One of Jenny’s first projects when she moved in with me was to get rid of my big bucket of coins. Something about collecting loose change bothered her. Many Americans can relate to my situation as coins are pretty much those gross things you get in return when paying cash that you don’t know what to do with. When you have lots, they’re valuable. Until then, you store them in some gross bucket you originally bought to catch a leak from the ceiling.

Jenny organized my coins by pennies, nickels, dimes, quarters, and dollars. There’s likely over $100 worth of the worthless stuff at this point since it is a collection I added to daily. We recently took our pennies in and discovered there was over $26 worth of them sitting around. In the United States, this can get you tickets to a 3D movie sans glasses.

Filipinos don’t look at coins the same way we do in the US. Americans love paper money. We enjoy writing swear words on it or folding it into origami to convince ourselves the Illuminati is watching us.

In the Philippines, while paper money is commonly used, so are coins. They actually can get you places, too. I’m not sure any amount of coins can get you anywhere in the US. In the Philippines, for just 7 pesos, you can ride a jeepney. In the US, our transportation is much more expensive and terrifying.

Jeepneys are especially coin-filled. When you want to stop you’re supposed to tap a coin on the metal. On US buses, the way you get the driver to stop is insulting his mother.

My coins have received more attention than before now with Jenny monitoring them. When we do ride the bus, and the driver is someone with a perfectly normal mother whom cannot be insulted, we use them. Our dimes are regularly used at the corner store during cravings for Cheetos. Which I guess means we use them daily.

I’m not sure I will ever become as avid of a coin user as Jenny. Other than throwing hot pennies at strangers, I don’t see the value to them.