{"id":5996,"date":"2017-01-18T18:45:09","date_gmt":"2017-01-18T18:45:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/prettygoodbritain.com\/wp\/?p=5996"},"modified":"2022-05-31T10:57:30","modified_gmt":"2022-05-31T09:57:30","slug":"pocket-museum","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/prettygoodbritain.com\/wp\/?p=5996","title":{"rendered":"Pocket Museum"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>
\nI\u2019ve got a 2,000 year old Roman coin in my pocket.* It\u2019s genuine, if the dealer was legit. I don\u2019t see why it wouldn\u2019t be; an abundant supply is available to those interested in history but lacking a trove of disposable income. I would\u2019ve gone for the Yappese Rai but there was no way I\u2019d get that home in a cab outside The Flintstones.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
\nYap Island\u00a0ATM<\/em><\/p>\n

I bought it almost as an afterthought when sourcing a gift for my father, who long ago was bitten by the numismatic bug. I\u2019m not a collector, though will admit to a fondness for \u00a32 coins, especially shiny ones.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
\nMy wife gives them to me. She\u2019s so\u00a0nice.<\/em><\/p>\n

It\u2019s cool being able to walk around with something in my pocket that a resident of these windy isles could have carried in his before the Dark Ages. (Did they have pockets back then? Do I need to look that up? Can I trust Wikipedia<\/a>? Oh let\u2019s, especially as they aren\u2019t motivated by filthy lucre.) What might he have spent it on? A haircut? Small amphora of joy juice? Tip for the attendant at the baths, accompanied by a wink? I can only imagine. Which is kind of the point.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
\n\u201cLet\u2019s play the fall of the Roman empire\u00a0again\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

Recently the Bank of England introduced a new fiver.<\/a> Can\u2019t say I\u2019m a fan. It looks sharp, but it doesn\u2019t like to be folded\u2014a nonstarter for those of us who don\u2019t bother with wallets. It\u2019s also disconcertingly slippery. They say it\u2019s good for the environment, so there\u2019s that.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
\nBank of England governor showing off new note just before it slipped out of his\u00a0hand<\/em><\/p>\n

Peep Show<\/em> aficionados may remember the rather icky episode when Jeremy is making a deposit at a sperm bank but has nothing in the way of visual stimulation. Desperate, he tries it on with Queen Elizabeth on the front of a \u00a320 bill. When it flutters to the floor in the heat of passion, Sir Edward Elgar on the flip side spoils it for him. There was even a Facebook page<\/a> devoted to this particular gag.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
\nNo caption necessary<\/em><\/p>\n

The banknote featuring the quintessentially English composer on the back is no longer legal tender, though Liz\u2019s ballroom eyes and a stirring rendition of Pomp and Circumstance might still be a potent aphrodisiac for some<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"\"
\nNow appearing on\u00a0Netflix<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

They say power is the ultimate turn-on. I don\u2019t know about that, but in order to be worth anything, money needs power behind it. Traditionally the face of that power has been stamped right on top.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
\nThe emperor always won the\u00a0toss<\/em><\/p>\n

That now pleasantly worthless old Roman coin of mine was later joined by a gift from my father: my inheritance, as he put it. One hundred trillion dollars, backed by the full faith and credit of the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe. While admiring the Chiremba Balancing Rocks, one is given to pondering the value of money and the state of the economy in general. It\u2019s a whole lot of zeros.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
\nIt\u2019s all worth about the same at this\u00a0point<\/em><\/p>\n

Cash money is rumoured to be on its way out anyway. The banks would certainly prefer it all be relegated to a museum. I rather hope it stays in circulation. I may not carry much of it, but it\u2019s nice to know it\u2019s there.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

* for the purposes of this post. I seem to have misplaced it. I hope the parking garage didn\u2019t get it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I\u2019ve got a 2,000 year old Roman coin in my pocket.* It\u2019s genuine, if the dealer was legit. I don\u2019t see why it wouldn\u2019t be; an abundant supply is available to those interested in history but lacking a trove of … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/prettygoodbritain.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5996"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/prettygoodbritain.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/prettygoodbritain.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prettygoodbritain.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prettygoodbritain.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5996"}],"version-history":[{"count":17,"href":"https:\/\/prettygoodbritain.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5996\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11733,"href":"https:\/\/prettygoodbritain.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5996\/revisions\/11733"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/prettygoodbritain.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5996"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prettygoodbritain.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5996"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prettygoodbritain.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5996"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}