I went to the bank earlier, and walked out with a $1 coin. This isn’t much news to the Australians, but here in the US we’re still cursed with paper $1 bills.
The coins do exist though, and are mostly ignored by the public. I bought one because I collect them….
Yes this is another post about one of my strange collections!
Back in 1999 the US Mint started releasing a series of 50 quarters to commemorate every state. Five were released every year, and apparently they became the most collected coins in US history, with about half of all Americans (!) collecting a set. And at least one Australian…
I didn’t go out of my way to collect them, since they were (and still are) extremely common. I just kept one of each as I got them in change, putting them into the little book I had purchased.
The set was followed by 6 ‘district and territory’ quarters and now we’re in the middle of a series of 60 (or more!) ‘America The Beautiful’ quarters featuring state parks and other notable natural attractions within the US. Compared to the state quarters both of these follow up sets seem much rarer and I haven’t made any effort to collect either.
The Presidential Dollar series began in 2007 and was intended to promote acceptance amongst the population of a $1 coin. Five new coins were to be released a year but the coins were a failure and after 5 years circulation ended. The coins are still made, but for the collectors market only.
In theory I could fill that book just with coins if receive in change or at the bank. They are difficult to find these days though, so I doubt I will.
The last US coin book I have is this:
I’m not sure why or when I got this book, but I have made an attempt to fill it:
This is not a collection I put any effort into!
In addition to these I have a nearly complete set of Australian 20c, 50c, $1 and $2 coins. If only someone made little collecting books as nice as the ones I have for US coins.
I could probably do a dozen or more posts about other weird collections I have. They’ll have to wait for next Christmas 🙂
