Transcript
Nick Thompson (0:09)
Roger, how did you get started collecting coins?
Roger Pasquier (0:12)
It happened simply because I saw so many on the street and thought I ought to keep track of this like a good scientist. Finding anything of value on the street is irresistible to me to pick up.
Nick Thompson (0:24)
Now, this, to me, from the distance, looked like a penny. Did you immediately identify it as Whatever.
Roger Pasquier (0:28)
It is, it looks to me like I don't want to get that close to it, but it look looks to me like a piece of bubble gum that somebody has put down on the ground. It doesn't have the imprint of a coin.
Nick Thompson (0:39)
I'm going to identify what it is. It's a button with a nail in it.
Narrator (0:47)
This is the New Yorker Radio Hour, a co production of WNYC Studios and the New Yorker.
Nick Thompson (0:58)
So one of the things about walking with Roger Pasquier is that his eyes are not always looking at you or looking ahead. What are you actually doing, Roger?
Roger Pasquier (1:07)
It's very rude, of course, not to look at the person you're speaking with, but if you want to focus on coins as we are now, you have to be using your peripheral vision as well. And that means while I'm paying some attention to Nick or whoever my companion may be, I'm also looking in the gutter. And maybe we should trade places so I can be closer to the gutter and talk out of the left side of my mouth while I have a better view. Because the gutter, despite its unattractive name, is the best place to find coins. Because look at this sidewalk, how it rolls down. It's not even. Coins naturally seem to land there. And you find more there than on any other part of the street.
Nick Thompson (1:48)
How much money have you found this year on the streets of New York?
Roger Pasquier (1:51)
Right now, My total is $36.52. And we'll see if this turns into a profitable wall.
David Remnick (2:00)
And that's Nick Thomps on the street with Roger Pasquier, an ornithologist and world expert in the art of picking up change on the street. We'll hear how they made out later on the New Yorker Radio Hour. I'm David Remnick. Now, you've probably had this happen where somebody asks you to do something that sounds like fun and you agree maybe too quickly. Then about five seconds later, you're saying, what on earth have I gotten myself into? Well, I did that not too long ago, and that's why I found myself leaving home around dawn on a Sunday, headed to the Rockaways in Queens.