Clink, clink

One of the cool things about traveling abroad is foreign money. When I was young, my Aunties used to give the leftover change from their foreign travels to my siblings and I. I have a collection of random change from all over Europe: Ireland, the Netherlands, Germany, Austria, Greece, and Turkey, among others (all pre-Euro;the German money is actually West German from 1950).

I happened to be going through my leftover sterling from my last trip to England and wanted to document one of the things I love about British currancy. The current monarch is stamped on all the coins so, unlike most American money, the portraits on the the coins change. Queen Elizabeth II has been on the throne so long, they have actually aged her on the coins.
It is certainly a unique way of tracing one's life, aging on the coinage of the realm.

In among my foreign coin collection, I found a George V penny.
It is so worn that I can't read the date on the back of the coin, but as he ruled from 1910-36, this coin is not quite 100 years old. I like the idea that it was rattling around in someone's pocket during the first half of the last century and marvel at the fact that it is now at my house in an EU of old change in a jar.