white wall of laser

as you might remember i am very lucky when it comes to finding coins. though there was another dry spell which lasted about two months i have started finding coins again. mostly 50 heller coins (worth half a koruna - something like 2 cent). sadly, these coins have gone out of circulation! so now i'm stuck with about 30 or so coins which i can't use. i think the banks won't even accept them anymore. but then again i haven't tried returning them.



there was a funny moment yesterday. i was changing trains at florenc metro station when i found a 50 heller coin in the middle of the busy crowd. i stopped to pick it up aggravating the people behind me who had to swerve to avoid hitting me. i held the coin up to look at it (and here you can imagine a scene from a film where the camera first focuses on the close object and then on the background) and then became aware of a young woman sitting in a wheelchair, wrapped in a blanket with a little dog on her lap, holding out a squished coca cola cup for coins. i probably hesitated longer than i should have, focusing on the coin again and then back on the lady. then i raised my eyebrows as if to say 'do you want this?' and she gave me this pitiful look. then i raised my eyebrows again as if to say ' you do know that these are 50 hellers, don't you? these have gone out of circulation...'. but she insisted so i put the coin in her cup.



now of course i feel like a creep so if i see her at the same place next week i will go and find a place where i can buy some dog food.



one curious development is that i have also started finding coins in my dreams. last night i found a 50 heller coin as well as a 20 heller coin (those went out of circulation even longer ago although i have actually found one in real life on vaclavske namesti). last week i had a dream where i was trying to escape from this massive building before the security system would switch on sending a wall of white laser sweeping through the whole building destroying anything in its way. naturally, just as i was nearing the exit which was at the top of a steep slope i spotted a coin on the ground. when i ran to get it the white laser wall appeared and started coming quickly towards me. i was faced with a dilemma: grab the coin or get killed by the white laser wall? i decided to grab the coin. but then i started slipping because the ground was like polished stone and i couldn't get enough grip to get moving up the slope again so i had to run to the bottom of the slope and start running from there. anyway to make a long story even longer...i got to the exit just as the laser passed behind me. that's when i woke up panting thinking ' ahhh, i didn't get the coin!'



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this connection i have to coins has a long history which i had forgotten about until i rediscovered this photograph:

i must have been two or three here. as you can see i am counting COINS! on the plastic cup there is a sticker which reads DM (the old german currency). oh nostalgia...