Collection Updates

Today I got a letter in the mail from Münzenjäger and I also met up with Austrian Euro Coin Hunter in Eindhoven! Between the two of them I got 2 new banknotes and a bunch of new standard- and commemorative-coins.

The two new banknotes I got were a €50 and a €100 banknote. Both are from Austria, from the “Europa” series, and bear the signature of Mario Draghi.

The four new commemorative coins I got were: Malta 2013 “Self-Government”, Greece 2018 “Dodecanese Union”, Greece 2019 “Andreas Kalvos”, and Greece 2020 “Thrace Union”.

The many standard issue coins I got were: Austria 10c (2009) Cyprus 10c (2020) Finland 5c (2019) Germany 20c (2003 D, 2010 G, 2019 J, 2022 F) Greece 1c (2003, 2005, 2009, 2010, 2012, 2016) Greece 2c (2004, 2007–2009, 2014–2021) Greece 5c (2006, 2016–2018) Greece 10c (2016, 2019) Greece 50c (2007, 2011, 2019) Ireland 50c (2010) Italy 20c (2016) Italy 50c (2014) Italy €1 (2013–2015, 2017, 2018, 2020) Netherlands €1 (2003) Portugal 5c (2016, 2021) Portugal 10c (2021) Slovenia 5c (2021) Slovenia 50c (2021)

Today I did another €2 coin hunt and got some pretty nice finds! My standard issue finds were Finland 2005 and Italy 2008. I also got two new commemorative finds in the form of Germany “Karl der Große” 2023 (J), and Luxembourg “Grand Duke Jean” 2021.

Also it turns out that the Belgian Red Cross coin from 2014 is not an NIFC as I previously thought, so that has been corrected.

Today I met up with Adzivu from the Euro Coins discord server! We had a few beers, and did perhaps the largest face-value swap I will ever do; a staggering €2,008.28 was the face-value of just one side of the swap for a total of €3,974.16 exchanged total! As part of this swap I got some goodies that won’t be listed on the site such as a Croatian Euro starter-pack, and uncirculated rolls of both German 2023 commemorative coins.

What I did get however that actually is now listed on this site, is one new commemorative coin from Luxembourg — the “Henri & Adolphe” commemorative from 2005, and 20 new banknotes!

The new banknotes are (and for everyones sake I will abbreviate the ECB presidents’ names): €10 Austria (2002; WD), €10 Austria (Europa; CL), €20 Germany X (Europa; MD), €20 Ireland (Europa; MD), €50 France E (Europa; CL), €50 France E (Europa; MD), €50 Greece (2002; WD), €50 Greece (Europa; MD), €50 Netherlands (Europa; MD), €50 Spain (2002; MD), €100 Austria (2002; MD), €100 Austria (2002; WD), €100 France E (Europa; MD), €100 France U (Europa; MD), €100 Italy (2002; JCT), €100 Spain (Europa; MD), €200 Austria (Europa; CL), €200 France E (Europa; CL), €200 France U (Europa; MD), and €200 Germany (2002; WD).

With the new German €200 banknote from 2002, I now also finally have one of every type of euro-banknote!

Another day, another €1000 hunt of €2 coins. This hunt only got me 2 new finds, but 2 new finds are still 2 new finds! Both of them were German commemoratives in the form of “Hamburg” (A; 2008), a coin with a mintage of only 1M — and “Karl der Große” (D).

With the new “Hamburg” (2008) find, I now have the full set finished and only need 3 more mintmarks to complete the entire German commemorative series from 2004–2022. Additionally, the “Karl der Große” find brings me a little closer to finishing the German commemorative series as a whole with only 10 mintmarks missing from 2004–2023.

Today I went ahead and did another €1000 hunt of €2 coins, and it was pretty successful! In this hunt I got nine new finds — two of which are commemoratives and one of which is a microstate.

The new commemorative finds were both from Germany; “Erasmus Programme” (J) and “Karl der Große” (A). The Erasmus coin is the last missing mintmark for me, so that’s cool — and the “Karl der Große” coin is the first of it’s kind that I’ve found, so that’s also cool!

The other seven finds were: Finland 2002 & 2008, France 2014, Italy 2006, Monaco 2011, and Spain 2008 & 2009.

Also small site update — the 1-, 2-, and 50c denominations as well as the €1 denomination from Estonia have been marked as “not minted” for the year 2023.

