Numismatically Worthless Coinage Found in a Trunk
by Alison Strub

INSERT INTO Unwanted_Items_Found_In_A_Thrift_Store
            (Item_Description)
VALUES
            (‘A trunk, original old stock from the 1940s. Corner bumpers, rough white stenciling
moiré against the smooth black trunk. Contents: a leather pouch filled with pennies, assorted
pennies on the bottom of a trunk, Certificate of Death. Stenciling: Mrs. Joan Munch, Destination
Heidelberg.’);

INSERT INTO Unwanted_Items_Found_In_A_Thrift_Store
            (Item_Speculation)
            VALUES
            (‘She was happy to cross to Heidelberg to live out of her steamer trunk. His right hand
pressed against her name, his left hand lifted the trunk by its leather strap. She was in love. They
did not have use for her pennies, they did not have use for what they removed from the trunk
before donating it, they did have use for what traveled shore to shore, for the 75 pounds of
possessions.’);

INSERT INTO Unwanted_Items_Found_In_A_Thrift_Store
            (Item_Worth)
VALUES
            (‘A numismatically worthless coin is one that is worthless to a numismatist. Damage after
minting has no value, and indeed will detract from any numismatic value leaving value only at
face value.’);

INSERT INTO Unwanted_Items_Found_In_A_Thrift_Store
            (Item_Description)
VALUES
            (‘A certificate of death, a sea burial. This is not buried treasure, this is a body lost at sea.
This is not a change purse, it is a white leather pouch that has turned green with the verdigris of
pennies. These are not pennies, they are their birth years, flattened from years of carrying
smelling of copper’);

INSERT INTO Unwanted_Items_Found_In_A_Thrift_Store
            (Item_Speculation)
            VALUES
            (‘The pennies were thrown in together, and some separated through a hole in the pouch.
Some rattled in the trunk, wound stray strands of hair loosened from a hair brush. How she could
not love her steamer trunk with her name outlined on the outside. How could she not love where
here clothes were kept pressed perfectly.’);

INSERT INTO Unwanted_Items_Found_In_A_Thrift_Store
            (Item_Worth)
VALUES
            (‘An example of a trait that decreases value is toning. Toning hides scratches and other
blemishes on a coin. Toning is damage to the surface of a coin. Toning has altered the surface of
a coin. Toning is not the actual color of the coin.’);

INSERT INTO Unwanted_Items_Found_In_A_Thrift_Store
            (Item_Description)
VALUES
            (‘The hair is worn around his scalp. A strand of hair is stuck to the wall of the trunk.
In one penny, someone has drilled a hole through his head so it could be worn as a chain. They
disposed of the worthless cents, the Deutsch marks that had no value and even less money, to
gather dust alongside the pennies in the corner of a trunk.’);

INSERT INTO Unwanted_Items_Found_In_A_Thrift_Store
            (Item_Speculation)
            VALUES
            (‘Were they thrown in one by one or in a handful? Did she pick them up from a pond
where the country’s name was scratched off by gravel? All her beautiful clothes exhausted
someone, as did the locks of hair that swelled around her husband’s body, the flag that twisted.’);

INSERT INTO Unwanted_Items_Found_In_A_Thrift_Store
            (Item_Worth)
VALUES
            (‘Another element in the grading of bronze cents is the amount of mint red color a coin
has retained: "Brown," "Red and Brown," and "Red." “Brown” designates a coin that shows little
or no mint red or has a non-red color such as the charming green or blue tones sometimes seen.
To be designated Red, a coin must show nearly all of its original color, though this may be
mellowed a bit.’);

INSERT INTO Unwanted_Items_Found_In_A_Thrift_Store
            (Item_Description)
VALUES
            (‘The disposal of the trunk will require the disassembly of its walls rather than the
repetition of disuse. The disposal of pennies may require them falling into a fountain. His body,
his face, not drawn but relaxed, her hands unwrinkled held his hand. Her hands wrinkled gripped
the change purse, imagined a train on the sea. From now on she will always be alone.’);

INSERT INTO Unwanted_Items_Found_In_A_Thrift_Store
            (Item_Speculation)
            VALUES
            (‘Some countries have done away with the once cent coin; the lowest they can go is
higher than one one-hundredth of a dollar.’);