Copper, silver and aluminium disks ...

[ChrisGreaves]

Try scanning them at high resolution.

Doc, thanks.
My first image in the thread was a plain scan (I'm basically lazy), but I didn't think to look for high resolution (wanders off to explore ...)

[ChrisGreaves]

... pictures in natural light, usually on a white table near a window.

Thanks Jon.
I don't have any fancy attachments, but I do have both east- and west-facing window sills, so tomorrow I'll experiment with natural light, both sills, morning and afternoon to see what I can, er, see.

[Skitterbug]

Now you've gone and done it Chris! I've got the urge to start digging through my change jar and see what sort of coins I have that might be worth something more than face value of the coin. Do you know what kind of project that will end up being? All those pennies......... Oh My!

[ChrisGreaves]

... coins I have that might be worth something more than face value of the coin.

My plan is to lay out my collection of about 400 foreign coins (all neatly packaged in envelopes) and take a sample of 1 in 10 to three dealers for quick evaluations.
If enough coins (out of the sample of 40) have value, it'd be worth going back with the lot.

HPIM2995 (WinCE).JPG

Above is a view of my Girl Guide Jar. It is an old 5-gallon water bottle, 3/4 full of Canadian pennies.
I grab pennies from my friends hands and weed out the $US pennies (they get dumped into the charity box at the first diner I come to once I cross the border); the Canadian pennies get saved.

In Ontario (In Canada?) Girl Guides can raise money only by a bi-annual sale of cookies/candies and I think one other method; so I figure 5 gallons of pennies might help the local troop.

[ChrisGreaves]

According to this site the max value of your half dollar coin is $225.00

Thanks Don, but ....

... according to the same site (Page 2) "General notes: In U.S. currency a $1.00 Canadian worth about $0.60 U.S."

I think the figures are suspect/out of date!

[Doc Watson]

According to this site the max value of your half dollar coin is $225.00

Thanks Don, but ....

... according to the same site (Page 2) "General notes: In U.S. currency a $1.00 Canadian worth about $0.60 U.S."

I think the figures are suspect/out of date!

The exchange rate sounds a bit out of date, but still fairly accurate as to actual "worth".

[Skitterbug]

I grab pennies from my friends hands and weed out the $US pennies (they get dumped into the charity box at the first diner I come to once I cross the border); the Canadian pennies get saved.

Chris - I have several "wheat pennies" that I want to check. I doubt that I have any of the "really expensive ones" but hey, I won't know until I shift through the mess. I have some other coins <such as a few silver dollars, buffalo head nickels, etc.> to sort too but this may end up being a wintertime project! Right now, it is more fun to play golf!

[Argus]

... but hey, I won't know until I shift through the mess.

As Skitter said earlier, now you've gone and done it, look what you've started Chris.

I've got one of those bicentennial half dollar coins from the US. Nothing valuable (cupronickel, and not that rare, the older with silver may be bit more interesting, perhaps), but my experience is/was that you don’t stumble on those coins so often, at least when I was there on a visit, perhaps because the quarters are much more common.

As with most other countries, we have removed silver from the coins, and, again, as with most other countries, when that happens everyone starts to collect the old ones … I have some coins from the 40s with a little silver in it, but nothing special; a circulated coin worth, perhaps, 4-5 times its face value, or a bit more, roughly a dollar or two, instead of a quarter.

On the other hand, I understand that in the US there is a whole lot of dollar coins just waiting to be used, getting more every year. Why not start using them?

[ChrisGreaves]

... I have several "wheat pennies"

Please, what's a wheat penny, when it's at home?

[ChrisGreaves]

.. now you've gone and done it, look what you've started Chris.

Why do I always get blamed for anything that gores wrong in Scuttlebut?

Now I'm responsible for the USA running out of space?

OK. I want you to write to your congress(wo)man and tell him/her/it that my spare bedroom is available.

"The hoard has topped $1.1bn - imagine a stack of coins reaching almost seven times higher than the International Space Station - and the piles have grown so large the US Federal Reserve is running out of storage space."

I've got the old queen-size bed in there right now, but seeing as how it's the U S of A, I'm prepared to swap beds; the new one is higher off the floor, and we could cram more coins under that.

Let me know.
P.S. Not next Thursday, I'm out at a client site.

[viking33]

On the other hand, I understand that in the US there is a whole lot of dollar coins just waiting to be used, getting more every year. Why not start using them?

As the article stated, people here in the US, just don't like coins much, not just the dollar coins. I have ONE dollar coin in my collection of junk and miscellaneous "stuff." ( along with a US 2 dollar bill and Susan B. Anthony coin ) Pennies are routinely just thrown away and any change received in a store is usually tossed in a "change" dish near the cash register, so that if your tab comes to something like $10.82 for example, you just dig 82 cents out of the dish, hand it to the clerk, along with a 10 dollar bill.
The not so amazing thing is that the mint keeps on producing these dollar coins even though they aren't used. Penny coins now cost more than a penny to mint but they refuse to stop the circulation of them.

[Argus]

As the article stated, people here in the US, just don't like coins much, not just the dollar coins.

Bob,
Pennies I can understand, being just 1/100th of a dollar. As for the dollar coins; I can understand that, if there is no "use" for them, no facilities that can handle them, such as payphones, parking meters etc. But hey, one US dollar is roughly 0.65 pound sterling, and they’ve got a pound coin; in size almost as our 10 kronor coin, and one pound is roughly 11.00 kronor (SEK), almost the same value.

I was thinking about parking fees, why not use dollar coins? Obviously a lot of parking meters do take credit cards (or even payment by mobile phones), and I guess that many people use cards, but I don't know how you handle that (or anything about parking fees in the US). So if people can't use them other than as payment in the stores, well, then I can understand some of their “aversion”. Perhaps should start with that, finding a use, before minting them, seems like a good idea. Then I guess that there also is that old love for dollar notes.

[Argus]

Why do I always get blamed for anything that gores wrong in Scuttlebut?

Now I'm responsible for the USA running out of space?

I didn't say that, but there is a mess at many places now, people sifting through their coin collections. It seems like Skitter postponed some parts of the job and opted for playing golf. I don't know about the weather in Ohio, but it seems like a good choice, it's not going to get warmer, at least not for a while.

[Skitterbug]

It seems like Skitter postponed some parts of the job and opted for playing golf. I don't know about the weather in Ohio, but it seems like a good choice, it's not going to get warmer, at least not for a while.

You are right Argus! I headed to the golf course which seemed more exciting than peering through a magnifying glass at coins.

Bob said that pennies are routinely thrown away! I couldn't! And I'll still pick them up when I see them on the street. Old copper pennies are probably worth more melted down, but I like pennies, so they will stay as they are.

BTW, we've been having very warm temperatures considering it is mid-September. I'll take this weather over the snow! I guess when it does snow, I'll start looking at those pennies!