autobiography of a coin in 1000 words
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I was built in metals like iron, bronze, silver etc. even 5 centuries before the Christian Era. I was so precious at that time. One piece could buy one house or a piece of land.
There are pictures of animals, kings, famous personalities, crowns, queens and national symbols printed on me one one side, in the center. Around that the name of the country and the year are printed. One the other side the face value of mine is printed in big letters. Some of the ancient coins were printed in square or rectangular shape too.
Bigger my value is, the bigger my size is. Obviously thicker and heavier I am too. Usually the actual value of the metal in me is same as the value printed on the coin. But sometimes the value printed on me is more than my actual value. When I am a rare coin or if I am printed on a special occasion, I become a coin collector's precious item. When I am very ancient, I am treated specially and am kept in museums for visitors to see and enjoy.
The historians and scientists learn a lot from me. They know the technical expertise, availability of metals, manufacturing technologies, language and culture etc. So I am really useful to everyone, either for study or for buying commodities.
I was by indigenously by smiths in ancient Greece, India and China in BCE. Later I was made in different sizes, shapes and colors by many countries from 6th century AD onwards. Before the introduction of paper currency, I was the only way to transact for any business.
There are many proverbs in every language and culture about me. Penny wise and Pound foolish is a famous proverb. "The whole world is my slave" and "the world revolves around me" are some proverbs in Indian languages.
During the 19th and 20th centuries, I was printed with many values like 1 unit, 2 units, 3 units, 5 units, 10 units, 20 units, 25 units, 50 units, 100 units etc. Here 1 unit is 1 cent or 1 paisa or 1 centieme or 1 hundredth of the currency of the country. Then I was also printed in the units of the currency like 1 unit, 2 units, 5 units, 10 units. Above this value usually there are only currency notes, as I become too heavy. However due to changes in economy, rise in prices, inflation, the lower valued coins have long since stopped in circulation. Nowadays the transactions take place mostly in terms of unit of currency and not one hundredth parts.
Children like me a lot. The sound that I make when I fall on some metal or ground is so good like a piece of music, right? It is one of the sweetest notes that you hear. I am sure you asked for me when you were very young, so that you could buy some toffees or cakes.
Often people keep me in their pockets or their purses. For telephoning from a public phone, I am required. For purchasing a chocolate, or cold drink you need me, as inserting me into the vending machine gets you those instantly. People are often enthusiastic about their weight. So the weighing machines show their weight only after I am sent into the machine.
I am ageless. I live forever. Unless I am melted, I live happily. Sometimes there is dirt accumulated on me. If you clean me well, I shine bright and good.
I have a noble character. I always shine bright. I always produce happiness in people's faces. I don't see any difference between a poor man or rich man, boy or girl, Hindu or Christian or muslim. I am universal. Unfortunately, I am valuable only within the country I am printed in. In other countries, people do not give much value or respect to me.
As the saying goes, "I am the God and friend of yours." Take care of me well. I will take care of you well. Love me and I love you. I request you do not steal me or cheat someone to earn me. Earn me with your effort. I am your prize catch. I will protect you in the times of need. I promise.
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Autobiography of a coin in 2000
I was born in the fires of an ancient forge in the hilss of the Hindu Kush. Amid the clatter of hammers and the chatter of Greek, I paused on a battered anvil for the final pangs of my creation. Beneath me lay a hardened die bearing the image of my king; atop me pressed another, etched with horsemen and some mirror-image words. Then the hammer struck, hard and heavy, ringing out the news of my nativity. With each belo the dies dug deeper into my flesh, stamping their images as father and mother of a freshly minted coin. As I look back across two millennia for these earliest memories, I marbel at my long, now legendary, journey from mine to mint to market to museum. I remeber Rome as a rising power, a century before the first Caesars; I recall the early days of Emperor Asoka's moral conquests and the builing of China's Great Wall. I have outlived six of the seven wonders of the ancient world. (I am told the Great Pyramid still stands) Yet I am no mute ruin: money talks. Mine is the voice of history, recorded by numismatists trained to hear my ancient stories of art, industry, worship, and war. My eloquence youth, when legends traced my origins to a colony of giant ants.
Most gold in ancient times was mined by condemned criminals and slaves whose lives meant little to their taskmasters. In my days, the mines of Egypt were legendary hives of human misery. But it was said that gold in great abundance could be found near India, where giant ants piled gold-bearing dust at the entrances of their tunnels. These ants--nearly the size of dogs, the legend said--defended their burrows fiercely against men who dared to steal the spoils of their digging. But such danger was trivial given the normal costs of ancient mining, and so the legend spread as far as Greece. When Alexander the Great invaded the Indus Valley in the fourth century BC, his Greek soldiers eagerly searched for this legendary lode. Local guides displayed for them the dappled skins of the ants themselves, but the invaders could not find a single mound of precious gold
Only a few generations later, however, Greek settlers were gathering large quantities of gold in this very region. These descendants of Alexander's warriors created a wealthy kingdom called Bactria, famous for its beautiful silver and gold coins like me. (See Aramco World, May/June 1994) Where, scholars have long wondered, did the Greek kings of Bactria find so much precious metal? International trade constitutes one obvious source, but giant "ants" might be another. Two thousand years after I was born, explorers discovered that burrowing marmots on the remote Dansar Plateau, near the borders of India, Pakistan, Afghanistan and China, do indeed heap mounds of gold-bearing earth at the mouths of their burrows. These stocky rodents, called "mountain ants" by the Persians who passed the legend on to the Greeks, grow to the size of small dogs and pitch up meter-high hills of auriferous subsoil. Even in modern times, local tribes harvest this gold in an age-old tradition that recalls the legends of my youth. It is possible, after all, that inhuman marmots, rather than inhuman misery, brought my gold to the forges of man.
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