Today was a special day, because todau was the Dag van de Munt 2023! The Dag van de Munt is the once-a-year open-day of the Koninklijke Nederlandse Munt (Royal Dutch Mint). At the event I met up with EuroCoinHunt, and got quite a lot of goodies! Not all goodies are relevant to this site of course — but one that is was my first ever circulated commemorative coin of a non-standard denomination! In this case, EuroCoinHunt purchased a 2023 year-set using €5 “Jaap Eden” commemorative coins from the Netherlands! As I was after him in the line, I managed to exchange one of these for €5 — and just like that — my first non-standard-denomination commemorative coin!

Today I got some rolls for a soon-to-occur in-person swap with another Discord user for a bunch of banknotes, and some rolls too. I took this time to also get 10 rolls of €2 coins for myself too and the hunt granted me 3 new finds and 2 NIFCs! The new finds I got were: Austria 2013, Italy 2011, and Germany 2006 (D; NIFC!). I also got Netherlands 2005 — an NIFC — but not one that is new for my collection.

I got more stuff in the mail today, and this time with lots of new 1- and 2-cent coins for my dateruns! There was also a new commemorative €2 in there for me. The new commemorative was the “Falcone & Borsellino” coin from Italy (2022). The new standard issue coins I got are: Finland 10c (2008), France 1c (2018), Germany 1c (2005 G, 2013 D, 2014 A, 2015 J, 2018 J), Germany 2c (2003 A, 2004 A, 2005 D, 2006 F, 2009 A, 2012 D, 2018 D, 2019 F), Germany 5c (2020 F), Greece 20c (2021), Portugal 5c (2005), and Portugal 20c (2003).

I did a 20 roll hunt of €1 coins today. Nothing super notable in this hunt, but I did get two new finds. I got an Italian 2012 and a Finnish 2006. Not much, but two finds are still two finds!

And it is once again, mail day! Today’s swap comes from Germany with one new commemorative and twenty new standard issue coins (one of them being an NIFC!). The new commemorative was “Treaty of Élysée” (2013 D). This completes all of this designs mintmarks for me, and now means that I only need 5 more mintmarks to complete the entire German commemorative mintmark set from 2004–2022. The new standard issue coins I recieved are: 50c 2005 (G; NIFC!), 20c 2020 (G), 10c 2017 (J), 10c 2021 (F), 2c 2015 (F), 2c 2016 (G), 2c 2017 (G), 2c 2018 (J), 2c 2020 (J), 2c 2021 (A), 2c 2021 (F), 2c 2021 (J), 2c 2022 (J), 1c 2016 (A), 1c 2016 (F), 1c 2016 (G), 1c 2017 (A), 1c 2018 (D), 1c 2019 (A), 1c 2021 (D).

Today also had another coin hunt. This time I hunted: 16 rolls of €1 coins, 1 roll of 20c, 1 roll of 10c, and 2 rolls of 5c. The new finds of the hunt were: France 5c (2016), Germany 5c (2013 G), Greece €1 (2006), Greece €1 (2011), Italy €1 (2005), Netherlands €1 (2016), Portugal €1 (2015), Spain €1 (2012), and motherfucking Vatican City €1 (2013)!!! This might be the best find I’ve ever found since I started collecting…

Mail day yet again! Today I got 12 new circulated commemoratives from Münzenjäger on the Euro Coins discord server. These are: Estonia “Baltic States” (2018), Finland “Markka” (2010), Greece “Battle of Thermopylae” (2020), Latvia “Zemgale” (2018), Luxembourg “Constitution” (2018), Luxembourg “Voting Rights” (2019), Malta “EU Flag” (2015), Monaco “Admission to the UN” (2013), Slovakia “Constantine & Methodius” (2013), Slovakia “European Union” (2014), Slovakia “Universitas Istropolitana” (2017), and Slovenia “Barbara of Celje” (2014).

All the coins I recieved from this swap and the swap from the previous site update were swaps where I gave the exact same coins I recieved, except I gave uncirculated coins and recieved circulated ones back.

It’s mail day again! Today in the mail I got 5 new circulated commemoratives from Finland. They were: Sauna Culture (2018), University of Turku (2020), Åland Islands (2021), Ballet (2022), and Erasmus Programme (2022).

I just did another quick 50c hunt today. During the hunt I found: Finland 2011, Germany 2022 (F), and Spain 2002. Not super exciting, but all new finds nonetheless. I also found Vatican City 2016! I already have it though, so to the Vatican stack it goes.

