I remember I found my first silver coin on the footpath when I was around six years old. It was a 1925 Aussie sixpence. I also discovered earlier this year that the coin shop is about three blocks from where I found it so I wonder if someone went home one day to have a closer look at the coins they had bought and realised they were a sixpence short.
About three years ago I was on the family farm up in the wool shed where the shearing use to and is still done. I was just looking on the floor at a pile of old nuts and bolts when I saw just at the foot of the wool press a round copper coin which turned out to be a 1923 penny. The funny thing was that my uncle had been shearing recently and had swept all around where I found the coin.
I think my luckiest find has to have been when I was over in the UK earlier this year. Now I had been collecting coins for a few months before I left so I knew to keep all the commemoratives I could find so when I found a “V” alphabet 10p in my change, I just put it with the rest of my special coins I had bought or collected over there. It was only a few weeks ago I started watching some alphabet 10p coin hunts that I realised how lucky I was to find one when I was only over there.
well, just a few days ago I got a 1918 one cent in change
The USA is a bit unusual in that the coinage has not changed in 150 years or so, only Switzerland, that I can think of has a less varied coinage. As I thought to write that, it occurred to me to put a 2018 penny next to the 1918, so i dumped out my penny jar, and then it occurred to me that the Lincoln cent has had three reverses (besides some special issues) in its 100+ year run, and found a 1968 to make up a nice little tableau.
Lots of foreign coins circulate in the US as well, I posted a few of them here a while back.
Jamais l'or n'a perdu la plus petite occasion de se montrer stupide. -Balzac
Mostly just foreign coins for me. I've found a Turkish 50 Kurus coin circulating as a 2 euro coin, as well as a Thai 10 baht coin; there was a story a while back that tourists were taking those 10 baht coins (worth 1/100th of a 2€ coin) and spending them as 2 euro coins in the Eurozone: http://www.dutchamsterdam.nl/2375-amsterdam-flooded-with-thai-currency
Like Mr.Midnight said, in the Eurozone old coins aren't found nearly as often in circulation as they may be in Switzerland or in North America. I did once find an American quarter on the ground in front of a church though.
When I was a kid I found a 1900 UK penny on the site of a building that had been demolished. I'm guessing it was dropped on the ground when they were laying the foundations.
I did know about the first two reverses however your photos are the first time I have seen or heard about the latest one. How long has the newest reverse been around?
I did know about the first two reverses however your photos are the first time I have seen or heard about the latest one. How long has the newest reverse been around?
I found my first US shield penny shortly after its introduction on the floor in my local supermarket, in Amsterdam. There's something strange about my neighbourhood, because I found a 2006 Slovak 50 halierov on the ground near the garbage collection point at the corner of my street, and in a street nearby a 1994 Belgian 20 francs (Dutch legend), also nearby a garbage collection point.
Ever since, I can't pass any garbage collection point without spying the grounds around it.
The only thing that comes to mind is I found this coin http://en.numista.com/catalogue/pieces298.html (1943) on the ground in Chamonix, France in 1982. I was a young kid on vacation and to find an old obsolete coin was pretty cool. Even though it is dirty and a little worn it still is in my collection.
Got a 1910 Barber Nickel, KM112, in change at the cafeteria at my workplace yesterday. You don't see them very often circulating. The condition is good to very good, but still a great find for loose change.
