| Author |
 Replies: 5 / Views: 2,061 |
|
|
Valued Member
Poland
114 Posts |
I was walking across a shopping mall parking yesterday.
Once I looked - a coin laid on the ground. I took it and looked at it. It was small, of golden color and, well, strange. I took it home and looked more carefully. It appeared to be a Spanish 5 pesetas from 1999. Strange. That coin is not in circulation since the introduction of euro in 2002. I's worth it's too small to consider it collectible. And there's quite a long distance (and at least two big countries - France and Germany) between Spain and Poland.
So I wonder how that coin ended in such a place at such a time? For me the most probable hypothesis is that it was a "lucky wallet coin" of a Spanish tourist (as this parking is near the train station and the airport shuttle train station). Edited by Murazor
05/28/2011 04:21 am
|
|
|
|
Pillar of the Community
Germany
1238 Posts |
Strange indeed, but a nice find. :) As for how it ended up on the ground in Poland - right, could have been a lucky penny (errm, peseta) that somebody dropped accidentally. Or maybe the coin was given to him/her erroneously? The 2 grosze coin has the same diameter (17.5 mm), I think. Apart from the "regular" 5 ptas coins, a few pieces with special designs were issued. Five of them honor Spanish autonomous regions, and if yours is from 1999, it should say "Murcia". On that side you also see the wheel of a mill. The other side features the Huerto de las Bombas in the city of Murcia - a gate, and also the location of a battle in the early 18th century. http://www.panoramio.com/photo/36148530Christian |
|
Pillar of the Community
United States
1348 Posts |
I would think it was in someone vehicle and when they tossed it after realizing it was no good.
|
|
Moderator
 Australia
16827 Posts |
You can probably never know how strange, out-of-place coins "found on the ground" got where they were, unless you happen to see them get lost. How, for instance, did this WWI German notgeld token wind up near a carwash in America? We can only speculate. I have an interesting story about a Spanish coin I "found" when I was young. While my family was staying at a hotel in Burlington, Vermont, I noticed another young lad trying to play a video game in the lobby, but the machine kept rejecting his quarter. In disgust, he threw the coin against the curtained wall and stormed off. I went over to pick it up, and found out why the machine had rejected it: his "quarter" was a Spanish 5 pesetas (one of the old Franco-era coins, date-in-star 1971). I still have it in my collection. But if I had simply found it without seeing how it got there, I might have been quite puzzled at how a Spanish coin could wind up on the floor of an American hotel. Don't say "infinitely" when you mean "very"; otherwise, you'll have no word left when you want to talk about something really infinite. - C. S. Lewis
|
|
Pillar of the Community
Germany
1238 Posts |
Not exactly a rare piece, but certainly one that comes with a story. And a story that you won't forget. :)
Christian
|
|
Pillar of the Community
United States
737 Posts |
I appreciate finds like these a lot more. Though there not may be much value attached to the coins we find laying around, the circumstances behind how they were found are the most interesting.
|
| |
Replies: 5 / Views: 2,061 |
|
Posted 05/28/2011 09:44 am
