For those unaware, the largest coin visibile here, slightly wider and lighter than the others, is #1448 of the 1500 Steem branded 2017 1 oz .999 silver rounds.
The other shiny discs are Australian currency, made from near worthless quantities of copper, nickel and aluminium. (Here we pronounce it 'aluminium'.)
Interestingly, only one of them is actually mine.
If I were to upload footage of myself cutting them all in half, there's only one I wouldn't go to jail for.
It is a criminal offence under the Crimes (Currency) Act 1981 (Cth) to deface or destroy current Australian currency coins. It is also an offence to sell or possess current coins that have been defaced. Defacing a coin includes coating the surface of the money with any sort of material. The penalty for defacing coins, or selling or possessing money that has been defaced, is $5,000 or imprisonment for two years...
If you can't destroy it without being arrested, then it isn't actually yours.
Silver is money everywhere and everywhen.
Judas betrayed Jesus for 30 pieces of silver, thousands of miles away, thousands of years ago.
But these new coins have only been valuable since 1966 and only on 5% of the world's dry land.
They're only useful to 0.32% of the world's population, but when friends and family ask me if I can trade my steem for 'real money', this is what they're referring to.
Why are copper coins coloured silver and gold?
Why aren't they blue and green, or orange and yellow like the notes?
Who's really counterfeiting here?
So yes I do trade in some of my steem for real money.
I've just done so again; ordering some of the 2018 silver rounds, beautifully designed by 
They'll be worth more every year I hold them.
That handful of Aussie coins on the other hand, is the most valuable it will ever be; right now.