Oh man, I'm starting to feel bad for my 2007 digital camera. Like, it wants to die: you can sense it nevertheless I need its outdated husk to capture pictures of my pocket coins because none of my other cameras have ever quite been able to do it the way I need it done. So...once again, I've charged its battery and returned it to life like the Vorlon do with Sebastian to serve my need
I (again) could not quite capture the magic of my 2015 photos and even my common desktop setup wasn't really working for me so I handheld the camera instead of relying on the tripod and taking pictures when the lighting came as close as it could to what I sought. Thankfully, at 1/200th of a second per shot, image blur isn't really an issue
So onward with the only thing I keep this blog alive for (just like my 2007 camera!) which reminds me, I really am overdue for finishing up the America the Beautiful Quarter mintages and how they compared to the Statehood series which preceded it!
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2007 Silver American Eagle: about 14-15 years wear |
As it has been, the rim of this coin I received in that year as a subscription benefit to Numismatic News remains sharp despite all the bruising it gets in my overfilled coin purse (the 2008 one I got I tossed into a cardboard box and for a couple years, it became very colorfully toned on both sides; I never received the 2009 one because the price of silver had risen to the point where it would've cost the newspaper more than the value of the subscription to honor the benefit). Since my bank (for whatever dumb reason) will not get dollar coins for its customers anymore, I've been stuck carrying a bunch of quarters in their stead so the coins don't really get to jingle around as much anymore. They're still grinding down (rather than becoming attractively worn like actual circulated coins of yesteryear), but I assume the rate has slowed.
The lettering for E PLURIBUS UNUM seems to be entirely gone now and the open part of the field on the obverse has taken some toll on IN GOD WE TRUST and on the bottoms of the letters of the T & Y of LIBERTY. There's still a very noticeable ring of protected area along the reverse's lettering.
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1978-D Eisenhower Dollar: about 13 years wear |
Not much to say about the Ike dollar. Its wear continues apace though it has caused the mintmark to become illegible again because the wear isn't from smooth rubbing but from metal on metal grinding and scratching. But it's proving a tough coin. All these years in my coin purse and the majority of its details are still intact.
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1978 Kennedy Half Dollar: about 11-12 years wear |
Kennedy's hair and ear are showing noticeable wear. The arrows, olive branch, and E PLURIBUS UNUM banner held by the eagle on the reverse have become less distinct while the eagle's head is now smooth and has blended with the top of the Union shield. The wing feathers are starting to blur together.
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1999-P Susan B. Anthony Dollar: about 15-16 years wear |
This SBA dollar is among my longest-held coins for this patience project and is getting very close to being halfway through its circulation lifetime of 40 years. The bottoms of the digits in 1999 are particularly affected now and the eagle on the reverse continues to lose detail. Some protected areas (like the hair by Anthony's ear and areas around the eagle) persist.
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1999-P New Jersey State Quarter: about 15 years wear |
Not much to say as its wear continues but the reverse of Washington Crossing the Delaware is becoming increasingly like a silhouette.
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2017-P New Jersey America the Beautiful Quarter: 7½ years wear |
Washington's hairlines are already nearly gone as the restoration of his portrait for this series made them particularly delicate in the effigy's low relief. The mother and boy's faces on the reverse are becoming mushier.
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2005-P Jefferson Nickel [first issue]: about 15-16 years wear |
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2005-P Jefferson Nickel [second issue]: about 15-16 years wear |
The Westward Journey nickels of 2005 continue to not show any obvious wear to Jefferson's portrait. It's there and it's happening but it remains difficult to see both in photographs and real life. The Buffalo of the first reverse gets mushier and mushier looking. Its horn remains prominent despite the legs of the animal blending into the grassy patch it stands on. The wording of OCEAN IN VIEW! O! THE JOY! on the commemorative dinnerplate reverse grows less distinct with only hints of the exclamation points remaining. The rough-looking mountainside the wording was placed upon has noticeably smoothed.
