Every day countless stories, in theform of coins, are deposited into Bryant Park's pink granitefountain in the heart of Manhattan. Some are wishes, some are apersonal mark, and others are a promise to return.

What happens to the coins after that is another story.

The fountain's clear, bubbling waters are just blocks awayfrom Times Square, and a favorite place for visitors andresidents alike to throw coins. Nobody is counting the exactnumber, but they add up to roughly $3,000 to $4,000 a year.

Last year, coins from 76 countries, including the UnitedStates, were tossed in. Whether they're then picked out byscavengers (as is common in the summer) or retrieved by the parkstaff, they become a living, breathing part of the city.

"I like throwing coins in the fountain and sometimes my wishcomes true," said Soleil Skjorsammer, 7, during a recent sunnyspring afternoon in the park with her mother and sister. "Before,my wish was I could be a good tennis player, and my mom told me Igot better. This time, I wished I could play soccer."

The Bryant Park Corporation (BPC), which manages the park, hasembraced the custom that transcends many cultures. From itsoffices across the street, the nonprofit entity has devised anintricate system to process the piles of coins it fishes out ofthe fountain each month when it undergoes cleaning andmaintenance.

To say the least, it's a complicated operation. But one thatJerome Barth, BPC's vice president of business affairs,approaches with a smile.

"There's no practical way to deal with it, so we just havefun," said Barth at the BPC office last week. "I think of it as ateam building exercise."

The "fun" includespainstakingly sorting piles of grimy coins from a huge bucketusing a gold-mining pan in the office kitchen sink. The work ofdonning pink rubber gloves to pick out rocks, debris, chewed gum,and cigarette butts before the coins are washed with Dawn soap isvoluntary. Once washed, the coins dry in bowls on officevents.

"It doesn't smell like crisp, twenty dollar bills," saidBarth.

Once in a while something truly rare and unusual turns up, acurious testament to the value people place on putting somethingin the fountain. At the BPC office, a 50 centimes 1936 silvercoin from French Indochina is estimated to be worth about $50.Another unique find was a 1955 all-silver U.K. shilling.

The U.S. coins are deposited at TD Bank, because of itscoin-counting machine. Though the BPC staffers admit they'veaccidentally broken the bank's machine a few times with errantpieces of debris or dirty currency, they continue to go back.

Then there are the coins they can't spend.

Whether from tourists orforeign-born residents-it's impossible to tell which-last yearpark staff retrieved over 700 coins from 76 countries from thefountain. Those unique coins are sent to the American NumismaticSociety (ANS) for study and research.

Among some of the more far-flung countries represented areAlbania, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Cuba, Zambia, Ghana, Iceland,Brunei, Aruba, and Vietnam. More commonly occurring pieces comefrom the eurozone (European countries using the euro), Australia,Japan, and Canada.

To read the complete article, see: If the Coins in Bryant Park's Fountain Could Speak(www.theepochtimes.com/n3/607260-if-the-coins-in-bryant-parks-fountain-could-speak/)