Did you ever take a look at the change in you pockets? No, I mean really take a look at it? Pretty boring usually; pennies, dimes, quarters bur every once in a while there will be the unfamiliar feel of an American quarter or some other unusual coin. Ever wonder how it got there? I mean we lives thousands of kilometers from the nearest international borders. You wouldn't expect to find a lot of foreign coins would you? Yet... every once in a while something turns up.
My wife Lina and I run the Northern store in Tulita and were have collected some of the more interesting coins that have crossed our paths in the last few years I have put them together in a binder and the list of countries is pretty impressive. Our little collection includes; French and Belgian francs British pence, Euros, dimes from Mexico and Brazil Quarters from Netherlands and Trinidad, nickels from the Czech Republic and West Germany. There are pennies that aren't from heaven but close, Fiji (I love the look of that name Fiji all those dots, it dosen't look natural) and Australia. There are coins from sunny Barbados and Cayman Islands and chilly Russia and Sweden. There are also some unusual Canadian and American coins. There are U.S. Loonies and fifty cents pieces and numerous Canadian ones. Old silver dollars and a 1945 "V" for victory nickel and its' 2005 commemorative. There is a Terry fox dollar and a buffalo head nickel from the U.S. One real rarity is a Canadian dime which is only struck on one side, no Bluenose!
There are even coins that are not really coins at all, there are tokens from Arcades and Casinos and even a Circus. It really makes you wonder how these coins from all over the planet found their way into the pockets of someone in a small northern towns (my wife and I collected the coins in Ft Resolution NT, Old Crow YT and Tulita NT). Towns thousands, even tens of thousands of kilometers from where they started out.
There are even some coins that cannot identify because I cannot read the characters that are on the coins. Written in apparently Asian characters they even add to the mystery. So the next time you find a stranger in your change stop and give it some thought, just how did that dime get there all the way from Jamaica or Hong Kong...
My wife Lina and I run the Northern store in Tulita and were have collected some of the more interesting coins that have crossed our paths in the last few years I have put them together in a binder and the list of countries is pretty impressive. Our little collection includes; French and Belgian francs British pence, Euros, dimes from Mexico and Brazil Quarters from Netherlands and Trinidad, nickels from the Czech Republic and West Germany. There are pennies that aren't from heaven but close, Fiji (I love the look of that name Fiji all those dots, it dosen't look natural) and Australia. There are coins from sunny Barbados and Cayman Islands and chilly Russia and Sweden. There are also some unusual Canadian and American coins. There are U.S. Loonies and fifty cents pieces and numerous Canadian ones. Old silver dollars and a 1945 "V" for victory nickel and its' 2005 commemorative. There is a Terry fox dollar and a buffalo head nickel from the U.S. One real rarity is a Canadian dime which is only struck on one side, no Bluenose!
There are even coins that are not really coins at all, there are tokens from Arcades and Casinos and even a Circus. It really makes you wonder how these coins from all over the planet found their way into the pockets of someone in a small northern towns (my wife and I collected the coins in Ft Resolution NT, Old Crow YT and Tulita NT). Towns thousands, even tens of thousands of kilometers from where they started out.
There are even some coins that cannot identify because I cannot read the characters that are on the coins. Written in apparently Asian characters they even add to the mystery. So the next time you find a stranger in your change stop and give it some thought, just how did that dime get there all the way from Jamaica or Hong Kong...
2 comments:
Loved it! Just think of all the people who have come in contact with these coins let alone the distance they have travelled. Although you did talk about pennies from heaven, I see you never mentioned receiving any wooden nickles, dime bags or quarter pounders!
I found a 10 cent coin from the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago sitting on my desk. It must have been put there by one of the implementers in the office since they travel all over the globe. If you could only see what those foreign coins have seen.
Post a Comment