“What’d you do?” he asked. “Hit the jackpot?”<\/p>\n
I was standing at the fare machine in the subway terminal. Coins rattled in the machine, falling in the change cup. I looked to my right. A kid, maybe twenty-two, had asked the question. It was an obvious question — the fare machine sounded like a slot machine dispensing its winnings.<\/p>\n
“Only had a twenty,” I said. “Getting my change back in dollar coins.”<\/p>\n
“Better than me,” he said. “I’m getting nickels.”<\/p>\n
I wondered idly if they were my nickels. Probably not, I decided.<\/p>\n
Dollar coins!<\/p>\n
It seems like there’s only two places where dollar coins are given back in change. Post office machines. Fare machines.<\/p>\n
I looked at my coins. A few Sacagaweas. A George Washington dollar. A Suzy B. Some James Monroes. A couple of St. Thomas of Jefferson.<\/p>\n
It occurs to me that St. Thomas wouldn’t appreciate being called that. He wasn’t a saint. He wasn’t even a Christian.<\/p>\n
It occurs to me that St. Thomas wouldn’t appreciate having the words “In God We Trust” on a coin commemorating him, either.<\/p>\n
I’ve never liked how the Sacagaweas and the Presidential dollar coins tarnish. When they’re new and uncirculated, they have such a magnificent golden shine. But after a few days they’ll turn a murky brown. Moreso on the Sacagawea than the Presidents.<\/p>\n
I hadn’t really hit the jackpot. I just had a pocket full of change.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
“What’d you do?” he asked. “Hit the jackpot?” I was standing at the fare machine in the subway terminal. Coins rattled in the machine, falling in the change cup. I looked to my right. A kid, maybe twenty-two, had asked the question. It was an obvious question — the fare machine sounded like a slotContinue reading “On Hitting The Jackpot”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[52],"tags":[4093,577],"class_list":["post-1849","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-life","tag-life","tag-subway","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.allyngibson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1849","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.allyngibson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.allyngibson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.allyngibson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.allyngibson.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1849"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.allyngibson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1849\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.allyngibson.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1849"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.allyngibson.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1849"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.allyngibson.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1849"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}