Currency Through Generations

It was an old leather suitcase strapped and buckled safely. It lay above my grandmother’s Dutch armoire. I recalled asking granny about it. She simply said that it contained some old documents regarding plot and property. However, this statement of her’s never satisfied me. I tried multiple times to ask grandma to tell me what exactly was in the trunk. I knew she never told me the truth; because every time, she gave me a different reason, surely forgetting what she had told me the previous time.

One fine day, I discovered that mum and dad had gone out to shop for the groceries and grandmother had gone over to the neighbor’s house to have a little chat. I knew that this was my golden chance. I seized the opportunity and erected the ladder to climb the armoire. I tried lifting the suitcase, but realized it was awfully heavy. Finally, I did manage to bring it down with a thud. The suitcase was one of the old-fashioned ones, where there weren’t any zips, but numerous open-by-hand locks to open and see what lie inside the suitcase.

I opened one lock after another; I remember grandma teaching me to unlock one of these. What I saw henceforth got me awestruck. There were about six compartments, and in each compartment lie currency notes from historic ages. I picked up one of them, it read, ‘Union Bank of Britain’, ‘1 Pound’ and ‘1459’. I’m sure there were notes from even older times, but unfortunately, I had to stop.

“Now that you have truly found what’s inside,” said grandmother, “let me show you.” I quickly turned back to see her standing in front of me. She explained that this was a hobby that was carried through generations by our ancestors and that this trunk consisted of consisted of currency notes right from then. Adding on, she said that time had come for me to carry the collection on, along with my father.

I was so deeply touched and amazed with the discovery I made. I couldn’t believe it, my family had been collecting currency notes present here were very old, I also noticed that these were from different nations. I was utterly pleased and promised to continue with this family tradition.

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