A Coin's Life

I'll get the coin rolling...

I'm a three pence silver piece from Australia. I was minted in the "Mile High City" Denver Colorado on November 12th 1943, which is odd because I was meant for use on the other side of the world. It was war time and I was made in the United States for use in Australia but I never quite made it.

I was stacked away in the Denver mint until mid December then I was piled onto a train with loads of my friends, there was no view but it took a while, and after a long time the cold winter air was replaced with salty sea air. Finally I ended up in a vault in San Francisco. We all thought we would be in Brisbane or Sydney in no time but we got buried at the back of the vault. Just a few of us, a single box. The rest got to go on a ship and made it to our intended homeland. It was so boring just sitting there and sitting there knowing all the time that other coins were out having fun buying ice cream, and shoes and meeting people and other coins, ohhh the places they must have seen... and all I ever see it the same thing. The coin next to me, he looks nice just like me but that is just boring.

Finally after decades of just sitting under a box of US nickels in the back of a shelf I was FREE. I had been hearing people talking for years inside the vault and tried to call out to them but they never heard. Now I was hearing them say "What is this, a box of coins meant for Australia? what year is stamped on it? 1943! That was... forty seven years ago! What are we going to do with you now?" No one could figure out why my box was overlooked, I sat on the desk of an executive for a week. I liked the feel of fresh air after all that time in the dry old vault. No one knew what to do with me, since I was not legal tender any more.

I was devastated to find out that not only had Australia dropped silver from their coins but had also dropped the pence in favor of the cent, What could I do? I was out of a job and still in my prime, before I had ever seen the inside of a pocket. I was so depressed I just wanted to be melted down.

One of the tellers asked if she could buy me for her husband who collected coins. The deal was made and after almost fifty years I was about to shine. I was in one of the few rolls he opened. Since then I have passed through the hands of many different dealers and collectors in southern California, I was put into a bulk load in 2009 and sat on a shelf until 2013 when I was shipped to the mountains of Montana.

I think I prefer the high altitude, considering where I was minted. I spend most of my days in a 2x2 hidden away in a 3-ring binder, but the fuzzy guy and his fuzzy cat bring me out once in a while. I have never seen the inside of a pocket and I guess I never will. That's ok thou I've got a nice retirement now. I wish I had been able to do what I was meant to do, but I guess that's just one Coin's Life for you.

Thanks for the support, I was even thinking if you wanted to do a teaser/trailer thing then post the whole story later, or even make a series of it... "What happens next... tune in next week!" or post a decade per day, if it's OLD and battered, with a lot of history.

Aslan, your story is WONDERFUL!
I just may have to write a short, short story to continue this inventive topic.

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BOY, did the life of my buds and me get off to a bad start!
The year is 1893 and San Francisco is still a raucous place to be born. I am a dime.

It was not the first year my brothers and sisters appeared.
SO, you'd think the mint workers would have worked out the bugs.
But NO! An engraver, having spent a riotous weekend down at the docks, came into work Monday morning with a wicked hangover.

A new reverse needed to have the mint mark engraved, but the worker,
fighting off a pounding headache, put the "S" too far to the right
or "East" side of where it should have gone. So, a second "S"
was engraved in the correct location.

That should be the end of my story, but NO!
I was in the bin awaiting my turn to be stamped and when I was inserted the machine it had a problem and the "S" suffered a Machine Doubling.

Yeah, I know: make lemonade out of the lemons that life gives you. So, I took a deep breath and entered a long life as a circulating coin of the realm. But, I confess
that all during this time I wondered what fate had in store for me.

Well, today I ended up in a mailbox in New Haven, CT.
A strange man, disheveled and bearded, held me and was
obviously very pleased to look me over. I HAVE A NEW HOME!

So few of my family have survived that I feel very fortunate indeed.

A nice "Short, Short" I always have liked that style

Thanks matthewvincent

That one reminds me of a time travel story by the late great Fredric Brown, I'm not sure of the title, but it goes a little like this...

The Professor prepared tea for his three friends, when they arrived he explained to them his new invention, a time machine. He said you could travel to the future or past, all of a sudden one of his friends jumped up and said "I wonder what will happen if I go back and kill my grandfather!" the buttons clicked and the switches flipped....
The Professor prepared tea for his two friends, when they arrived he explained to them his new invention...

It is interesting when you know the history. My special coin has an incomplete history. My grandmother obtained it with the passing of my great grandfather. The coin was a barber half, and a visible date is all I can say of it, but he carried it in his pockets for years. I wish I knew why, but I do know it was his special coin. Grade AG is not valuable, but it has value to me. The date does not match hos birth, marriage, or first child's birth. It seems random.

So, this is no where as good as your story, but we probably all have a coin we know something more about, which can lead to more questions. Thanks for starting the topic.