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2001-P Jefferson Nickel: about 15-16 years wear |
My accidental addition to this collection is showing a lot more gouge marks on the obverse while the FIVE CENTS on the reverse continues to fade away.
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2009-P Jefferson Nickel: about 13 years wear |
Jefferson looks like he's been taking quite a few hits in the kisser while the FIVE CENTS denomination is holding up considerably better than it has been on the 2001 coin.
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1974-S Lincoln Cent: about 15-16 years wear |
Everything on this coin looks like a nicked mess now. I feel bad for the coin. I have Lincoln cents from the teens and twenties which have worn down to Good/Very Good rather handsomely (and with their mintmarks still very legible) but this coin just looks like it's been tossed around in a rock tumbler rather than jingling around in a coin purse. The mintmark is just a blob, the date & LIBERTY & E PLURIBUS UNUM are becoming indistinct. A few protected areas persist and have retained a pale blue color. The Lincoln Memorial is now increasingly just a shape and the mini-Lincoln within, his li'l legs, are no longer protected and may soon blend in with the columns of the memorial.
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2010 Lincoln Cent: 15 years wear |
With the Mint announcing it will no longer be producing cents as soon as its store of blanks have been used up (predicted to be early in 2026), I'm left wondering if we will be making a go of recycling the many many billions of Lincoln cents that have been minted since 1959 or if they will rapidly disappear from circulation because businesses will stop ordering them from local banks? If it's more immediately the latter, than this 2010 cent which I've been carrying around since April of that year (pretty much as soon as they had become available) will now represent pretty much the maximum wear any such Shield Cent could've ever attained before withdrawal from circulation. I'm going to keep carrying it regardless but its "natural" wear will soon become fantasy wear when that day comes (and despite the cent being relatively worthless since the 1960s, I'll still miss the coin. It was my, and I'm sure every collector's, first love and to this day remains the only coin that you can still reliably get 80+ year old coins from a roll and even occasionally, 100+ year old coins - I got a 1918 just the other week. And while you can still get nickels from the 1940s & '50s and occasionally the late 1930s, it's just not the same thrill and I imagine the nickel's days are numbered too given the costs associated with producing one of them so soon all our oldest coins will be 1965)
Anyway, the metal on metal scraping this coin receives has not been kind to its devices. All the lettering and numbering on the coin is difficult to make out. The denomination still stands out but it does appear to be on the verge of merging with the banner it's within. We'll just have to see what another two years of coin purse circulation will do to it!
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2009-I Lincoln Cent: about 13 years wear |
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2009-II Lincoln Cent: about 13 years wear |
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2009-III Lincoln Cent: about 13 years wear |
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2009-IV Lincoln Cent: about 13 years wear |
The Bicentennial of Lincoln's Birth series of cents is also closing in on their maximum wear in reality (though this particular set will need to go 17 years before reaching that point as I started circulating them late). The effects of an ultrathin plating of copper atop a core of far more volatile zinc is showing, though. Like their Shield counterpart, nearly every design's lettering is not holding up well now that the more protective layer of copper has worn away. I do like, though, how that zinc exposure makes it easier to photograph the wear on the coins but the composition of cents since 1982 has not proven wise.
And like with the Shield cent, I fully intend to continue circulating these coins until they become slicks (or I die...not like any of know what Fate has in store for us) even after cents have ceased to circulate in American commerce.
Angel Token: 12 years wear |
Maybe I should start photographing both sides of this token despite them having the same design because it's not like they aren't distinct. One side of the token was against the street I had found it lying on and it surely had been run over at least once given the gouge damage on the angel's stage left wing but I continue to show this token's good side when making these presentations. Curiously it shows the least amount of gouging of all my collection. Whatever its composition is, it sure does resist the scrapes and grinds its brethren cannot. I do love the colorful effects around the rays where the protected areas are becoming less so as the design flattens (and the now gray alien looking face of the angel). If only all my coins had worn so smoothly...
So long as Blogger remains, see y'all again in two years!