I Find the Strangest Things in Odd Places

As many of you know, my weekend side gig is being a tour guide at the Pine Mountain Wild Animal Safari.  It’s a fun job, gets me out into the fresh air and sunshine, and adds a little bit to my bank account.
And … I get tips.
On Mother’s Day, I had a bus load of people going through the park and did my best to not only give them a great time with the animals, but to also entertain them with (admittedly corny) jokes. I ususally do pretty well when it comes to tips, which I use as walking-around money.
That day, among the many passengers on the tour bus who enjoyed the animals (and, I hope, enjoyed the jokes), I had some people visiting from Europe.  I didn’t get much of a chance to talk to them one-on-one, and from the looks on their faces I could tell they didn’t really get all the jokes I was telling, but they were very nice, very pleasant, and one of them actually apologized as he placed a folded piece of paper into my tip jar. He said he didn’t have any American money on him but hoped I would accept this:
That, friends, is a 10-euro note, the euro being the medium of exchange throughout much of Europe. At the rate of exchange as this is written, that 10-euro note is worth about $13 in our currency.
I responded eagerly, telling the gentleman that I accepted his tip with gratitude and that I actually collect such things as foreign money. To my knowledge, there aren’t many banks around here that would exchange that 10-euro note for $13 (or whatever the going exchange rate is at the time I bring it in), but that’s okay because it’s a gorgeous piece of paper and I’m very happy to have it.
The 10-euro note joins two other foreign bills placed in my tip jar during my years at the Safari.  For instance, about five years ago, a patron got off the bus and, while doing so, dropped this:
A five-euro note, this one featuring another classic piece of architecture from the continent. The exchange rate as I write this would place its value at around $6.50 or so, but I have no intention of exchanging it. It now has a 10-euro note to keep it company.
But those are eclipsed in just plain oddness by one I received not long after I started as a tour guide. It’s been a very long time and I don’t recall the exact circumstances (when it was dropped, who dropped it) but it raised more than a few eyebrows when I shared it:
It’s very hard to see, but this is a five-peso note from Cuba.
Yes, Cuba … home of Fidel Castro, Communism in the western hemisphere, and raw sugar.
Where the person who dropped it into my tip jar got it, I don’t know. Why he (or she) gave it to me as a gratuity for entertaining them on the trip, I don’t know.  What the exchange rate is – if there even is one – I don’t know.
What I can do with it, I don’t know.
So I keep it.
These three notes are being added to my small collection of foreign currencies which include bank notes from Bulgaria, the Bahamas, and Belize.
I didn’t say it was a large collection.
The Bahamas money I was able to acquire on my own, during my (to this point) sole trip to that delightful country.
Belize cash came courtesy of a colleague at one of the schools where I taught, who spent a summer there and brought me back a souvenir.
As for the currency from Bulgaria, I don’t recall how I acquired it – but I most certainly didn’t go to Bulgaria to get it.
I might add, at this point, that I am always on the lookout for foreign bills to add to my collection, so if you happen to have any lying around that you don’t want … well, you know what to do.
Thanks to the wonderful people who tipped me the best way they could … helping my collection grow!