State Quarters

Deb:

A few years back the United States began changing how its currency looked. One of the big changes was with our quarters (worth 25 cents). The government decided there would be fifty different quarters. Each of the backs would carry symbols of each of the fifty states. It was determined that the coins would be issued in the order the states entered the Union. Every year they add a couple of new state quarters to our money circulation.

I give you this history lesson because Big Guy found the idea of collecting these coins fascinating. Each night he would check his pockets to see what new quarters he could put into his collection, which he kept in a mug on the dresser. He decided he would collect three coins of each state. In the future, when his collections were complete, he would present one collection to each of our three sons.

Eventually, the coins became too numerous to fit in the mug, and he had added a zippered plastic bag beside it to collect extra coins. The coins weren’t valuable in terms of money. They weren’t worth any more than the original 25 cents each. However, the coins represented a large amount of time, effort, and love that Big Guy had spent pouring over change and checking his list to see if he had enough of a particular state.

I had just found the cracked mug lying empty on the floor where the burglars had carelessly tossed it.