Collection Updates

So Saturday (30^th of September, 2023) was the first ever ‘official’ meetup of the Euro-Coins Discord Server. It was a really great experience, and guys came from all over Europe to meet up. During the meet we exchanged coin rolls and did some trades, and I have a lot of new stuff to add to the site! I’d love to credit each person individually, but there was just a lot of people and it’s hard to track exactly what came from whom.

Starting off with banknotes, I got 9 new ones! They were: Spain €5 (Europa; Lagarde), Portugal €10 (Europa; Lagarde), Spain €10 (Europa; Lagarde), Austria €20 (Europa Testnote; Draghi), Germany €20 (Europa Testnote; Draghi), Austria €50 (2002; Duisenberg), Austria €100 (Europa Testnote; Draghi), Germany €100 (2002; Trichet), and Italy €100 (Europa; Draghi).

With the above banknotes, I now have all Europa banknotes for both €5 and €100, and I have some testnotes for the first time!

Next, moving on to the standard issue coins, I got a whopping 154 new dates for my collection, with 8 of those being NIFCs! They are as follows: Austria 1c (2003), Austria 5c (2006, 2009), Austria 20c (2006, 2010), Belgium 2c (2003, 2010), Germany 1c (2004 A, 2004 G, 2005 D, 2005 F, 2007 F, 2007 G, 2008 A, 2008 J, 2010 A, 2010 D, 2010 F, 2010 J, 2013 F, 2013 J, 2015 A, 2015 F, 2017 D, 2017 G, 2017 J, 2019 F, 2019 J, 2020 A, 2020 G, 2023 G), Germany 2c (2002 F, 2003 D, 2003 F, 2004 J, 2005 J, 2006 G, 2007 D, 2007 G, 2007 J, 2008 F, 2008 G, 2010 G, 2010 J, 2011 G, 2012 A, 2012 F, 2012 J, 2013 F, 2013 J, 2014 D, 2014 F, 2014 G, 2015 J, 2016 A, 2018 A, 2018 G, 2019 G, 2019 J, 2020 F, 2022 G, 2023 J), Germany 5c (2008 G, 2023 D, 2023 F), Germany 20c (2005 D, 2014 D, 2017 F, 2017 G), Germany €2 (2023 F), Spain 1c (2001), Spain 2c (2003, 2006, 2008, 2012, 2016), Spain 10c (2013, 2023), Spain 20c (2004), Spain €1 (2023), Finland €1 (2007, 2011), Finland €2 (2013), France 1c (2015), France 2c (2000, 2006, 2008, 2013, 2015), France 5c (2021), France 20c (2017, 2022), France €2 (2004 NIFC Proof, 2006 NIFC), Greece 5c (2002 F, 2021), Greece 50c (2006), Greece €1 (2004), Ireland €2 (2009), Italy 2c (2012), Italy 5c (2015), Italy 10c (2015), Italy 20c (2003, 2005, 2007, 2008, 2015, 2017), Italy €2 (2023), Lithuania 1c (2015), Lithuania 10c (2017), Monaco 20c (2002), Monaco 50c (2002), Monaco €2 (2003), Malta 1c (2008, 2019), Malta 2c (2013, 2015, 2018, 2020, 2022), Malta 10c (2016, 2017, 2020), Malta €2 (2016), Netherlands 2c (2015 NIFC), Netherlands 5c (2004 NIFC), Netherlands €2 (2007 NIFC), Portugal €1 (2020), Portugal €2 (2005, 2006), Slovenia 1c (2009, 2020), Slovenia 5c (2019), Slovenia 10c (2022), Slovakia 2c (2014, 2015, 2017, 2018, 2020), Slovakia 5c (2017), Slovakia €2 (2022), San Marino 10c (2007 NIFC), San Marino 50c (2002), San Marino €2 (2005 NIFC), Vatican City 5c (2005 NIFC), and Vatican City 20c (2005 Sede Vacante NIFC).

Finally, on to the commemorative coins. In total there were 17 new commemoratives with 1 of them being an NIFC! They are as follows: Belgium 2014 (Red Cross), Belgium 2020 (Year of Plant Health), Belgium 2022 (Erasmus Programme), Belgium 2022 (Heathcare in COVID-19), Estonia 2022 (Erasmus Programme), Germany 2015 G (German Reunification), Germany 2023 G (Hamburg), Lithuania 2018 (Song & Dance Celebration), Lithuania 2022 (Basketball), Lithuania 2022 (Suvalkija), Luxembourg 2021 (Royal Marriage; Photo), Malta 2017 (The Peace), Portugal 2022 (Erasmus Programme), Slovenia 2011 (Franc Rozman-Stane), Slovenia 2022 (Erasmus Programme), Spain 2023 (Cáceres), and Vatican City 2005 (World Youth Day; NIFC).

