Metropolitan Coin Club of Atlanta

We are collectors of coins, paper money, tokens, and medals.

Street Level Collecting

“Olly olly oxen free”

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It has been a while since my last column, but to be honest, I have had a dry spell. I have not been able to find anything newsworthy. One interesting thing happened on election day. People visited Susan B. Anthony’s grave in the Mt. Hope Cemetery and posted their “I Voted” stickers on her tombstone in remembrance of women’s suffrage.

Cents: Only lots of 2014 Philadelphia cents. Not a single “wheatie” in months…

Nickels: Only lots of 2014 Philadelphia nickels. Not a single Jefferson nickel before 1960…

Dimes: My “best” find over the last several months—a 2012 Canadian dime. I did find one dime I got excited about. It appeared to have a small clip (incomplete planchet), alas it was only circulation damage.

2014-everglades-25c-rQuarters: Lately, I have received quite a few 2014 American the Beautiful Everglades quarters from Philadelphia. Quite a nice coin.

Currency: A couple of one dollar star notes. Not finding many these days, might make a difference in the future. I guess the Bureau of Engraving and Printing (BEP) has been getting it right.

Time to start the search for 2015 coinage. I saw where the Philadelphia Mint had set a new record one day last summer minting over 42 million coins in one day! It is hard to believe we need all of those coins.

Hopefully, we will see some fresh metal in our pocket change soon. Happy New Year, from your street level collector!

Ahhhh, the smell of money

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Ahhhh, the smell of money. That distinctive ink-on-linen scent. Source: Discovery News, "Device Sniffs Out Smuggled Money," http://ow.ly/CpNNF (accessed September 30, 2014).
Ahhhh, the smell of money. That distinctive ink-on-linen scent. Source: Discovery News, “Device Sniffs Out Smuggled Money,” http://ow.ly/CpNNF (accessed September 30, 2014).

This time I will start with a couple of interesting items. First, researchers have developed a device that smells out money, preventing billions of dollars in cash from leaving our country across the border. It mimics a dog’s ability to sniff out the odor of money.

The second item is from Japan. There is a bus stop display with $3 million inside. It is an advertising sign for the glass company. If you can break the glass and get inside, the $3 million is yours to keep.

Bulletproof glass manufacturer 3M Security Glass placed this advertisement at a bus stop. Source: SCEL News, "3 Million Dollars Behind 3M Bulletproof Glass," http://ow.ly/CpNwn (accessed September 30, 2014).
Bulletproof glass manufacturer 3M Security Glass placed this advertisement at a bus stop. Source: SCEL News, “3 Million Dollars Behind 3M Bulletproof Glass,” http://ow.ly/CpNwn (accessed September 30, 2014).

Now, on to my finds…

Cents: Pulled both an 85P and a 92D from circulation that were Gem BU. They had been hiding for a while. 2009 cents are hard to find and I finally found my first 2009D Capital Construction cent in circulation, now five years later. My first 2014D cent was recovered on August 20th.

Nickels: Again when I find San Francisco coinage in circulation I am a happy camper. This time it was a 1968S.

Dimes: Just a lot of 2014P Roosevelts.

Quarters: Latest find was a 2014P Great Smokey Mountain quarter. A very nice design.

Paper money: Nothing new. With modem technology, people are using less and less cash. I still try to use cash whenever I can, but I guess that’s the collector in me.

By the time the next article comes out, Halloween will have passed. I hope you can give out some type of numismatic item to all the ghouls and goblins that tramp across your doorstep. Each year with the candy I give out a small snack bag with several coins in it. Last year I gave out about fifty bags and ran out. When you give away free money the trick or treaters come out of the woodwork.

Still street collecting till next time… have FUN searching!

Single handful of change yields all 2014 coins

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I hope by this time of year, each of you have found all of the 2014 models in circulation. I happened to have received them all at once in a single handful of change. That has never happened to me this early in the year. That handful of coins consisted of two quarters, one of which was a 2014 P Shenandoah Quarter. It also included a 2014 P nickel and a 2014 P dime. There were three cents, two of which were 2014 P’s. I still have other new quarters and “D” mint issues to find.

