After a hard long day working at the Tijuana dump Freddy with his wide smile gave me a big hug. He was dirty from top to toes. Probably no bath for weeks.
Working at the dump, about thirty-five miles away nets him about one dollar per hour.
Nine and ten hours of sweating hard work gives you a poor wage. It's hard to live on a wage like that.
I've known Freddy since he was a kid; he's been on drugs and alcohol for years; at age thirty-five he now looks about a thin and wrinkled fifty.
Freddy reached into his pocket and pulled out a dirty coin he found at the dump. "Brother von, what's this worth?" ... and he handed it to me. I gave it a quick look; It looked like a U.S. Silver dollar. "Freddy, this looks like a silver dollar, it should be worth $30 or $40 dollars, let me see what I can get for it," and I put it into my pocket.
When I got home, I sat down, relaxed and then remembered the coin. Reaching into my pocket I pulled out the coin, wiped it off and took a closer look.
I noted the date on the coin.1803. I had never seen a coin like that or held one that old. It was a US coin. It was silver. It had no amount of money printed on it. Weird!
Could this silver coin be valuable?
Could a treasure actually be found in the Tijuana dump? ... out of the trash a treasure?
We had it valued.
This old 1803 coin is estimated to be worth from $2,000 to $5,000, depending on it's condition.
Wisdom. It seems so simple. Give Freddy his money.
He's probably on drugs. In his world that we know so well, they would kill him for $1,000, to say nothing of $4,000. And ... he has his enemies.
The coin is worth far less than Freddy is worth ...
Now we have to work out a reasonable solution and that won't be easy.
In our world we work in what many would call human trash; the dirty and damned ... but more than once we've pulled out a priceless and eternal treasure ... thanks for your prayers.
