Finn235

Just some of the ones that I have handy photos of. All of these are from circulation.

1938-P

1941-P

1951-S

1989-S Proof

Thought you guys might enjoy this one. This is the most worn (non-mutilated) Roosie I have ever found. And only 11 years old!

I did my part to help those quarters get out into circulation. About 8 months ago, the cash office at my work got an entire BOX of '09-P DC quarters. I kept two rolls for myself (one unbroken and one cherrypicked from pre-broken rolls) and ended up giving two more rolls out to a lady who explicitly said that she planned to use them at a laundromat. The rest of them slowly leaked out to our customers, and I really haven't seen too many since then. I'll find an occasional Virgin Island, Puerto Rico, or American Samoa from time to time, though.

I'm beginning to think that 2009 and 2010 will eventually become a semi-key date for modern coins.

Get a cash office position at a large volume grocer and you'll outdo my acquisitions with haste.

This is true. At my work they won't even consider you for working at the cash office unless you've been working 5+ years, but I've heard of some fantastic finds, ranging from a 1905 Liberty Nickel to a roll of BU Merc dimes.

Neat! I've never found a web press note before, but I've noticed that anything older than series '01 is becoming increasingly hard to find in circulation these days, so I doubt I'll ever see one.

My friend asked me to go through his change jar for him to see if there was anything valuable in there. I found 6 1940's wheat pennies and an incredibly scratched-up 1909.

From a historical perspective, I generally consider anything post-1945 to be "modern". Not only did the world as we know it begin to emerge in 1946, but (in the US at least) if you were to travel back in time with a jar of present-day coins, you could probably spend the nickels, dimes, and quarters (possibly the pennies if your cashier was not particularly vigilant) without raising too much suspicion. Of course, that would probably only work in the US.

Or, how about this definition: a "modern" coin is any coin that can be expected to comprise more than 0.01 - 1% of circulating coins.

Memorial pennies are modern. Wheat pennies are on the fringes of modern. Indian head pennies are not modern.

Queen Elizabeth II coins are modern. George VI coins are on the fringe of modern. George V and Victoria coins are not modern.

Nice snag! I've never seen a merc in circulation before, although a few have been found in the cash office at my work.

Found a '54-S nickel today. I'm not sure why, S coins from the '50s seem to be significantly more scarce than the S coins from the '40s, despite the higher mintage figures.

1987 Canadian 5 cents. Oddly, this one was NOT from my work; I got it in change while paying for a pizza. The cashier was completely confused as to why I was looking so intently at the nickel he gave me.

Figured I'd go ahead and share with you guys, even though I was not fortunate enough to partake.

When I was cashing my paycheck a couple months ago, it was a slow day and I was talking to one of the tellers (all of whom know me as "the coin guy") about the goodies I had been finding in the rolls from them, and she mentioned that a customer had deposited over $100... in silver certificates. She said that it was almost exclusively $1 bills, and most of them were very lightly circulated, if at all. There were even a handful of star notes mixed in. Of course the next customer walked up and asked if he could withdraw $100 and have those bills, so there were none left to be had by the time I got there.

You ought to swing by my work if you happen to have any '64s you're particularly mad at.

They actually have half dollars at your bank? My bank is inundated with agony dollars, but there's not a half to be found...

In the literally tens of thousands of transactions I've made at my work, I have only seen two half dollars pass through circulation.

Who in the world would have a gold coin, and let it fall into a change jar destined for a coinstar machine?

DreamFlight you lucky duck...

Tell me about it! I've only made a handful of valuable grabs from circulation ('36 standing liberty half, an '89 proof nickel, and some miscellaneous silvers are at the top), but I have noticed that the proportion of older coins, especially wheaties and nickels from the 40s seems to be on the rise. My guess is that people don't see the point of keeping a penny or nickel that's worth roughly 15 cents, so they just spend them. I still haven't gotten to the point where I could see that being a good idea, though.

Coinstar JACKPOT

 

1890 Half Cent Ceylon

What a find!

Snagged my very first "Professional Life" cent from work today. I'm really surprised at how much detail it has. Makes me wonder how well these coins will hold up to circulation, if they actually do circulate...

Also, snagged a handful of nickels ranging from '41-'59, two bicentennial quarters, and a D log splitter.

Figured I'd share an interesting story one of my coworkers told me. I obviously don't have any proof, but I don't think she was making it up.

Apparently, back when she was working in a restaurant (sometime in the '70s), somebody paid her with a 1795 half dollar. She let her brother's friend take a look at it, since he was a moderately serious coin collector, and he said it was genuine and would grade VG/F. She's kept it in a jewelry box since then.

Ok, so I did not find that one in circulation, but one of my coworkers did.

She said that a customer was paying in cash, came up a little bit short, dug around in her purse for a while, and found that one. She looked at it, said it was a terrible shame, but didn't have the time to sell it and couldn't take anything off the order. The cashier traded two quarters for it, and I bought it off of her for $5; just a little under melt value.

So, even though I purchased it, it WAS recovered from circulation.

Post all your coins that have been scratched, chipped, bent, or left in the side of the road for three months, all for the honor of being your pocket change. Circulation/detector finds only!

I'll start us off with this little beauty I retired from service today.

As near as I can figure, it used to be a 1925-D wheatie in a former life...

I think somebody made a dump into the bank we get our money from at my work.

Two 41-P and one '38-P nickel

AG/Poor buffalo nickel with the date worn completely off

'53-D and '57-D wheaties

'73-S penny and a number of '59-Ds

All in the past two days.

Got my hands on 54 log splitter pennies today. One roll and four from another one that had been broken between the cashiers.

Traded a worn-out dollar bill from my pocket for the roll of log splitters and a '74-D half dollar. Not a bad trade, imo.

Oh! Almost forgot... I didn't find this one, but a friend of mine gave it to me from circulation... a Quarter Balboa from Panama, 1996 masquerading as a quarter in her cash drawer.

Fairly busy month for circulation finds.

A few weeks ago, I picked up 800 nickels from the bank in two batches.

The first batch had some pretty sweet catches, including a gorgeous 1941 nickel (I posted it in the main coin forum... thedeadpoint estimated it at AU-58)

Plus a circulated 1989-S proof.

The second batch was relatively poor, with just a couple nickels from the late '50s.

Found '45 and '46-D wheat pennies. Nothing too special.

Another AU+ '59 memorial penny (several small blemishes, but an overall brilliant red tone).

My third '68-S penny--the rarest business strike in the series! Well, minus the '70-S small date...

Three cabin pennies and two log splitter pennies.

A handful of star notes and small portrait bills.

And THE BIG ONE...

A 1936 Walking Liberty Half! Sadly, this was given to another cashier, and I wasn't able to talk her into letting me trade her for it. I will hopefully be buying it off of her for about $5 in a few days (she wanted to show her husband).