A British expatriate has found a unique Dh15 coin in her collection which even a bank manager found hard to believe was authentic.
Yvonne Watson said that, after reading a Gulf News special on how people are not given back their small change, she was curious to check out if her coin collection still commanded any value. "I've got piles of them," said the former nurse who came to the UAE 21 years ago on a three-month locum and never returned.
"Even then we couldn't pay a bill with coins," she said recalling how coins would lie around the house, forcing her to deposit them in a Red Crescent charity box at Spinneys in Abu Dhabi.
After reading about the report on how people are cheated out of Dh50 million every year when shopping because of the coin shortage, Watson said she thought of looking in her collection and found the Dh15 coin in a soft pouch.
She took it to the Emirates NBD branch in Ibn Battuta but was taken aback when the employees, including the bank manager, thought it was phoney.
She took it to the Emirates NBD branch in Ibn Battuta but was taken aback when the employees, including the bank manager, thought it was phoney.
"They were all so young. They had never seen this before," she said. She added that she has no idea where she picked up the coin.
She said staff at the Geant store in Ibn Battuta said she could pay for her purchases with her small change but that the store itself was in no position to get small denomination coins from the bank.
Her husband Keith Lupton tells an anecdote about small coins and newspaper boys. This was before the sale of newspapers on the streets was stopped. "They were very good," he said.
"If you had no change, they would say, ‘bukra', bukra' [tomorrow, tomorrow] no problem." He said he would be handed a paper whenever he stopped at a traffic light in Abu Dhabi. "Once I gave him [the newspaper vendor] 100 fils and he would not accept it," he said.
"If you had no change, they would say, ‘bukra', bukra' [tomorrow, tomorrow] no problem." He said he would be handed a paper whenever he stopped at a traffic light in Abu Dhabi. "Once I gave him [the newspaper vendor] 100 fils and he would not accept it," he said.
New stamp
At that time the Central Bank only accepted a limited amount like Dh50 in change, he recalled. There were notices in newspapers about the rule, he recalled, as his memory hit on a Dh1 banknote in their collection somewhere in the house.
"I remember they stopped those in the '80s." The other thing he said he misses are the announcements in newspapers whenever a new stamp is released. "You don't see that any more," he said.
"I remember they stopped those in the '80s." The other thing he said he misses are the announcements in newspapers whenever a new stamp is released. "You don't see that any more," he said.
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