Today had another 50c hunt and it was a lot more successful than the last one! In total I had 4 new finds and a nice keeper. The keeper was a Dutch coin from 2004 with a mintage of 300K. I already have this coin so I will probably give it to someone else. My actual finds were: Finland 1999, Italy 2022, Spain 2010, and best of all… Germany 2007 (F)! The German 50c is my 4^th German NIFC (all the others are also 50c) and my first German NIFC with the second map!

I visited an ATM after work today hoping to get some 2002 notes. I didn’t get any — but I did get an Italian €20 note with the signature of Christine Lagarde. That brings me down to only 3 notes remaining for the €20 Europa series!

Today I did a large 50c coin hunt. I went through 800 coins and sadly there were no microstates or NIFCs… but I did still manage to get two keepers — Netherlands 2009, a low-mintage coin but one I already have — and France 2022, a year that is new for me! Both coins are in excellent condition.

I got some notes out of an ATM today, and managed to pull a French €20 from 2002 bearing the signature of Jean-Claude Trichet — that was pretty cool!

I did a €1000 hunt of €2 coins today. It started very slow with almost no finds, but of the few finds I got, they were of quality! The hunt got me 5 new standard-issue coins and 2 new commemorative-issue coins. The standard-issue coins are: Germany 2014 (A), Germany 2017 (A), France 2020, Finland 2004, and… Finland 2015! The Finnish €2 coin from 2015 has a mintage of only 169,100! The commemorative-issue coins were: France “Erasmus Programme” and Greece “EU Flag”. The Greek commemorative has a mintage of ~750,000.

Right before my flight back to Eindhoven today, I got two new finds from the vending machines and ATMs. A San Marino 50c from 2020 and a €20 banknote from Portugal with the signature of Draghi.

After landing, I met with a friend of Petros, a user from the Euro Coins discord server. He gave me an envelope of 2002 banknotes with a face-value of €180. In the envelope were the following new additions for my collection: Austria €5 (JCT), Greece €10 (WD), Greece €20 (JCT), Portugal €20 (MD), and Spain €50 (JCT).

Today I left Malta to head back home. I had a layover in Treviso and did some vending machine hunting which got me a Spanish €1 2015; a new year for the collection.

I also got some banknotes from an ATM and got a new €50 banknote in the form of an Italian note bearing the signature of Lagarde.

I got an Italian 20c 2020 in my change today; a nice new find.

Today I visited the Ġgantija Temples and did a quick shop hunt afterwards! There was a souvenier shop right across the street from the temple and I asked to take a look at their €2 coins. In the cashier I managed to find another Maltese commemorative! This one was the “The Peace” commemorative from 2017… and it also had the coincard mintmarks making it a 30K mintage NIFC! That’s why it’s not yet listed on the site; the coincard variants will be added in a future update.

I also managed to get a German 10c 2022 (D) in my change at the temple giftshop when purchasing a Kinnie (a fantastic Maltese drink!), so that was a nice new minor find.

Today was pretty uninteresting. I wasn’t able to get anything new besides a Maltese 20c 2020 from a vending machine.

Today I spent the day exploring Valletta along with “La Maltese” from the Euro Coins discord server. To our meeting he was kind enough to bring a few new Maltese 1c coins for me from 2013, 2017, and 2021. He also got me 2 rolls of €2 coins from which I got Italy €2 2018, Germany €2 2014 (D), and most excitingly of all, the Maltese “Nature & Environment” €2 commemorative!

At the end of the day I did a vending machine hunt in Valletta which yieled me four new Maltese €1 coins from the years 2016, 2019, 2020, and 2021. It also yieled me two Maltese temple commemoratives! “Sadly” one of them was a duplicate for me, the Ħaġar Qim Temples coin. The other temple coin was for the Ġgantija Temples which I thought was also a duplicate, but I later realized that it had the same mintmarks around the year that is found on the variants sold in coincards. That made that coin an NIFC find with a mintage of only 30K!

This was a pretty successful day with a lot of new finds! Firstly, before my flight to Malta from Pisa I did some vending machine hunting. This yieled me with a 2021 Vatican 50c coin which wasn’t new, but also yieled me with the following new coins: Germany 20c 2015 (A), Greece 20c 2019, Italy 50c 2007, Italy 50c 2011, Italy 50c 2012, Italy 5c 2016, Portugal 50c 2021, Spain 20c 2016.

