As a result, he spends a lot of time either on the internet, finding more interesting, but mostly useless information, to store in his brain-bank. When we first started dating, one thing that I distinctly remember, is how much random information he knew. He knows a little bit about everything. No matter where we were, or what we were doing, he could pull facts out of no where relating to whatever we were looking at.
My brain, on the other hand, retains next to nothing. I only ever remember useless shit. And then, at times when some of that useless shit might actually be relevant, even helpful, to a conversation, you can bet your ass that I'm going to get the facts backwards.
I read MacLeans magazine every week (a week after they publish, because my father-in-law gets them and then gives them to me when he's done with them). So I learn about a lot of relevant Canadian events, science discoveries, big news-makers, and celeb information from the magazines. But if I don't manage to somehow work that information into a conversation before the next publication comes out, it's just as well to forget about it. Because even if I do tell a story of something I read, I will get it wrong. Every fucking time.
So much so, that it's laughable. Or I'll do something like this:
Darren: I read online this morning that they discovered a bunch of new planets.
Me: Yeah, I saw that in MacLeans. Pretty cool.
Darren: Aparently, they are only about 500 light years away [or something like that, because again, I remember jackshit, so that number is probably wrong.]
Me: (not to be outdone) Yeah, I also read that there's a guy who is trying to get a bunch of people together to fly them all to one of the planets to start a colony.
Darren: Well actually, that guy wants to start a colony on Mars. And it was me that told you that, yesterday.
Me: Hmph. Yeah, well, I do know that they found a planet that is made entirely of diamond.
Darren: You would remember that.
Smartass.
His newest thing is sizing up coins, looking for ones that might be worth something.
He recently acquired a Zimbabwe bill that is worth $5 billion dollars, or some ridiculous amount like that.
Or worth nothing, actually, since there was an international warning issued that says that Zimbabwe dollars will not be honoured for anything, anywhere, even in Zimbabwe, making the bill absolutely worthless, but pretty damn cool, nonetheless.
He has also found lots of coins that are full or half silver content, which he as been keeping, since the price of silver is ever rising, the value of the coins also rises. Again, it's just kinda cool to know these things. Well, ok, cool might be a slight exaggeration, but it is definitely interesting.
So yesterday he starts to tell me about this really awesome coin. Well, in coin terms, it's as awesome as coins can be, really. Apparently back in 1969, they changed the font of the date on the Canadian Dime to be smaller. But, for the first 30 or so coins that they made, they forgot to actually change it. So there are about 30 (estimated) large date dimes out there from 1969. Only 20 of them have known whereabouts. Mint, they sell for upwards of $25,000, decent condition, $10,000.
And he had one.
It was rough, but it was clearly a large date dime. You compare it to the 1968, and the font is the same size. Compare it to the 1969, and there is a definite, unmistakable difference. So here we were thinking that even though it's rough, it may still be worth a couple grand, right? Apparently there was one found that the front, with the date, was almost worn off, and the guy was getting crazy offers on this coin that was hardly readable. Turns out it wasn't the real coin, but it still shows what people are willing to pay for this coin.
So Darren was on forums, trying to get as much info on this as possible, and we were looking for someone to be able to verify it's authenticity for us.
That's when he took a picture of his large font 1969 coin.
And the coin that, to the human eye is 1969, suddenly turned out to be 1968.
Estimated value:
Approximately ten cents.
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