Capt-AWACS

And a couple of Belize notes I got while doing some summer work there 15 years ago as an undergrad looking half to party and half to learn

Here are some Japan 2000 yen notes, which my initial research tells me are actually circulating commems (???) and not too popular in Japan. While I've been to Japan a few times, I never really saw these and was using a lot of plastic for biz purposes. I actually got these out of an ATM in Houston at Bush Intercontinental Airport. I was trying to help my uncle get some currency, and to avoid the lines he wanted to use the machine (I never buy foreign currency at airports but that is another story). I of course fat fingered a button and istead of Euros got him Yen. He was able to switch them for Euros but I kept these two notes because they were cool.

He has his 15 pieces of flair on his uniform.... I got two brand new Japanese 2000 yen notes from the airport ATM today. Haven't scanned yet but nice circulating commems I am told

I've ranted on this before, but it is therapeutic for me so I'll do it again since I am still not over my coin collection robbery even 15 years later. Rant on/ I too have found proof coins in circulation. some are due to the economy, anecdotally it seems more are popping up these days. I know people that know nothing about coins and have told tales of just popping open their gift sets because they needed cash. I know of some folks whose children secretly popped open sets for money.... for most likely nefarious purposes or at least alcohol. But the majority comes from theft. People that steal them actually more often than not do not sell such things but just break and spend. Some coin collecting friends at HPD and STLPD verify that to me in their experiences also. In the rare instance said coin thiefs are caught, tar and feather comes to mind...rant off/ Nice finds nonetheless!

There are a few sites about the new polymer (or plastic as some call them) banknotes. I don't have the links in front of me but last I saw they were linked at the bottom of the wikipedia articleo n polymer notes. I can probably suggest a couple of books on US currency but they only touch on design slightly. I need to go find them.

somewhat tangent to the ship discussion, though not a US coin it is a US ship: I own one of these Aussie commems which has the ship's bell of the USS Houston, which sank with the HMAS Perth at the Battle of Sunda Strait in March of '42.

Good point. I've come across 3 total AtBs in over three years, and one of those was a buddy exchaning it with me because he knew I was interested. Statehoods are everywhere it seems but these National parks are no where to be found, and I travel all over the US often. Where are they?

Hasn't been much lately, other than 17 carwash or game tokens at one two days ago. At first I was giddy when I looked down then upon pulling them out all carwash-esq tokens save one soon-to-be-rare ;-) Canadian penny.

I was a NATO and Air Force flyer and lived in Germany and the Netherlands but I moved to Italy for family. I have dual citizenship. I like the 50.000 note. I had a similar one but it was stolen :-(

Not sure why I couldn't get my typing in on that post but here are a couple more notes in my vast Italia collezione, and a new one for me, a Shah note from Iran (I only have some more modern Islamic Repub types)

Ciao, Gaetano, benvenuto. Miei nonni errano da Napoli e Campania, anche mia moglie e' siciliana ma io non parlo o scrivo bene. Mi piace denaro vecchio d'Italia.

ciao. Sono Tony, abito in Texas per mezzo l'anno e anche in Sicilia per mezzo l'anno. Il forum ha molte brave persone. Sai dov'e' in buon negozio per monete antiche in Roma (preferibilmente nel vicino del aeroporto FCO o Termini)?

My last trip there was in 2005 and 2006 before our base at Manta closed (and moved to Aruba...) They did circulate some of their own coins too, but all the currency was US (ditto Panama and El Salvador IME)

I found a proof "penny" once too. I presume it is most likely stolen and spent as face-value, or busted from a set for drugs or something. I had a friend as an undergrad who cracked his birth set to buy food at face value. I found out after the fact. I also had some sets stolen while an undergrad and my guess is they were just spent. I watched a guy pay for food with three Franklin halves at a supermarket a few years ago...needless to say I snapped those up as I was just behind him in line.

mi piace la parola "anche" :-) I see more and more Euros around Africa these days. The 5 Euro note is, of course, very popular.

http://www.stltoday.com/news/local/govt-and-politics/treasury-no-chance-of-trillion-dollar-coin/article_54fe4640-fded-56b8-804b-318ae6a387d2.html http://www.latimes.com/business/money/la-fi-mo-trillion-coin-20130112,0,7251551.story THe Trillion Dollar coin started as kind of a joke but Paul Krugman and others latched onto it as legit. While gold and silver are regulated, platinum coins denoms are not. Today however the Fed says it is no go... How would you like to find that in the coinstar reject bin...

For what it is worth I received a US 1998-S proof nickel in change at a Chevron tonight in the Meyerland area of Houston. Not too marked up either just a small fingerprint above Thom's head.

Ciao Magdi, mi piace il tuo webpage di soldi. E' molto interresante. Io abito in Sicilia per mezzo ogni anno ed ho molti soldi italiani historico. Ciao, Tony

COunt me in as one who didn't know about the tablets on the banknotes...cool finda and nice scans. Not a supercool purchase per se but I got a stack of 25 crisp and sequential 2009 US$2 bills at the bank last week. I did not even know they had printed a 2009 batch so it was news to me! I usually get ~50$ worth every week from my banks as I like to spend them (many people know me as the "odd money" guy...but i digress.

When I was staying in Ecuador, where US$ is legal tender, everyone used the new US dollar coins. They imported something like 100,000,000 of them. The Zims should do the same.

I love it. Where/how did you get it? Ciao, AWACS

I stopped by the BEP store in DC yesterday and bought some more 4 piece uncut sheets 1, 2, 5 old 2006 and new 2006 (Colour) and 10$ (colour) Not super exciting but I have special frames for them and enjoy them as art work also. Ciao, AWACS

nothing exciting lately. I did have a few free hours after a meeting in DC last week and I bought a uncut sheet of 4 new US (coloured) design $10s I picked up some nice Croatian (Hrvatska) notes in change in Pula and Dubrovnik that I have saved and cataloged this month. Thats about it. Boring few months for me. Ciao, AWACS