Funny Money

    When I first arrived in OZ, I took a look at the money and mused at just how odd it looked. For the record, the currency is: 5¢ (very small), 10¢ (slightly larger), 20¢ (bigger still) and a 50¢ piece (largest); two "gold" coins of $1 and $2 (which is smaller than the modest $1 coin)-these have taken the place of bills.  The bills are different sizes and colors for each denomination: $5 is light purple and the smallest, $10 is blue, $20 is red, $50 is gold (nicknamed a "pineapple") and the $100 is dark green (or so the rumor goes, they don't come my way for visual inspections).  Besides having the Queen's mug on each bill (this is a Commonwealth country after all) notable Australians appear on the bills-- some of them are actually known to the general public.  And, they are made of plastic, not rag or paper.
    Truth be told, it all looked like funny money.  The colorful stuff of board games played as a kid.  And here is a cultural difference.  If Australian bills look like Monopoly money to me, U.S. bills are boring and deceptive to Australians.  How can you tell the difference between one bill and another? (Apparently the different numbers, different presidents and reverse designs  are indistinguishable to the average inebriated Aussie backpacker.) But ask people who do a lot of travelling and they'll tell you that any currency not their own is just funny money.

     I remember thinking in those early days;  Would I ever spot this for real money if I saw it on the sidewalk? 

     I got my answer today at the Canning Vale Markets.  The market is only open for two hours, so the patrons are very determined locusts hovering about boxes & crates of produce and noticing nothing else.  And then I saw it.  Wait, what was that?  Could that purple slip be.......?  Yes, it was!  It took me three glances, but I recognized a $5 bill lying on the floor.  Did no one else notice?  Ha. It's real!  Finders Keepers. I almost laughed out loud, not because of the financial windfall, but because it answered a question hovering at the back of my mind for almost two years.   OK, it still looks funny, but at least  I recognize it as money.


     Stopped chuckling a few hours later when a fifty dollar bill fell out of Kev's pocket on his way to playing lawn bowls.  I'm keeping an eye peeled on all future walks.
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