Cents: Found some nice “early” Memorial cents this time. Found lots and lots of2014 P cents, they must be minting them by the millions.

Nickels: A few 2014 P nickels, not much of interest this time.

Dimes: Plenty of 2014 P dimes. People must be storing their change again.

Artist Mark Wagner intricately cuts and assembles currency collages using the one dollar bill. (Image courtesy of thisiscolossal.com.)
Artist Mark Wagner intricately cuts and assembles currency collages using the one dollar bill. (Image courtesy of thisiscolossal.com.)

Quarters: Received 2014 P Shenandoah Quarters on several occasions, waiting on other new ones. Finally received a 2013 P Fort McHenry Quarter just in time for the Fourth of July.

Currency: At the last MCCA meeting received another “Where’s George” note in change. This is where you can track your dollar on-line by the serial number. The only post on this dollar came from Marietta, Ga about a month ago. If you come across one of these go to “Where’s George.com” to track it. None of my entries have received additional post.

Last weekend I caught an interesting story on the morning news about an artist named Mark Wagner. This guy cuts up currency and puts it back together as works of art. I suggest looking him up on-line. Amazing … Well this street level collector can’t afford to be slicing up his money, he is just trying to put enough together to pay his bills.

Coin collecting hazardous?

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Have you ever thought of numismatics as being hazardous? Currently in the news are reports of over 3000 different types of bacteria on each piece of currency that we handle. This includes anthrax and diphtheria. While bleaching your currency would kill the bacteria and improve the appearance of the note, it does ruin the numismatic value of that note. The up side to this is maybe this information could be used to encourage the use of dollar coins.

Cents: Finally found my first 2014 cent on April 6th, it was from Philadelphia. Finding a Denver mint issue could take a while, I still haven’t pulled a 2013-D from circulation. Stumbled across a nice 1970-S cent. Found a 1978 full red cent in change that looked like it came from a fresh roll.

Nickels: Some nice 1964 Jefferson’s this time. It is hard to go through a roll of nickels and not find a five cent piece from that year. The combined mintage for the year 1964 is almost 2.8 billion. They still show up every day and they are now fifty years old!

Dimes: Still have not found anything to mention yet this year. I usually find new dimes fairly early in the year but no 2014 dated examples yet.

Quarters: Just received a beautiful 2013 Mt. Rushmore twenty-five cent piece. I am still receiving fresh mint state quarters from previous years as they slowly make their way into circulation. Three 2012 quarters coming out of a new bank wrapped roll were handed to me a one time.

Currency: Just old smelly, dirty, bacteria infested money. I am spending it as fast as I receive it!

Well I am going to continue my street collecting, hoping to keep the street off of my collection. I never used a coin laundry before however I see them everywhere. Maybe I should start running my change and currency through one?

Where are the 2014 coins?

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Here we are already into March and I am still looking for that first 2014 dated coin. Usually I have found at least one coin by now with the current year on it, but nothing so far. I’ll just blame it on the weather this year and hope for better luck.

Cents: On one of the snow days while making a delivery I looked down and peeking it’s head out of the slush was a Lincoln cent. I pounced on this lucky penny and found it to be a 1958 wheat cent. Received a 1980 Canadian cent in change (obsolete coinage).

Nickels: Current finds include a 1958 D Jefferson and a 1968 nickel from San Francisco. I love finding any S mint coinage.

Dimes: Did not find a “dime” thing!

Quarters: Being a courier driver. I am in and out of convenience stores all day. On one single day at three different “QT” stores I received several uncirculated 2010 D Hot Springs quarters. Obviously these coins have been sitting a long time and are just being distributed for the first time. I also found two dollars’ worth of quarters in one of those crazy downtown parking meters.

Currency: While walking down the sidewalk in midtown I found a dollar bill floating down Peachtree. If you lost this give me a description and the serial number and I will be glad to return it to you.

This issue has me literally collecting off the streets. I will probably get hit by a car someday picking up change. Margaret Mitchell was run over and killed on Peachtree at 13th Street. That is one of the dangers of being a street level collector. You all be careful out there and have a wonderful spring in the search of fun money.