The Mystery Coin
The other day, at the corner store, I got some coins back from my purchase. One of them was clearly a quarter, but it was so blackened and rusted that I could not make out George Washington’s face, let alone what year it had been minted.
Every coin has a date. You can think of it as its birthdate. So I wondered – when was this old blackened coin born? What happened to make it look this way?
Back home I decided to try and clean it up. I tried dish soap, bleach, and all kinds of cleaning supplies that your mothers and I use to clean our kitchens and bathrooms. Some of these are pretty powerful chemicals that you have to be careful with.
But nothing seemed to work on this mystery coin.
My idea was that this little coin deserved to have its own story told -- to at least be able to tell us its birthday.
Finally I got out an old screwdriver and I started gently rubbing the quarter, cleaning it bit by bit.
After a while, I had my answer.
This quarter was minted in 1998!*
So that solved one part of the mystery.
But I still wonder about all the places it has been, all the people who have touched it, where it has gone and what it has been through. I know a coin cannot think or feel, but if it could, do you think it would be happy I cleaned it up, finally?
I’d like to know what you think.
End of story.
*1998 is the year Aunt JuJu was born.
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