Jack said that he could sell the coin that I found for three hundred bucks. But I kept it and took it back to Nan’s cabin.

We got a snack from the kitchen and then started to chat.

“Can I see the coin?” Nan asked.
I stretched out my arm and gave it to her.

“IF this coin had lips.” Nan said, “what would it tell us? Would it tell us who left it in that cave he or she was there? What magic fale could it tell us?”

“I wish it would,” I said. “What is the legendbof this coin?

I stared at the coin for a bit.

“Could it be that a robber hid it there?” I asked. “Did they have robbers back then?”

“You bet they did,” said Nan. “But why would the robb-er hide just one coin? It seems like he would hide a large batch of coins’

“Perhaps he did not have a large batch,” I said. “Perhaps this was all he stole.”

“If that's all he stole,” said Nan, “then he was not such a good robber!”

“Nan,” I said, “there's no such thing as a good robber!”
Nan smiled and nodded.

After a bit I said, “If this coin costs three hundred bucks, a robber would feel like he had to hide it.”

“Well,” Nan said. “Spanish coins like this one are rare, so Jack can sell them for a lot of cash. But back when this coin was made, it was not rare. There were a lot of coins just like this one. Back then this coin was sort of like a dime.”

I took a dime out of my pocket and said, “So if I keep this dime for a long time, until it gets rare and there are not a lot of them left, will it be a three hun-dred buck dime?”

“It could happen,” said Nan. “You never can tell!”