New coins across the land

I haven’t found any 2013 coins in my change yet even when I have been on the road to more populated areas, but it is only a matter of time as emails from readers keep coming in with news of their finds.

The U.S. Mint’s Tom Jurkowsky wrote March 5:

“I received two White Mountain quarters in change this past weekend in Annapolis – one from a grocery store and one from a drug store.”

Maryland must be a good place to be for new coins because the long absent reports of Denver coin finds have finally begun to arrive and one report came from, of all places, Maryland.

Tom Mooningham of Hagerstown wrote to me March 10: “Great day, stopped at fast food restaurant. In change got 2013 “D” five-cent piece and 2013 “D” cent. Asked to get some more change, no more coins found. They are out there, a tourist, truck driver or other visitor from the West must have spent them. Lucky day for me! Good Hunting.”

Good hunting for sure. As I wrote yesterday, collectors are scouring their change to find more than just 2013 coins and they are giving deeper thought to what they are doing.

That’s good. Keep it up.

As for my own experience, I have encountered a couple of wheat cents in the past week. Just yesterday I received a 1953-D cent in change at the Crystial Cafe. It still has mint red in many places.

A few days before that it was a 1950 cent. The grade was lower. I didn’t really look at it closely, but perhaps it was a VF.

Who knows where those cents came from, but with a couple of active coin dealers in town, I can easily envision leftovers from collections being hauled to the bank.

I appreciate the emails that have been coming in to report finds. Thanks to one and all.

Buzz blogger Dave Harper is editor of the weekly newspaper "Numismatic News."