I hate to throw away “useful things.” What constitutes a useful thing varies, but small metal boxes and cannisters are definitely “useful.”

I hate to throw away “useful things.” Instead I collect them, tucking them away in closets and cupboards or storing them in the basement or attic. I have no doubt that this is a character feature (or a bug, take your pick) that I learned from my father.

What constitutes a useful thing varies, but small metal boxes and cannisters are definitely “useful.”

[Photo]

Mostly Minty Boxes

I love hot things and sour things and spicy things, so I buy a lot of Altoids, especially new flavors like “ginger” seen above or “apple sours” which I found this morning. I know there must be people who buy Altoids and when they have finished consuming them, toss the boxes in the trash.

I don’t understand those people.

I’m reusing a lot of my little boxes. The stack on the right in that picture contains lose change collected in my journeys: Canadian, Dutch, English, French, Italian, Japanese, and Thai. Also a box of Euros now. The Euro may be a great boon if you live or work in Europe, but it’s a lot less fun for us tourists.

Comments:

Even with Euro coins you can tell which country they came from by the design on the coin. <http://www.euro.ecb.int/en/section/euro0/specific.html>

With the Euro banknotes, you can tell the issuing country by the serial number, the printer, and where on the sheet of paper that note was printed from the printer code.

<http://www.eurotracer.net/information/notes.php> <http://www.myeuro.info/euro-snr.php>

Jon.

Posted by Jon Stone on 23 Feb 2004 @ 12:29pm UTC #
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