The Lessons Life Teaches, A Collection of Short Stories.

The Gold Coin

I went to work for Freeport Gold in 1985. Freeport Gold was a good sized, very professional, profitable, gold mine north of Elko, Nevada. I took a job in the mine engineering department. My main function was to evaluate and design pits for the newer orebodies, obtain the required approvals to bring them online from both Freeport Management and the US Forest Service and then purchase the equipment to bring them into operation. I was also tasked with other things like writing programs for mine equipment maintenance. It was an incredible job which admittedly I hated. The people were generally very nice, the company was professional. I just didn't like being tied down at a mine and doing primarily office work. I lasted until 1990 when I left to work as a goldsmith at my wife's jewelry store. To become a goldsmith, on my Freeport vacations I took courses at the Gemological Institute of America on goldsmithing, jewelry repair and stone setting.

But that is all just background. In one of the years, I worked at Freeport they gave a production award to every employee. It was a one-ounce gold medallion (coin) made of 99.99 fine gold. From memory, the gold price was somewhere around $350 - $400 per ounce. The day we received the coin I had to work over and rode the mine bus to Elko instead of my usual ride with the surveyors. As I sat on the bus admiring my shiny new gold coin, I heard the other mine employees talking about the coin. One said, "Why didn't they just give us the money. Now I am going to have to sell it at the pawn shop and they are going to rip me off." Another one said, "Now I am going to have to pay taxes on the coin and it will reduce my paycheck." As it turned out, Freeport did pay the taxes for us. And so, it went. Then the epiphany hit me. No matter if you give someone a solid ounce of pure gold there will be some people who complain. What I learned was that when you try to do something nice, do not always count on being the center of their appreciation or admiration.