Shiny Plastics

It was the first time I thought of what was an ordinary day at home – me in front of my desk inside my room, Mom in the kitchen downstairs doing her stuff and my two nieces in the sitting room watching television. (We lost the maid few days ago. She didn't like my niece's stubbornness.) I had my breakfast more than an hour earlier that time but the idea of having a small meal reverberated from the distance. Remember, I need to gain 10 to 15 more pounds to delight myself (and the prying eyes of my associates?).

I didn’t really try to find out what exactly a good small meal would mean but as an assumptive person that I am, I went out to buy some junk foods (Pillows, Nova, etc.), a drink called Tropicana Twister (orange or pineapple flavor, I can’t remember), sweets, candies and a pack of Marlboro Lights cigarette. I was a coin short but fortunately (or so I thought), I got some when I turned out my pockets. When I gave him my due, I noticed that the salesman has a small piece of magnet on his hand and all the coins started flying into the magnet.

I thought he was playing around at some point but as I turned my back, he said I owed him 4 pesos. He said the coins I gave him were imitations except for two, and showed me the magnet with four coins stuck into it. He probably noticed my curious face reaction because he further explained that real coins won’t stick to any magnet. Though I gave him back one of the items I had, I went home bothered as to how I got the fake coins. Or are they really counterfeits?

I remembered reading an article about Philippine coins being smuggled by a number of Taiwanese citizens. The coins are sold in China, melted down and the derived metals are used to manufacture electronics goods like mobile phones. As a response, the Central Bank of the Philippines changed the composition of coins it produces. I can’t remember what exactly the type of metal they used but surely, they lessened the use of copper and nickel to produce coins. I was thinking that the coins I have might be pieces of those new wave of coins produced by the bank.

Have you heard about fake coins circulating in the metro? I can hardly tell the difference, but to be honest, I wouldn’t go out with a piece of magnet in my pocket.