Home > Numismatics

What is Numismatics? It's fancy speak for coin collecting. When I was younger I was into collecting old coins, especially old US coins. These days I mostly just pull-out old coins or any other oddites from my change. Here is my modus operandi for pulling out coins and paper currency from circulation...

  • Silver quarters and dimes (rare, I've only ever gotten one silver quarter in my change)
  • Wheat pennies
  • 50 cent pieces (not rare, but cool)
  • Dollar coins (again, not rare, but cool)
  • Nickels 1959 or older
  • Canadian or other foreign coinage masquerading as US coins (got a Polish 10 groszy piece masquerading as a dime from Mickey D's once)
  • Paper currency from the 1980s or older (coins generally last in circulation 30 years, whereas for paper currency it's as little as 5 years, so paper currency from the 80s is uncommon)
  • Small headed $5, $10, $20, and $50 bills (I have yet to encounter any $50 small head bills as they're uncommon in day to day transactions, at least in my line of work)
  • Bicentennial quarters (quarters from 1976 with George Washington performing a drum solo on the reverse)

As for right now my general circulation collection stands at:

  • 23 wheatback pennies
  • 45 bicentennial quarters
  • 27 1950s or older nickels
  • 13 half dollars, 13 Canadian pennies
  • 3 Canadian quarters
  • 28 presidential/Sacagawea dollar coins
  • 7 Susan B. Anthony dollar coins
  • a Polish 10 groszy piece

This is a brief album of some highlights of my childhood coin collection.

Created by Mike Young on March 11, 2022. Last updated on April 10, 2022.