I got a Facebook page!
Why? I’m not quite sure, but my web hosting company said I should… Now there’s an added component of confusion. Before, I had to think of what to post on here. With the added page on FB, should I just double post everything?? I kind of wish I talked to someone who’s more tech savvy first. But it’s awesome to know that there are people who Likes my site 
Anything that gets me motivated to press more coins and include more update is a good thing. I should have set that as a New Year resolution: introduce a dozen new pennies by post each week.
Here are the contributions of the day - New ECs from Smithsonian National Museum of American History Washington DC
I’ve lived near the District for a few years now, but the American History Museum was closed for renovation when I fist moved here. Last year, I finally visited to see the Julia Child exhibit after reading Julie and Julia (her kitchen was larger than mine…)
New ECs from Union Station Washington DC
Nobody would believe me, but I’m honestly working really really hard at reducing the backlog and adding more coins into the database.
I’m still receiving coins from friends and family. Just today, Wendy gave me one from Washington DC. I also have a bag full of ECs from my trip to Japan a few months ago. Originally I was going to scan in the coins as soon as I get back and post the extras for trade. That definitely took a turn for the slower.
Alright, all this talk… Getting down to the updates:
New ECs from Smithsonian Information Center Washington DC
New EC from National Postal Museum Washington DC (thanks Wendy!)
Okay, great idea right here: Google Map for coin locations!
With the exception of a lot of manual inputs, I think it’s a wonderful enhancement idea. Here’s a test map for Alabama.
There seems to be coins piling up everywhere… In my purse, my wallet, my car compartments, and of course in the box where I normally put unsorted coins.
Last week, my parents came to visit and brought with them a bag of ECs from Nanjing. They weren’t too happy when they saw the offering just lying around. That’s the problem with receiving the gift and the giver at the same time.
Towards the end of their visit, we went to the Baltimore National Aquarium. These were pressed at $1.01 each. Hopefully I’ll be able to work backwards and get the coins from China entered in next. One of these days, I’ll have to write longer posts and actually talk about the trips. But it’s already such work just entering in 25 coins within one setting…
New ECs from National Aquarium Baltimore, MD
While my site was dormant, in that not so distant past, a fellow EC collector from Spain got in touch with me. His name’s Miguel and he has a kick ass website.
I know wrote a post on his site previously, but it’s really something else. He’s got tons of fun gadgets - like the Google map with EC images, or the built in translator (obviously I’m adding this one to my site as well as soon as I figure out how to manipulate the source code)… His posts are also very informative.
Gifts from Miguel! These are the first Spanish ECs in my collection:
New ECs from Basilica of Our Lady of the Pillar Zaragoza, Spain
P.S. I’m having tremendous fun with the new translator gadget (check it out - bottom of the side bar) This site translated into Chinese makes no sense at all.
From the catch-all box:
New ECs from Carousel Candies, Ocean Front, Red Snapper Restaurant & Bar, and Sea Studios Foundation Monterey, CA. I think this is a gift shop… Since it’s from Monterey, they were probably presents from Derek and Jason… maybe even pressed with Jessica….
Yay! Database is working again. Resetting is definitely the best method to deal with login problems.
So, here you go! (What meerkat looks like in Australia)
New ECs from Adelaide Zoo Adelaide, Australia (traded with Travis)
I found out that these coins were from Travis after searching through my email. While digging through the catch-all box, I also found an entire package, unopened, from Oded. This one dated January of this year. Gosh… how long have I been away?
Some of the photos are now restored. Truthfully, I sometimes don’t remember which picture I originally planned to put where. For example, out of the fifty+ photos we took from Thailand, at least a dozen fits the description of “Wat Pho,” which was all the clues I left behind. Lesson learned: Never grab photos from another site, even if those are legitimately your own…
The first step to recovery is to admit that moving is very destructive to EC collections. Every time I relocate, I seem to lose a dozen coins. Out of which, 8 I’d never figure out that I’ve lost, 3 I’d perplex over for several years to come, and 1 I’d confirm right away and that would always be among one of my favorites.
I want to go through all of the nicely labeled coins first, probably because that’s easier than sorting through the random ECs I tossed into a box while packing. For example, the first coin that I fished out reads “MEERKAT, ADELAIDE ZOO”. Did I press this? If not, who gave it to me? Where is Adelaide Zoo? Where’s the rest of the set? And why doesn’t the image look anything like a meerkat?
As it turned out, Adelaide Zoo is in Australia. So that solved most of the mysteries (Aussies got great accents, but they were never good at drawing meerkats.) After carefully labeling the coins, I tried to find my foreign coins box. This took a long time. There were moments when I wondered if this was the end, because I’d kill myself if somehow all my international coins were lying in a dumpster somewhere by accident. Then I remembered that I used the box as a door stop when I first unpacked it a few months ago… Whew~
Of course, it couldn’t have been this easy… I couldn’t login to phpMyAdmin, undoubtedly due to the lack of use. Oh well, maybe the same password will work if I try again tomorrow.
I’ve been HORRIBLE at upkeeping.
I just moved recently and nothing is in its rightful place. There were around 30 boxes, 25 of them are unpacked, yet I’m still missing half of my EC collection… Last time I moved, I lost a good number of ECs. I must have just stuffed them somewhere and tossed them accidentally. I really hope that won’t be the case this time.
By the way, introducing Miguel! Who is an EC collector in Spain and has an awesome website. Click here for Google translate. I’ve also added his site to the links. Speaking of which, I should move the links block upward… It’s not very helpful when you have to scroll to get to it.
So far the trip’s been terrific.
I didn’t do a bit of research before coming here, but I’m pleasantly surprised by all that’s in central London. Everything’s so ornate. It’s almost impossible to imagine the man power and money that went into the construction.
We were walking by Parliament and the Big Ben to get to Westminster Abbey. People put tremendous thoughts into each brick and it feels like I can just stand there and stare at the wall all day. The Abbey is even more fantastic. Even kings and queens had to claw a few square inches for entombment. When we got to the Victoria and Albert Museum, there were statues, among other royal knick knacks, pouring out the doors. Many of them monuments designed to be in the Abbey.
Now for what we actually care about - pennies! (or… here they call them pence.)
I pressed 8 coins at the London Eye (missed one machine), 4 coins at the Tower, 8 coins at Kew Garden, and 2 coins at Harrods. Harrods has replaced the die to 2011 and the machine at the pet shop was broken. I don’t know how many times we’ve passed by the London Bridge Experience or the Tower Bridge Experience, but never had a chance to press the coins.
Coin pressing is an expensive business in London. Each costs one pound, which is close to $2. That’s crazy!! The most expensive EC in America is only $1, and those are only in national museums where the admissions are free. I think it has something to do with the pound coins being widely used here. Personally, I find these coins precious, using both meaning of the word - they are much more likable than our Sacagawea and, obviously, are worth more in the International market. Anyway, I’m still hopeful to find a 50 pence machine somewhere in the city.