After arriving in Malta, I did some vending machine hunting in Marsaxlokk. This also got me a lot of new finds! I didn’t have many Maltese coins prior so there was a lot to find. The finds from the vending machines were: France 5c 2017, Italy 20c 2021, Italy 20c 2022, Malta 10c 2019, Malta 10c 2021, Malta 20c 2019, Malta 20c 2021, Malta 50c 2017, Malta 50c 2019, Malta 50c 2020, Malta 50c 2021, Malta 5c 2017, Malta 5c 2020.

Finally, my girlfriend got a Maltese 5c coin from 2015 in her change at a Spar.

Today I left for a trip to Malta where hopefully I’ll find some nice coins! My flight left from Eindhoven with a layover in Pisa. At Eindhoven I managed to get a new coin as change from a vending machine when buying a water. It was a Germany 20c 2013 with the ‘F’ mintmark.

When I landed in Pisa I put some banknotes into the change machine and got three new finds: Italy €2 2022, Italy €1 2021, and Finland €1 2005.

It’s another mail day! In the mail today was the Wolf €2 commemorative from Estonia and a bicentennial Ike Dollar from Denver. I already had the wolf coin in UNC condition, but this is a collection of circulated coins so it’s nice to have that now too. The Ike Dollar is also great to have; it’s the last bicentennial coin I need besides the NIFC proofs.

I also did a coin roll hunt today; it’s been a good while since my last one! I had a good number of standard- and commemorative-issue finds today, most of them were common coins I missed but there were some really nice rarer finds too!

The standard issue finds were (all €2): Belgium 2003, Germany 2008 (G), Germany 2008 (J), Germany 2014 (J), Germany 2016 (G), Spain 2003, Finland 2003, Greece 2002 (S), and Italy 2004.

The commemorative issue finds were: Germany “Erasmus Programme” (F), Germany “Hamburg” (2023 J), Finland “Treaty of Rome”, Luxembourg “European Monetary Union”, Netherlands “European Monetary Union”, Netherlands “Euro Cash”, and Netherlands “Abdication of Beatrix”.

It’s mail day! I got my coins from a Numista swap today. In total I got 7 new coins with 3 being Italian commemoratives and 4 being Vatican 50c coins. The new coins are: €2 Italy EU Flag, €2 Italy “Tito Livio”, €2 “National Police”, and all the Vatican 50c coins from 2010–2013 (all the years of Pope Benedict XVI).

I have finally done it, I’ve found a way to hunt coins in the Netherlands without purchasing bankrolls or going to a casino! There is a Spar on the campus of my ex-university. This Spar is special because it has something that I’ve never before seen in this cashless dystopia — a self-checkout machine that accepts cash!

I don’t know how it didn’t come to my mind earlier but by creating a false purchase of high value (maybe €500 for example) and then dumping all your coins in the coin funnel you can then cancel the purchase and get your coins back, except it’s not the same coins, but different coins of the same denominations!

What this in effect means is that I can go and just put my coins in this self-checkout machine and then cancel my order in a cycle while getting new coins every cycle. I did this for the first time today and got 3 new finds! Two of the finds were regular issue 20c coins, Germany 2008 (F) and France 2020. The other find was a commemorative issue in the form of the Dutch Erasmus Programme coin!

So today was mail day, and it was another American coin. I got a bicentennial Ike Dollar; it’s certainly one of the biggest coins I’ve ever held (maybe the biggest ever). It has no mintmark, so it’s a Philadelphia dollar. This also means that once I get the version with the Denver mintmark I’ll have all circulating bicentennial coins from the USA!

I haven’t gotten any new euro-coins yet, but there’s a chance I’ll be heading to Croatia next week so I’m hoping to get some new coins there, or to maybe even do a vending machine hunt!

I met up with Dan from the Euro Coins discord server today; he was passing through Rotterdam. He was generous enough to give me a total of €275 worth of 2002 banknotes. Of these notes, 16 were new for the collection! They are as follows: €5 Germany (JCT), €5 Netherlands (WD), €5 Portugal (JCT), €5 Spain (JCT), €10 Germany (JCT), €10 Greece (JCT), €10 Ireland (WD), €10 Ireland (JCT), €20 France (WD), €20 Germany (JCT), €20 Ireland (WD), and €50 Italy (JCT).

Thanks a lot for the notes Dan!

Today I did what is likely my final vending-machine hunt of my trip in the United States. During this hunt I got 3 new quarters, one state quarter, one “America the Beautiful” quarter, and most excitedly, one territory quarter! My 3 new quarters are (in order of mint year): South Carolina (P), Puerto Rico (D), and Great Basin (P).