UPDATE: I opened some Austrian 50c rolls I got at the meetup and got Germany 2022 D, which is a new date for me.

Today I got a bunch of rolls for the upcoming Euro coins meetup in Frankfurt. I also got a few €2 rolls for myself, and I only got one new find. It was a stellar find though! I got an NL 2006 NIFC, but it was also a proof! That brings the mintage to just 3,500. I now have the 2006 NIFC coin in both the proof and regular varieties, both from circulation!

After my recent trip to Greece, one of my friends decided to pay me back in all 5c coins. Due to financial reasons he didn’t pay me all in one go, but he did give me €200 (80 rolls) in 5c coins. It took a long time to go through all of them, but the end result was 26 new coins. There were no NIFCs, microstates, or insane finds, but it was definitely a good hunt to fill in some of the missing dates!

The new dates are: Belgium (2022), France (2012, 2018, 2022), Germany (2006 A, 2006 F, 2006 J, 2008 D, 2008 F, 2009 J, 2011 F, 2011 G, 2014 A, 2017 G, 2018 F, 2019 D), Greece (2009), Italy (2005, 2014, 2017, 2019, 2020), Netherlands (2023), Slovakia (2019, 2020), and Spain (2002)

Today I did an in-person swap with Dekzwabber from the Euro Coins discord server. As his part of the swap, he provided me with Luxembourg €2 2023, with the mintmark of the Koninklijke Nederlandse Munt. It’s the more common of the two varieties, but I now have both varieties! He also gave me a 2002 €20 note from Finland bearing the signature of Jean-Claude Trichet.

Turns out I forgot one roll of 10c coins in my bag from my previous hunt. I opened it up at work and got two new finds in the form of Belgium 2019 and Germany 2017 (D).

I did a quick hunt of 10c coins today. Not much to report back but I did get two new coins in the form of Portugal 2008 and Finland 2001.

Two updates today. I just got back from Greece and there was another letter in the mail. This time I got 4 new commemorative coins from Portugal. They are: 2009 EMU, 2009 Lusophony Games, 2010 Portuguese Republic, and 2011 Fernão Mendes Pinto.

I also added 2017 150 Years of Public Security to the site since it was in my collection, but missing from here.

Just a short update. In preperation for my upcoming trip to Greece I passed by an ATM to get some more cash. I managed to get a hold of 3 more €50 notes from the 2002 series. Of those 3, one of them was a Slovak note with the signature of Draghi, a new note for the collection.

I did another large hunt today. This time it was 40 rolls of €2 coins. It ended up being super disappointing actually with only 2 new finds, but 2 new finds nonetheless. The new finds were Finland 2011 and Luxembourg 2023 (MdP).

I did a massive 40 roll hunt of 50c coins today! I somehow did not destroy my back transporting them by bike from the withdrawal machine to home. It was a long hunt with some pretty nice finds! For the microstates I got Andorra 2020 and Vatican City 2017; both duplicates for me however. I also got Netherlands 2005 (x3) and 2006 (x4) bringing me to 7 more Dutch NIFCs, but I also already have those. As for actually new coins I managed to get Finland 2003, Ireland 2015, and France 2004! The French coin is now my first NIFC French coin ever!

Today I did a nice big hunt of 20 rolls of 10c coins. It was pretty disappointing with only 2 common finds, but they are 2 finds nonetheless. The first was Austria 2005, the last Austrian 10c coin I need besides the elusive 2003 NIFC. The second was Spain 2002; not sure how I didn’t have that already.

In more interesting news, I got some more mail today. This time I got Monaco €1 2007 without the mintmark. Super happy to add this to the collection seeing as it has a mintage of under 3,000! I still need the mintmark variety though which still wont be easy with its 97,000 mintage.

Today I did a quick €1 coin hunt and got 5 new finds. The finds were: Austria 2005, Germany 2003 (F), Ireland 2004, Italy 2004, and Spain 2021. With the new Austrian and German finds I now have all the Austrian- and German €1 coins that are intended for circulation.

