Paul Oberjuerge: Coins of the Realm

Going through the "mag-and-bag" areas, where your luggage is scanned and and your body irradiated, it often seems a good idea to pull the coins out of your pocket. So they don't set off a machine that might be really touchy.

So, you put your coins and watch into the tray, and they come out the other end of the magnetometer, and one of the cops watches you pick up your stuff. And about half the time the cop will point at that monster Ike and say "what's up with that?" Or the local equivalent.

And then I tell them it's one American dollar, an old coin, which the USA stopped making a very long time ago (like, 1973?), and a good-luck charm. I don't know how much of that the cop from Japan/Mexico/Italy/France understands, but I tell them. I'm not sure any of them remember Eisenhower. You know, the president and war hero?

Size matters, I guess. That's what they notice.

I've brought two more lucky charms here with me, and they're at the other end of the coinage spectrum. Two pennies I found on the street while jogging in my neighborhood at home. It just seemed like a quiant thing to do, pick up pennies when most people just walk right over them, these days.

Both are badly beaten up, like they were run over by heavy machinery. Repeatedly Not quite round, and seriously scratched. The dates are barely readable, but appear to be 1975 on one, and 1984 on the other.

Nobody has asked about those, but they've been through 13 days of the Olympics, just like big ol' Ike has.