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Numismatism!
May. 20th, 2011 08:45 pmCoins are funny things. We ascribe value to them mostly by agreement these days, since they rarely have any actual precious metal in them. The circulation manager at work was making up a bank deposit and counting cash yesterday morning. She came to me with half a dozen US dollar coins and asked if I wanted to buy them. I usually buy any she gets in, since Gary likes to use them. So I gave her the equivalent amount in paper currency. Then she asked if I were interested in foreign coins. Apparently she'd been accumulating a pocketful of non-US coinage that had been accepted at the desk by inattentive staff members. I said I didn't think so, but then I got curious and asked to see what she had.
There were quite a few oddities. I asked how much and she said to value them at whatever we probably took them in for. Counting by the size and color, most looked like quarters or pennies, with a couple of nickels and two dimes. Plus one odd Canadian coin that was very tiny, silver and thinner/smaller than today's dime. In the end I took the whole lot for the princely sum of $1.67. When I got it home and looked more closely at what I had, I found that about half of it was Canadian. There were several "elk" (quarter dollars) including two very shiny ones issued in 2005 for Queen Elizabeth's Jubilee year. A "bluenose" dime, named for the sailing ship on the back, some beaver nickels and maple leaf pennies. Then there was that odd tiny coin. It was Canadian, in very good condition, and 121 years old. The portrait was of Queen Victoria, and it was minted in 1880. I had to do some research on that. Turns out these coins were called "fish scales" because they were the size of a codfish scale. In 1880 they were pure Sterling, or .925 pure silver. The tiny thing rings like a little bell when dropped on a hard surface. It may have a collector's value as high as $90, apparently, but I think it's much too pretty to just sell.
There were also some old US pennies, the Lincoln design from 1960 or earlier with the "wheat ears" on the back rather than the picture of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington DC. One rather dirty penny, however, was an Indian head dated 1908. Indian head pennies were last minted in 1909, and were replaced in that year by today's Lincoln design. There was a buffalo nickel, to go with the Indian head I guess.
The rest were various foreign denominations, including a one euro coin from Portugal, a Mexican peso, a Panamanian cent, and an Australian 10 cent piece from 1974. No great rarities, I'm sure, but they were interesting to sort through.
There were quite a few oddities. I asked how much and she said to value them at whatever we probably took them in for. Counting by the size and color, most looked like quarters or pennies, with a couple of nickels and two dimes. Plus one odd Canadian coin that was very tiny, silver and thinner/smaller than today's dime. In the end I took the whole lot for the princely sum of $1.67. When I got it home and looked more closely at what I had, I found that about half of it was Canadian. There were several "elk" (quarter dollars) including two very shiny ones issued in 2005 for Queen Elizabeth's Jubilee year. A "bluenose" dime, named for the sailing ship on the back, some beaver nickels and maple leaf pennies. Then there was that odd tiny coin. It was Canadian, in very good condition, and 121 years old. The portrait was of Queen Victoria, and it was minted in 1880. I had to do some research on that. Turns out these coins were called "fish scales" because they were the size of a codfish scale. In 1880 they were pure Sterling, or .925 pure silver. The tiny thing rings like a little bell when dropped on a hard surface. It may have a collector's value as high as $90, apparently, but I think it's much too pretty to just sell.
There were also some old US pennies, the Lincoln design from 1960 or earlier with the "wheat ears" on the back rather than the picture of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington DC. One rather dirty penny, however, was an Indian head dated 1908. Indian head pennies were last minted in 1909, and were replaced in that year by today's Lincoln design. There was a buffalo nickel, to go with the Indian head I guess.
The rest were various foreign denominations, including a one euro coin from Portugal, a Mexican peso, a Panamanian cent, and an Australian 10 cent piece from 1974. No great rarities, I'm sure, but they were interesting to sort through.
