Friday Five: Coin Toss Edition

Songbird at RevGalBlog Pals posts:

Well, Gals and Pals, this weekend we'll be rendering unto Caesar what is Caesar's, and that has me thinking about coinage.

(Songbird lives in the same state and country I do, and I'm not quite sure what she means by this. Oh wait -- self-employed clergy paying quarterly income tax, perhaps?)

1) When was the last time you flipped a coin or even saw one flipped in person?

I can't recall. I'm sure I've done it in the past; and it has been reported to have been done before the Presidential and Vice-Presidential debates, but they didn't show it happening. The closest I can come is the Scrabble challenge we entered a couple of weeks ago, when we drew letters to see who would play first. Since the Challenge pits two teams against each other over each board, a coin toss would have worked equally well, but in games with more than two players or teams per board, the traditional letter draw is the better solution.

2) Do you have any foreign coins in your house? If so, where are they from?

If we look hard enough we would probably find a Canadian coin, and I know there used to be some pfennigs. I think Onkel Hankie Pants gave away the Iraqi money and possibly Euros that he brought back from his sojourn in Baghdad and Amsterdam a few years ago. I did unearth a box recently, probably one that belonged to my late father-in-law, with several old silver dollars, Kennedy halfs, and an old quarter and nickel. They were all US coinage though.

3) A penny saved is a penny earned, they say. But let's get serious. Is there a special place in heaven for pennies, or do you think they'll find a special place in, well, the other place? 

I have not always been respectful of pennies. But Teddy Gross is. Here's an article about how he tries to help charity through penny collecting. Teddy (or Theodore as he is now known) was my co-editor on our college newspaper many years ago. We had many artistic differences (he was more the artistic type and I was more for straight journalism) but it's nice to see that he carries on the finest traditions of A Host at Last University as well as continuing his creative work.

4) How much did you get from the tooth fairy when you were a child? and if you have children of your own, do they get coins, or paper money? (I hear there may be some inflation.)

I got a dime. A dime was a lot in those days; it bought two candy bars, for example (which probably didn't do the new tooth any good!)  My children may have clearer memories than I, but I think we probably started out with quarters and ended up with a dollar bill. The last candy bar I bought cost about $2.50, then again it was one of those Endangered Species, organic fair trade chocolate ones; but I rather think even one of the traditional ones costs about 69 cents now.

5) Did anyone in your household collect the state quarters? And did anyone in your household manage to sustain the interest required to stick with it?

Not that I know of.  We certainly took note of them and were mildly excited when our two states' quarters came out. But we're more stamp collectors in our house. We did get a solicitation in the mail for a state quarter collection that included some sort of philatelic tie-in, but were too frugal to bite on it.