVS in the Edgewater neighborhood of Chicago when I noticed what looked like a handful of coins in a Coinstar machine.
What I found was a couple of Canadian pennies and two silver dimes: 1952D and 1963D. Both were in pretty good condition to boot. Yes, between the two types, more than a half-billion of them were minted. But to think of all that’s occurred in that time!
I keep them on my desk as a reminder that time moves on without our consent.
Dimitrios Kalantzis
Chicago, Ill.
I had my wife initially bring home $60 worth of rolled quarters from the bank. My primary focus was to find the W mintmark quarters from the 2019 National Park mintage, which I did find six Lowell quarters, but it took more than the first batch of quarters. Also, I searched another $50 worth.
While searching for other quarters for my quarter collection, I went back and noticed the word “Liberty” was double-stamped on eight Lowell quarters. I have attached an example below along with the eight quarters I found. This really baffled me because going into this search, I didn’t expect to find something like this at all.
Rick Jorgensen
Ranson, W. Va.
