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told us that after the United States declared its independence from Great Britain, it needed its own system of money. Coming up with one might sound like no big deal, but actually it’s tough. Like if you’re going to use coins, you need enough metal to make them. And if you’re going to use paper, you need new designs that are super hard to copy. Most of all, you need something everybody can agree on.
    â€œOne way to accomplish that last part is to base the new system on something reliable and familiar,” Mr. August said. “That’s why the first secretary of the treasury, Alexander Hamilton, picked the Spanish silverdollar. Silver dollars had been used in the New World for almost three hundred years by then. Has anybody ever heard of pieces of eight?”
    â€œLike in pirate movies?” Zach said.
    â€œExactly,” said Mr. August. “Spanish dollars were routinely divided into eighths, which are also called bits. So a piece of eight is an eighth of a dollar. If you look at the coins we use today”—Mr. August picked up a handful from the table—“most of them are in units of ten, right? Ten pennies to a dime, ten dimes to a dollar. But there’s one holdover from history, from the old pieces of eight. Does anybody know what that is?”
    Usually Nate is the star student, so it was a surprise to everyone—even me—when I answered, “The quarter.”
    â€œGood, Cameron. How did you figure that out?” Mr. August asked.
    â€œI know Granny sometimes calls a quarter two bits,” I admitted, “and you said a bit is the same as a piece of eight. Two eighths is a quarter, so . . .”
    Nate grumped, “I can’t believe I didn’t figure that out.”
    Mr. August said, “Excellent!” and I tried to look modest.
    â€œThe point,” Mr. August said, “is that the coins in your pocket are a direct link to history. And sometimes they’re valuable, too. It’s fun to take a look in case you have something old or unusual in your pocket. Now, does anybody want to see what’s in the box?”
    We all did.
    Mr. August opened it to reveal . . . a lot of smallerboxes, like the kind you keep earrings in. After he put on a pair of gloves like dentists wear, Mr. August took one of the small boxes and opened it. Inside was a shining gold coin about the size of a quarter. Soon we all had gloves on and were examining it with a magnifier called a loupe, which is pronounced the same as “loop.”
    On the front of the gold coin was the head of a lady. She was wearing some funky kind of hat over her long hair. Above her it said
Liberty
, and below her,
1796
. The back had an eagle, and clouds and stars. It said
United States of America
.
    With the magnifier, you could see tiny details and bumps in the gold. While we took turns looking, Dr. Maynard and Mr. August explained that the coin was minted in Philadelphia and called a quarter eagle because it was worth $2.50, one quarter the value of the $10 eagle coin from 1795 that he showed us next. That one had a scrawny-looking eagle on the back.
    There were other coins, too, like a silver dollar from Peru and another one from the United States. They all came from the 1790s, and they all had pictures of ladies with long, curly hair.
    â€œSo is this dollar still worth a dollar?” Tessa wanted to know. “And the quarter eagle—is it worth two-fifty?”
    Dalton laughed. “Duh, Tessa. Old coins are worth a lot more, right? So, like, that one”—he pointed at the quarter eagle—“is probably worth like twenty dollars by now, right?”
    Mr. August smiled. “Well, as a matter of fact, that coin is one of the more valuable objects in the collectionbecause there’s something unusual about it. Every other U.S. coin minted during this time had stars on the obverse—that’s the front. Usually thirteen, to