Peace,
[img align=right]http://www.usn2161.net/hand19.gif[/img]Above the wrist, your hand has 19 bones.
Excerpt from
The Structural System
When a baby is born, it has about 350 bones, all soft because they are composed mostly of a water substance called cartilage. As the baby grows, calcium phosphate permeates the bones, and they stiffen. This process is called calcification. Eventually calcified cartilage is replaced by true bone, made up largely of calcium phostate, and some of the bones fuse together. A normal adult has between 206 and 209 bones in his body, depending upon whether he has one or two additional ribs and an extra bone in the coccyx (tailbone).