Spare Change

As a kid, I liked collecting all sorts of funny things: interesting leaves, funny looking pebbles, every brand of bottle top I could find, whatever. These days, I've pretty much outgrown that. My wife still gets on me about never throwing things away, but for the most part, I try to focus on what's important. I do have a coin collection, though.

I'll be the first to admit that it's not a valuable collection. There's nothing there that's worth more than the face value, and face values are mostly pretty small. It's just a collection of odd coins that I've come across over the years.

I started with Bicentennial quarters. You remember those. They're the ones with the drummer on the back, and "1776-1976" stamped where the date should be on the front.

I also have some half-dollars. Two are actually special; they're from the mid 60s, and from the look of the edge, they may actually be silver half-dollars. The third is a Bicentennial coin, with Independence Hall on the back.

The Post Office stamp machines give dollar coins in the change, and from those I have some Susan Bs from each year they were issued for circulation: 1979, 1980, an 1999.

My favorite coins are the foreign coins. I have a Honduran 20 centavo that someone gave me in change once, thinking it was a dime, and a Spanish 10 peseta that I got the same way. I also have a Russian 5 ruble coin, a Polish 1 zloty coin, and a 20 eurocent coin.

I think the only ones of any value, though, are the pennies. I have eight or ten wheat pennies, from the 20s, 30s, and 40s, as well as a 1904 Indian head penny. I even have a Canadian Centennial penny.

And that's about it. I'll admit, it's a pretty childish collection. But then, I take a certain childish pleasure in keeping what are, here in the Midwest, some pretty unusual coins. Besides, they look cool.