When Dave Kuna, senior property manager for Gale Real Estate Services Company, donated all the coins from the Forrestal Village fountains to Plainsboro Public Library’s “Change for Change” campaign, he had no idea he was unleashing a tale involving the help of so many people and science experiments.##M:[more]##
Thousands of coins, corroded by time, chemicals and water, needed to be cleaned before they could pass freely through the coin counter at 1st Constitution Bank. Library staff members took socks of unrecognizable coins home to test.
After trying lemon juice, salt and vinegar work, and cola, the appropriate recipe was devised using a two-week bath in cola; a few hours in vinegar; and lots of good old-fashioned elbow grease. The solution made coins smooth and passable, if sometimes unrecognizable.
On President’s day, a team of 30 community volunteers gathered in the community room of the library to “launder” the money. After two and a half hours, the children and adults had clean money.
On February 19 Kuna and a team of volunteers from Eden Institute and the library slowly fed five bins of coins into the coin counter at 1st Constitution Bank on Schalks Crossing Road. As they coaxed the coins into the chute, the machine protested and spit coins out — sending them tumbling across the tiled floor.
“Demonstrating the patience of Job and the radiance of a summer sun, Ashley Williams (of 1st Constitution Bank) pushed buttons, tweaked bags, removed odd-ball coins, and eventually got every single American coin to pass through the recalcitrant machine,” says Jinny Baeckler, director of the library. “The rejected Tupence, Euros, Canadian coins, jiao, and washers went directly into the special coin collection on display at the library.”
“We are over $9,”000 in change now — our goal was $10,”000 by the opening of the new library,” says Baeckler. “We will certainly smash the goal — and hopefully double it!”
