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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;lordmarcovan, post: 2592818, member: 10461&quot;]I needed to get a &lt;$10 &quot;Secret Santa&quot; gift for our company party on Wednesday.</p><p><br /></p><p>This is one of those &quot;blind gift exchange&quot; 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.&nbsp; Then people draw lots and each take a turn picking a gift.&nbsp; Then if somebody else wants to &quot;steal&quot; a gift from the person who got it instead of choosing an unclaimed one, they can.&nbsp; So it&#039;s like Musical Chairs.&nbsp; The gifts go round and round the table until finally everyone unwraps them to see what they got.&nbsp; I&#039;m sure you know the principle.</p><p><br /></p><p>Last year I of course gave a coin.&nbsp; It was a flashy proof World crown.&nbsp; Copper-nickel and not very valuable monetarily, but pretty.&nbsp; And it did prove popular.&nbsp; But of course my coworkers are all noncollectors, so one has to go for that flashy &quot;magpie appeal&quot; or &quot;bling factor&quot;.</p><p><br /></p><p>This year I planned to give a coin gift again.&nbsp; Most of my coworkers are female, so I thought a coin <i>jewelry</i> item might be a bigger hit.&nbsp; But since everybody at my workplace already knows I am the biggest coin geek in a 75-mile radius, they&#039;ll be expecting that, and will be looking for (or deliberately avoiding) any small, light packages.</p><p><br /></p><p>But I have a little twist planned, you see... <img src="styles/default/xenforo/clear.png" class="mceSmilieSprite mceSmilie2" alt=";)" unselectable="on" unselectable="on" /></p><p><br /></p><p><b>How to give an amusing and unexpected coin gift that will be popular with a noncollector:</b></p><ol> <li>Take the gold-plated 1906 G-VG Indian cent you just got in an inexpensive swap.&nbsp; (Thanks [USER=82237]@Eaglefawn[/USER]!).&nbsp; Perfect.&nbsp; Has that &quot;bling&quot; factor a noncollector will like, plus it&#039;s a very popular type.&nbsp; (Cost: practically nothing.&nbsp; Loss to the numismatic community: practically nothing.)</li> <li>Take a gold-plated cent-sized bezel you had laying around. (Cost: about $1.00.)&nbsp; Put the gold-plated Indian cent in the bezel.&nbsp; Awesome.&nbsp; Looks<i> great</i>- like an expensive gold coin pendant.</li> <li>Put the bezel-mounted coin in a flip.</li> <li>Put the flip inside a small envelope.</li> <li>Go outside, borrow one of ladymarcovan&#039;s bricks from the flower bed edging.</li> <li>Scrub brick, rinse, and dry.</li> <li>Tape the paper envelope containing the coin to the brick.</li> <li>Wrap the brick in fancy wrapping paper.</li> <li>Dodge quickly to avoid the brick when you drop it onto the kitchen floor three inches from your unprotected bare foot.</li> </ol><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]564761[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><i>Ta-dahh!</i>&nbsp; Presto!&nbsp; Secret Santa situation <i>solved!</i></p><p><br /></p><p>I was gonna do that &quot;box within a box within a box within a box&quot; thing until it ended up in an outlandishly large box, but that&#039;s a pain and a lot of wrapping.</p><p><br /></p><p>The brick thing will keep &#039;em guessing!&nbsp; And be added fun.</p><p><br /></p><p>Unless somebody drops it.</p><p><br /></p><p>It&#039;s sure to be a hit.</p><p><br /></p><p>(Just hopefully not on anybody&#039;s foot.)[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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