Not to brag but, generally speaking, I find a lot of orphaned cash on the ground/floor. I'm not above taking that which has obviously been lost and no owner logically found, etc. Especially if that cash amount is relatively small, a few bucks here, a twenty there. I've stumbled upon so much lost cash, in fact, that I've lost track of how much cash I've found. This year, alone, I've already found $32.00 USD, which brings me to the beginning of this Trifecta of Tokens; the bodybuddy/lifemate found a ₩500 KRW whilst doing laundry a few weeks ago.
Okay, for starters, the Korean 오백원 is my favorite piece of usable currency. This is no secret to anyone who knows me, which means that nobody really knows this factoid (the bodybuddy/lifemate excepted). My love for the 오백원 stems from its utility (between the years 2013 - 2018, when we lived there full-time). There are a lot of things that one 오백원 can buy, and there are even more things that a modest handful of 오백원 can buy you. And then, I learned that Koreans interpret people who pay in cash as "rich." We only paid in cash, but I never found out how Koreans feel about people who pay with change, lol. I felt like I was interpreted as poor, but one cannot have change unless one pays in cash, unless, obviously, one is homeless (i.e. "unhoused") and the change is pity money. This was why I would oftentimes find myself with a bowl of 오백원, and so, we started to include the cash value of all of the 오백원 we collected as disposable, which meant that I could spend them on whatever, whenever. And for many years, I lived, happily, exclusively by treat-spending the 오백원 we received as change as cash-only consumers. It was awesome. I didn't feel poor, so I never gave the image of paying with change any more thought.
And so, to this day, the Korean 오백원 represents something so pragmatic: that one coin could be the "right" value so as to make the purchasing of things at that price point a very simple transaction, AND that there are things (namely snack foods) that can be purchased at this 오백원 price. My love for it is undying. I love the 오백원.
And then, the bodybuddy/lifemate just happens to find one 오백원 on the dryer in the communal laundry room of our condo complex.
imagine our luck while (technically) living in the USA we find a Korean 오백원 my favorite piece of global currency |
a literal token for something somewhere |