Most valuable J$2,000

IT’S A good thing I walked with two Jamaican $1,000 bills to Brazil.

As I might have mentioned before, and as is the case in most parts of the planet, anything with ‘Jamaica’ on it carries a certain level of appeal among locals and foreigners alike.

Olympic pins are the most commonly traded items at this time on the sporting calendar, but since nobody – whether Jamaican media, fans or athletes – seemed to have received any Jamaican pins from the JOA (Jamaica Olympic Association), trading those is not an option.

I still get asked about pins no less than 20 times per day, every single day. I’m pretty sure that this is also true for my other colleagues here.

I’ve even been asked for the shirt on my back! That would take quite the offer. Anyway, with no coins to offer to this particular Hungarian, who was waiting at the same bus stop inside the Media Transport hub, the request quickly turned into negotiations when he asked if I had anything that says ‘Jamaica’ that he could get. “No.” “Coins, notes?” Light bulb over the head moment. “Wait, I do have a couple thousand Jamaican dollars.”

Looking back at it, that probably sounded much better than it actually is. “Great, I want it. How much do I pay?” Considering it didn’t have any use to me here and certainly does not have much use to anyone back in Jamaica, this looked like a win-win for sure.

In the end, let’s just say we aren’t exactly talking about your regular Cambio rates here, but while I was parting with little, he had bought for himself, something that represented tremendous value – a piece of Jamaica.

“Nice doing business with you son.”