Gather EC

Suhail’s family visited Hershey Park a couple of weeks ago.
I drove by the park in college, but there were enough amusements outside. I thought it’d be wonderful to get a few Hershey coins, but apparently my route through town is not singular - Suhail’s party did exactly the same thing: Went pass the park and straight to Zoo America where he got me 5 ECs and a few traders.
New ECs from ZooAmerica Hershey, PA

Suhail, Yucif, and I drove down to Richmond for the regional North American Young Generation in Nuclear (NA-YGN) conference in June. One of the trends we’re seeing lately is weekend events. This conference was held on a Saturday and the last plant tour I took was also on an off day. Probably has something to do with the economy.

Speaking of the economy, penny press prices are raising.

The machine at the Children’s Museum of Richmond costs 75c per coin. This machine at the Science Museum of Virginia, located inside the museum but within steps of the gift shop entrance, takes only dollar bills.

There were much debate over the raising cost of the hobby. Personally, I don’t mind it much. If all machines cost $1, that means my existing collection is also worth more. The part which I don’t care for is the preloaded pennies. It’s probably good business practice to load the machines with “bright new pennies”, as indicated, but I want my ECs pressed on copper. It takes a lot of effort to explain to other collectors that a certain design is “zinc only.”

I’m lucky to be traveling with friends who understand the craziness of this hobby. In addition to the museums, we also visited the Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden (machine found to be in the back room and broken) and Maymont Park (drove around for half an hour and couldn’t find the entrance to the Visitor Center). We even stopped at the Bass Pro Shops in Ashland on the way back.

New ECs from Bass Pro Shops Ashland, VA

Here are the remaining ECs from the Ocean City trip:
New EC from Inlet Lodge Coffee Shop Ocean City, MD

New ECs from Kite Loft Ocean City, MD

Made a trade with Marian for the ESPN Washington, DC coins:
New ECs from Reid Park Zoo Tucson, AZ

One of the Tokyo Disneyland 1997 EC sets came on sale. The whole set, pieced together from half a dozen auctions, is going for a few hundred dollars. But nowadays, to get a complete annual TDL set would cost almost as much, due to the share number of coins presented per year. I’m putting in a few offers on the cheaper ones, hopefully I can at least obtain one for a type set.

Here’s another impulse purchase from eBay:
New EC from 1999 WDW Annual Quarters Set

My work schedule allowed me to take the Friday before Memorial weekend off, combined with Memorial Day was a pretty rare stretch of hours that could have been spent away from the office. Unfortunately, I had to work Friday and Monday anyway… so I thought about sticking around town, maybe visiting my sister on Saturday or Sunday.
In great contrast, my friend and colleague, Suhail planned to take full advantage of the holiday. Speaking to him on Thursday, he was going to Kings Dominion, Six Flags, Ocean City, and Long Island, all in the same weekend. I excitedly handed him a list of penny locations at Six Flags Great Adventure, along with a box of clean copper pennies and $30. He came back with 3 coins out of the 20 or so 3-die machines at the park… Oh well, boys will be boys.
New ECs from Six Flags Great American Jackson, NJ (thanks Suhail!)

Suhail invited me and a few friends to Ocean City.
I’m not a beachcomber. I wither when temperature is above 73F, hate sea water in my hair, and require two types of sunblock just to step outdoors (100+ SPF on my face and neck and 5 SPF everywhere else). But those two days were so much fun.

May 30th was the Ocean City Power Boat Race. We strolled along the boardwalk until the water was cleared, then took turns dipping and tanning at the beach. Seafood was a must for every meal; I ate enough lobster to last me through the century. Suhail then suggested parasailing for the next morning.

That was the highlight of the trip. We went up to 800ft (for $60 per person, which was a steal.) The view was incredible, it felt like we were in a whole other atmosphere. Of course, right after a certain height, I started wondering why I didn’t bother testing the harness or asking our guides for certification and years of experience. That feeling was mutually shared by all our shipmates once they were airborne.
We got around to a few machines, but I’ll definitely have to come back for a complete set. One of the barista mentioned a machine in the arcade that wasn’t listed in PennyCollector. However, we were illegally parked by a hotel and I couldn’t stay long enough to hunt for the alleged penny.
New EC from Sportland Arcade Ocean City, MD

(Remaining scans to come…)

A few trades to be tagged along in this post:
New EC from Texas Motor Speedway Fort Worth, TX (traded with Robert)

New ECs from Mazama Campground Store Crater Lake, OR (traded with Mia)

I was offered an opportunity to tour Three Mile Island Unit 2 after working in the nuclear industry for close to 10 years. It’s one of those things which I can speak intelligently about it (”yeah, a PORV stuck open”) but I never thought I would be able to visit the site in person.

From left to right: me, Gail, and Dana, at the TMI-2 Control Room

Although the site is located near Middletown, PA, it was close enough to Harrisburg for me to collect all the local ECs.
New ECs from Bass Pro Shops Harrisburg, PA
New ECs from PA Turnpike - Highspire Service Plaza Harrisburg, PA
New ECs from Whitaker Center of Science and the Arts Harrisburg, PA

One of my first trades of the year… that went downhill straight away.
Tom offered these wonderful Disneyland quarters. After he mailed them, I realized that I didn’t have a single coin he asked off of my trade list. Yes, I felt horrible about lying online… I sent Tom what I hope was enough money to cover the cost.

New Disneyland ECs.

The last of my coins from the Savannah trip was scanned and cataloged today. I wonder why, with four or five machine locations on River Street, I only visited two shops.
Here’s a picture of the Waving Girl statue:

And the coin that accompanies the scene. Perfect depiction:

New ECs from Basket Bears & T’s Oh My Savannah, GA

I started focusing my inventory effort on the foreign coins. Maybe it’s because they don’t fall nicely into the 50 states system, I’ve always had a hard time getting worked up about organizing them. It’s a horrible laps of judgment (yes, a long, 10 year laps), as these are probably the hardest ECs to replace.

First thing I did was start making tags for the locations.

I used Post-Its before, but quarter sized note cards seem to be sturdier.

Sorted out the coins that Austin pressed for me in Budapest years ago. I always assumed that since the coins came from the same trip, they must have been from the same location. As it turned out, two were from St. Stephen Basilica while the other was from Buda Castle.

It was surprising to find that the majority of my Israel coins were not cataloged. Most were nicely labeled and just needed to be scanned in. Even more confusing were the South African ECs, which have been in my possession for as long as I can remember, yet were not documented anywhere.

Back on the domestic side, I updated the trade list with a few Washington DC coins, left over from earlier request when I was going to DC more regularly for penny pressing trips. There are a few Smithsonian museums I’ve yet to visit, such as the Castle, the Museum of American History, and the Museum of American Art. I’ll start tackling the ECs Jennifer and Adam pressed for me next, as soon as I find them among the unpacked boxes.

Wow, has it really been so long since my last post? Shortly after the October post, I fell into deep depression over the state of my apartment. Note to all serious collectors: Do not move into a basement apartment with slow Internet connection, it’s detrimental to your hobby, among other things.
I just moved out and had my first house warming party, so I figure I should celebrate on getting a grip on the mess I left behind.
Special thanks to all those who visited my site during my long absence. Special special thanks to Jennifer and Adam, who’ve been sending me coins continuously.

What Happened in Savannah
I did end up going to Savannah, but didn’t exactly return with 32 pennies. Some of the designs were not working, plus I don’t remember where I packed all my coins. They’ll turn up eventually.

New ECs from Dockside Seafood Restaurant Savannah, GA