Our Monetary Authority chief just offered the following advice to the citizens of Hong Kong: Take a magnet. Suspend it above all your one dollar coins from 1993. See if any coins stick. If one of them does, hold on to it.
It's times like these that Lai See's proud to be a Hong Konger. Other people's central bankers are so dull by comparison. They just sit around talking about . . . well, central banking.
But not our Joseph Yam. His weekly 'Viewpoint' column on the Hong Kong Monetary Authority's official Web site does an admirable job of skirting around dreary matters of finance.
Recall Mr Yam's 'confession' column, in which he admitted having designed our 'ugly' Bauhinia coins. Then there was the quirky 'Central Banker Quiz'.
And just last week, we were treated to his poetic ruminations on the beauty and meaning of the Lunar New Year, complete with a description of grandma's jolly red kerchief. This week, we find him exploring the world of 'Rare and Curious Coins'.
Oh, those magnetic 1993 dollars we mentioned are steel plated - only one in a hundred of them were.
