Money, the Easiest Souvenir

[canyonwalker]

I don't have much in the way of souvenirs from our trip to Australia late last year. I mean, I've got tons of memories and gigs of photos. I don't have much in the way of tangible stuff. But that's par for the course for me. I tend not to buy a lot of stuff overseas. One thing I always try to do, though, is bring a bit of money home with me.



Money's kind of the easiest souvenir. Virtually everyone has some to sell. And if at some point I decide I don't like it, I can sell it back for what I paid for it. 🤣

But seriously, I've always been curious about money from different places. I started collecting odd coins when I was a kid, setting aside the Canadian money I'd sometimes find in my change when I bought something small in the northeastern US, or some other foreign coin I'd be lucky enough to find lying in the street. More recently I've pocketed a small amount of money like 2 Dinar from Jordan and the notes and coins I brought home from the Cayman Islands.

One of the practical challenges with "collecting" foreign money as souvenirs is not being stranded with too much of it. I shared a photo of Australia's colorful paper money several days ago. As I noted at the time, that was way too much money, $105 AU equal to roughly $70 US, to call a simple souvenir. In the photo above I've got two $1 coins and 50¢, 20¢, and 5¢ pieces. $2.75 AU = $1.80 US, a much more economical souvenir.

Comments

[solarbird]

Souvenir medallions are also good, and if you're ever in Japan, take a smallish notebook that'll last because stamps are EVERYWHERE. Seriously, they're everywhere. Everywhere you go will have one or more places to use a site-specific stamp. I love it.

[canyonwalker]

Huh. When I traveled extensively to Japan for work back in 2008-2012 I didn't see stamps being a thing.

[solarbird]

...really? In 2007 they were everywhere. Including freeway rest stops. I should take some photos from my notebook or something. I have so many. People told me "yeah, it's a thing."

[solarbird]

Also I saw a video recently - there are all these travel youtubers, right? - and spotted a stamp station in the background. It made me laugh because good times.

(I had a very hard time coming back from Japan. Honestly did. Kind of fucked up for an entire year.)

[canyonwalker]

I don't know what to say. I have strong situational awareness as a traveler and I didn't see them. Maybe it's not as much of a thing in the Tokyo metropolis, where I spent almost all my time, versus other parts of the country?

[solarbird]

That's quite possible. They're not highlighted with lighted arrows, they're just, you know... you know them when you see them. And I don't remember seeing them much in Tokyo, so that may also be a thing - though I do remember seeing one in a Tokyo mini-theme-park in... Ikebukuro, I think? Namjatown. [checks: yes. Still there! :D ] I was operating out of Yokohama and when travelling going around the country.

(I did to go Tokyo, but mostly to hang out with friends there.)

(If Godzilla has destroyed it, I've been there. That wasn't the intent but it's kind of how it worked out. xD )

[canyonwalker]

Yeah, I spent most of my time in Tokyo not far from the Yamanote line. Ginza was my home away from home. I worked at offices in Nishi-Gotanda and Shibuya. I spent a few weeks with a client out on the west side of the city, a little north of Tachikawa. I did get out to Nagoya once but it was all work with no time for sightseeing beyond 1-2 blocks from the Shinkansen station.

I admit I can't even visualize what you mean by stamps. Like, postage stamps? I didn't make an effort to seek out post offices in Japan, though I understand that they're a cultural touchstone for Japanese. (When my Japanese partners visited us in the US, the first thing they wanted to see after their hotel and the office was the nearest post office.) Or are these purely decorative stamps similar to postage stamps? Or ink stamps a la what you'd get on a passport, like these Japan Rail stamps people collect?

[solarbird]

OH!

No! Rubber stamps with images unique to where you are! Those and inkpads and you stampy stampy into your book. Some of them will also sell or even give away little booklets if you don't have one. ^_^

[sorcyress]

In a related vein, I always try to check the coin return on CoinStar machines at the grocery store, where it throws back the rejects. Most people think to take their abandoned coins, but I once found a steel penny, and I've found a variety of random coins from other countries.

(My best score -and a good reminder to keep doing it!- was over winter break when I found a fistful of gold dubloons: $11 in American dollar coins, and $18 in Mexican 5-and 1-dollar coins!

~Sor

[some_other_dave]

When I was a kid, I found a five-franc coin on the ground in rural France. I was pretty happy about it at the time, finding a small light coin worth a dollar, until Mom told me that it was from before the currency was re-valued, so it was then only worth five sous (meaning 0.05 francs).

Francs are now long out of circulation, but I think I still have the coin at home somewhere!