Just a quick update since it’s super late. Did a 20 roll hunt today of 50c coins. I managed to get two new finds, a 2022 (G) and 2022 (J) from Germany. I also managed to get another 5 2006 50c coins from the Netherlands adding to my growing pile of Dutch NIFCs. The only new coins however were my German finds.

I did another big hunt today. This time it was 20 rolls of 50c coins and 10 rolls of €2 coins. Not much new found, only Ireland 2013 and Portugal 2005 (both 50c). I did find 4 duplicate NIFCs though! All 4 of them were Netherlands 2006 50c.

Today was yet another mail day. This was one that I’ve been planning for a while but never managed to properly execute, so I’m happy it’s here! This swap had a bunch of world coins in it but also 2 new euro coins for my collection.

The two new additions were 50c 2018 from San Marino, and 20c 2018 from Luxembourg. A new microstate is always welcome, and the Luxembourg coin has a mintage of only 50,000!

I did a 10 roll hunt of €2 coins today and got 3 new finds! I got the German 2021 (D) coin which is one of the few German €2 dates I still missed. I also very spectacularly got “Estonian Indepdence” from Estonia, completing the 2018 Estonian commemoratives, and I also got “Grand Duchess Charlotte” from Luxembourg! A spectacular find that completes the 2019 commemoratives for me!

I got another letter in the mail today — this time from Zafeiris on the Euro Coins discord server. I got 4 news coins! Two of them are €2 standard issues and the other 2 are commemoratives.

The standard issue coins are: Greece 2003 and Italy 2016.

The commemorative issue coins are: “Constitution” and “Domenikos Theotokopoulos”, both from Greece.

Small update for a small coin. Today my brother gifted me a Belgian 2c coin from 2016. I am not sure where he found a 2c coin in the Netherlands, but it’s new for the collection, and it’s mine now!

Today I recieved a fantastic swap from The_Figher on the Euro Coins discord server! The swap got me a whole 17 new coins for my collection! Of the 17, 9 of them were standard issue coins and 8 were commemoratives!

The new standard issue coins were: Germany 1c 2017 (F), Germany 2c 2020 (G), Germany 5c 2021 (F), Germany 5c 2022 (J), Germany 10c 2022 (F), Greece 10c 2018, Greece 1c 2014, Greece 1c 2017, and Monaco €1 2002!

The new commemorative coins were: Estonia University of Tartu (2019), Estonia Antarctica (2020), Estonia Tartu Peace Treaty (2020), Estonia Finno-Urgic Peoples (2021), Estonia Estonian Literati (2022), Germany Karl der Große (2023; D), Malta Ta’ Ħaġrat Temples (2019), and Spain Toledo (2021)!

Today was mail day again, with 3 new commemorative coins from Malta! Two of these coins come from Laganinu on the Euro Coins discord server. Those two coins are “Mnajdra Temples” and “Ta’ Ħaġrat Temples”, the latter containing the NIFC ‘F’ in the star! The third coin I recieved from a different individual was the Maltese “Games” commemorative.

Today I completed a 20 roll hunt of 10x 10c rolls and 10x 20c rolls. The hunt got me 8 new 10c coins and 4 new 20c coins for a total of 12 new finds!

The new 10c finds were: Belgium 2017, Germany 2004 (D), Germany 2012 (J; NIFC!), Germany 2017 (G), Germany 2021 (J), Italy 2004, Italy 2013, and Spain 2020. On top of the German 2012 coin being an NIFC, I have a sneaking suspicion that it might be a proof coin too. I am not entirely sure yet though, and if it is I need to figure out how to actually display that information on the site (if I do at all).

The new 20c finds were: Finland 1999, Germany 2013 (G), Germany 2022 (G), and Ireland 2009.

Also big news! The Portuguese translation of the site redesign has been completed, and so I have officially updated euro.thomasvoss.com to the new design! It was previously hosted on new-euro.thomasvoss.com as a trial, but it is now the main site.

It’s mail day again today, and today’s mail was from Mörtel from the Euro Coins discord server. The swap got me 8 new coins for my collection! For the standard issue coins I got Luxembourg €2 2019, a coin with a mintage of only 50,000! On the commemorative side I got Cyprus “EU Flag”, Greece “Euro Cash”, and 5 new German mintmarks in the form of “Hamburg” (2023) mintmarks A and F, “Karl der Große” mintmarks F and G, and Mecklenburg-Vorpommern mintmark D. I actually already had that last coin, but what makes this one special is that it’s a circulated proof coin! The fact it’s a proof does make it new for me!

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), and 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.