I did another vending-machine hunt at Miami-Dade College again today. There wasn’t too much to get since the vending machines seem to have been filled up with UNC rolls of the Bessie Coleman quarters but I still was able to get two new state quarters. These were New Hampshire (P) and Oregon (P).

I passed by Dolphin Mall in Miami today; hunted some more vending machines. Didn’t get too many finds but still a good couple. Got 5 new “America the Beautiful” quarters and a new “American Women” quarter. The new “America the Beautiful” quarters were: Denali (D), Ellis Island (D), Mount Rushmore (P), River of No Return (P), and Shenandoah (D). The new “American Women” quarter was Edith Kanaka‘ole (P).

11 new quarters were added to the collection today from a short vending-machine hunt at Miami-Dade College. Of the 11 quarters, 9 were state quarters and 2 were “America the Beautiful” quarters. The state quarters are: Colorado (P), Hawaii (D), Minnesota (P), Missouri (D), Montana (P), Nevada (P), New Jersey (D), New Mexico (P), and South Carolina (D). The “America the Beautiful” quarters are: Denali (P) and Apostle Islands (D).

I also passed by a currency-exchange office and managed to exchange my €500 in cash for my first ever €500 bill. It costed my new French €200 Europa note that I got from another currency-exchange, but getting €500’s is a lot harder so it’s worth it. The €500 bill is German with the signature of Wim Duisenberg.

I did another vending-machine hunt today. It was a small hunt and got me 7 new quarters. I got the 6 state quarters of: Maine (D & P), Michigan (P), Mississippi (D), Texas (D), and Washington (P). I also got the “America the Beautiful” quarter of Weir Farm (P).

In bigger news, my coins from my swap with Jon have arrived. He included all sorts of extra goodies but they aren’t relevant to this site so I won’t be listing them here. The swap got me 11 new 1- and 2-eurocent coins, a new American bicentennial coin, a new American Lincoln commemorative penny, 3 new NIFC Dollar coins, 3 new state quarters, 1 new district quarter, and finally 1 new “Westward Journey” nickel.

The eurocents included were: Germany 1c (2009-D & 2013-A), Germany 2c (2003-G, 2006-A, & 2006-D), Spain 1c (2002), Spain 2c (2009 & 2015), and France 1c (2007, 2010, & 2016). The American bicentennial coin was a half-dollar from Denver. The Lincoln penny was the “Birth and Early Childhood” penny from Philadelphia. One of the NIFC dollars was a native-american space-program dollar from Denver and the other two were presidential dollars: Chester Arthur (P) and John F. Kennedy (D). The state quarters were California (D), Pennsylvania (P), and Rhode Island (D). The dictrict quarter was my second district quarter so far, a Puerto Rico (P). Finally, the “Westward Journey” nickel was a Bison (D).

Today was pretty successful. I passed by Chase Bank near closing hours and it was a good thing I did too. The customer right before me in the line to the teller deposited $10 in dollar coins. I bought them from the bank and got two new finds: a “Great Law of Peace” native-american dollar from Philadelphia, and a Herbert Hoover NIFC presidential dollar from Philadelphia.

I also hunted a printer (it accepts cash payment to print stuff). I managed to get 5 new “America the Beautiful” quarters, 5 new state quarters, my first ever districts quarter, and a new “Westward Journey” nickel. The “America the Beautiful” quarters were: Block Island (P), Great Sand Dunes (D), Homestead (D), Marsh-Billings-Rockefeller (D), and War in the Pacific (P). The state quarters were: Connecticut (P), Idaho (P), Massachusetts (P), Utah (P), and Wyoming (P). The district quarter was American Samoa (D) and the nickel was a Bison (P).

Finally I visited a currency-exchange office hoping to find my first €500 bill. They didn’t have any but I managed to snag a French €200 from the Europa series, a new find for myself.

Start of Changelog

This is the start of the sites changelog. The site has been around since the 11th of February 2023, and this collection began around April of 2022, so theres a lot of “history” here that won’t end up documented. If you really care for some reason, you can check the git-log of the site on the git repository. From now on I’ll be documenting all my new finds here both so I can look back on it in the future for fun, and incase anyone finds anything here interesting. I suppose it makes the site a bit more human.

I am currently in the United States on vacation, so the next couple of site updates are going to be primarily american coins.