Loose change. Photo: Susan Harlan

In wallets

Button (bronze-colored, Anne Klein)
Button (black, plastic)
Post-it Note with a list of passwords (my handwriting)
Six screws
Receipt paper with nothing printed on it
Cleaning cloth for glasses
Costco membership card from 2010
Lint
Leaf
Flash drive
Business card for a woman who makes corn husk dolls
Business card for strongmanvan@gmail.com
Business card for Amazon Locksmith, Inc.
Voided check, folded up
Dry cleaning ticket for a skirt
Rubber key identifiers (one red and one yellow)
Plastic keychain discount cards for PetSmart, Lowes Foods, Petco, CVS, Rite Aid, and Harris Teeter
More lint
Ticket to the county fair (from a gray day this fall)
2 one-dollar bills
6 quarters
28 dimes
18 nickels
65 pennies
1 50-pence coin

In purses

Earring backing
Faded restaurant receipt ($65.45)
Portable shopping bag with pouch from Monoprix, floral print
Crumbled bark
Stick with moss on it
Leaf
Flower petal
Small gray rock
8-pack of Band-Aids
Pack of Dentyne Ice Spearmint gum, about half empty
Phone number for someone named Tina (not my handwriting)
Small burned-out halogen light bulb in a Ziploc bag
Ticket from a Wake Forest University soccer game on November 29, 2009
Magnet from Roadside America in Shartlesville, PA, with price tag on back ($3.25)
Cream-colored hotel keycard from unidentified hotel
7 tampons (o.b.)
Matchbook printed with “Want $20 or more in cigarette savings and special offers? Log on today to smokercoupons.com”
Rite Aid receipt ($18.29)
Box of Ricola Eucalyptus throat lozenges (in French)
Necklace with a broken clasp
Piece of paper with 109 W. San Antonio Street, Marfa, TX 79843 written on it (my handwriting)
1 tube Nivea lip balm
3 tubes Carmex lip balm
16 crumpled tissues, three with lipstick on them
Sunglasses
Faded receipt from Pasadena Oil, Inc.
7 pens, all Pilot Precise (6 black and one blue; blue one out of ink)
Souvenir penny from Dollywood (vertical image of an eagle)
Souvenir penny from the Titanic Museum Attraction in Pigeon Forge, TN (horizontal image of the Titanic)
Handout from a talk at the 2012 conference of the Shakespeare Association of America, folded up
2-pack of Advil
Ballpoint pen from the Missouri Athletic Club
Receipt from Five Guys (one cheeseburger, $6.03)
Pencil from the Folger Shakespeare Library (red, needs to be sharpened)
Rubber band
Card from a Hyatt with information about complimentary Internet access
Georges Perec’s An Attempt at Exhausting a Place in Paris (had been wondering where this was)
Nail file
Small bag of Pret a Manger raw almonds (sell by date of 3/30 with illegible year; did not eat them)
Flecks of foil from a pack of gum
14 quarters
12 dimes
11 nickels
27 pennies
1 20-pence coin
2 10-pence coins
3 2-pence coins
3 one-pence coins

***

Susan Harlan teaches English at Wake Forest University, and her essays have appeared in venues such as The Guardian, The Toast, Roads & Kingdoms, The Morning News, Curbed National, Jezebel, and The Awl.