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THE COIN OF THE FUTURE
While on vacation recently I couldn't help but notice the vendors peddling "Dippin' Dots - The Ice Cream of the
Future". I mused about adding the "... of the Future" tag to other products. Are we ready for "The Hamburger of the
Future", "The Cheese Grater of the Future", or "The Sex Toy of the Future"? How about the "Coin of the
Future"? Jeff Reichenberger submitted this story of a coin from a not-so-imaginative imagined future. Thanks. -Editor
 
I have recently indulged in the somewhat entertaining serial television program 'Wayward Pines', and to my astonishment came a very brief but stunning sequence that some of you might find humorous. Wayward Pines is a community in Idaho whose citizens were cryogenically frozen (most are unaware) for some 2000 years, then emerged from their sleep and have a relatively 'normal' existence, thinking it is real time 2015 when it is actually the year 4000-something. The town is walled off from the rest of the world which has devolved into a ruined environmental wasteland overrun by monster-like carnivorous human life forms. In a short scene where the Wayward Pines school teacher is explaining 'the truth' to some newly 'unfrozen' students, she hands each student an 'ancient' coin, and urges them to look at the date. The coin images pop on the screen for perhaps a second or two, but reveal much. OMG! It's a Quarter! OMG! It's a 2095 Quarter! It can't be! But it is! A WASHINGTON QUARTER!!! A State Quarter in fact! Oregon to be exact! Yes friends, 80 years from now, apparently we will still be minting quarters, and they will still have the SAME obverse design as we have today, and we will be recycling dies of the state quarter program, and in the year 4000 ancient coin collectors will discuss mediocrity in coin design as it reflects ancient cultures. For more information about the show, see:
Wayne Homren, Editor The Numismatic Bibliomania Society is a non-profit organization promoting numismatic literature. See our web site at coinbooks.org. To submit items for publication in The E-Sylum, write to the Editor at this address: whomren@gmail.com To subscribe go to: https://my.binhost.com/lists/listinfo/esylum All Rights Reserved. NBS Home Page Contact the NBS webmaster 
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