Today, I went on a Scandinavian car ship. This was, in itself, nothing out of the ordinary: Sweden and Norway transport an awful lot of vehicles to Newark and I, liking my job to be easy, have a penchant for finding my way to these highly self-sufficient vessels. I happened to arrive right during the morning coffee break, so I settled in with a bunch of seaman for some relaxed conversation and imported biscuits (see why I like these ships?). At one point, the chief engineer excused himself from our gathering, muttering some vague explanation about needing to get something from his cabin. Ten minutes later, he resurfaced with a gallon Ziploc bag full of coins from all over the world, which he plopped down on the table in front of me with no explanation, and sat back down. At this, three or four other seaman started proclaiming excitedly in Swedish/Norwegian and excused themselves from the table as well. Not long thereafter, there were TWO full gallon bags of international coins sitting in front of me. Needless to say, I was just a little confused.
"What am I supposed to do with all this?" I demanded. "What are we supposed to do with it?" was the response. "Every seaman has a bag of coins like this sitting in his cabin. We're flying home in two weeks, and they're too heavy to take with us. You have them!" I kept trying to decline the currency, but they weren't having it. Finally, I decided it would be better just to leave with the stash before the other 19 seamen on board decided to bring me their change as well.
Feeling exceedingly ridiculous (you'd think I'd have gotten used to the feeling by now, wouldn't you?), I hauled my loot back to the office, where I set to work sorting. Fortunately, it was not a busy morning. It turned out that about half the money was, indeed, American coins. After an intense inner struggle, I managed to resist the temptation to appropriate what would have surely been enough quarters to cover my laundry expenses for the rest of the year, and gave the bag to our highly confused finance guy as a donation to SCI. The rest of it, I decided, was fair game. The end totals:
- $26 Australian dollars
- $23 New Zealand dollars (both of which I gave to our receptionist who, providentially enough, knew someone who was imminently leaving for Australia and NZ)
- 11.27 Euros
- 7.20 Swiss Francs
- 2 pounds 50 pence
...and an uncounted fortune in coins from the rest of the world, including a large quantity of European currencies that are no longer in use (it had been a while since I had seen Deutsch Mark!). We put them in a jar on the desk, bearing the label: "Going overseas? Free money! Take what you need!"
Random enough for you? It was for me.
Also, I think I sat next to a bank robber on the PATH train. But it was hard to be 100% positive.
Bank robber?! Dude, I think you buried the lede here.
ReplyDeletedude, do you have any idea how many crazy people there are in the mass transit system? i mean, he could have been a bank robber, but he could have just as well been a lunatic, pure and simple. besides, he only rode from newark to harrison (in itself HIGHLY suspicious; no one ever does that), so i didn't have time to get a better read.
ReplyDeleteOne time this comedian from Boston was talking about how he walked around Madison in summer with a black ski mask on asking where the nearest bank was because Midwesterners are so nice... and he got directions apparently. I wouldn't doubt it.
ReplyDeleteYou do realize that in some Euro countries it costs money to exchange the old coins, and in some (eg. the Netherlands, Portugal) they are no longer accepted for exchange by banks at all? (bills are, but presumably you don't have any of those)
ReplyDeleteyou could use those coins to buy foods for the hungry people who are poor.
ReplyDelete