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
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.
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.
Austin got me this coin from Puerto Rico!
I have no idea how people get to travel so much. Or how they can still remember my absurd hobby on these trips.
Not that I’m complaining, but there are a lot of problems trying to incorporate Puerto Rico into the system… Do I categorize it as a US state? It obviously isn’t… Let’s say it’s a country of its own, but it’s too small to have any meaningful administrative division… My SQL database just isn’t very PC.
In the end, I made a country called “US Territories” and a state within that’s called “Puerto Rico.” I’m hoping someone would travel to the Virgin Islands to press me a coin, just so the whole arrangement doesn’t seem so forced.
New EC from Mi Casa Coqui Gift Shop Ponce, Puerto Rico
New Year Resolution: Post more often… (Also, learn to delegate to my manager at work.)
So, I was changing my password on this site when I realized that there are subscribers… Wow~ How is it possible that I never learn this before? If I knew people were reading this, I would have sorted material for my autobiography here. Well, it’s never too late - Chapter 1: I Am Born… just kidding
I’m looking over my desk, trying to remember where all these coins come from. I have the last batch of ECs Jason, Jessica, and Derek pressed for me on their trip to Monterey, CA. There are a couple of coins from New Orleans, a gift from my quilting buddy, Wendy’s, husband. Suhail, Yucif, and I also went on a trip to Vegas a few months ago and there were some coins from that trip. One of my trades landed me coins from Korea, Germany, and Australia. I still haven’t figure out whether these coins from Taiwan, marked as “Bubble Electric Company” is from an actual electric company… And, last but not least, there is a bag of dirty zincs that I need to sort through (don’t drink and bid, otherwise you may end up with a bag of these as well.)
The place where Jason, Jessica, and Derek visited was called Mackerel Jack’s (not Monterey Jack’s).
I’ve also added the last two coins from the National Museum of Natural Science in Taichung, Taiwan
More later…
Finally got the other ECs from the National Museum of Natural Science. Little further from Taipei, so there are less traders 
