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
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
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.
I’ve been trying to get back into the hobby through buying and trading coins. Haven’t been very successful so far however…
eBay has close to 5,000 listings of elongated coins at any given time. Going through each one is absolutely exhausting. No matter how I sort, I usually don’t get through all the pages. If I use “Price + Shipping: highest first”, I end up gawking at how expensive the coins are (and getting a smug feeling when I have a copy of the coin in my own collection.) I swear Disney coins weren’t so expensive 10 years ago…
I’m also drawn to those “X different ECs for Y dollars” listings, even though I never purchased any. To think, going through a bag of 1000 ECs will be absolutely wonderful and dreadful at the same time. I’ll be able to fill a few boxes of traders for sure.
Speaking of traders, my trade list is out of date 
I was in the middle of an exchange with Don when I realized that I couldn’t find 4 out of 6 of the coins he asked for. This is a nightmare! Did I have a whole other bag of trades somewhere and just left them behind when I moved?? Maybe it’s time to figure out another trading organization system…
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
I recently moved to Walkersville, MD and it took me weeks before being able to post imagines online. Not that I was great at updating the blog before, but having all the coins packed up in 10 different boxes tend to handicap organization process.
The biggest problem, after fishing out all the coins from various nooks and crannies, was getting Internet connection. My new apartment has a wireless network that only my laptop can connect to, my scanner has an outdated cable connection that only hooks up to my desktop, and I have no cross-over cable to connect my desktop to my laptop. Luckily, my buddy Suhail loaned me his USB to transfer the files. I scanned 20 coins from the San Diego Zoo and posted them up just now.
New ECs from San Diego Zoo San Diego, CA
I finally found a store that sells heavy duty, double row, 14 inch, 2×2 coin storage boxes (in red). It charges an arm and a leg for shipping, but who doesn’t nowadays. Check out Wizard Coin Supply
Hey! It’s been a while.
I’ve been preoccupied with moving for the past few weeks. Now I’m finally at my new location, yet all my coins are still boxed up Jennifer got me a set of ECs on her vacation in Ithaca, but I won’t be able to scan them in until I find the box which they’re packed into.
Updated some information on EC cleaning and location mapping. Feel free to comment if I posted any misinformation.
Take a look at David’s Google map members location. I just got listed 
