Check the dates

I have not seen any 2014-dated coinage in change yet, but I am looking.

I don’t really expect to see anything before February, which is the next time I will be transiting through a major airport.

How about you? Are you watching your change this year?

If you are, let me know when you see your first coin with this year’s date on it. Send me an email at david.harper@fwmedia.com. Let me know when, where and how you found it. I will pass the information to readers of my blog as well as Numismatic News.

I’m still sticking to my hypothesis that the earlier these coins are reported, the better the economy will be in the next 12 months.

Usually it is the new cents spotted first, but with the quarter backlog finally swept away, it is possible that you will see a new date on any of the four circulating denominations early in the year.

Dimes are becoming almost the new cents in terms of numbers produced. Over 2.1 billion came off the presses in 2013 compared to just under 7.1 billion cents.

If the rest of the country acts as I do, dimes go right into change hoards as easily as cents do.

The denomination I most frequently retrieve for reuse is the quarter, but even that denomination more often than not sits in whatever container my change is stored in until I accumulate enough to make it worthwhile to take it to the bank for folding money.

So when you are done running this weekend's errands, take a minute or two and see if any 2014 coins have come your way – and keep doing it until we have spotted and reported sightings of cents through quarters.

Buzz blogger Dave Harper is winner of the 2013 Numismatic Literary Guild Award for Best Blog and is editor of the weekly newspaper "Numismatic News."