Emily Stanton's bag of antique coins is all she has left of the life she left behind. Learning how to sell those coins becomes an important part of her survival as she discovers in this snapshot from Forever Maude:
I quickly discovered that rare coin dealers were easy to find, but they asked too many questions. Their favorite was, “Where did you say this came from?”
With such a large bag of coins in my possession, I knew I would need to become adept at the answer if I didn’t want to get ripped off. I used the first sale to perfect my response.
“Oh, Granny gave this to me for graduation! She always said it was rare,” I said to the man behind the counter.
I looked young for my age, so at twenty-five, I easily passed for a recent student or an existing one, for that matter. I often used that to my advantage by offering an innocent smile at the end, my cherry on top.
The dealer, with a newfound gleam in his beady eyes, proceeded with his own response. “It is in fact quite rare; however, it will be difficult to find a buyer for such a specific piece.”
Baloney! I studied the man’s expression, thinking of what the Maude I knew during my childhood would have said. A teenager in the 1920s, my Nana Rosie’s aunt and her sayings guided me throughout my youth and beyond.
“Oh, that’s strange,” I said. “The last dealer told me he could sell these all day long.” With my research to back me, I simply smiled. “Thanks for your time.”
I reached for the coin, but the man held it firmly in his grasp.
“How much did the other dealer offer?” he asked.
I left the shop with the lire equivalent of two hundred thousand dollars and proceeded to spend some of it on clothes, friends, a fake passport, and a train ticket to Switzerland to safely store the remaining coins in a bank vault.
Then I met Yuri.
He was a creep but held the corner in the underground coin market, and he never asked questions. His handshake was the only sincere part of the transaction, along with his parting request: “Come to me first if you have others.”
I planned on it.
--- Excerpt from Forever Maude
With her financial survival negotiated, now Emily can focus on other things, such as how she let everyone down including those she loves the most. Read more in Forever Maude, available at the following retailers:
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