I had several phone calls over a period of three months with a family from a nearby town. In every call I stressed my “keep what you want, leave everything else” philosophy. Finally the day came when they were ready to have me come take a look at what was left. They assured me they would follow that approach. As I was driving up the street to the house, I passed the garbage truck going the other direction. I thought to myself “I’m sure glad I convinced them not to throw things away”.
While we were going through the house looking at what was left, one of things they wanted to show me was the “coin collection”. It turned out to be the usual assortment of state quarters, Sacajawea dollars, Susan B. Anthony dollars, Eisenhower dollars, all worth little or nothing above face value. While looking at these the mother mentioned that it was “sure too bad about the other money”. When I asked her what she meant, this is the story I was told:
The family had moved to the US from Canada in the late 1940’s. They would make two or three trips back to Canada every year and would put the leftover Canadian currency from the trip in a drawer, always intending, but never remembering, to take it back on the next trip. Somewhere around 2005 the last relative in Canada passed away and the money just stayed in the drawer. When preparing for the move, they had emptied the drawer and taken the contents, described as “two shoe boxes full of Canadian currency” to the local bank. When our small town bank told them that they were not able to exchange it (the bank doesn’t have the ability to perform that service), their solution was to throw it away. All that Canadian money (at least hundreds of dollars) had been in the garbage truck I passed!
Postscript: This is one of many cases (that I know about) where something of value has been stored for decades only to be thrown away at the last minute, AFTER hearing from me not to throw anything away!