A numismatic "Secret Santa" gift for work- should be fun... and funny
lordmarcovan
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I needed to get a <$10 "Secret Santa" gift for our company party on Wednesday.
This is one of those "blind gift exchange" things where everybody brings in a wrapped gift and they all go into the middle of the table in the conference room and nobody knows who brought what. Then people draw lots and each take a turn picking a gift. Then if somebody else wants to "steal" a gift from the person who got it instead of choosing an unclaimed one, they can. So it's like Musical Chairs. The gifts go round and round the table until finally everyone unwraps them to see what they got. I'm sure you know the principle.
Last year I of course gave a coin. It was a flashy proof World crown. Copper-nickel and not very valuable monetarily, but pretty. And it did prove popular. But of course my coworkers are all noncollectors, so one has to go for that flashy "magpie appeal" or "bling factor".
This year I planned to give a coin gift again. Most of my coworkers are female, so I thought a coin jewelry item might be a bigger hit. But since everybody at my workplace already knows I am the biggest coin geek in a 75-mile radius, they'll be expecting that, and will be looking for (or deliberately avoiding) any small, light packages.
But I have a little twist planned, you see... 
How to give an amusing and unexpected coin gift that will be popular with a noncollector:
- Take the gold-plated 1906 G-VG Indian cent you just got in an inexpensive swap. Perfect. Has that "bling" factor a noncollector will like, plus it's a very popular type. (Cost: practically nothing. Loss to the numismatic community: practically nothing.)
- Take a gold-plated cent-sized bezel you had laying around. (Cost: about $1.00.) Put the gold-plated Indian cent in the bezel. Awesome. Looks great- like an expensive gold coin pendant.
- Put the bezel-mounted coin in a flip.
- Put the flip inside a small envelope.
- Go outside, borrow one of ladymarcovan's bricks from the flower bed edging.
- Scrub brick, rinse, and dry.
- Tape the paper envelope containing the coin to the brick.
- Wrap the brick in fancy wrapping paper.
- Dodge quickly to avoid the brick when you drop it onto the kitchen floor three inches from your unprotected bare foot.
Ta-dahh! Presto! Secret Santa situation solved!
I was gonna do that "box within a box within a box within a box" thing until it ended up in an outlandishly large box, but that's a pain and a lot of wrapping.
The brick thing will keep 'em guessing! And be added fun.
Unless somebody drops it.
It's sure to be a hit.
(Just hopefully not on anybody's foot.)
Comments
Great idea Rob @lordmarcovan
I did a similar thing once.
Took an empty $25 bank cent box, the type with the holes in the cardboard so that you can see the end coins in each roll.
Glued a cent inside over each hole, made a concrete block to fit in the box and glued it up.
Anyone looking or 'hefting' the box would think it had 2500 cents in it [if they could do the math] when in reality there were only 25 cents.
PS I'm glad your are still posting here with your ever amusing thoughts and ideas.
{amusing in a good sense}
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I went round the brick three times with the wrapping paper, but I can already hear it now. There is gonna be a lot of "Ooh, girl! That's a BRICK! Who brought a BRICK to the party?!?" I'll have to shoot video of the unwrapping.
The weight and dimensions might give it away. And if somebody really fingers the package, they're gonna feel the three holes in it. But that will be just as funny as if it is totally unexpected.
The part where the coin in the envelope is taped is right underneath the bow, so that might not get groped in advance.
The best part will be when somebody opens one end of the package and sees there really IS a brick inside!
I made sure there was no tape around the ends of the brick for that reason. Until it's all the way unwrapped, it's gonna look like just... a brick.
Cost: maybe two bucks.
And one brick.
I will have to get the brick back and put it back around the edging of ladymarcovan's flower bed.
Yeah well if LadyMarcovan is anything like LadyElKevvo the fun is gonna end when she notices a brick is missing from her edging. Then you are going to have to go reclaim it from whomever ends up with it and you had better hope they are not a hard core brick collector and will give it up without have to trade something of significant value!
Seriously a great idea and a fun post. Thanks Rob and 'Happy Holidays'
K
This should he a poll LordM.... Which will go over better, the numismatic item or the brick
Your bricks have holes in them??? I have an agglomeration of SOLID bricks in the back yard...this may "go over like a ton of bricks" at the Christmas party!
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Great idea Rob! Your so creative, dude. Good luck on next years party. You better start thinking now!
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--- If it should happen I die and leave this world and you want to remember me. Please only remember my opening Sig Line.One year at work we had a gift exchange where you can steal one another's gifts. I did a circulated Morgan Dollar and it was stolen by 3 people right away. You have to know how the game works, but needless to say, the coin was very popular.
Yeah, I couldn't find any solid bricks. The holes are gonna give it away through the wrapping paper if somebody really gropes it. But that could be fun, too, since they'll be wondering if it really IS a brick inside, and why.
I AM known as "The Holey of Holeys", after all, so I suppose a holey brick is all too appropriate, isn't it.
LOL @joeykoins ... yeah. Should go something like that. Haha.
So you're giving a brick to someone for Christmas?
maybe you should have used coal instead of the brick...
President, Racine Numismatic Society 2013-2014; Variety Resource Dimes; See 6/8/12 CDN for my article on Winged Liberty Dimes; Ebay
Great idea LordM.....should be fun. We had that type of exchange several years at work for the mangerial staff. The sales staff from England and Europe would attend. Often they would bring a coin set as a gift.... They were always very popular...and yet I was the only admitted coin collector. The coin set(s) would change hands five or six times.
Guess they were more desirable than a pound of Starbucks Dark Roast or a toaster. Cheers, RickO
Yep. With a coin taped to it, as seen in the photos.
Actually, I do have a big rectangular chunk of coal that I found when poking around the site of 19th century narrow gauge railway. It must've fallen out of a locomotive tender. The site of tracks and the town they led to were then submerged beneath Lake Logan in Western NC, but when they drained the lake one year I found that piece of coal near where the tracks used to go down to the town of Sunburst at what is now the bottom of the lake.
All that is to say that yes, I do have a big chunk of coal- or did- and used it in the past for Christmas pranking purposes. I think somebody ended up keeping, it, though. I haven't seen it around here in the last year or two.
You had me at brick.
"Inspiration exists, but it has to find you working" Pablo Picasso
I remember being told about the coal for bad kids!
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