On a Nerdy Quarter

This afternoon I got some quarters in change. I dropped them in my pockets.

I tend to play with coins in my pockets. Shove my hands down in the pockets, rub the coins between my forefinger and thumb. I like the feel of some coins more than others. The best tactile experience I get from a coin is the Susie B; the reliefs on both sides of the coin are more pronounced than other other coin.

The state quarters all feel different. Some are more interesting to feel than others.

I noticed that one of the quarters felt a bit different. It felt… unfamiliar.

I fished it out of my pocket and looked at it.

It was Hawaii’s quarter.

I hadn’t seen Hawaii’s quarter before.

I didn’t realize it had one of the Pillars of the Argonath on the reverse. 🙂

Okay, okay, I realize that’s probably King Kamameha. But it looks so much like the the enormous statues of Isildur and Anarion constructed by Gondor in the second millennium of the Third Age along the banks of the River Anduin.

Yes, I typed that out from memory. But no, I couldn’t tell you off-hand which is which, if it’s Anarion on the eastern shore, Isildur on the western shore, or vice-versa.

The Pillars of the Argonath appear in The Lord of the Rings: The Third Age, that woe-begotten role-playing game for the Xbox and PlayStation 2. There’s a point where if you explore a cave system, you can come out to an opening in a rock wall that overlooks the Nen Hithoel and the Falls of Rauros. From that point, you have an amazing vantage on the enormous statues.

Fantastic visuals in the game. Repetitive gameplay, underwhelming story. It’s really too bad I didn’t work for Electronic Arts; I could have come up with a better story for the game. Alas, alack, and many alarums.

Wait. What was I saying?

Hawaii quarter, that’s right!

Alas, it doesn’t feature the Pillars of the Argonath on the reverse, no matter how much it looks like it, nor how unbelievably cool that would have been.

Alas.