A sharp photo, but not a good light for the Queen's complexion!
This evening I completed my coin count for 2012. It was another good year, I amassed a large
number of coins. This is what I found
(in brackets the numbers from 2011):
Currency
|
Face value
|
Number found
|
Total value, coins
|
£
|
£5 (note)
|
1 (1)
|
£5.00
|
£2
|
1 (0)
|
£2.00
|
|
£1
|
8 (8)
|
£8.00
|
|
£0.50
|
1 (3)
|
£0.50
|
|
£0.20
|
29 (16)
|
£5.80
|
|
£0.10
|
14 (7)
|
£1.40
|
|
£0.05
|
90 (97)
|
£4.50
|
|
£0.02
|
25 (25)
|
£0.50
|
|
£0.01
|
124 (100)
|
£1.24
|
|
Total £s
|
293 (257)
|
£28.94 (£24.75)
|
|
Euro
|
E10 (note)
|
0 (1)
|
E 0.00
|
E1
|
2 (0)
|
E 2.00
|
|
E0.50
|
0 (1)
|
E 0.00
|
|
E0.20
|
1 (2)
|
E 0.20
|
|
E0.10
|
2 (3)
|
E 0.20
|
|
E0.05
|
10 (13)
|
E 0.50
|
|
E0.02
|
9 (13)
|
E 0.18
|
|
E0.01
|
14 (27)
|
E 0.14
|
|
Total E
|
38 (60)
|
E 3.22 (E12.38)
|
|
Other currencies
|
|||
US dollar
|
$0.25
|
1 (0)
|
$ 0.25
|
$0.10
|
2 (1)
|
$ 0.20
|
|
$0.01
|
3 (2)
|
$ 0.03
|
|
Danish Krona
|
DK20
|
0 (2)
|
DK 0.00
|
DK1
|
0 (1)
|
DK 0.00
|
|
Yuan
|
Y1
|
0 (1)
|
Y 0.00
|
HK0.10
|
0 (1)
|
HK0.00
|
|
Polish Groszy
|
G0.20
|
0 (1)
|
G0.00
|
G0.10
|
1 (0)
|
G0.10
|
|
G0.05
|
1 (0)
|
G0.05
|
|
Swiss Frank
|
SF0.05
|
0 (1)
|
SF0.00
|
Turkish Kurus
|
TK25
|
1 (0)
|
TK25
|
TK5
|
1 (0)
|
TK5
|
|
Brasil Centavos
|
BC50
|
1 (0)
|
BC50
|
Canadian Dollar
|
CAN$0.01
|
1 (0)
|
CAN$0.01
|
Total others
|
12 (10)
|
||
Total Total
|
343 (327)
|
||
I did rather well, even if I say so myself, beating last
year’s record by 16 coins! Sterling
takings were up a little (£4.19), and although Euro takings were way down this
can be explained by the absence of any bills found. I can’t really complain about this, since the
E10 bill I found last year was the result of divine intervention and can’t be
expected every year. If one sets aside
this large bill takings are up, despite the fact that I spent less time in France
I am also heartened by the large number of coins I found in
La Bourboule! Usually I only ever find
one coin, no matter how much time I spent there. But this year I was amazingly lucky, finding
a total of ten coins! I’ll definitely go
there again, let me tell you!
I wonder how many people realise quite how much time and
effort is involved in finding so many coins?
The endless hours spend bent double perusing the cracks and crevices of
the continents’ capitals, the numerous suspicious glances the intrepid coin-collector has to endure while pursuing this innocent
past-time? The number of puddles one
braves, the dirty gutters one dives into?
The number of manicures ruined, and ends of scarves and coats dipped
inadvertently into the dirt while bending down for an abandoned nickel?
And how many of my readers will sympathise with the red hot
anger which rises inside my breast when I come across a coin – frequently
valuable – GLUED!!!!! By some criminal misfit onto the pavement or tarmac,
easily detected but impossibly to remove?
I am outraged, simply outraged, whenever I encounter such a coin. However, this year in August I triumphed over
the criminal classes! A 20 pence piece
had been resisting all attempts to retrieve it from the tarmac of a very busy
street – one takes one’s life into one’s hands as a coin collector, let me tell
you! – and taunted me by its presence twice daily as I passed it on my way to
work. But on this particular blessed
August day the sun had been beating down the tarmac all day, and when I once
again attempted to pick up the coin I found to my delight that the tarmac had
softened enough for me to retrieve the coin!
Never was a victory so sweet! I
clasped that tarmac encrusted coin to my bosom and skipped home happily, and
celebrated the occasion with a cold glass of perry.
Every year I tell myself that I really must start to spend
my fortune, lest I end up like Uncle Scrooge and take baths in my
coins, and bore visitors stiff with stories of how I acquired each individual
coin. For though it pains me to admit
this, I am the only coin collector of any significance in my cohort. It is true that my friends & relations
here and there find a coin, even a note – very galling for an expert like me! –
but they are mere amateurs who stumble across the odd coin, not true collectors
like myself, and quickly lose interest when I hold forth on the subject of my
collection.
Some people even think that this little hobby of mine is
peculiar, if not downright anti-social!
They see me walk the streets in earnest concentration, scanning the
ground like some demented archaeologist, and worry about my sanity. Well let me tell you, there are any number of
advantages to coin collecting! (1) I find money!
(2) I always have something to do, whether I am walking home or waiting
for a bus or train. (3) I get lots of
exercise! (4) I am tolerant of tourists and drunkards – after all, they lose a lot of coins!
I am sort of skipping New Year’s Eve celebrations because I am deep in a
new story and must get on, but am pleased to take this opportunity to wish all
my readers, friends & relations, and the world in general a very happy
2013!
Champagne and petit fours all around!
She looks better in candle light!
