Scottishmoney

MPC's were my ticket into collecting - my dad brought a bunch of the 661 Series notes home from 'Nam when he came back in '72. Those were a previous series that got recalled on a "C-Day" while he was on a mission - so he basically lost all his money and they became worthless. He gave them to me when he got back and I can remember my brother and I using them as play money - I still have them though and fortunately no worse for the wear since my brother and I didn't try to tear them up like everything else. There are some websites on them - and they are listed in the Krause catalogues.

The German 2 pfennig coin was very close in diameter and colour to the current 2 eurocent coin - I have gotten both as cents even recently.

After Canadian coins - the ones I find most in roll searches are British, even though the pennies are slightly larger - I get 20p as nickels, 5p as dimes. After that I would say Panama, Bermuda and Bahamas, then E. Carribean States. As for Canadian coins, really they are not worth a whole lot less now, like 1-2% less than American change at the moment. In the past couple of years the Canadian $ was actually worth slightly more than the dollar. In contrast like 15 years ago the Canadian $ was worth about 61c US and it was pretty consequential. I know most people in the area readily take Canadian coins, but really I could care less for accepting them - I won't take their 10 or 25 cent coins in change. If cashiers dole them out I hand them back and ask for American change.

The lime green seals were the first printed 1934 FRN's in 1934. After that for the rest of the series printing through 1950 they were dark green and are much more common.

Here are some pictures of some of my better bank finds from the last few months: Next is a bad iPod picture - but the earliest notes are Series 1928 FRN's and Legal Tenders, the earliest SC's are Series 1934: All of those five dollar bills had been sitting in the teller's drawer for over two years as she was not wild about giving them out in withdrawals because she believed people would think they were counterfeit or something. Here is another bad iPod picture from an October 2012 haul: Over the past few years I have found maybe a dozen or so like this one: Here is one from about 3-4 years ago: And now some rare finds: The last in this post was from a small two branch bank in rural Northern California back in 2010:

Oldest cent - really beaten up 1882 IHC Oldest nickel worn nearly flat except for the date 1890 Liberty Oldest dime - 1944 Oldest quarter 1939 Oldest half 1942 back in November Oldest dollar coin - an 1897 Morgan I got in change at an A&W when I was about 10 years old - the customer in front of me in line had spent it and I bought it from the cashier.

It is as close as you are going to get to collecting MPC in this era.

I find the 5p coins in dime rolls in roll searching in the USA. 20p coins substitute for nickels - I have several dozen of them - I really don't have a problem getting a coin worth 30 cents for a mere 5 cents. Less often I find 1p coins in cent rolls, only have maybe a dozen of them over the years.

A new design in 1957, and a one off since National Bank merged with Commercial Bank in 1959: Notice no ships in any channel under the bridge. And then after the merger: A famous note because it has a ship in the non-shipping channel - in reality a ship would have grounded in that channel. The error was corrected on the smaller sized 1964-6 era notes.

Royal Bank and Bank of Scotland 10 Pound on up to the 100 Pound notes had blank reverses right up until 1969.

At least the USA was consistent. In Canada they went from pure nickel in 1942 to those "Tombac" things that were bronze coloured, then when that didn't work out they made them 12 sided - then dumped the "Tombac" and went to chromium plated steel - which was then used intermittently into the 1950s and of which I still find a few of them in circulation. I have only ever gotten one of the "Tombac" composition coins from circulation.

The watermark in the otherwise blank medallion is the main security feature as was then the fine engraving of the notes. These notes were printed by Bradbury Wilkinson - then owned by American Banknote Company. Here is an image of the Fiver from 1952 from Commercial Bank: And the Twenty from 1950 from same bank:

The beneficial thing was that silver was then low in value - but appreciated after the war. I never have a problem pulling a $1.61 worth of metal coin out of circulation. I have pulled some 300+ war nickels from roll searches in the past couple of years. Crazily enough I have found a couple of hundred 1943 steel cents from roll searches also.

A bit of irony that the BoE was founded by a Scotsman, and now has a Scotsman on the reverse of the note

The owner of said coin waited almost 20 years to find the "right" coin that was free of crimping, clipping and wear. Clipping is one of the biggest issues with Plantagenet era gold - lots of pieces are lightweight and missing a portion if not all the legend as a result.

Likes it

Recently I bought a Simon de Passe medal with Charles I and Queen Maria - I cannot find that I have imaged it yet so I must get to work.

In Pridnistria they use their own version of ruble though, but I am sure Russian ruble readily accepted in commerce. I believe there are some Russian army units there to guarantee safety of country.

I would like for it to be S-5123, which is very rare, but in fact it is an early Robert II - S-5131 based on the shape of the head of the monarch. BTW the S number the OP cited is for a halfgroat, this particular piece appears from the size of the head to be a full groat that was clipped of practically all of it's legends. The reverse appears to have used a well used and many times repunched die based on all the doubling noticeably with the stars in the quatrains on the reverse. BTW I own a S-5123, as well as an S-5131 but don't have images online at the moment with the website I had buying the farm.

Very fascinating and thank you for sharing. The only benefit from the demonetisation of the pre-1945 guilder banknotes was that some of the lovely banknotes that would no longer be available because they would have been redeemed are available for collectors - though still fairly rare. I have a couple of the large denomination ie 100 HFL and 1000 HFL from the 1930s. Following the liberation of Netherlands in 1945 silverbons were issued which resulted in a ramped up minting of silver 1 and 2.5 gulden coins for redeeming the notes and restoring confidence in the guilder. Also whole new series of notes were made, though rare, they are still collectable, particularly 25 HFL of 1945 and the orange design of 1947. With all the flack about the Euro lately one forgets that Netherlands had a strong currency that continued to appreciate vs. other currencies like the dollar and the sterling over time. Not many nations are in that club, only Germany, Japan, Switzerland and Austria.

They do mint coins, but I don't think they circulate because of inflation. Pridnistria uses their own ruble denomination of currency, it has no ties to Moldova at all. The Moldovan currency is worth quite a bit more than the Pridnistrian ruble, the latter place doesn't have a whole lot of outside trade other than Russia and some Ukraine.

I have been there, but wasn't really supposed to be and was glad when I was back out of there.

I have gotten several of the copper plated zincs from 2010-11. I have only found one copper plated steel from 2012 so far. I believe they were released through normal channels but a lot of them were bought up and not a lot of them made it to circulation like mine did. I live close enough to the border that I tend to get Canadian coins before I find new USA coins.

It is the latest thing coming out of China, along with Cabinda, Tanganyika etc.

They could have done a whole coin series "watch Farouk inflate".