Friday, March 27, 2009

Walk on By


Journal Entry: Weight = 177.0 lbs.; Money Found = $1.12, 27 pennies, 4 nickels, 4 dimes, 1 quarter; Glass Bottles retrieved = 9. Feature find, "walk-over" dime.

Feature Entry : The MoneyWalker must frequently remind himself that the purpose of his daily walk is fitness and weight management, not finding money. However, there is no denying, the fun is in finding the money, not the value of the money found.

One particularly rewarding type of find is "walk-over" coins. In the photo are several coins separated by a little doll that I picked up on a recent walk. The coins on the left are "walk-over" coins and the ones on the right are new coins. Notice that the "walk-over" coins are dark and earth-stained, not shinny like the new coins.

"Walk-over" was selected as a name for coins that have been lost (usually in a curbed street area) for a long time. Thus, they have been walked over. My first find today was a "walk-over" dime found along a street curb that I have walked dozens of times. But today, a just barely recognized stimulus contacted memory in just the right way. It wasn't a washer, a flattened bottle cap, a cell-phone battery, an electrician's fixture slug, or a rounded foil disk from a medicine bottle; it was a coin, it was a dime. How many times had this darling been "walked-over" by pedestrians, arriving/departing motorists, or bikers? Now the dime is once again living its destiny--being in circulation.

So, for your musical enjoyment, and an ode to all the "walk-over" coins still waiting to be found is this Burt Backarach blockbuster song "Walk on By":

Foolish pride
Is all that I have left
So let me hide
The tears and the sadness you gave me
When you said goodbye, ooh baby
Walk on by, ooh sugar
Walk on by...(baby, baby don't stop)


MoneyWalker

4 comments:

  1. Another new word for my numismatizing vocabulary!

    With the end of winter near (or so I thought until two days ago) the coins on the ground are caked with mud and dirt. In fact, they are so dirty that I have to rinse them in a colander before they are put out for hubby to count. He always checks the years and some of them have been quite old. Whenever a wheatie shows up I wonder where it has been hiding for so long and what made it pop up at that time.

    And you are so right, those walk-overs are much more exciting to pick up than the shiny copper pennies that are showing off in the sunlight.

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  2. I just noticed that you have added a photo.
    Nice to put a face to a fellow walker.

    Do you roll your own coins?

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  3. Yes, I am slowly learning to add a few gadgets to the blog. I do roll my own coins, a fun part of hobby. When I complete my walk, the money is logged into a journal, coins that need cleaning are buffed with an electric bench grinder with a wire brush wheel, then they are placed in a "money tender" that sorts by coin denomination.

    Sorry about the cold weather up your way.

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  4. My coins just go into two jars. When filled they are taken to the bank to be counted. I'm far to lazy to roll my own.

    A few years ago I offered a large jar of pre-walking pennies to the grandchildren. If they rolled them they could have them. I think they only got a few dollars done before quitting.

    I'm running a 5k in the morning. Well, more accurately, walking/running a 5k for my granddaughter's elementary school fundraiser. It is supposed to be in the low 30's, which means an extra layer of clothing. I don't mind the cold, have gone out as low as 7 degrees (only once, tho). If it's windy or icy I stay in. Don't need any of those turned ankles that you wrote about a few weeks ago.

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