| Image via USMint.gov |
| This morning I was absolutely convinced that nickels were worth four cents. I bought a drink at Conoco, and, thinking it was going to cost $1.29, pulled out a crisp greenback, a quarter and a nickel, patting myself on the back for producing exact change. The clerk threw me off balance when she said it would be $1.30. I scrambled for a second quarter as the gal eyed the quarter and nickel in my outstretched palm. I could see the gears turning — "Am I crazy? Is he crazy? Should I just make the change and move on with my day?" — until she finally said, "Son, you've already got $1.30." At this point, I could have really confused her by saying what popped into my head: "Oh, do you have a penny, then?" Instead, and fortunately for all our sakes, I just handed her everything that was in my hand and let her crunch the numbers. The troubling part was that even now, the value of the nickel is a moving target for me. Maybe I dreamed that the U.S. Treasury devalued everybody's least favorite coin (in my opinion). I wonder if this is how it feels to get old — when you find yourself needing to bone up on facts (such as the value of all four of the primary U.S. coins) that you had brazenly assumed had taken up permanent residence in your memory. Just to be safe, I'll probably spend the afternoon with some multiplication table flash cards. |
