2006 / march / 01

...and counting

Tonight, I counted money, and lots of it. Our local Amnesty workgroup helped along in the national fundraise last week, and over thirty volunteers returned their boxes. Tonight was counting night. Some notes.

Money is really, really dirty. Having thousands of coins go through your hands makes you want to wash them very thoroughly afterwards. A very peculiar smell, typical of money and nothing else. And the stain on my fingers, och!

One boxes contained almost as much in paper as in coins, that was amazing. Who in their right mind puts a fifty in a donation box, when you can do a bank transfer, enabling you to deduct it from the taxable income? Yes, I can think of reasons, but I don't want to. At least it's donated t o a good cause.

Average sorting speed: 400 euro per person per hour. That ain't bad. Just very tedious.

Amazing how many 'weird' coins we had in the end. US pennies, a pound coin, something that looks Thai; novelty coins from shops, such as the Bijenkorf; and of course, french and belgium francs and other pre-euro money. There must be a lot of that around in people's homes.