There are two types of 2×2 cardboard holders, designed specifically for elongated coins. For a lack of better description, the types of holders are generally referred to as “Large Windows” or “Small Windows”.

Large Window

Small Window

Window, of course, is referring to the oval opening covered by mylar. Both types are used to hold pennies, while Large Window can also be used for nickels and sometimes quarters. The pictures above show the differences.

So… what’s all the fuss about? Not much, unless you have a strong preference as to how you’d like to store and view your coins. Some folks like to use Large Window holders because they’re versatile (they can be used for pennies and nickels, maybe even for quarters). Others prefer Small Windows because pennies shift around in the holder designed to fit larger coins. Personally, I would like to store all my pennies in the Small Window holders and use the Large Window type only for nickels.

What prevents me from satisfying this strange but definite EC storage/display desire? It’s a given that these 2×2s can only be purchased online (local coin shops can’t afford to stock exonumia supplies) and most online stores carry only one type of these holders. For the sake of convenience, I end up with whichever type of holders the shop happens to be carrying.

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

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!)

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

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.

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….

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…

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 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.